The Nub's app-based writing competition is a new twist on indie cultural audience-building

It's not unusual for literary or cultural magazines to use a writing contest to build their subscribed audience. A little more unusual is an app-based competition run by Broken Pencil magazine on the indie arts site The Nub. Its goal is clearly to build the number of people who follow it. The contest is free to enter; entrants must set up an account and download the app to submit. 

The theme is "Anything Underground". The deadline is November 20 and there are two categories: for university students and for general writers. Each grand prize winner gets $400 cash, publication on The Nub: Indie Arts Hub, a $200 Broken Pencil prize pack, including a BP subscription, T-shirts, buttons and stickers, The Program (a novel by BP founder Hal Niedzviecki and something called "surprise weirdness". The top 5 stories will be published on The Nub.

The NUB: Indie Arts Hub is an app compatible with iPhone/iPad and Android that provides a digest stream of independent arts and culture content from Broken Pencil: The Magazine of Zine Culture and the Independent Arts; Geist Magazine; Subterrain Magazine; Matrix Magazine; and Taddle Creek Magazine.