Soggy But Back

Tropical Storm Debby is still slogging her way over to the Atlantic, but we made it through okay. Lots of wind, lots of rain, but not much more than a bit of thankfully temporary flooding, and some minor tree debris scattered on the roads. The big loss was my keyboard, which weirdly decided to fry itself when I powered everything back up, but it was about time for me to get a new keyboard anyway. I hope everyone else in the storm's path made it through all right.

I've got a couple of sub ops and a self-promo op to pass along today; I got a heads-up from Rob over at from Circalit for two new writing contests they're holding, and I'll quote him here:

Launch Your Sci-fi Story into the Cosmos

"Cosmos, founded in 2004, is a literary science magazine that reaches 40,000 readers every month around the globe, and covers everything from science fact to science fiction. Cosmos are now on the lookout for innovative science fiction short stories that that make you think about the future in a different way. The winning short story will be printed in the next issue of Cosmos Magazine, and the two runners-up will see their work published on Cosmos Online." Entry is free, and you can read more info about the contest here.

Eclectica Flash Fiction Competition

"Eclectica, founded in 1996, is one of the longest running online literary publications, publishing a wide range of fiction from all different genres. Now Eclectica have teamed up with Circalit to host a flash fiction competition. Simply write a story on any theme in under 800 words and get your flash fiction published in the October/November issue of this notable ezine." Entry for this one is also free, and you can read more info about the contest here.

I also received an e-mail from the Australian Romance Readers Association about a self-promo op for authors interested in sending goodies or books for their convention in Brisbane, to be held March 1-3 next year:

"All authors are welcome to send (or bring) promotional items for display on goodie tables at ARRC2013. These items will be available to all delegates throughout the convention. Items might include bookmarks, bookplates, pens, badges, or any other promotional items. If you would like to send books, we will use these for door prizes and prize packs for games."

Our pals over in Australia are terrific folks who read a LOT of books and are very supportive of the genre, so this is a great chance for romance and romance-friendly authors to reach out to a wider audience with your promo. If you can't spring for the cost to ship actual books (which admittedly can be expensive) you might consider putting up a free story online and send bookmarks with the link. If you'd like the ship-to address and/or contact info, they can be found over at ARRA's website here.

Paying to Win

Yesterday I jotted down a list of thirteen URLs I found in The Writer's Chronicle submit pages for what I thought were no-fee submission calls, which I thought would produce a solid list of ten sup ops. After checking each web site and reading the particulars, I had to cross off eight of them because turns out they did require an entry or reading fee.

I don't like recommending anything a writer has to pay for in order to have a chance at publication or winning an award because 1) I firmly believe you should never pay a dime to get published; 2) most writers can't afford it; 3) it's a subversive but very common way for obscure publications and presses to make money off other people's hopes and dreams; and 4) before I turned pro I was nearly a victim of a scam dressed up like a real sub op.

That said, you'll probably be surprised to hear that a month ago I paid a fee to enter a novel contest. I wasn't happy about forking over that money, but I did it for a couple of reasons: the genre isn't one I've published in yet, and winning virtually guarantees publication. This may result in a decent opportunity for me to try my luck in another corner of the market.

Will I win the contest? Honestly, I have no idea. What I most liked about this one is that the judging is blind (meaning the judges won't know who wrote the entries until after they pick their winner.) Everyone who enters will be evaluated solely on the quality of their work. Which means it's not a popularity contest, no one can campaign or schmooze their way to a win, and thus I have the same chance as everyone else. To me that's the only way it can be fair.

If you're contemplating any contest that requires an entry fee, you should first realistically evaluate your chances of winning. For example, if the contest is open to every writer on the planet, you're probably going to have considerable competition. If the contest is restricted solely to writers who live on top of mountains in Colorado, naturally the odds are better. Also look at what they want for entries. For novel competitions, most any writer can produce a partial; I have a filing cabinet full of them. Fewer writers will have completed manuscripts to enter, so a contest requiring finished books offers a better chance.

Some people say the amount of the entry fee determines what sort of writer enters, in that a high fee will discourage the untalented. I don't agree with this; plenty of terrible writers enter contests no matter what the fee is because they're convinced that they're great writers and it's just a matter of time before their genius is recognized and they go on to make millions. Most contest entities encourage and even bank on this kind of self-delusional mentality; it makes them a lot of money.

If you're a member of a writing organization, you have the chance to enter plenty of the fee-required contests they run. Some can be helpful as long as you're in a position to win. Are you a popular member, and does most everyone in the organization like you? Also, are you allowed to in some way campaign for the award? If yes, you've probably got a real shot. If no, don't waste money you could be using for office supplies and postage.

Finally, be prepared not to win. One of the reasons I've avoided contests is that early on in my career I saw what losing them did to other writers. Losing a contest can be worse than rejection, especially if the winner got their trophy for reasons other than the quality of their work.

What fee-required contests do you think are fair and/or offer decent awards? Please share them and any links you have in comments.

Added: I've also been pitching this particular novel for awhile, and just this morning I received word from my agent that an offer is in the works for it (ah, the irony.) But even if the interest does result in a contract, I don't have to pull the entry out of the contest. According to the rules, which I read carefully before I entered, I can still compete as long as the offer for the ms. comes in after the entry deadline.

Interesting Sub Op/Contest

Specialty press publisher Cemetery Dance is holding a short story contest to promote their forums:

"The three winning stories will be featured in a Cemetery Dance chapbook alongside 3 well-known authors. Each winner will receive a $75 dollar prize, payable upon signing the contract. (Contract will be for a one-time printing of the chapbook, all other rights remain with the author.) Each winner will also receive 5 free copies of the finished chapbook and a 50% discount on additional copies."

The stories must be submitted via their forum, where the submissions will then be judged by members of the forum. Genre is not specified, but since CD is a horror/dark suspense press my guess is that's probably what they'd like to see (I'd query for details.) The length limit is "10,000 characters" (that would fall roughly into the 5 to 10 manuscript page range, I think.) The contest is open to "amateur" writers (their term, not mine) but they provide a confusing description of who they consider amateurs; I interpret it to mean writers who are as yet unpublished or with very limited publication credits. If you're not sure you qualify, you might query them first.

I think Cemetery Dance is fairly well-known around the horror community; they've published some nice reprints and limited editions for Doug Clegg, Stephen King and Peter Straub. If you're a horror or dark suspense writer, this one seems like a good opportunity for exposure as well as publication.

Also, they mention another that they'll be holding another contest to find a title for the story contest chapbook: "The winner of this contest will receive a $50 Store Gift Certificate and a free copy of the chapbook."

Facebook Line & Sinker

I actually had a Facebook account for about three minutes today. No, that's not another April Fool's Day joke; I'm serious. And I know what you're thinking: Why would PBW do that when she doesn't use Facebook, never joins things and refuses to do any online self-promo outside her own blog?

Because, my friends and colleagues, occasionally even PBW is a gullible idiot. That's why.

The backstory: I don't like television, but now and then I watch The Weather Channel to get the forecast and check out the Doppler radar. The local forecast comes on every eight minutes, and it helps me decide when to take the dogs for a walk. Last night when I was checking to see what today's forecast was going to be, they ran a commercial for a photo contest promoting their new From the Edge show.

One of the prizes was a book of photographs by Peter Lik, which I thought was pretty cool. I love free books, and since I've gotten into amateur photography I'm always interesting in reading books about it and seeing what the pros do. I seriously doubted I'd win, but what the heck, I could try.

Although there were few details about what sort of photo you were supposed to enter in the contest, I figured I'd see if the rules would allow me to enter the shot I used to make my new blog banner, the one I took last November:



Sure, it's not perfect, but the colors and the composition are nice, and as amateur shots go I think it's pretty decent. So as the commercial directed me, I went to the Weather Channel's site, and hunted for the link to the contest, which was a real pain to find. Finally I located it and clicked on it.

It sent me to the show's Facebook page.

So it was a Facebook contest. Again. Great. I don't have anything against Facebook; I'm simply not interested in it. But I thought, okay, just this once I'll set up account solely for the purpose of entering the contest. And I could delete everything as soon as I lost the contest. Easy, right?

I know better. I really do. But I wanted a chance to win that book more than I wanted to listen to my common sense.

The second -- the absolute split second -- I created a Facebook account I got slammed. Two people instantly wanted to be my Friends (they must hook up something that reads the e-mail address you use to create the account that other people are watching for; both people send me endless amounts of SPAM on my regular e-mail.) Facebook demanded all kinds of personal information from me, too: what school had I gone to, who were my friends, who did I want to invite to be my friends, yada yada yada.

I skipped all that and went to make my profile private. No such luck. I could, however, put up a picture of myself. Tell everyone all about me on my permanently public profile. Stuff started popping up on the sidebar for me to buy, join, check out, etc. And the questions, God. Have you done this? Why not? You'd better do this. And this. My security was too low, fix that.

In two minutes so much crap was thrown at me I almost gave up. But I really wanted to enter the contest, so I skipped as much as I could, put phony info in the stuff I couldn't, and finally verified it all. At last. I could go to the contest page and get this over with one and for all.

Here's the real irony: on the contest page? The link to enter the contest didn't work. So I joined Facebook and went through all that nonsense for nothing.

Anyway. I took great pleasure in going to the account settings page so I could delete the stupid account. Only I discovered that I couldn't delete it; I was only given the option of "deactivating" the account. And before I could do that, I had to tell them why I was deactivating it. I had to explain myself by checking off one of their reason boxes (none of which said "You're pushy, intrusive dumbasses and I don't want you anywhere near me or my e-mail".)

I checked one of the idiot boxes (the "I don't think Facebook is useful" one, which has to be the understatement of the millenium) and finally, I thought, it was done. Over. I escaped Facebook! Only then Facebook assured me that I could come back and reactivate and use my account any time.

Well, at least I had enough sense to use a fake name.

Contest Ten

Ten Things About Writing Grants and Contests

The Marie Alexander Poetry Series offers "A prize of $500 and publication by Marie Alexander Poetry Series, an imprint of White Pine Press, will be given for a collection of prose poems by a U.S. poet. Submit a manuscript of at least 48 pages during the month of July." No entry fee, see web site for more details. Deadline: July 31, 2010.

The Delaware Division of the Arts offers "individual artist fellowships and opportunity grants to individual artists. Fellowships provide funding to Delaware artists working in the visual, performing, media, folk, and literary arts. Fellowships are designed to enable recipients to purchase equipment and materials, allocate working time, or fulfill other needs that will allow them to advance their careers." Also: Emerging Professional Fellowships in the amount of $3,000 are available to artists wh"o have not yet established reputations in their fields. Established Professional Fellowships in the amount of $6,000 are available to artists who have significant achievements in their fields. A Masters Fellowship in the amount of $10,000 is available on a rotating basis. In Fiscal Year 2011, this award will be presented to a visual or folk artist." See guidelines page for more details. Current deadline is August 2, 2010.

Gemini Magazine is holding a flash fiction contest: "A prize of $1,000 and publication in Gemini Magazine will be given annually for a short short story. The editors will judge. Submit a story of up to 1,000 words." I don't know if I'd call that length flash fiction, but there you go. Entry fee: $4; $3 for each additional entry. See contest page for more details. Deadline: August 31, 2010.

Great Lakes Colleges Association awards "three prizes annually to a poet, a fiction writer, and a creative nonfiction writer to honor their first books. The winners will receive all-expenses-paid trips to several of the thirteen GLCA colleges, each of which pays an honorarium of at least $500, to give readings, meet with students, and lead discussions and classes. The judges are faculty members at the colleges." See guidelines page for more details. Deadline: Publishers may submit four copies of one book in each category by July 25, 2010.

The Memoir (and) Prizes for Memoir in Prose or Poetry are "awarded to the most outstanding prose or poetry memoirs—traditional, nontraditional or experimental—drawn from the reading period." Grand prize is $500 cash + publication + copies; no entry fee; see submission guidelines for more details. Deadline: August 16, 2010.

Memphis Magazine has a short fiction contest open to writers who live within 150 miles of the city of Memphis: "A prize of $1,000 and publication in Memphis Magazine is given annually for a short story by a writer who lives within 150 miles of Memphis. Unpublished stories and those previously published in magazines with a circulation under 20,000 are eligible. Submit a short story of 3,000 to 4,500 words with a $10 entry fee. Send an SASE for complete guidelines." No submission page, but here's the address: Memphis Magazine, Fiction Contest, 460 Tennessee Street, Memphis, TN 38103. Deadline: August 1, 2010.

Ohio University Press offers The 15th annual Hollis Summers Poetry Prize for an unpublished collection of poetry, and awards to the winner $1000 + publication. There is an entry fee of $25.00, which doesn't make me happy, but they welcome those who have not yet unpublished, and they award to as many female poets as male, which does. See guidelines page for more details. Deadline: October 31, 2010.

IFWG Publishing has Story Quest, what appears to be two annual writing contests. From the web site: "Entry is free. Two contests a year - the first commences 1 November and ends 31 May. The second contest commences 1 June and ends 31 October. Yearly. All genres are accepted - we are looking for quality short stories and cover art! Children and YA stories are also welcome. Note contest rules regarding content. Some contests will have a broad theme - in these cases stories must adhere accordingly. For short stories, we strictly require 1000 to 3000 words, title and author not included. . .The winning short story writer for the contests this year will be offered a publishing deal for any novel sized work and will have his or her short story published in SQ Magazine. Finalists of each short story competition will be published in SQ Magazine." Current deadline is October 31, 2010, see web site for more details.

The Uncovered Short Fiction Contest is offering "In total, $290 and two signed copies of THE TAVERNIER STONES is on the line. There is a $100 prize for first place alone!" Entries seem to be 250 words or less but that's all the details that are posted fo far; stayed tune to the host blog for more info(via Anne Frasier).

The Young Lions Fiction Award from The New York Public Library is "a $10,000 prize awarded each spring to a writer age 35 or younger for a novel or a collection of short stories." Note that the collection does have to be written for the adult market and already published; see submission guidelines for more details. Deadline: August 27, 2010.

3 Hot Contests

Our blogpal SciFiGuy.ca is giving away two copies of author Kim Harrison's newest release Black Magic Sanction over at his place, and all you have to do is comment there on the following: "To enter tell us which Kim Harrison Hollows book is your favourite play on a Clint Eastwood movie title."

At the end of February author Lisa Valdez will be giving away a copy of her much-anticipated second novel, Patience, to a member of her Yahoo group (and there's a widget under the announcement where you can join it.)

To celebrate the release of her new novel Broken, Shiloh Walker is holding a contest for a brand-new Nook. You get 100 entries in the contest for pre-ordering the novel, or buying it during release week (see contest post for more details) but you can also have a no-cost shot at winning by posting a bit of promo on your blog.

Sub/Contest Ops

Atom Jack Magazine has an open call for The Butterfly Effect, a SF e-anthology of "alternate future fiction." According to the site: "These are stories that ask questions like what would the colonization of the moon be like if the Nazis had won? What would first contact be like if the Confederates had stomped the Yanks? How might the negation of the extinction of the dinosaurs affect the zombie wars of 2059 and 2170? Change an event in the past and see what the future holds for mankind (or apekind, in the case of however the hell Planet of the Apes works.)" Now there's someone who never suffered through the originals.* Payment: Poem / Flash - $15 (<1000 words or 100 lines); Short story - $30 (1000 words to 10K words.) No reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines page for more details. Deadline: May 31, 2009.

The 2009 Al Blanchard Award Contest is now open for submissions; prizes: $100.00, publication in an antho, and admission to the New England Crime Bake Conference. Stories must be by a New England author or take place in a New England setting, 5K or longer, and should be in the mystery, thriller, suspense, caper, or horror genres. (No torture/killing of children or animals.) No reprints, see guidelines page for more details. Deadline May 31, 2009.

Niteblade Horror and Fantasy Magazine has an open call for their as-yet-untitled print anthology #2. Looks like you have to get accepted by the mag first, then their readers vote for whoever gets into the print antho. Looking for SF, fantasy and horror fiction and poems, Pays $1 + contributor copy, length 10K or less, no reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines page for more details.

ReviewFuse has kind of an interesting monthly contest going; evidently you submit short stories but you win the contest for $50.00 by giving the best critiques of the three finalist stories selected by the staff. That's definitely different. No fee, but you must submit a select number of crits as per their guidelines. This could be fun for those of you who give good crit -- check out the guidelines page for more details.

Rymfire Books has an open call for horror stories for an anthology titled Vermin; they're also looking for novella submissions by single authors for e-books. Reading period for both is April 15, 2009 through June 15, 2009. Anthology subs: Payment $3.00 per story plus possible royalties, lengths: 2.5-7.5K, stories should be about "those tiny, menacing feet inside the walls, creatures watching you from the darkenss of the halls at midnight... you tell me, and make it creepy! And PLEASE no generic 'rat-creature in the attic, kills the exterminator, etc.' tales... be original!" reprints okay. Novella subs: Payment $25.00, lengths: 25,000 - 65,000 words, genres preferred: Horror, non-fiction Heavy Metal-themed, query on reprints, electronic subs only. They've also got another open-call anthology with a reading period beginning May 15, 2009; see guidelines page for more details on all three.

Who says you can't get paid to be a twit?** The first Twitter-only market I've found, Thaumatrope, has reopened to submissions for stories and serials. Serials: "Tell us a Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror serial (which will be published over the course of one month, approximately 30-45 tweets) with each entry being under 140 characters. Other than that, we’re just looking for good stories." Stories: "Tell us a Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror story in under 140 characters. Other than that, we’re just looking for good stories." Payment: "We pay $1.20 per entry—which equates to a minimum payment of approximately 5¢/word (considering a “word” to be 6 characters)" -- and this applies to both stories and serials. Evidently they're a little ticked that they're not considered by SFWA as a professional market***, but que sera, guys. No reprints, must submit via online form, see guideline pages for more details.

*That was not an insult.

**That was.

***You have got to be kidding me. Twitter? Not a pro market? Say it isn't so!

All of the above market and contest listings were found over at Ralan's place.

BlogPal Contests

I haven't had much time to cruise through NetPubLand this week; I have to get something done doubletime for the agent and that's all I can say about it without invoking the Gods of Jinx.

While I was out there I noticed that some of our blogpals are having very cool contests, and thought you guys might want to join in:

Enter Larissa Ione's contest to help spread the word about her upcoming release, Passion Unleashed and have a chance to win one of many cool prizes, from gift certificates to the bookstore of your choice to signed books and ARCs to a demon duckie (the ultimate in adorable evil promotional widgets, of course.) Contest ends midnight on Friday, April 3rd.

All you have to do is comment to enter Alison Kent's Genreality giveaway; she's offering a BookWish (any new book of your choice from Amazon.com to a max cost of $25.00 U.S.) Contest ends on Friday, March 27th, at 8:00 p.m. CDT.

Save Jordan Summers from drowning in books by entering her contest for one of two boxes filled with books (looks like one of mine is in there, too.) She posts that she'll draw the names on Wednesday (which I assume is March 25th) so I'd definitely head over there today to enter. U.S. residents only for this one, guys, but she also has another contest for two ARCs of her upcoming release, Scarlet which is open to everyone, and also ends on the same day.

Does anyone know of any other blog contests going on out there that our visitors might like to check out? If so, please share details and links in comments.

Winners & Scammer Announcement

The winners of the RW: Quince giveaway are:

Heather

Gutterball

Sherri

Winners, please send your full name and ship-to address to LynnViehl@aol.com, and I'll get your winnings out to you.

I've been expecting to be hit for quite a while, but up until recently I've not had a problem with scammers entering my contests and giveaways. In this case, the scammer is one person who pretends to be six or twelve or thirty by setting up false blog profiles, and uses all of the identities to enter one contest or giveaway and increase their odds of winning. Often scammers work in small groups, too, sharing information with like-minded cheats and pooling their resources. Usually an author finds out they're being contest-scammed after a growing percentage of their winners all appear to be living at the same address or next door to each other.

Listen, I'm not interested in exposing anyone or pointing fingers. Nor am I going to come up with any sort of complicated registration or validation process for my giveaways. And no way are scammers going to stop me from holding giveaways and contests. What I will do is put comments back on moderation and start deleting suspicious-looking entries as they come in. I will also make a list of suspicious-looking identities and profile addies and send it to every other author I know, and ask them to do the same to all the authors they know.

However, if you would like a free book, and are willing to play fair, you're welcome to enter any giveaway or contest here -- just quit cheating and enter only once, like everyone else does. I give away a lot of books here at PBW, so odds are pretty good that you'll win one. And think of how much better you'll feel about yourself if you win it fairly.

Sub Ops

8th Annual Writer's Digest Short Story Competition: Length: 1,500 words or less, deadline December 3, 2007. Entry fee: $12.00 Prizes: $3,000.00 first place, $1,500.00 second place, $500.00 third place, $100.00 fourth through tenth place, $50.00 gift certificate for WD books eleventh through twenty-fifth place. Electronic sub okay.

LAKE, South Lake and V Magazines: (applicant must be a resident of Lake or Sumter County, Florida) Seeking writers and a staff photographer. Letter of application, resume and sample of your writing to Diana Faherty, Executive Editor, English Communications, Inc. P.O. Box 498866, Leesburg, FL 34749.

On The Premises: Promotes new and unpublished writers, annual contests, no entry fees. First place $130.00; contest rules here; current contest details here deadline September 30, 2007. Electronic submissions only.

The Crisis: NAACP publication, civil rights, politics, African-American history and culture. Length: Nonfic to 3K. Contact: Crisis Publishing Co., Inc. 7600 Georgia Avenue N.W. Ste 405, Washington, DC 20012. Also seeking applications for Editor-in-chief and Sernior Advertising Sales Rep

The Kean Review: "The Kean Review, a new intellectual journal, seeks writing of every sort (including humor, layman's science, nature writing, memoir, etc.) for inaugural issue. Metropolitan NJ/NYC focus or inflections especially welcome. Poetry to 10 pages; scripts to 15; prose to 5000 words. PDF file to thekeanreview@thekeanreview.com or paper to Kean Review, Kean University, Union, NJ 07083. Manuscripts not returned."