Free entry competition news
The Anansi archive have competitions for flash fiction, short stories and poetry, all with small cash prizes. I've sent them a flash piece.
There's a much larger prize – £1,000 on offer for this poetry competition. Poetry isn't really my thing, but that prize is very tempting.
Competition / womag news
In The People's Friend this week there's a competition to write a short story withe the theme of Scotland. Thanks to Liz Filleul for pointing it out - as I'm away I've not seen the mag yet. I do however know there's a story of mine inside and a lovely illustration of one of my favourite castles on the front.
Update 12/5/22 I've just checked the 'small print' and learned that simply by entering this competition authors will give up all their rights to their stories.
"Entrants (including the winners) hereby assign all intellectual property rights and waive all moral rights in their entry to D. C. Thomson."
I am very surprised and disappointed that DC Thomson are treating writers in this way, as they're usually so fair and supportive. I strongly urge writers NOT to give up their rights, even in exchange for a prize or publication fee, and certainly not just for the chance to send in an entry.
Womag news
My Weekly are following The People's Friend in increasing the amount of fiction they publish. This market is not currently open to unsolicited submissions (meaning you need to be 'on the list' to send work in) but I think it's still encouraging that some publishers, and their readers, obviously do value short stories.
My news
The photo says it all!
20 comments:
I think TPF comp is only open to writers who haven't had fiction published in TPF.
But I could be wrong!
It's a pity that there won't be any runner- ups.
If writers in the comp were awarded second, third or fourth places, they'd know that their work was in the right area to write for TPF.
I expect the winner would feel okay with them editing the story, if it's needed.
The TPF competition sounds interesting. Please could somebody post details of how to enter. Many thanks!
All very encouraging! Congratulations on your story!
The comp is only for writers not yet published by TPF.
All the info about the TPF competition is in this week's weekly TPF mag. It might be on their blog, too?
Pasty's away travelling, so she might not have the time to upload the details on this blog.
The comp is open to people who haven't had a short story published in TPF.
I'm sure that if you'd had poetry and letters published, you'd still be able to enter.
Thanks, Sharon. I'll take a look on the TPF blog. So far I've only had one poem published with them, so I might be OK. .
The photo says windy!!
Congratulations on the story and thank you for the competition news. I hope you're enjoying your travels - looks quite exhausting!
The People's Friend competition is great for new writers, and I'm sure they'll get plenty of entries.
However, The People's Friend has always been great for new writers - they're open to everybody, wherever they are in the world (which is brilliant). I rather wish My Weekly had been the partner for this competition, to give people who aren't on their list a chance to be published with them.
The closed lists and the all-rights issue means that new writers really only have one or two women's magazines they can submit to, The People's Friend already being the main one. I can understand why magazines have closed lists, but it would be great if they could open them up every now and then, perhaps via a contest.
Anyway, that's just my personal view, but good luck to everyone taking part in the competition. Make sure you read at least a handful of issues cover to cover to get a feel for the magazine before you submit.
Sadly, DCT take all rights to all entries in this TPF comp. I was pleased that I had the hindsight to read the T&C's before entering my story.
I'm sure there will be plenty of entries but not by highly skilled, talented womag writers who don't like rights grabs in competitions.
Liz, there are only 2 mags that have a closed list - TABFF and My weekly.
There are certainly much more than 1 or 2 mags that are open to all and pay for fiction. Patsy has database but I also have a comprehensive list of all paying markets.
Stylist mag has just opened to all, and they pay £200 for an accepted story.
The People's Friend short story competition looks like a fantastic opportunity. While there might be just one prize, I would have thought it likely that the team would be free to offer publication on the usual terms to any number of entries which they believe would engage and entertain readers and be a "fit" for the magazine. (I have no authority to say this - I just can't see the fiction team passing by great new original material.) Having benefited from the "open door" policy at the "Friend", I would encourage others to submit their best work; as Liz says, study recent copies of the magazine to help you.
Sharon - I was unaware of the "all rights" for all entries situation.
I'm sure it is a fantastic opportunity for an unpublished TPF fiction writer (like me) Eirin, but with those competition terms, I'm afraid it's an opportunity that I feel I must turn down.
Thanks everyone for your comments.
At the time of posting the details about the People's Friend competition I hadn't seen the small print. When I saw comments mentioning the rights grab I hoped people had made a mistake, as it didn't seem likely that The Friend fiction team would do that to their writers. Having checked and seen that all rights will indeed be taken from all entrants I'm both surprised and disappointed. I've added an update to the post to explain the situation.
Thank you for all these, Patsy. I have had a go at the recent Anansi deadline - so might have another go for the next one! Happy hiking...
My apologies, Patsy - I hadn't checked the T&Cs before telling you about the contest. I'm not eligible and just assumed they'd be the same as the usual ones for DCT. This may be the requirement of the competition sponsor, I suppose.
Sharon, there are are more than a couple of mags for newbies to submit to if they live in the UK. Stylist is open to UK residents only. Same with the Best fiction competitions. For me, in Australia, there's only TPF and Yours that I can submit to. The only Australian women's magazine that includes fiction, That's Life, has a closed list. The UK's Woman's Weekly takes all rights. YOU in South Africa will only buy your work if you send them your passport details (not likely). And exchange rates factor into all this too, making the really low-paying mags not worth it for me when the UK pound is weak against the Aussie dollar. I have sold a mystery to Woman's World in the US - they take all rights, but I don't mind in their case, given their specific solve-it-yourself format. So I really only write for TPF. I'm happy writing for them, so I definitely can't complain really, but it would be nice if the closed lists opened up occasionally - esepcially the Australian one!
Thanks for passing on all the information, Patsy, and making changes as you find out details. Really appreciate all the updates and comps.
Alyson
@ Marguerite – Thanks.
@ Liz – No need to apologise. I was pleased to know about it, even though I'm less than happy about the terms. I imagine that like me it didn't initially occur to you that The People's Friend would get involved in a rights grab.
It's unfortunate that the markets are so restrictive for anyone outside the UK. And it's unfortunate for everyone that they're pretty minimal everywhere. It makes no sense to me as I can't believe that readers have stopped enjoying short stories over the last few decades – I certainly haven't.
@ Alyson – I always do my best to give full information, but this does serve as a good reminder to all of us that we should always check the small print ourselves.
Liz, my list is mainly aimed at womag writers who are based in the UK. I forget that some mags have a 'UK writers' only rule, so apologies.
Ireland's Own pay for fiction, but the most they pay is £50, so it probably won't be worth your while, due to the exchange rate.
I thought That's life were re-publishing stories, and don't pay the writers again. I have Readly, and the fast fiction slot is still in the mag.
But yes, they did have a closed list when they were accepting new fiction.
That's okay, Sharon - I can understand that some UK mags have a UK only rule. After all, it's important to encourage emerging talent within your own country.
The Ireland's Own rate sounds too low to be worthwhile for me with the current exchange rates.
Maybe with TPF and MW increasing their fiction, and Stylist now including it, more mags will start including fiction again, and we'll all have more markets. Fingers crossed.
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