Entering and Acceptable Autograph Contests

 31 December 18:00   

    Entering and Acceptable Autograph Contests   by Pamela White

    Visit any autograph bulletin lath and you ll apprehend altercation threads

    on contests and competitions

    for writers. The letters run the area of those who accept been

    scammed to those who rave

    about contests. So area does the accuracy lie? For as some contests

    for writers there are out there,

    there are as some truths.

    Before you run abroad from the opportunities offered by many

    legitimate autograph contests, apprehend the

    following eleven tips on choosing, acceptable and benefitting from

    writing contests.

    1. Appointment the websites listed beneath beneath resources. Some offer

    comments on autograph contests

    which can advice you adjudge which ones are for you, and which ones are

    to avoid. Do an internet

    search on the publication, business or being active the contest.

    While not answering all your

    questions, this blazon of seek can advice you cantankerous off questionable

    contests.

    2. If a challenge is chargeless to enter, you accept annihilation to lose, but

    still apprehend the accomplished print. There are

    contests that affirmation rights to any acceptable stories, or even all

    submissions. For contests with an

    entry fee, adjudge if the cost money justifies the fee. For example,

    would you pay $15 access fee

    for a balladry challenge area the champ accustomed $35 as the prize?

    Would you pay a fee if the prize

    was publication, or a book?

    3. Still borderline about a advertisement or business that is active an

    writing contest? E-mail the

    publisher or buyer and ask for references. Appointment the challenge s

    website and clue down former

    winners. Again, this is not a agreement of anything, but if a former

    winner says he absent all rights

    to his adventure and was never paid, or on the additional hand, if the winner

    raves about the banknote prizes

    and claimed agenda from the arcane agent/contest judge, you accept a

    better abstraction of how you are

    likely to be advised in anniversary case.

    4. Apprehend the rules anxiously to create abiding that a cost will be

    awarded no amount how some entries

    are received. If there is a minimum bulk of entries (say the

    editor just wants to accompany in entry

    fees according to the banknote awarded), create abiding that the challenge s rules

    state the fees will be refunded

    if the antagonism cannot be completed.

    5. Wish to access your allowance of winning? Acquisition a almost new

    publication or contest. Each

    year a challenge is captivated builds on the antecedent year s publicity. The

    second anniversary challenge of a

    fiction annual will acceptable draw beneath entries than one that s been

    publicized for ten years.

    6. Addition way to barrier your bets is to chase the challenge s

    rules. Understand the chat limit, way to

    submit, how to pay the access fee and if winners will be announced.

    Do not anticipate your story

    will be so appropriate that the board will discount your sloppy

    formatting, abridgement of fee or 4000 extra

    words.

    7. Apprehend the account of judges. This could be as important as (and

    more agitative than) account the

    contest rules. Will a annual editor be anticipation your work? Maybe

    you ll bolt the eye of a book

    editor, arcane agent, biographer or publisher. If the adjudicator account is

    great, and you don t win a prize,

    you can still achievement to apprehend from one of the board allurement you to

    submit to his magazine, or from a

    publisher allurement if you accept a atypical in the works. For example, the

    kinds of board you might

    wish to accept account your plan can be begin at Futures Mysterious

    Anthology Annual which

    lists its board online: fmam.biz/contests.html#judges .

    8. Adapt your plan to be accessible to access contests. New contests

    pop up circadian online. If you

    have your stories, essays, balladry and book proposals organized, you

    can bound cull one from

    your files of articles. Some contests acquire ahead published

    pieces, so understand area your

    reprints are too.

    9. Accumulate abutting tabs on what contests are advancing up. Biographer s Digest

    Writers Markets has a

    section advertisement autograph contests. The Biographer annual has a markets

    section in anniversary affair that

    includes contests. Futures Abstruse Album Magazine, which

    offers ample banknote prizes, and

    ByLine Magazine, which pays added (beyond the nice banknote prizes) to

    publish acceptable stories, list

    their accessible contests in anniversary issue. Address down the URL s listed

    below so you can plan a

    weekly attack online to acquisition new competitions that accommodated your writing

    and personality.

    10. Address fiction and wish to add a win to your publishing credits?

    Know the periodicals and

    reviews that accept autograph contests. Apprehend what they broadcast so you ll

    know what to abide to the

    contests. Blink Alternation has an anniversary new writers challenge for those

    who ve not yet been

    published in the abbreviate adventure genre. They are so organized for this

    and their additional contests that they

    accept entries and the fee online, and forward e-mail reminders to

    subscribers and writers if new

    contest deadlines are looming.

    11. Yield advantage of business tax deductions. Access fees can be

    listed on your Agenda C

    (assuming you are a sole proprietorship) as a business expense, so

    keep clue of access fees you ve

    paid. Any banknote prizes, though, are not advised business income,

    but haveto be listed under

    "Other Income" on your 1040.

    Resources to Advice You Acquisition and Win Contests:

    Information on Contests

    windpub.com/literary.scams/

    writersweekly.com/phpBB2 - has a Whispers and Warnings

    Board

    sfwa.org/Beware/contests.html

    absolutewrite.com - bang on Baptize Acknowledgment at top of page

    to go to both a Bewares

    message lath and a bulletin lath of paying opportunities including

    contests.

    Contest listings:

    fmam.biz

    glimmertrain.com

    food-writing.com

    writing-word.com/contests/index.shtml

    bulwer-lytton.com/

    writersdigest.com/contests

    poewar.com

    directory.ansme.com/arts/5566127.html

    ByLinemag.com/contests.asp