The Rulz: Nara’s Nook Contest

Above is another preview of where you’ll be going in my Nara’s Nook contest. The grand prize is a NookColor and the first place we’ll be playing to win prizes is at my Nara’s Nook world at Kitely. More on how to get there later. First we have to get the game details out of the way.

Rules

I hate rules. As an author I’m either bending them or breaking them.  Now, I find myself in the unusual circumstance of having to make a few. I’m going to be asking all of you to try stepping outside your comfort zones, so I guess it’s only fair that I should have to step outside mine.

What we have here is an interactive story/game. Since this is both a story and a game, I’ll explain each separately. 

Story
On the launch date (September 1, 2011) you’ll be shown the first chapter of a six part mini-mystery. To unlock the next chapter you’ll have to search for objects containing clues hidden in a virtual world. There are six worlds and six chapters–one for each week of the game.

Game
The game aspect allows you to earn points to be entered in the drawing for the weekly prizes. Week one–all you have to do is sign up to participate in the contest to be entered in the drawing. For each succeeding week you’ll have to have earned enough points to reach the next level of the game, roughly 200 points a week, to be entered in the drawing for that week’s prize. 

Earning Points
Now how do you earn points? Some points are very easy to earn. If you look at the bottom of my blog you’ll see a BigDoor toolbar. That will be the easiest way to earn points. You log in there with your Facebook account (this is one of the reasons you need a Facebook account to play). The more times you log in there during a day, the more points you get. Interacting with my author page on Facebook gets you points, sharing through Twitter or Facebook earns points. If you share a link to my blog on Facebook or Twitter and someone clicks it to visit, you get influence points.

It may be possible to get to the next level with the toolbar alone, but you’ll get big points if you log into the virtual world and find clues. Forty points for each clue and another fifty when unlock a chapter. It’s more challenging to acquire points in the virtual worlds, but more rewarding, so hopefully you’ll give that a try. You need a Facebook ID to log in to the  world too. 

Sorry about tying this to Facebook. That condition was set by the makers of the tools we’ll be using to play. I have tested all of these tools and plugins. Nothing bad has happened to me, my account info, or my computers as I tried out the tools. I’ve tested on three versions of Windows and two versions of MAC OS.

How To Get Started:

Do not log into the BigDoor toolbar yet!!
Save that for launch day. I can’t reset the point count and I don’t want to have to do the math to figure out what points were accumulated before launch day and have to be disqualified. 

All you need to do to be part of the contest is to read the legal stuff on the contest page and if you decide you’re eligible and want to play, leave a comment at the bottom of that page telling me the Facebook name you’ll be playing under.

Prizes

Week One
Drawing for a $10 gift card*

Week Two
Drawing for a $15 gift card*

Week Three
Drawing for a $20 gift card*

Week Four
Drawing for a $25 gift card*

Week Five
Drawing for a $10 gift card*

Week Six
Drawing for the Grand Prize — NookColor

As my special thank you for participation the highest point scorer will be awarded a special surprise gift.

*Gift card will be winners choice of either an Amazon or Barnes and Noble 
e-gift card.

If you have any questions post them in the comments for this post.