Mark Veldon

Contests

Current Contest: Book Review Video

Stage: Submission

List of Submissions (Coming Soon)

Voting (Preliminary Vote by Patrons, Final Round by All Members)

 

Proximal Press is now accepting submissions for video book reviews of The Quartermastra. Mark Veldon and voters will make their selections based on how informative and entertaining the video book review is (quality of entry clarification).

When voting in the Preliminary Vote and Final Vote, voters should select the entry that best demonstrates these qualities.

Additionally, entries will only be considered if they meet the following criteria:

  • The video is between 3 and 11 minutes in length.
  • The video should avoid egregious spoilers.
  • The video must not appear too similar to other entries that have already been submitted.
  • The video must not use AI or other automation in its creation.
  • The video should be in good taste, appropriate for a general audience (not using abusive or offensive language that might be harmful to the community). 

To submit an entry, click here. 

Prize Award: $1,000*

Important Dates of the Contest

Beginning Date of Submissions: 9/15/25

Closing Date of Submissions: 1/15/26

Beginning of Preliminary Vote (Round of 15): 1/22/26

End of Preliminary Vote: 1/29/26

Beginning of Final Vote: 2/2/26

End of Final Vote: 2/15/26

Announcement of Winners: 2/18/26

 

See Contests Rules for further details.

 

*If the combined total of book sales and paid patron memberships for The Quartermastra rise above 30,000, the prize award will double to $2,000; if the combined total of book sales and paid patron memberships rise above 60,000, the prize award will triple to $3,000; if the book sales and paid patron memberships rise above 100,000, the prize award will increase four times to $4,000; if the book sales and paid patron memberships rise above 150,000, the prize award will increase five times to $5,000.

 

Upcoming Contest:  Narration Contest

Past Contests: None

 

Why Run Contests? 

To celebrate the launch of new novel The Quartermastra, Proximal Press is running a series of contests.

These are opportunities for creators and the community to engage more deeply with the book.

There will generally be a pre-submission stage before the contest is officially announced and entries are accepted, a submission stage when creators can submit entries to the contest, and then a voting phase before the winner is announced.

 

How Voting Works

There will be two rounds of voting. First, to establish a short list of fifteen candidates in a Prelimary Vote (patrons determine thirteen of these candidates; the author selects the other two [if there are more than thirty submissions, the author will select the thirty that patrons will vote on in this Preliminary Vote to select thirteen]). Then there will be a vote among these fifteen candidates to establish a winner (Final Vote).

Note: The author reserves the right to disqualify any submission that seems to plagiarize or borrow from another selection or might be deemed harmful to the community (e.g., inappropriate language or overly offensive).

Note II: The weight of a community member’s vote depends on their status. Patrons’ votes count for more than base community members (two [2] for Artisan patrons, four [4] for Great-House patrons and six [6] for Numen-God patrons). See the Support page for details on these patron memberships and to sign up.

Note III: If a contest has received fewer than 10 submissions, the contest will be extended for another month.