Publishing Contest Submission Error

[minniemouse91]

I'm trying to submit a blurb to the publishing contest and I keep getting an error saying the blurb is too long. But at the bottom of the form it says I have 2 characters left. I double-checked the character count in Microsoft Word, and it is indeed 248 characters (including spaces!), just under the 250 character limit. I've tried different browsers, copy/paste, and also just typing it directly into the box, but every time I get the same error. What am I doing wrong? Does the book title count towards the character count? I can cut out a word or two, but I really like my blurb exactly how it is...

[Scott]

@minniemouse91 My bet is that Word is inserting special characters that actually take up more than '1 space' so to speak even if they do not.

If you want to post the blurb here, I can figure it out for you.

[minniemouse91]

@Scott

Thanks for your help!

Title: The Sleep
Blurb: Yesterday, my mission was to cure the incurable. But then my mentor disappeared, leaving behind a shocking note. “I found the cure, Jenna. Thirty years ago.” How could he hide this from me, from the world? I will find the truth, no matter the cost.

The form says that there are 2 characters remaining before I click submit, but then I get the error stating "The blurb is too long."

[Scott]

The problem is these: “ ”

They look like they take up 1 space but they actually take up many more in the actual computer file once they are converted from Word's format.

I suggest replacing them with a single mark: '

This should be done after copying and pasting it from Word because Word will probably auto-convert that into a fancy thing too.

I hope this helps.

[minniemouse91]

Aha! That worked. Thanks a bunch!