Book Contests

by Grace Tierney

Let us help you to find the perfect writing contest to enter and leave you free to do what you’re good at, writing your entry.

Imagine you hear about a new writing contest - the entry fee is reasonable and the prize is sizable. You’re all set to write your entry and then you discover you have just ten days to complete an entire book as your entry. Now that’s a deadline we’d all fear. Hence it pays to target book-length writing contests early unless you’re churning out pot-boilers that ‘next great novel’ is going to take time to craft. Hopefully the selection of contests for novels, novellas, children’s books, and non-fiction books I’ve uncovered will help you to do that.

Fortunately, there’s plenty of advice available for would-be authors. You can get a regular dose of columns about the topic here from Writers Online or for a purely novel-driven approach you could check out Novel Advice (http://www.noveladvice.com/). There’s even the annual mania every November for completing an entire book in one month, see www.nanowrimo.org for more on that.

You could avail of a novel-critiquing forum like the one at www.fmwriters.com for hints on improving your finished master-work. If you’re still working on your book and you’re the kind of person who likes to see graphical proof of your progress then try out the manuscript progress tool at www.critiquecircle.com.

So let’s assume you’ve finished writing your book. There are three types of contest available to you and I’ve included some of each in my list below. The first is for unpublished books and the prize is some form of a publishing deal. Please exercise the same caution with these as you would when choosing any publisher or agent to send your work to as there are some scams out there along with the genuine publishers trawling for new writers. In general it is best to stick to well known publishers for these. The second type is awarded to authors of self-published books and if you win then it’s a nice extra slice of income for work you would have done anyhow and it might help you sell to a few more copies.

The third type of contest is the one you will read about in the literary supplements and newspapers. A new one was announced recently in fact, The Booker Prize organizers have decided to launch the Man Booker International for authors of any book published in English (the usual Booker prize excludes Americans) during the previous year. The prize is 60,000 UK sterling which is, clearly, not to be sniffed at. The bad news is that you can’t just enter your book. The judges draw up a shortlist themselves and competition is fierce.

In conclusion, beware of contests that charge a large fee for the chance of a small prize, seek out well-established contests, and remember your ultimate aim is to get your book published and read. If having a contest win under your belt helps with that, great. Now get that manuscript out and finish it!

You’ll also find my regular round-up of contest deadlines for the month at the bottom of this page.

Happy Writing and Good Luck!

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All contests are annual unless otherwise noted and all are open to international writers

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The International Booker Prize
book
http://www.manbookerinternational.com
every two years
(For further reading see http://www.themanbookerprize.com for the annual prize which allows only books published in the UK and submitted by the publishers rather than the authors)

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Starcherone Fiction Prize
Story collection, novel, and prose
http://www.starcherone.com/prize.htm
January 31

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Malahat Review
novella
http://web.uvic.ca/malahat/guidelines.htm
March 1, alternate years

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Boost’s Picture Book Contest
picture book
http://boost4writers.com/contests.html
April 15

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Paterson Fiction Prize
published novel or collection of short fiction
http://www.pccc.cc.nj.us/poetry/Prize/Fiction2004.html
April 20

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SouthWest Writers Contest
novels in many genres, non-fiction books, and children's books
http://www.southwestwriters.org
June 1

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Mysterious Press Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award
mystery book manuscript
http://www.twbookmark.com/mystery/saraannfreed.html
July 1

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PlaneTree
novel
http://www.planetreecompetitions.co.uk/index.html
July 31

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TWRM Fiction Book Contest
fiction book
http://www.thewritersroommagazine.com/
September 1

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The Fish Unpublished Novel Award
unpublished novel
http://www.fishpublishing.com
September 30

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The New Writer Contests
novella
http://www.thenewwriter.com
October 31

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The Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book Awards
self-published book - fiction, non-fiction, children’s, young adult, adult etc.
http://www.writersdigest.com/contests/
December 15

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I hate to leave out two such good contests for children’s writers so I’ll just mention the Paul Zindel (http://www.hyperionbooksforchildren.com/contests.asp) and Delacorte (http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/games/marguerite.html and http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/games/delacorte.html) contests which are open to American and Canadian writers only.

Coming Soon to the Writing Contest Department:

Forthcoming features will focus on contests for sci-fi, fantasy, poetry collections, horror, contests for young writers, personal essays, plays, screenplays, haiku, quirky contests, non-fiction writing, no-fee contests, humor writing, short story contests, travel writing, and even contests with unusual prizes.

I’m always looking for new contest types to research so if you’re looking for one, just drop me a line. I’d also love to hear from you if you win a contest you read about here or if you have a contest to suggest for inclusion. Please note that I will only include contests which are open to writers anywhere in the world as our readers are geographically dispersed.

Contest Deadlines from 11 July to 10 August

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July 15
tanka poetry
Tanka Calendar Competition
http://larrykimmel.tripod.com/tangerinetanka.htm

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July 16
personal essay / non-fiction
New York City: Transplantation
http://www.nynewcomer.net/zine/php/contest.php

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July 21
flash fiction
Inkspotter's Finding the Right Words Flash Fiction Contest
http://inkspotter.com/contest.htm

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July 24
WritersWeekly Summer 24-Hour Short Story Contest
short fiction
http://www.writersweekly.com/misc/contest.html

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July 30
short and feature length scripts
Oshun55
http://www.oshun55.com/competition.html

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July 31
short fiction
ReadingWriters Short Story Contest
http://www.readingwriters.com

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July 31
Memoirs
Tallahassee Writers Memoirs Contest
http://www.twaonline.org/contests.htm

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July 31
short fiction/poetry
Wells Festival of Literature Competition
http://www.somersite.co.uk/storyrules.htm

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July 31
poetry
Writers Haven Press Open Poetry Contest
http://kendaco.telebyte.com/~mhenson/kls/publishing.htm

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July 31
non-fiction
American Markets Newsletter Competition
http://www.writers-editors.com/Writers/Contests/contests.htm

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August 1
poetry
Ginbender Poetry Contest
http://www.ginbender.com/Contest.html

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August 1
personal essays, memoirs, or creative non-fiction stories based on personal experience
Memoirs Ink Writing Contest
http://www.memoirsink.com/docs/contest.html

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August 1
short fiction
Kitchen Sink Short Fiction Contest
http://www.kitchensinkmag.com/about.php?mainsection=reading

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August 2
screenplay
American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest
http://www.zoetrope.com/contests

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August 8
short fiction
The Gival Press Short Story Award
http://givalpress.prodigybiz.com/ShortStoryAward.html

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Grace Tierney is a freelance writer who lives in Ireland. When she’s not researching writing contests, she enjoys gluttony, reading, gardening, and travel. Her short stories have been published in the US and UK, and her non-fiction has been published in Ireland, the UK, America, and Australia. She is a staff writer with Writer Online and Netsurfer Digest. Grace may be contacted via www.gracetierney.com