Contests: A Non-Traditional Route to Publication
Like most unpublished writers, I believed that there were only two paths to getting my words and thoughts before the world’s readers. I could go the traditional route of sending out query letters, and hope my brilliant writing would be plucked from the slush pile on a discerning agent’s desk. She would...
Writing Contest Conundrum: Are Competitions Worth the Effort?
This is how it goes in your head: You enter a writing contest, win it, and ride that wave of success to glorious bestsellerdom. Or maybe it’s more like this: You don’t win the contest, but you get a priceless, insightful critique from a seasoned judge. You revise your novel, enter...
Your Story 64: Winners!
Prompt: Write the opening sentence (25 words or fewer) to a story based on the photo to the left. Thanks to everyone who entered and/or voted in WD’s Your Story #64! Here are the results. The winners, in ranking order, are as follows: 1. As the winter wind whipped against the worn cedar...
Your Story 63: Winners
Prompt: Write a short story, of 750 words or fewer, based on the photo on the left.
21st Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards Winners
Writer’s Digest would like to congratulate the winners of the 21st Annual Self-Published Book Awards! GRAND PRIZE Zero Chance of Passage: The Pioneering Charter School Story by Ember Reichgott Junge ($20). Beaver’s Pond Press and Charter Schools Development Corporation. Email: ember@visi.com. Web: zerochanceofpassage.com. CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS First Place: Gertrude’s Green Hat by...
What You Should Know About the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
The very narrow annual submission window is now open for the much-buzzed-about Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (learn about it here). If you’re an unpublished or self-published first-time novelist, you’re eligible to enter now through February 5 (or until the limit of 5,000 entries have been received) to win the chance to...