We are no longer accepting entries for the Writer’s Digest Science Fiction/Fantasy Competition.
Final Deadline: Closed
Prizes:
- First Prize: The First Place-Winner receives $1,000 cash, promotion in Writer’s Digest, $100 worth of Writer’s Digest Books and the 2012 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market.
- Second Prize: The Second Place-Winner receives $500 cash, promotion in Writer’s Digest, $100 worth of Writer’s Digest Books and the 2012 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market.
- Honorable Mention: Honorable Mentions will receive promotion in Writer’s Digest and the 2012 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market.
Submission Guidelines
- Fiction Manuscript
- 4,000 words or less
- Acceptable file types: doc, docx, rtf, pdf
- 8.5×11 page size | Double-spaced throughout
- 1-inch margins on top and bottom | 1.25-inch margins on left and right sides
- Arial, Courier or Times font | 12 point font size
Final Deadline: Closed
How to Enter
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Entry Fee: All entries are $20.00. You may pay with a check or money order, Visa, Mastercard or American Express when you enter online or via regular mail.
Entry Form | Official Rules | Judging & Notification of Winners | Frequently Asked Questions | Contact Us
Contest Software provided by WizeHive
Only 4,000 words?
Hi Michelle – yes, it is designed to fall in between a short story and a complete novel. I’d be happy to answer any other questions you may have.
Thank you,
Tim deBord
Marketing Director – Competitions
F+W Media
tim.debord@fwmedia.com | 513-262-8114
I have the initial 4 chapters of a novel, it doesn’t have an end though -like others suggested below. Would that qualify? Thanks.
Sounds like fun!
If a story both qualifies for fantasy and young adult can you submit it for both?
Hi, Jameson –
Yes, you certainly can. We look forward to reading it.
Thank you tdebord,
One more question. I actually don’t get paid until the 15th, le sigh, can submissions still be submitted exactly on that day online (I have one for this and the Thriller which both have a deadline of the 15th) paying with a credit card, or is the cut off the day before at midnight?
- Jameson -
Yes, Jameson…up until 11:59pm eastern time on the 15th. Good luck.
Unfortunately, I keep getting a “We had trouble processing this file. Please rename your file and try uploading it again.” message. I have several drafts saved and several attempts with .pdf and .doc files with simple filenames, but submission results in the error.
Is there a preferred browser or platform to use for online submission? I notice it’s using Flash, which probably uses a FileManager class, so it should be cross-platform.
Indeed, David. If you are still having trouble submitting your work, contact us directly at writing-competition@fwmedia.com and we will gladly assist you.
Good luck.
Hi,
I live in Australia, can I enter this comp?
Regards,
Rick.
Absolutely….enter your story…we look forward to reading it.
Great, thanks.
I have a chapter to a book I have written that has a good begining, middle and end.
Could I us this for the comp?
Cfrisby –
Yes you can. Good luck.
How do you want us to format our story in terms of where we put our name and the title of our piece? Do we include those in the uploaded portion, or should I assume that I don’t need to include these on the upload since we will be filling this information out on the sign-up form?
Do we need to include a cover letter with our story upload?
Er, I was thinking a title page (not cover letter). Included one, just in case.
Hi,
Does this have to be a completed short story or can it be the beginning to a full-length novel?
Thank you!
Out of curiosity — when were the attached guidelines added to this page? I recall using this link to get the details for this contest awhile ago and submitted without noticing the guidelines had been included in a rush to get the story in before the (now defunct) deadline.
Is 4,000 words a hard limit? I am sitting at 4,500 and there is simply nothing left to cut.
Should we include the author’s name on the submission?
The email I received mentioned that “You’ll get a professional critique of your work, where a professional will tell you what works, what doesn’t and how to fix it.”
I just wanted to confirm that every entry is critiqued and the author receives this feedback?
Lucas,
The professional critique is from the 2nd Draft service and is only given to the winners of the competition. You can take advantage of this service on your own by going here:
http://www.writersdigestshop.com/2nd-draft?r=wdnav2nddraft
There you’ll find a variety of services that may be of use to you.
I don’t work here, I just called the competition number and that’s what she told me.
I know you have extended the deadline once but will you be extending again? I have just had a great story idea but it will take a few days to write.
I keep trying to enter, but I’m unable to upload my file. Every time I try, it says “file rejected,” with no other explanation. It’s under the 100MB limit, and it’s a .pdf with just one word as the title (no punctuation, spaces, symbols, or other characters). Is anyone else having this problem?
Must have been my browser settings… I switched browsers, and was able to upload the file.
Does the continuously extending deadline reflect a lack of quality or quantity in current submissions?
Now that the deadline is extended, can I re-submit a revised version of my story? The checkout system doesn’t give me that option now. Thanks.
I have just made a rookie error and submitted my story without double spacing. I am happy to resubmit the exact same story with double spacing and pay another entry fee, I will do this now please disregard the first story, and take the second one (it is called Genocide 201.) Thank You.
is it all right to submit something that is already being considered by another writing contest?
I see that the submission date is now November 1st. I am so happy that I checked because I’ve been editing all day in an attempt to have my submission ready by tomorrow.
Thank you!
Is there a limit to how many entries you are allowed to submit for each of the 6 categories? Are we limited to only 1 submission, or if we have multiple stories we would like to submit can we send in all of them along with paying the entry for each story.
I’m not going to lie, I couldn’t find anything stating this.
I sure hope so! I didn’t think of that, but I have two for the horror category. Oh, wait. I was checking the submitting area yesterday, and when you finish your first submission, at the bottom it says something like, submit another. So it should be okay since every category has a different submitting area.
4049 words too much?
The offical rules say “4.Be sure of your word count! Entries exceeding the word limit will be disqualified. Type the exact word count (counting every single word, except the title) at the top of the manuscript.” I hope you can manage the editing you need!
I submitted to this contest and to the horror one, but I think there are some issues with it. Not with my manuscript but, at the beginning of the entry I was sure it said first name, then last name, don’t know why but it really said name and email, so name has only my first and my email has my last name, didn’t realize that til I was done. I hope that isn’t too much of a problem. Anyway another thing, whereas my horror entries (on the copies of the submittal information, after check out) have a document name next to the file upload section, my sci-fi entry has nothing listed. Did it go through all right?
I can’t find any reference to the deadline date for this contest. I have a 3,700 word short story to submit, but I refuse to have my efforts be futile due to a deadline. The deadline has apparently been extended, but there is no date anywhere that I can find on the website itself. I could use some clarification, please. Has it been extended, and may I submit this evening?
Thank you.
Since the deadline was extended, does that mean the notification of the winners was, too?
I was wondering about that. Will they let us know if we didn’t win, or do we have to ask?
I e-mailed them and asked. It stayed Dec 31.