Dodgy Writing Competitions

[Paul Whybrow]

News of a suspect writing competition popped up in one of my newsletters. The Short Story Project's My Best Story contest is immediately dubious, to my eyes, for their use of flowery language...which smacks of the label on a bottle of snake oil!

"You fully own the rights of your wondrous hard-worked short stories."

Wondrous?

Writer Beware®: The Blog: Contest Caution: The Short Story Project's My Best Story Competition

I reckon that the only guaranteed way of making money in publishing is to run a writing competition. I spent most of 2016 entering competitions, and became adept at checking the credentials of the organisers and the terms & conditions. It really, really pays to check out the small print about rights, as you could be signing away all of yours! If you're an unknown author, you might well say "So what, I just want to get my name out there," but what if your short story took on a life of its own, being sold by the competition organisers to a Hollywood studio for millions? None of which you'll get....

Also, look at the qualifications of the judges. How well-known are they? I found many competitions where the judges were the organisers themselves, or, at best, they'd hired an obscure author who'd published one favourably-reviewed novel five years ago and nothing since.

Look to see if previous winners have gone on to publishing success. Did their win lead to an offer of representation from a literary agency?

Remember that writing is a business: every business has con artists.

 

[Marc Joan]

Yup. Always try to find a competition where they read the entries blind -- ie without knowing who wrote them. Or at least where they say they do. There is an awful lot of mutual back-scratching in fiction writing and publishing.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Yes. And I generally don't enter any competition I have to pay for. The one exception I've made to this is the Wishing Shelf Book awards--they get real kids to read your book, and then send you the feedback from those kids and post it on Goodreads and Amazon if you want them to. I found that well worth the entrance fee.

 

[Patricia D]

Like Robinne, I'm wary of contests that charge entrance fees. Yes, it takes time to read and judge, but lots of contests use volunteer readers. I've been one. Contests with an entry fee and cash prizes are, all too often, a form of Ponzi scheme.

 

[Marc Joan]

Like Robinne, I'm wary of contests that charge entrance fees. Yes, it takes time to read and judge, but lots of contests use volunteer readers. I've been one. Contests with an entry fee and cash prizes are, all too often, a form of Ponzi scheme.

That's true. But I think you can sometimes justify paid entry, i.e. when the competition is reasonably prestigious or when there are reasonable cash prizes. In the latter cases, the prize money has to come from somewhere, and very few literary competitions have sponsors.

 

[KateESal]

the Wishing Shelf Book awards--they get real kids to read your book, and then send you the feedback from those kids and post it on Goodreads and Amazon if you want them to. I found that well worth the entrance fee.

Ooh, haven't heard of this one, but sounds very interesting....

I think you can sometimes justify paid entry, i.e. when the competition is reasonably prestigious or when there are reasonable cash prizes. In the latter cases, the prize money has to come from somewhere, and very few literary competitions have sponsors.

Yes, The Bath Novel Award is a paid entry competition, but they get very well-known and reputable agents to judge it and previous winners have had representation and publication off the back of it. Also, they invite people and organisations to sponsor entries from writers who wouldn't otherwise be able to spare the cash for the entry fee. I know there are others similar to this too.

I think, ultimately, do some research on the organisers and judges and be circumspect if the competition isn't linked to a known organisation of some sort.

 

[Emurelda]

I tend to make it a policy not to enter a writing competition with paid entry. There are some exceptions as mentioned above wrt to prestigious, reputable and well-established comps like the Bath Novel award.

Here's a free one for children's writers and judges are respectable (e.g Annie Eaton)

Writing Children's Fiction Competition | Writers & Artists
I'll probably post it as a separate thread just to make it clear for others.

 

[Carol Rose]

Just to play devil's advocate ... all RWA (Romance Writers of America) contests are paid entry. And there's nothing dodgy about them. They're usually the chapters' money makers for the year. Dues only account for a small amount of a chapter's operating budget.

The RWA national contests give published and unpublished (there's one for each) authors a chance to get their entries in front of agents and editors at publishers. Same with the chapter contests. Some are for published authors, some are for unpublished, and some are for either. It's up to the individual chapters.

The chapter contests are judged by RWA members - published or unpublished - and we volunteer our time to do this. It takes quite a bit of it, too. We line up the final judges beforehand, and they are always agents and editors at publishers. The agents and editors volunteer their time as well. They are not paid. The national contests are judged only by published members, and they are not paid, either.

Our chapter contest, for example, the IGO (Indiana Golden Opportunity) has a high request rate for the finalists in each category because of the quality of the feedback we give. Only the best of the best make it into those finals. The winners in each category are chosen by the agents and editors, not the chapter members. That's the same in every RWA chapter.

In return for the modest entry fee (usually $25 to $35 for the chapter contests), the participants receive feedback from at least two judges. Sometimes three. There are guidelines for our feedback, and we go through training to give it. The national contests also have guidelines for feedback and every RWA member knows them beforehand.

Bottom line: not all paid entry contests are dodgy, nor does the money go to something undisclosed. In the RWA chapter contests, the winners in each category receive a cash prize. The rest of the money goes toward running the chapter, and everyone who enters knows this.

 

[Marc Joan]

Another point is that -- and I'm not quite sure why -- placement in competitions seems to do more for your profile than publication in magazines. So that also needs to be taken into account.