Category Archives: writing contests

Notifications of contests for writers and evaluation of writing contest scams

Ever Heard of “Awards Profiteers”? Victoria Strauss Exposes

Your book ready to publish--dreamscape!

Writer Beware shines light where it’s most needed!

If you don’t follow @victoriastrauss and Writer Beware, you should. Here’s another example: For all of us who sometimes send our work off to writing contests or writing awards competitions, how to tell if we’re falling for a scam. Strauss identifies the components of “awards profiteering” in which the main purpose of the “award” is to make money for the people offering it. Here’s an example of scary language in the writing contest submission guidelines of one contest—what you must agree to if you enter—analyzed in depth, with responses from the contest sponsor.

Writer Beware, indeed.

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Amazon Giveaway! Enter for a chance to win!

Enter through August 27! Step-by-step DIY instructions for formatting your own professional paperback interior.

You CAN Format Your Print-on-Demand Book!

You can do it! I did!

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Filed under Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, book design for creative writers, business of writing, Free Books, indie publishing, Print on Demand for fiction writers, Publishing, Self-publishing, Writing, writing contests, writing novels

The Benefits of Joining a Writers Group

As a member of a long-running face-to-face group and now an active online group, I can attest to the truth of what Cynthia Hilston says below: that good groups exist. I spent far too many years writing in isolation; never again. Maybe I don’t like every response; maybe sometimes I’m disheartened. But I’d rather be disheartened now when I can figure out what to do about the problem than when I get that “we’re not the right agency for this project” form letter with NO feedback as to why.

I’ve posted about my group several times (for example, see “In Praise of My Writing Group“), and I did a series on the founding of our group, the Green River Writers, and its leader, Mary (Ernie) O’Dell, here in Louisville.

And I just posted the 2017 Contest brochure for this year’s Green River Writers contest! A terrific contest with low entries fees and lots of cash prizes! Check it out!

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CONTEST! CONTEST! CONTEST!

Green River Writers Logo

Poetry and Prose Categories, Low Entry Fees, Cash Prizes! For information, email contest@greenriverwriters.org

GREEN RIVER WRITERS, here in my neck of the woods, has opened its annual contest.

Two grand prizes @ $175 for first place, 13 other categories all with cash prizes, $3 entries.

http://www.greenriverwriters.org

Green River Writers 2017 Contest Brochure

 

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March/April 2017 Writing Contests

Here’s another useful list of contests from Rachel Poli!

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Avoid Writing Contest Scams!

Beware of writing contest scams!Writer Unboxed (via, as so often, Chris the Story Reading Ape) is hitting  on all cylinders these days. Here’s an extremely useful post detailing how to assess a publishing contest BEFORE you enter! Thanks to Susan Spann for this excellent list. Read the comments, too.

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Don’t Forget: Green River Writers Contest Open Until Sept. 30!

Green River Writers Logo

Poetry and Prose Categories, Low Entry Fees, Cash Prizes! For information, click on the image or email contest@greenriverwriters.org

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How To Set Up An Amazon Giveaway

Just what I needed! I was hovering over the Amazon Giveaway screens for King of the Roses and discovered I didn’t know how the odds-setting worked. This post, from February of this year, explains it! This is Nicholas Rossis’s “secondary blog” that shows a reblog button, but you can access the original, with many informative comments, here. Now watch for my Giveaway, coming up next week!

Nicholas C. Rossis

Amazon has recently started offering everyone the opportunity to offer a giveaway. What’s interesting about this is that you can run one for pretty much any item in their inventory – except for ebooks. So, you can run a giveaway for your print edition, but not your Kindle one.

Alternatively, you could go all the way and offer people, say, a Kindle. Or, indeed, an item that is somehow related to your books. For example, if you’ve written a cookbook, you may give away kitchen gadgets or aprons. The key here is to be imaginative and original.

So, how would you go about it? Here’s the complete how-to.

Step 1: Find your book

Right after the reviews, you will see a “Set up an Amazon Giveaway” button. If you can’t find it, press Control-F (for Find) on your browser and enter the word “giveaway”…

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Filed under Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, business of writing, ebooks publishing and selling, Free Books, indie publishing, King of the Roses, Marketing books, Money issues for writers, Print on Demand for fiction writers, Self-publishing, Tech tips for writers, V. S. Anderson, Virginia S. Anderson, Writing, writing contests, writing novels

Horse nut/Professor/Writer

My bio on Chuck Suddeth’s site! He’s posting info on sponsors and judges for the Green River Writers 2016 contest, now open. Check out the guidelines! And thanks, Chuck, for sharing!

C. T. Suddeth

V. S. Anderson always been a horse nut, and as a young person, was a rabid horse-racing fan. So it’s no surprise that her first novels were about horses: the Kentucky Derby and the glamour of a Thoroughbred breeding farm—but with a little mystery and mayhem thrown in! For King of the Roses and Blood Lies, she drew on her years of working in the horse world, teaching riding, showing hunters, moonlighting on the racetrack, and for a while, owning and galloping her own racehorse.

Since then she has used her doctorate in English to teach writing at a regional campus of a Midwestern university—right across the river from Louisville and the Derby, in fact! She lives in New Salisbury, Indiana, where she gardens, watches birds, writes mystery/suspense (three novels in progress!), and rides Paddy, her sweet, sweet horse.

Visit her at

www.virginiasanderson.com

www.justcanthelpwriting.wordpress.com

www.facebook.com/virginiasanderson.writer

www.amazon.com/author/virginiasanderson

or follow her…

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Filed under Blood Lies, ebooks publishing and selling, Green River Writers, indie publishing, King of the Roses, Self-publishing, V. S. Anderson, Writers' groups, Writing, writing contests, writing novels

Motivate Yourself by Submitting to a Writing Contest

Here’s a new list of contests you might find helpful, from the writers at Live to Write—Write to Live. Check it out!

Live to Write - Write to Live

Today’s post is as much for me as it is for you. You see, I’ve been quite lethargic about writing fiction lately, as my business has been so pleasantly busy that I don’t have time to write for fun.

I put don’t have time in italics, since, we all know that we make time for what is important to us. I do have time. I have the same amount of time as everyone else and if I truly want to write fiction, I will find a way.EnterWritingContests

Today’s post is my self-motivation for finding that way.

Submitting to contests is a great way to be inspired to write, to actually write, and to actually submit. I’ve done it. I know it’s always fun and challenging and a unique way to get the must to come out and play.

My all-time-favorite contests are the quarterly 24-hour contests by WritersWeekly.com

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