Wednesday 28 October 2020

A ,B and C

A, B and C = Allas, Best and Competitions!

 Womag News

I had a reply from my request for more information from the two ladies who've taken over from Lotta at Allas. 'At the moment we are forming our new organization, finding a new way to work.' There aren't any new guidelines, and it seems that they will only respond to submissions if they wish to buy the story.  Of course if I learn more, I'll pass the information on.

Submissions may be sent to Margaretha Malmgren  Margaretha.malmgren (at) aller.com and Cecilia Ericson Cecilia.Ericson (at) aller.com

Womag/competition news

Thanks to Alyson Hilbourne for sending this scan from a recent copy of Best magazine. 

They'll be paying £500 to the winner, and there are also runner up prizes of £200. Winter themed stories of no more than 1,200 words are to be sent to bestfiction2020 (at) hearst.co.uk.


Competition News




There's £1,000 on offer for this short story competition – but not much time left to enter. Thanks to Jane Bettany for reminding me about it.


And a quick reminder from me...

If you fancy some not too scary hallowe'en reading, you can find it in my short story collections Slightly Spooky Stories ISlightly Spooky Stories II, Slightly Spooky Stories III and the brand new Slightly Spooky Stories IV.

I'm using the excuse that I'm promoting these to share really terrible, hallowe'en jokes on Twitter. If you know any, please share them in the comments – I'll allow good ones, but those which cause a groan seem most appropriate, don't you think?

11 comments:

New girl on the block said...

I submitted a short story to the Secret Attic monthly competition last week - thanks for the tip, Patsy. I received an email from them yesterday saying that as from 1 November, competitions will no longer be free to enter :)
So - get entries in before the end of October if you don't want to pay!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for another super, newsy post, Patsy. And good luck to everyone who enters the competitions. Best wishes from Eirin Thompson

Sharon Boothroyd said...

Yes, it's a pity about the Secret Attic comp, as I had loads of stories lined up.
The promise on their website was that their 'story comp will be free and always will be.'
They don't even tell people how to pay the comp fee on their website, which isn't very helpful.
If you don't give clear instructions, even less people will enter- just saying!

ados123 said...

Thank you, Patsy for passing on all the information.
Alyson

Nas said...

Thanks Patsy for all these interesting information.

Bubble said...

Thanks, Patsy. You're always such a font of useful stuff. Not sure what we'd do without you.

Charlie said...

Thanks Patsy - this is really useful.

Patsy said...

@ New Girl – thanks for the update. It did seem almost too good to be true that they'd keep offering cash prizes for a free competition.

@ Eirin – thanks. I'm making an effort to enter some myself.

@ Sharon – it is a shame, especially if they promised to keep it free. I think they're still going to run one free competition – but without a cash prize.

It probably doesn't say how to pay yet as this month's is still free.

@ Alyson, Nas, Bubble and Charlie – I'm glad it's of interest. Thanks for leaving comments to let me know that's the case.

Marguerite said...

Thank you for the news, Patsy:) At the risk of - oh no not that one again - I sent two emails to Hearst weeks ago re now past competitions - Best and Prima. I also submitted an enquiry on their own form - the gist of which was - seriously, do you take ALL rights the minute I have sent you a submission which you don't even print? It was more polite than that!) All three communications were ignored (very cross emoticon). I suppose I am in denial about the likelihood that is exactly what happens. Can you elucidate please? Thank you.

Sharon Boothroyd said...

Prima do take all rights to all entries for their ongoing monthly comp, I'm afraid.
It seems crazy to me. I don't know why they want to keep the rights to all entries, but it's their rules.
So if you enter it, Hearst own the rights to the entry.
I won the Prima comp once, but that was when writers had copyright.
The best comp - writers keep copyright.

Marguerite said...

Thank you, Sharon - no - doesn't make any sense at all - but thank you for posting.