I would love to assist in judging in future contests (at least the ones I don’t participate in). I was late to this one, but I’ve judged a bunch in the past and I’d say we did a good job lol.
I’ve looked at almost all the entries (except for a few that were hosted on sites I don’t know) and most are on the shorter side. 77 is still a ton of stories though, and there are some pretty long ones. A recommendation is to set the limit to 2-3k words, and to read them as they trickle in.
As for a book club … that sounds kinda tough. I don’t think most people would really read an entire book, especially a novel. Comics or short stories (micro/flash fiction)? Maybe. If you really wanna go the book route, I think you’d have to do a book appreciation club first, where you pick a book and try to drum up interest, and convince people to read whatever’s next.
Anyway good luck.
Remi-le-Oduen
Book club sounds great