This probably makes me sound old, but... It's March tomorrow. How can that be happening so soon? On the plus side, that makes it semi-officially spring now.
Free Entry competition news
Creative Futures have a competition for 'underrepresented writers' with classes for poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. There will be fifteen winners who will share £2,500 and have their work published. The list of people considered underrepresented, including some I wouldn't have expected, so it's worth looking to see if you qualify.
Here's a short story competition for those who want a better world. The main prize is a year of 'writing guidance by a experienced writer / publisher'.
Womag / competition news
If you're thinking of entering Best's crime story competition, and as there's a £500 prize I expect most of have at least considered it, then you might want to take a look at this post by Simon Whaley. Thanks to Alyson for bringing it to my attention.
btw, Simon is a useful source of information on many aspects of the business side of writing. It's worth signing up for his emails - unless you're one of those weir people who keep going of for months at a time in a campervan with limited data and internet access.
My news
As a very tiny part of Portsmouth Bookfest, I'll be at the Community Kettle in Cosham on Monday, selling books. If you happen to be in the area please pop in and say hello. No hard sell from me, I promise – and there will be cake available.
8 comments:
Lovely spring photos. I agree Patsy, time does fly the older I get, when I was in primary school the 6 week summer holiday seemed more like 6 months.
Just read Simon Whaley’s post, very interesting! Thank you Alyson.
Patsy – I came across a poetry competition from NewWriters.org.uk. for a 14 line Sonnet, closing date 21st March, free entry, £50 prize.
Dee
Thank you Patsy, lovely spring photos. I enjoyed reading Simon Whaley's piece in his blog. Thanks also for comp info. My good news this week was a story in MW. I hope you enjoy Portsmouth Bookfest, sell loads of books taste loads of cake and have fun!
Simon has detailed every grab rights in the best comp and it's true that Hearst can take the winning and runner up stories and develop it into a TV series, film, e -collection or audio book.
But realistically, is it very likely that they'd do this? I read on here that they'd edited the best winning story from 1,200 to 1,000 words so that lessens the chances of it further.
I'm not saying they'll never do this but I've never heard of any one taking a mag short story and turning it into a 6 part TV drama series or a blockbuster Hollywood movie, simply because there wouldn't be enough material to do that properly.
An interested screenplay writer would need to buy the rights off Hearst to do this and they have their own ideas, or they adapt novels.
I know DCT e- published stories without the writer's permission but I don't think this was a major success, as it was dropped.
@ Dee - Thanks for telling me about that site. I don't recall having come across it before.
@ Elizabeth - Congratulations! I'm sure I'll manage at least some of those things on Monday.
@ Sharon - You're right that it's very unlikely that our womag stories will ever become TV series etc. My objection to signing away all rights has almost nothing to do with what the organisation buying the story may or may not do with it.
What bothers me is that, if I agree to all rights, the story would no longer be mine and I wouldn't be able to do anything at all with it. I do put my stories into collections. That's not something everyone wants to do, but I feel they should have that option. If I find a publication or competition accepting reprints, I can send my previously published stories and perhaps earn another fee or payment, or ALCs payment. There aren't a huge number of such opportunities, but they do exist and I feel writers should have the opportunity to take advantage of them if they wish.
As I've said many times before, and as Simon points out, all rights means absolutely all rights forever. If we sell a story under those terms it is no longer ours. We'd have no more rights in connection with it than if someone else had written it.
In the case of companies such as DCT, they take non exclusive rights. That means they can do pretty much whatever they like with our stories, but so can we. It's not accurate to say they published without the writer's permission, as that permission was given when the contract was signed.
I have my reasons for not signing all rights contracts. Obviously others feel differently. It's up to each of us to decide which rights we're willing to give up. I'm not telling people they must not sign all rights contracts - just that if they do sign, they will have given up all rights.
Yes, it's up to us to make that choice as individuals and we should be able to respect those choices. Sorry I got it wrong about DCT and the e- publishing but I'm pretty sure they didn't let the writers know about it beforehand.
This is an appropriate time for me to remind people that my upcoming convict constable short story collection contains three stories originally published by The People's Friend plus four new ones featuring the same character. Had I signed an all-rights contract for the convict constable stories, I wouldn't have been able to use them in the collection. The collection is being published by a traditional publisher, so just because something's been published in a magazine doesn't mean a book publisher won't be interested in a collection.
Movies that have been adapted from magazine stories include Brokeback Mountain (The New Yorker) and All About Eve (Cosmopolitan). There have been others too, though mostly from The New Yorker. So it can happen, even though it's unlikely.
You are right - they didn't let us know beforehand. It caused a good deal of angst at the time.
Thanks to Patsy and this blog, and today, Alyson and Simon, I understand more about rights than I did, say, 5 years ago. It means I can make an informed decision. If, like me, I am enjoying writing after finishing a completely different career, and I weigh up what I want from it, then... fine. I can't see me organizing a compilation ebook, and even if I did, there would only be a handful I would not be able to use. As for using my already printed offerings for a blockbuster, TV series, spin-off TV series, computer games and merchandize and dolls for all the main characters... well, good luck with that!🤣 I'm with Sharon on that... unlikely. But the posiibility is there and I see that.
On a completely different subject, Patsy: your Thursday blog mentioned they would bake A cake that day... the emphasis being on "A"... Would that be enough?😉 Hope it all goes well. Water in the way so, sorry, won't be there.
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