It's all gone a bit autumnal, hasn't it? Nothing wrong with that - the leaves get pretty and the weather perfect for staying in and writing.
Free entry competition news
Fusilli have another flash fiction competition. They want 200 words with a twist. The prize is publication on their site and social media promotion.
Chorus want people to share stories about their favourite local businesses. There's £750 in prize money apparently. The rules and stuff are long, but please read them before submitting anything.
Blue Mountain are running a poetry competition with a $350 prize. If I could poet, I'd enter this one.
The London Society want 'Love Letters To London' which can be in the form of poetry, short stories or non-fiction. The prize is £500. I'm not a fan of cities so would struggle with this, but if an idea does come to me, I'll have a bash.
Thanks to Liz Filleul who has just alerted me to this call for submissions. You're asked to write a different ending to the stories of women from classic literature in up to 5,000 words. The pay is 5 cents per word. I've not got out the calculator, but that doesn't sound bad.
Guts publishing want 'ballsy book about life" and are "primarily interested in publishing memoirs, creative nonfiction and autobiographies. We’re also open for submissions in autofiction and literary fiction, especially with a nonfiction tone" and they "encourage submissions from debut writers, women, BAME, disabled, working-class and LGBTQ+ writers." They are "looking to publish writers from the UK and Ireland."
That's not my kind of thing at all, but if you're working on something appropriate it could be a good opportunity.
Phobica Books want stories on the theme of 'Heavy Metal Nightmares' and will pay £20 plus a copy of the anthology if you're in the UK, or the equivalent of £25 if you live elsewhere.
Horror isn't my kind of thing either, so that's another I'll be giving a miss.
This ghost story competition run by a wine company and offering a $5,000 prize is much more in my line.Unfortunately you have to live in the USA to enter. I don't, but I think some of my blog readers do?
Btw, I sometimes I come across free entry writing competitions or other opportunities which will be out of date by the next blog post. I share these on the womagwriter twitter account.
Womag news
Prima are still running their short story competition with a £100 prize – and it's still an extremely unfair rights grab. If you want to try, send your story to yourwinningstory@hearst.co.uk but be aware that the moment you do it's no longer your story, as they take all rights for all entries, whether they publish them or not.
17 comments:
Thanks so much for this Patsy, generous as ever in keeping us up to date :) . Personally, I draw the line at submitting stories anywhere, where they take your rights. As much as anything it seems to disrespect an author's status and hard work. As far as I'm concerned, they can do one!
Thanks Patsy, Hope you are enjoying the changing season and got that camera working overtime!
Thanks also for the comps info, quite an eclectic mix. I've been busy editing, so I hope to give at least one of them a go as a wee break away from WIP.
I've just downloaded Not A Drop to Drink. I already had a copy and know it's a fabulous collection.
Also, congrats on PF stories :)
Thank you, Patsy - yes, eclectic it is! I think the London one was made for me so I'll definitely have a go. Heavy nightmares might be good - but not so sure about the metal... maybe not for me ;)
Thanks very much, Patsy. There's a lot to choose from there - the one about women from classic literature sounds fascinating. I think I might try it, although it might be a bit beyond me!
Thanks Patsy, lots of interesting stuff there to choose from. I just sent off my 'summer' themed story at 10pm last night so I'm rather pleased with myself for making the deadline (never mind the story!). I also threw in some entries for the six word stories this week, I like making them up in my head when I'm out walking and then racing home to write them down before I forget. I already had a copy of your Short Story collection, perhaps I should have downloaded it again??
@ Ruth – My sentiments exactly!
@ Elizabeth – Thanks for the download. That's much appreciated.
@ Marguerite – It's good to know that some of those which don't appeal to me are of interest to others.
@ Marian – My concern with that one is the research would be so interesting I'd not get anything else done for the rest of the year.
@ Sheelagh – Well done for beating the deadline!
Downloading the new version of Not A Drop To Drink will slightly help my rankings, which in turn could go a tiny way to helping the book become more visible and therefore attract new readers, who just might go on to read something else of mine. At least, that's the theory and my hope.
Downloaded Patsy! I was thinking same as your re the classic literature endings competition, I would get so bogged down reading all the books again before one line was even written, I might never resurface to do any writing of my own again.
Thanks for squeezing in the classic literature call-out at the minute, Patsy. I might have a go - if I do, I'll pick one character/novel for a re-read.
That should have read 'at the last minute'!
Thank you for mentioning our "Anna Karenina Isn't Dead" call for submissions! — Atlin, Improbable Press
Good selection of comps, Patsy. Although I think none for me this week.
Thanks for sharing...
Alyson
Gorgeous pics, Patsy. Good luck to all those entering the competitions.
@ Sheelagh – It'd be interesting though, wouldn't it?
Thanks for downloading the book.
@ Liz – That would be the sensible way to approach it! (I'm not always sensible when it comes to research.)
@ Atlin – Always happy to share details of free opportunities I come across, or get told about. With so many writers eager to place their work, it would be tragic for publications to be short of material, or good competitions to only get a handful of entries.
@ Alyson – Maybe next week's batch will suit you better? I'll try to find something you can't resist!
@ Eirin – Oh good, now I can blame you for the next 137 photos of my garden.
Yes it would be a great project if you could find someone to fund you to do it
That was Sheelagh by the way
Thanks Patsy for info on all the competitions. I've not been doing much writing lately apart from readers' letters. But some of these may be the push I need to write something longer
@ Sheelagh – If anyone is willing to fund me, I can come up with a lot of interesting projects!
@ Anonymous – It's easy to get 'stuck' writing the same kind of thing. I think competitions are great for giving us a nudge in a different direction.
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