Submission Contest

The lovely Mercedes Yardley, who I blogged about last week, has challenged me to a submission competition. The first to ten submissions will get bragging rights on their blog.

I better get working!

2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Amazon are running their breakthrough novel award again next year, with some differences. Most of them sound for the better. Here is what they have to say about the last competition (from their website)

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is an opportunity for emerging fiction writers to join a community of authors on Amazon.com, showcase their work, and compete for a chance to get published.
Sponsored in partnership with Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award launched in October 2007 and received more than 5,000 initial entries. Of those, excerpts from over 800 fiction entries were eligible for Amazon.com customers to read, rate, and review. Editors at Penguin Group (USA) reviewed the Top 100 semifinalists based on early customer reads and full manuscript reviews provided by Publishers' Weekly. In March 2008, the leading Top 10 finalists were selected for the customers' vote. A panel of experts--including bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert, editor and publisher Amy Einhorn, literary critic John Freeman, and literary agent Eric Simonoff--also weighed in with their reviews for each of the top 10 novels. The top three finalists--Dwight Okita (The Prospect of My Arrival), Harry Dolan (Bad Things Happen), and Bill Loehfelm (Fresh Kills) traveled to New York City for the first weekend in April, where Bill Loehfelm was revealed as the winner.

The only thing I object to about the 2009 competition is that you have to sign up to Createspace to enter. I think Amazon have been dog in the manger-ish enough about their little self publishing baby (squeezing out other POD's by not selling your book on amazon.com unless you have published through Createspace) but making aspiring writers sign up for it in order to enter the comp is low in my opinion.

I entered the last competition and didn't make it past the first round (much to my surprise, as I thought I had a strong entry). However, I was still rushing to get it together as I was going to the airport to fly to New Zealand for a month, so perhaps it wasn't as tight as I thought it was. I'm considering entering the 2009 competition. Submissions are in February so I have enough time to polish up a submission and make it a real cracker this time.

Any other takers?

p.s Ionafey, if you are reading this, I really like your blog but I don't seem to be able to post a comment on any of your posts. Perhaps this is just my computer. I would really like to post, so please have a look at your settings to make sure the problem isn't at your end.

Cool Contest Challenge

Here is the link to my winning entry in the Cool Stuff 4 Writers July cool contest challenge - FIRST SWIM. I got chills when I logged onto their site this morning and saw my name on the homepage. By chills I mean pleasant tingles of excitement. Chills are good. Remember folks, before you run off to read my winning story, the brief for the contest was to write a beach scene using purple prose. If you think the writing is bad, it is supposed to be. So bad it's good, yeah baby! While you're over there at Cool Stuff 4 Writers, have a look around. You'll be sure to find something of interest.

Good News Everyone!

Yes, I have donned my Professor Farnsworth hat once again (for those of you who love Futurama. I am even wearing my dressing gown and slippers, but not the thick glasses) to bring you more good news about my writing (of course, the Prof's good news is never good. It's like - Good news everyone, you are all going to die). Anyway, back to my writing. The good people at Invisible Ink selected my short story competition entry 'All in the Family' to be included in their next anthology, Invisible Ink 2! That means I'm going to be in a very real print anthology! The way it works is that everyone who reads the book has a chance to vote online on which story they consider to be the best and the winning author gets a cash prize. I'll post details on how to buy the book and vote later on when they come available (remember my story is called 'All in the Family' so you can vote for it anyway! muhahahaha)

At the last minute - again!

I finally sent off my short story submission to From The Asylum's anthology, 'Things aren't what they seem' today - the last day they are accepting entries. I'm glad I got it in and thanks to Madeira for giving me the idea for the story (it was a long one coming) but once again I've scrapped in at the last minute of a deadline. I wonder what publishers/editors think of these last minute stories popping into their in boxes. Does it prejudice them against the author or is that what deadlines are there for. As long as you are on the right side of the closing date, what does it matter?

Review of April 2008

April has been a month of both very sad events - Woozer's death on the ninth - and very happy events - acceptance of three stories for publication.

April has felt like a very long month for me, perhaps because I was very busy and there wasn't Easter to break it up. Writing wise I got a lot done. I wrote nearly 21,000 words, which is more than any other month so far this year. I submitted stories to three markets and entered two competitions. Perhaps the best news of all was the fact that two of those stories were accepted for publication and I had a further acceptance for a story submitted in January. I also started rating and writing at Helium once more and submitted five more stories to the site.

On a less successful note, I failed to think up something new to try in the month of April.I also only read one book, which is the least I have read in a month in over a year. I will have to work on both those things for May.

Writing Competitions

I entered my first writing competition when I was a teenager in secondary school - and I won a prize! Encouraged by my success, I entered more competitions and, apart from 2 (I think), I was placed in or won every competition I entered (while still in school). Naturally enough, I liked entering competitions. There was usually a monetary reward and a prize giving where people said lots of nice things about your writing. However, now that I am older, I am questioning my continued involvement with competitions. First of all, I haven't been able to keep up my winning streak. Secondly, I am spending quite a bit of money on entry fees and thirdly - how impressive does winning a competition sound when you approach publishers and agents? Sure, if you win the Bridport Prize or the Aeon Award it is worth mentioning on your writing cv, but if you are highly commended on Joe Blogg's writing contest from Brigadoon, does it mean all that much? Isn't an editor much more likely to be impressed by the other markets that have published your work than the amount of small competitions you have entered? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm going to give up entering competitions, but I might be more picky in the future.

Lessons I Have Learned

Lesson # 1

Be very careful when researching your writing markets and competitions. I've been working hard the last few days on my short story Dead Jimmy for the Writers Inc Writers of the Year Competition which closes for entries today. At the start of the month I opened a file with the details and links of the competitions I wanted to enter for April. I've been checking on the file regularly to make sure I was keeping to the briefs with my stories and that the closing dates really were catching up with me, but I never once thought of checking to see if this competition was open to electronic submission! Usually I make a note in my file on whether the submission is electronic or print, but for some reason I forgot to mention it with Writers Inc. When I clicked on the link to send my story off and enter the competition I found, to my horror, that it is print submission only. The long and the short of it is, I won't be entering this competition and Dead Jimmy needs a new home.

Lesson #2

Don't leave entering competitions to the last possible moment.

You could say I put things on the long finger. In fact, my fingers are so long I am probably tickling you while you read this. That's why competition deadlines are a good thing for me, as it gives me a goal I have to be finished by. However, a deadline doesn't mean I have to scrape my entry in at the very last minute, just before the clock strikes twelve on the last day of entry. It is better to be prepared in advance, giving me more time to perfect my stories (hence increasing my chances of winning) and enter well in advance of the closing date so I can get to work on the next submission. It also means that when things like this happen, I will be prepared and not thrown and I won't end up with stories looking for a home.

BUSY DAYS

So far April has been very busy for me. I was back teaching this week, went into Easons to do research for a non-fiction title yesterday and submitted FOUR short stories to competitions and publications this week. I wrote and submitted a flash fiction and micro fiction to Alienskin (after the success of Valinora Troy I thought I would try my hand at it) as well as entering the Molly Keane Competition and sending a robot story to Permuted Press for the robot's beyond anthology competition. I am also waiting eagerly to see if I made the short list for either the Grace Dieu Writer's Circle Competition or the first round of the Aeon Award. I'm told that the results will be posted any day now, but you know what they say about a watched webpage never reloading. Oh yeah, I also did some research into more story markets and subscribed to a couple of cool looking magazines as well this week. On a writing note, I really want to write a gooey, juicy, scary horror. I haven't written one in a while and I feel the urge has come upon me to write something truly horrific. Perhaps that will be my goal for next week. I also have to think up something new to try out for April. Any suggestions?

Competitions for April

After totting up the amount of money I have spent so far this year on Competition Entry fees versus the amount of money I have received from writing, I have decided to limit the number of competition fees I pay to two per month. Therefore, for the month of April, I have selected 2 comps with entry fees and 2 without to try my hand at.

FIRST THE PAYING ONES

1. Writers Inc Writers of the Year Competition

Closing date: 14th April 2008

Entry fee: £6 per short story

Prizes: Prize fund of £3,500

Word Limit: 50 - 3000 words

Guidelines: This competition has various different categories including poetry, children's and journalism as well as short story and the entry fees vary accordingly. It accepts stories in any genre and style. The winning poem will be submitted to the Forward Poetry Prize and the winning children's story will be sent to a Literary Agency. Accepts email submissions

2. Momaya Short Story Competition 2008

Closing date: 30th April 2008

Entry Fee: £6

Prizes: Ist £110, 2nd £55, 3rd £30, 7 hon mentions, publication for ten stories

Word Limit: 2,500

Guidelines: This competition accepts stories in any style or genre. Judges include leading journalists and literary agents.

SECOND THE FREE ONES

3. Permuted Press' Robots Beyond Anthology

Closing Date: 4th April 2008

Entry Fee: 0

Prizes: Payment of 1c per word and publication in the anthology

Word limit: 3000 - 7500

Guidelines: This isn't really a competition but after failing to enter their giant creatures competition on time, I am entering this as a contest to delude myself into thinking it is one. They are looking for stories about robots which boldly takes the man machines into territory they have never gone before.

4. Molly Keane Memorial Creative Writing Award

Closing date: 4th April 2008

Entry Fee: 0

Prizes: €650

Word Limit: 2000

Guidelines: This competition is run by Waterford County Council. No age limit or restriction in subject matter. The prize will be awarded at the Waterford Literary Festival in June.

Review of March 2008

March started well for me with news that I had won the Dundalk branch of Curves 30 day challenge. Apart from a not too dodgy prize of a €55 token for Boots chemist, I lost 10lbs and 18 inches, which is the real prize. Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse after that high point and I suffered about three weeks of ill health which meant little to no writing, cancelled teaching days (hence loss of money) and exercising falling off the radar. I got two weeks holiday at Easter but was still picking myself up so I didn't get all the writing done that I had planned. My goal for March was to read 9 books. I completed five, which is up from last month but only half as many as January. Word wise, I wrote fractionally more than February with 11,400 compared to last month's 11,100. My aim was to enter 2 short story competitions this month and I exceeded it by two. I entered short stories into the Fish One Page Prize 2008, Tom Howard/John H Reid Short Story Contest, Aeon Award 2008 and the Invisible Ink Story Competition. I had also planned to enter a story to the Permuted Press Giant Creatures Anthology but failed to finish my story 'The Shark that ate Dublin' in time. Likewise, my entry to the Bristol Prize Short Story Competition 2008 was a non runner as I missed the post (imagine running a competition in this day and age without online entry as an option?). I had plans to submit my flash fiction 'Does Love Dogs' to AlienSkin but failed to edit it in time to submit it before March ended. There is always next month. Exercise was practically non existent this month, with no attendances to curves and only a few salsa slims and days where I played wii (highest fitness age 41, lowest 24). I did complete my achievement goal for the month in trying new things, which was climbing the Greater Sugar Loaf in Wicklow. I just scraped in at the last minute but I managed to get there in the end and it was a challenging but rewarding day. With my four submissions this month I have beaten my January curse - which is, I submit in January and then don't submit anything else all year until the January of the following year. I hope this trend keeps up. I promised to keep you updated on my stories from past months, so this is how my January entries are doing. My entry to Glimmer Train's Family Matters Competition, 'The Shadow Room' failed to be short listed and I am guessing that 'The Memory of Fat', my entry to the Maria Edgeworth Competition didn't get to the finish line either as the festival took place on Saturday and I was not invited to attend. I am still waiting to hear back on how my brave little stories are doing.

My hopes for April? To keep up submitting to competitions and publications. To increase my word count. To read more books. To think up and complete another new achievement. To have a successful Belly Dance workshop on the 19th and to have fun in Donegal with my sis's and dogs at the end of the month.

Review of February 2008

3 Books Read
11 thousand words written
One Short Story Competition entered

Not a great second month to follow up January, but my writing was severely disrupted this month by teaching.

Here is to March being a more creatively balanced month (plus it is holiday month, so loads more time for writing).

Review of week 28th January - 3rd February

Writing wise not a lot happened this week. I started work on an outline for a book idea, which I hope to submit to a publisher within the next couple of weeks. I sent off one short story to the Maria Edgeworth Competition and submitted another to Fantasy online magazine. I read two books and started a third. My articles on helium went crazy this week, zinging up and down the rating scale, with Why I Write and Gifts from the Sea making the biggest leaps downwards.

Competitions for February

I'm not too enthusiastic about my competitions for February, and might only enter one, as March is a competition heavy month and I want to start gearing up for it. Here are the two I have chosen for consideration:

1. The Grace Dieu Writer's Circle 2008 Short Story Competition

Word Length: 2000 words

Closing Date: 28th February 2008

Prizes: 1st £300, 2nd £150, 3rd £75, 4th £50, 5th £25

Guidelines:Open to everyone over 16. Entries must be unpublished, in English and can be any genre.

2. Novel Competition

Word length: N/A

Closing Date: 29th February 2008

Prizes: Work with editor to finish your book and publication

Guidelines: Looking for first 2 chapters, final chapter and one page synopsis of a book with engaging believable characters. The book doesn't need to be complete at the present moment (or so I gather)

3 competitions this month!

I sent off my story, 'The Memory of Fat' to the Maria Edgeworth Short Story Competition this afternoon, which brings my total number of competitions entered this month to three, and my total number of short stories sent out to four, which is probably more than my yearly total for the last few years. I also worked on my story 'The Dream Walker' today, which I started last October and finished in December, but I wasn't happy with the join between the start and the finish. I am happy with it now and think it is a cracking little story, but I am in a quandary. You see, I had intended it for Alienskin, but the final edit has come in at over 4000 words (and Alienskin has a 3500 word limit). Do I slash it so that I get the word count down, or find somewhere else to send it? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Review of week: 21st - 27th January 2008

I had a strange week this week, first taking off Monday and Tuesday to recover from the Feis and then succumbing to a cold on Wednesday which has since grown more and more incapacitating. Despite this, and the resulting reduction in work hours, I did manage to achieve several things.
I submitted 'The Shadow Room' to the Glimmertrain Family Matters short story competition.
I wrote 'The Memory of Fat', a short story intended for the Maria Edgeworth competition.
I completed my nine book total goal for the month.
On Helium my stories have been going up and down. This week they mostly went up, with Boats increasing a whole 29 places, while Gifts from the Sea dropped 29 places.
This week seemed to go a lot faster for me than the previous weeks, so it just goes to show that when you pack more into the day it really does make time go by more slowly.
Next week is the last week in January. I plan to do something new every month this year, and my new thing for January is to play Badminton, so I am playing on Wednesday (just sneaking it in there). I am also back to teaching next week, am starting Salsa Slims exercise class on Tuesday and entering the 30 day challenge in Curves, which starts on Monday, not to mention all the writing I have planned to do!

Competitions for January

This month I intend to enter these two writing competitions:-

1. The American Kennel Club 22nd Annual Fiction Writing Contest.
Word length: 2000 words
Closing date: 31st January 2008
Prizes: 1st $750 2nd $500 3rd $250
Guidelines: Must feature AKC registrable breed or breed listed in the miscellaneous class.

2. Maria Edgeworth Short Story Competition
Word length: 2000 words
Closing date: 31st January 2008
Prizes: 1st Deirdre Purcell Perpetual Cup 2nd €100 3rd €50
Guidelines: Story can be on any topic and any genre

Writing Competitions

I have decided to enter two writing competitions a month, if I can find ones interesting enough and/or with good enough prizes to enter. My competitions for this month are:-

1. The Santa Fe Writers Project 2007 Literary Awards

Closing date: 31st December 2007

Prize: 1st $2,500, 2nd $1,500 3rd $1,000

Guidelines: Entries consist of 25 pages of related short stories, essays or the first 25 pages of a longer work. (I estimate 25 pages to be about 6000 words)

2. Wanna be a writer? Novel writing comeptition

Closing date: 31st December 2007

Prize: 5 day writing course in Wales (27th July - 1st Aug. I know, that's the Nodpot Anniversary and, while it is in Wales, I don't think it is in Port Merrion!)

Guidelines: Entries consist of the first 1000 words of a novel.

Writing and other stuff

I woke up early and finished a short story I started before I went away. It was great, I got about 2000 words written before breakfast. I wish everyday started as well. I was worried that the word count would exceed the submission guidelines of my chosen market, but I just came in with a couple of dozen to spare. It is a miracle. I will leave it for a few days, read over it and submit it. Choice.

I re-read some of my blogs from New Zealand today and found them surprisingly well written. I can't believe that a month ago today I was experiencing wind chill in the Antarctic centre and being chased by ducks in Willowbank, let alone catching my first glimpse of Kaikoura and the south pacific. That song by Dido keeps running through my head - 'two weeks away feels like the whole world should have changed'.

Lots of writing competitions coming up this month and next month. I think I'll give some of them a go. I'll keep you updated.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Valpot introduced me to this amazing competition last night. Amazon.com, in association with Penguin USA, are offering 5000 novelists the chance to be discovered. Through a six month process, their novels will be read and reviewed and narrowed down from 5000 to 1000 to 100 and then to the final 10, at which time ordinary customers will have the chance to read all 10 entries and vote for their favourite. The three authors with the highest votes will be flown to New York and wined and dined at an award ceremony where the grand prize winner will be announced. Up for grabs is a publishing deal with Penguin USA, a $25,000 advance, promotion through amazon.com and a HP media suite. The runners up get some cool prizes as well, and of course all this publicity on amazon.com is going to help your career prospects no end.

Reading the details on amazon.com, I got the feeling that this is an opportunity too good to be missed, but thanks to my procrastination (a subject for another post) I don't have The Mark of the Wolf in a suitable condition for submission. Entries are open until the 5th November or until 5000 entries have been received. Valpot persuaded me to sign up last night, so I now have seven days to submit my novel or lose my registration number. Can I wrestle 120,000 words into shape within that time? With several gallons of diet coke and no other commitments, I might. Who needs to sleep anyway?

Of course, Valpot has already entered, which leaves an ethical question - should we compete against each other? What happens if we both get down to the final ten? I would be thrilled if I did, and even more so if Valpot managed to hit the top spot, whether I got knocked out at the first round or not. However, this is all moot as it is highly unlikely that I will have anything to submit in the first place.

Does The Mark of the Wolf really have to be 120,000 words long? Maybe it would be just as good at 50,000.