Contest
Writers often ask me why, with all of Writer Beware’s warnings about bad actors in the publishing world, we don’t also provide recommendations or endorsements of the good guys. “You’ve got this gigantic list of scammers on your blog; wouldn’t it also be helpful to recommend reputable agents and publishers?”
There are several reasons why we don’t do this.
Writer Beware has a very specific purpose: to document and expose schemes, scams, and pitfalls that target writers, and to educate authors on how to recognize and avoid them. As far as we know, we’re the only organization with this exclusive mission. In other words, we aren’t a general-purpose resource: we are quite narrowly focused. We are also a small, all-volunteer team, with limited time and resources.
Also, one size does not fit all. Agents, publishers, etc. have widely varying areas of interest and expertise, and the best agent or publisher or freelance editor or cover designer for one writer might be the worst choice for another. Lists of “good guys” won’t necessarily be very useful, depending on what you write and what your publishing goals are (not to mention, they are incredibly time-consuming and research-intensive to compile and maintain; did I mention that Writer Beware is a small team?). It really is better for writers to do their own research and vetting, armed against scams and bad practice with the tools and knowledge Writer Beware provides.
Finally, recommending or endorsing any particular publishers, agents, etc. risks raising questions of conflict of interest. How do you know, one of Writer Beware’s many haters might inquire, that the agents on that “good guy” list didn’t pay to be there? Of course this would not be true—Writer Beware doesn’t even accept charitable donations—but we want to avoid all possibility of such questions arising. (This is why, when scammers want to discredit us, they have to make stuff up—such as that I own my own publishing company and am badmouthing competitors).
So I can’t suggest which agents to query, which publishers to approach, which self-publishing platforms to consider. What I can do is try to cut through some of the fog and noise of the internet by recommending reliable resources to help with your publication journey. The internet is a goldmine of information for authors, but it is also a swamp of fake facts, bad advice, and scams—and it can be very difficult to figure out which websites are reliable and which experts are actually experts.
Following are a few of my favorite online resources. Some you’ll no doubt already be familiar with, but hopefully you’ll also discover something new. (And of course Writer Unboxed would be on the list, if I weren’t already here!) Most of the resources are free, but some require subscription or a membership fee. Writer Beware receives no consideration or compensation for mentioning them.
GENERAL RESOURCES
The Writer Beware Website. http://www.writerbeware.com/ The Writer Beware blog is WB’s most high-profile online presence, but many people don’t realize that we’re also a very large website. While the blog covers scams and publishing industry issues in real time, the website is a resource for general advice and warnings, designed to empower writers to recognize and protect themselves from schemes and […]
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Recently, I parted ways with my agent and although I know it was the right decision, it’s still gut-wrenching.
Soon after, I sent out a couple of queries and had a request for the full of my latest manuscript. That agent asked for an exclusive look for two weeks. I agreed and withdrew my other queries. The exclusive teased out to a month. She said no.
Fair enough. This is not my first rodeo.
The next day, I sent the full to another agent who had asked to see it, if it was available after the exclusive ran out. After saving the draft I sent to her, I made a new Scrivener document called “Draft Seven”, intending to incorporate the first rejecting agent’s critical input, which I was grateful to receive. I intended to revise, then send out more queries.
When I began, that morning, to rework the opening of my novel, I fumbled. I tripped, started again, stopped, then consumed a full bag of M&M’s (the ‘sharing’ size). Like a floodgate opening, self-doubt rushed in and I felt like I was bobbing around some pretty rank water, trying not to panic and to remember how to float. I doubted I could fix what was wrong and wasn’t even sure what to change. Every shred of negative feedback I’ve ever received on anything I ever wrote came raining down. Should I switch from first person POV to close third? Should I Save the Cat?
After a few more days and a ‘no’ from the second agent, I decided I needed time to stew, contemplate, and process. To float for a bit. Because, yes, those feelings of rejection and failure I was pushing away were absolutely real.
Then I thought, why just step back? Why not walk away?
Please don’t write me off (no pun intended) as a slacker who can’t take criticism. I have and I can. This was a crossroads moment. My third novel has been under construction for three years, and it hasn’t come easily. Soon, I’ll turn sixty-five. Instead of writing, I could use my time to make dollhouses and to garden. Maybe I could become a more interactive grandmother. Maybe I’d order a Jitterbug flip phone and take up Prancercizing!
Afloat in the balmy sea of denial, I decided I’d try Not Being A Writer (henceforward, NBAW) for a few weeks and see how it felt.
My first week of NBAW involved some tidying up of loose ends, beginning on Sunday with a book club talk that had been on my calendar for months. The group had read my second novel, In All Good Faith, which was published in August 2021. I gave the 25-minute PowerPoint slideshow I usually give, with lots of vintage photographs from the Great Depression. After my talk, there was chitchat, with cheese cubes. As always, interacting with readers was gratifying. Someone asked when my next book would come out and I gave my pat answer: I’m revising. I didn’t know how to say that I was no longer writing.
On Monday, I read an ARC of a debut novel by a friend from my MFA program. I’d agreed to write a blurb. I remembered the agony of asking authors for blurbs and the […]
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Image – Getty iStockphoto: Elina L
Nonfiction, and the Impact of Awards
Three years ago in November, I was writing here at Writer Unboxed about how this time of year is “the publishing-award equivalent of what zodiacal scholars sometimes call the ‘Mercury storm.’ At this time each year, a multitude of awards programs, national and international, reach their winner announcements.” And that has only intensified since 2020, with new awards and the clamor for coverage rising.
There’s a new development here, however, and I wanted to share it with you because it might begin to boost the value of key prizes if it’s adopted by the organizers of more award programs.
You may have been aware that the Booker Prize Foundation in London – which annually produces both the Booker Prize for Fiction and the International Booker Prize for a translated work – has begun to report to the news media the market impact its top honor can have on a book’s unit sales. After an interval of some weeks, the program begins to lay out to such details.
As an example, the 2022 Booker Prize for Fiction winner, Sri Lankan-born Shehan Karunatilaka, who won for his The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, had a threefold increase in media coverage when longlisted for the Booker. That level of coverage then tripled again, the Booker reported, when the book was shortlisted.
“With the announcement that it was the Booker Prize winner,” the foundation says, “sales soared to more than 100,000 across all formats. It now has been translated into 19 languages with another 10 [rights sales and/or translations] in process. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida has massively outsold—by 2,000 percent—Karunatilaka’s previously acclaimed and prizewinning novel, Chinaman (Penguin Random House / Jonathan Cape, 2012).”
This kind of information is seriously helpful.
While the majority of book- and publishing-award coverage that we at Publishing Perspectives in our international purview is based in the United Kingdom, the general trend everywhere is to accept awards attention as helpful to sales – but normally without publicly demonstrated evidence of this. The lure of the “golden sticker” is clear, of course. In a bookstore setting and online, the ubiquitous sticker on a book cover is believed to grab the eye of a consumer who may be swayed to buy that stickered book over one without evidence of such honors.
In fact, however, until the advent of the Booker’s information on its £50,000 prize winners’ unit sales, press runs, rights sales, and news-media attention, the market value of awards was actually something many if not most of us took as evident.
Proof in Another Pudding
Provocations graphic by Liam Walsh
Operating alongside the major fiction awards like the Booker’s program are, of course, major nonfiction prizes as well. And last week, there was a breakthrough in that arena: the £50,000 Baillie Gifford Prize in nonfiction’s newly undertaken market-impact reporting.
As we reported, the program worked with Nielsen to get a look at the four weeks prior to and after the naming of its top award. […]
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Therese here to announce the winner of this year’s Writer Unboxed UnConference scholarship! But first I have to tell you that the quality of submissions was better than ever. If you applied, please know the competition was fierce — and fantastic.
Without further ado, the winner of a free ticket to the 2023 UnConference plus a stipend of $911 is Kristin South!
The applicant in second place has also been offered a free ticket to the conference. Congratulations, Elizabeth Wood!
“Final-four” finalists Lisa Bodenheim and Caitlin Cacciatore were both offered heavily discounted event tickets.
Thank you to everyone who donated to the stipend. You’ll all be recognized in this year’s WU UnConference program.
And thank you to all who applied for sending in such wonderful essays and sample pages. You made our job difficult, and we couldn’t be gladder for it.
You can learn more about this year’s in-person event on Eventbrite, HERE.
Write on!
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This contest submissions season covers deadlines from December 1, 2022 through February 28, 2023. Thanks to Literistic, Poets & Writers, Submittable Discover, and New Pages for many of these contests.
Much like editors are looking for reasons to reject work, I want to focus on opportunities worth my time. Thus, my list of writing contests below includes reasons to submit to that particular writing contest. May you find a promising opportunity among this list and spend less time searching for where to send your exceptional work.
A writing community can take many forms, from an established website like Writer Unboxed, to an online group you participate with over Facebook or Discord, to an in-person group you meet up with monthly at a local library, to a critique partner you rely upon who lives on the other side of the world. And that’s just a start.
This year’s OnConference was built to honor COMMUNITY, pushing beyond the traditional online conference experience to provide unique opportunities to connect with one another throughout the event. (Click HERE to learn more about that.) Beyond the community activities we have planned for our 3-week event, our community lounge will stay open for 4 full months, allowing you to gather for writing-related activities through the end of 2022.
All to say that we understand how important community can be to a writer’s life; it can not only help you to persevere in the writing craft, but can help you to be a better writer overall. It has done just that for so many of us.
So it makes sense that this year’s scholarship opportunity be about community as well.
Who should apply?
If you’re interested in an OnConference focused on deep craft and community-centric extras–
If you, too, know the value of a writing community and would like to forge new connections through this event–
If you might not otherwise be able to participate in this year’s OnConference but are seriously interested–
then we hope you’ll consider applying for WU’s Community Scholarship.
How to enter:
Please send the following to unconference@writerunboxed.com:
Optional:
Application deadline for this scholarship is Wednesday, August 31st.
Don’t be shy! If you value community and would like to participate in the upcoming OnConference, we’d love to hear from you.
WU Community: How have others supported you, helped to evolve your craft, and kept you inspired? Even if you are not applying for the scholarship, we’d love to hear from you in comments.
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Who wouldn’t love to win a prestigious award? The National Book Award. The Booker Prize. The PEN/Faulkner. The Women’s Prize for Fiction. The Pulitzer and Nobel.
Few authors will achieve that level of recognition, but there are many “smaller” awards that are far more accessible. And if you win one of them, you still get to call yourself an “award-winning author,” right?
Hmm. Let’s talk about it.
First, some facts. These “facts” are not meant to imply that award contests are a scam or that one shouldn’t enter them. Rather, they’re meant to offer a realistic context in which each of us can make informed decisions that suit our individual goals, budget, and vision.
Fact #1. While the “big” awards may include a monetary prize for the winning author, the majority of smaller awards do not—instead, the author must spend money to enter. Entry fees range from $60-95 per title, although the actual cost can be much higher if you enter multiple categories, since each has a separate fee. More about that below.
It’s not unethical to charge a submission fee. There are overhead costs to the host organization, including the staff time it takes to process the thousands of entries that each program receives, but it’s good to be prepared. Some organizations offer an “early bird” discount. Others, like the Lambda Literary Award for LBGTQ authors, have different submission fees for authors with large publishers and those with small or independent publishers.
Fact #2. Awards operate in different ways, including who can apply. While some contests (like the National Book Award) are open to all authors, regardless of publishing path, others (like the Booker) will not allow authors to submit their own work; only publishers may submit, which means that self-published authors are excluded. There are also regional awards, limited by where you live, as well as awards for specific genres such as science fiction, romance novels, Christian fiction, and so on. In general, the wider the eligibility net, the more competition and the greater the prestige; thus, national and international awards tend to viewed as more significant than local or regional ones.
Many contests are specifically for “indie authors”—authors who have published with a small, university, or hybrid press, or have self-published. Titles from the large publishing houses are not eligible. “Small press” usually means fewer than forty titles a year, no advance paid to the author, and possibly a print-on-demand arrangement. However, these distinctions vary. The Nautilus Awards, for instance, separates books by “large” and small” publisher, regardless of whether the press is independent or traditional. Thus, a Nautilus win by an indie author with a “large” publisher means that she has competed against authors from the Big Four.
Fact #3. Awards can be a big business. This is especially true for the independent book award programs, which also solicit winners with offers to purchase seals or stickers for their books, and to “take advantage” of special advertising opportunities to increase their visibility. These promotions can be aggressive and hard to resist.
Among the best-known of these independent awards are:
There are certainly others (such as […]
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This contest submissions season covers deadlines from September 1, 2022 through November 30, 2022. Thanks to Literistic, Poets & Writers, Submittable Discover, and New Pages for many of these contests.
Much like editors are looking for reasons to reject work, I want to focus on opportunities worth my time. Thus, my list of writing contests below includes reasons to submit to that particular writing contest. May you find a promising opportunity among this list and spend less time searching for where to send your exceptional work.
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This contest submissions season covers deadlines from June 1, 2022 through August 31, 2022. Summer is a slower time for any literary journal or contest associated with a university, but there are still opportunities between beach waves and new drafts. Thanks to Literistic, Poets & Writers, Submittable Discover, and New Pages for many of these contests.
Much like editors are looking for reasons to reject work, I want to focus on opportunities worth my time. Thus, my list of writing contests below includes reasons to submit to that particular writing contest. May you find a promising opportunity among this list and spend less time searching for where to send your exceptional work.
Since my last roundup, I’ve published a story in Palooka and been invited to give a free workshop about submissions at the Gaithersburg Book Festival. I’m also considering creating a submissions tracking alternative to spreadsheets or Duotrope and looking for submitters to chat with.
This contest submissions season covers deadlines from March 1, 2022 through May 31, 2022. Spring is a great time to submit to literary journals associated with universities before the end of their semester. Response times may lag over the summer though and the pandemic continues to delay and cancel many past opportunities. Thanks to Literistic, Poets & Writers, Submittable Discover, and New Pages for many of these contests.
Much like editors are looking for reasons to reject work, I want to focus on opportunities worth my time. Thus, my list of writing contests below includes reasons to submit to that particular writing contest. May you find a promising opportunity among this list and spend less time searching for where to send your exceptional work.
On a personal note, my submissions journey continues with a forthcoming publication in Palooka #12. If you’d like to read my latest short story, please support a great independent journal!
March 2022
Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize 2022 – $25 fee
Deadline: March 4, 2022
“The 2022 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize will be judged by Min Jin Lee (Pachinko). The winning work will be performed and recorded by an actor in spring 2022, and published on Electric Literature. The winning writer will receive $1000 and a free 10-week course with Gotham Writers.”
Reasons to submit:
National Endowment for the Arts – Literature Fellowship – $0 fee
Deadline: March 10, 2022
“The National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships program offers $25,000 grants in prose … to published creative writers that enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. Applications are reviewed through an anonymous process in which the criteria for review are the artistic excellence and artistic merit of the submitted manuscript. Through this program, the Arts Endowment seeks to sustain and nurture a diverse range of creative writers at various stages of their careers and to continue to expand the portfolio of American art.”
Reasons to submit:
Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story – Short Story Competition for Emerging Writers – $10-$25 fee
Deadline: March 15, 2022
“The winning entry will be the Canadian work of up to 2,500 words in the English language, fiction, written by an author not yet published in book format. Winners will be announced at the 2022 Festival with simultaneous social and […]
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In classes and conferences we’re taught to be better writers, but it’s up to us to get our work out there and learn how to be writers in the world. If you have an intention or desire to publish a book, submitting to literary magazines and contests can be a good place to start down the road. As with any undertaking, it helps to have credentials and to that end, validation of your work and getting your name out there are always a plus. Winning a writing contest, fellowship, or grant looks really good on a cover letter. Having your work chosen and published gives you street cred that you really can’t get anywhere else.
Here’s one thing I’ve learned about getting published: you’ve got to get noticed to get noticed. To that end, here is a basic guide to submitting, entering contests, and applying for fellowships:
1. Buff it up– Be sure that your work is as polished as you can make it.
2. Gather information– Part of choosing where to send your work is knowing your market. Almost all print magazines and online journals request that you familiarize yourself with their preferences and style before you submit. Fair enough, right? You could spend a fortune buying copies, but many have excerpts on their websites. Make a list of those that sound right for your style and whichever piece you are planning to submit. Duotrope and New Pages have a weekly newsletter listing calls for submission, including themed submissions and contests. Authors Publish newsletter also offers a free weekly lists. Entropy, The Master’s Review, and Literistic all have submission listings. Submishmash is the weekly newsletter of the Submittable entry portal, featuring submission opportunities. Also, writer’s magazines such a Poets & Writers and Writer’s Chronicle have good databases.
3. Make a list of markets -Remember that each piece you write may fit into a different market. Some publications pride themselves on featuring debut writers, some only want well-established authors. Whatever magazine you choose, be sure that your piece fits their style. In addition to litmags, consider widely distributed magazines that aren’t exclusively literary but publish fiction and poetry, like The Oxford American or Garden and Gun. Look at their websites and at the physical mag if you can. Most of the websites have a tab for “submissions” or a blurb in the back pages or masthead. If they say “no unsolicited submissions”, don’t waste your time unless you sat next to the editor at a dinner party and he asked you to send something.
4. Tier your targets– Duotrope has a really nice feature where they show you the percentages of acceptances by specific magazine as well as where writers who submitted to one place also submitted. Send to the top first, then wait before sending out round two because what if you send out fifty submissions at once, and immediately hear from someone at the bottom of your list with an acceptance but then, the next day The […]
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This contest submissions season covers deadlines from September 1, 2021 through November 30, 2021. Thanks to Literistic, Poets & Writers, Submittable Discover, and New Pages for many of these contests.
Much like editors are looking for reasons to reject work, I want to focus on opportunities worth my time. Thus, my list of writing contests below includes reasons to submit to that particular writing contest. May you find a promising opportunity among this list and spend less time searching for where to send your exceptional work.
September 2021
American-Scandinavian Foundation – ASF Translation Awards – $0 fee
Deadline: September 1, 2021
“The American-Scandinavian Foundation annually awards three translation prizes for outstanding translations of poetry, fiction, drama, or literary prose written by a Scandinavian author born after 1900.” Awards over $2,000 and include publication.
Reasons to submit:
Black Warrior Review – 2021 fiction contest – $15 fee
Deadline: September 1, 2021
Annual contest in fiction (up to 7,000 words) or flash (up to 3 pieces).
“Fiction winner “receive[s] $1000 and publication in BWR 48.2, our Spring 2022 issue. The first runner-up … receive[s] monetary compensation, acknowledgment in the print issue, and online publication (if desired). We may consider any submission for general publication.”
Reasons to submit:
Gasher Press – First-Book Scholarship 2021 – $0 fee
Deadline: September 1, 2021
“In an effort to support equality and accessibility within literary publishing, Gasher Press is pleased to offer a $250 scholarship to an emerging writer currently submitting their first-book manuscript, in order to assist in the covering of submission costs for contests and open reading periods.” Submit at least 48 pages.
Reasons to submit:
University of Iowa Press – Iowa Short Fiction Award – $0 fee
Deadline: September 30, 2021
“Any writer who has not previously published a volume of prose fiction is eligible to enter the competition. … The manuscript must be a collection of short stories in English of at least 150 word-processed, double-spaced pages. … Stories previously published in periodicals are eligible for inclusion. There is no reading fee … Award-winning manuscripts will be published by the University of Iowa Press under the Press’s standard contract.”
Reasons to submit:
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The pandemic has delayed, combined, or cancelled numerous writing contests. But we keep writing. I recently got one short story acceptance that may not even be published this year. I’m grateful for the markets and editors still around.
This contest submissions season covers deadlines from June 1, 2021 through August 31, 2021. Summer is a slower time for any literary journal or contest associated with a university, but there are still opportunities between beach waves and new drafts. Thanks to Literistic, Poets & Writers, Submittable Discover, and New Pages for many of these contests.
Much like editors are looking for reasons to reject work, I want to focus on opportunities worth my time. Thus, my list of writing contests below includes reasons to submit to that particular writing contest. May you find a promising opportunity among this list and spend less time searching for where to send your exceptional work.
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