Complete newbie question

[Kellum1969]

We recently moved, and I decided to wire my speakers through the attic to cut down on the number of wires we have laying about. Unfortunately, the system I have, the speaker wires are 1) hard wired directly into the back of the speaker, and 2) not long enough. I assumed I could just wire additional speaker wire to extend them. However, now only one of the 4 speakers works. I'm fairly certain I wired them correctly (I used male and female disconnectors), as I tested each separetly. However, when I try to run all 6 speakers at once (the four in the corner, the subwolfer and the center), only one works. I'm using 16 guage wire, which I notice is much heavier than the wires coming out of the speakers. Any suggestions?

(BTW, if you cannot tell, I'm completely clueless to this kind of stuff.)