Earlier this morning I checked in on the progress of our Six Words Significant Objects contest, in collaboration with SmithMag. In its first 24 hours, the contest has attracted 144 submissions. Josh notes that this works out to a story every ten minutes (and since each story is six words, that’s a word every 100 seconds for a solid day!). Pretty impressive!

Six Words Will Make It Significant

That said, we of course want the submissions to keep coming, and to that end I will now invoke our old friend the profit motive. Let’s say your Six-Word story, attributing significance to the tiny-pool-ball-shaped lighter at right, prevails. That means you get the money when we auction it off in our shop. Let’s say it fetches the median price of all the auctions we’ve closed so far — which happens to be $23.50. That works out to $3.92 a word. That’s Conde Nast territory. (Actually it might better than Conde Nast territory these publishing-slump days.)

Meanwhile, the auction for the story/object that won our earlier Slate contest is currently at $54. Match that and you’re talking $9 a word. That’s a superstar writer rate!

Of course we can’t guarantee what the Object will go for. That depends on factors beyond our control. But come up with the right Six Words and … who knows? Give it a shot.