Archive for category Competitions
eBookSoda and the AsparaWriting Festival
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books, Competitions, Computers & Technical, Events, Promotion, Self-publishing, Short Story on March 20, 2014
This week I’ve got a couple of writing-related things that might interest you.
Firstly, eBookSoda is an e-book promotion newsletter sent daily, and free of charge, to readers’ inboxes. Until March 26th 2014 it is FREE to advertise your e-book in the newsletter. After this date there will be a $5 cost to have an e-book mentioned in the newsletter.
So why not get your skates on and click here to get a bit of free publicity for your book? The book doesn’t have to be on a discounted or free special offer (although many of them are) – it must just be $4.99 or less and have at least eight reviews with an average star rating of 3.5.
Alternatively, if you simply want to hear about the e-books available (many of which are on special offer) sign up for the eBookSoda free newsletter.
Secondly, crime novelist Judith Cutler has brought the AsparaWriting Festival to my attention. It is specifically designed for aspiring writers. During the event you can learn from the professionals about writing crime, history, comic or straight fiction and poetry. There are events scheduled from 23rd April 2014 to 21st June 2014 in the Evesham area.
There’s also a short story competition with a £100 first prize and a trophy. The story should be no more than 6,000 words (3,000 for junior entries), written in English, set in the Vale of Evesham or the Cotswolds, should fit into the crime genre and include asparagus. But you’ll have to start writing now – the closing date is March 29th 2014.
Happy Writing!
Two ‘Performances’
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Events, Promotion, Short Story, Successes on February 18, 2014
Last week I made two ‘performances’. Firstly, I made my first prepared speech at Sutton Coldfield Speakers’ Club and then, as a shortlisted contender in the Winnie the Pooh Laureate Competition, I read my children’s short story out loud on the telephone for final judging.
Speakers’ Club. Prepared speeches are usually between six and eight minutes long and the subject matter should suit the theme of the evening – the exception being first speeches when the advice is to talk about something you know well. So I veered off the evening’s topic of ‘Love & Romance’ and talked about my hobby of church bell-ringing instead (exciting stuff I hear you say!).
I spoke for 7 minutes 40 seconds (everything is timed with a stopwatch) and the speech was then evaluated by another club member. This is a bit like giving feedback at a writers’ group when work is read aloud. My evaluator was very kind and full of praise but also had some useful advice – I’d positioned myself to one side of the lectern and that meant that half the audience couldn’t see me properly and also the majority of my eye contact was down one side of the room. So some good advice to take away.
My next speech is in around six weeks and the evening has the theme of ‘Springtime’. At the moment I haven’t a clue what to talk about – all that comes to mind is cute lambs, chicks and rabbits. Anyone got any ideas?
Winnie the Pooh. I dialled into the conference call at the appointed time, only to find a lovely Scottish lady in full flow. I sat very quietly whilst she finished a wonderful story about Pooh visiting a park in Glasgow, complete with different voices for all the characters.
Then it was my turn to read my story, ‘Winnie the Pooh and the Birmingham Iron Man’ – needless to say I didn’t do any special voices. The judges made some polite comments and said they’d let me know.
So now, like an actress after an audition – I’m waiting to hear from them …
Writing the Fiction E-Book Series
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Non-fiction, Successes on February 9, 2014
A couple of weeks ago I told you about a Guest Posting contest organised by Nick Daws.
Well, I took my own advice, entered – and won!
My guest post was about the benefits of writing a fiction e-book series and some tips on how to go about it. The post is now available to read in full on Nick’s blog.
And I’d like to congratulate Sharon Boothroyd, who is a follower of this blog, she also entered and was one of the runners-up. Her post too will appear on Nick’s high-traffic blog.
The Page is Printed Creative Writing Prize
Now here’s an unusual writing competition based around a single A4 page. The website says:
“Submissions are invited in any genre, it could be a love letter, a short story, a poem, a court summons or a shopping list … the only rule is that your entry must be contained on one side of A4.”
Closing date is 1st may 2014. There are first, second and third prizes of £200, £100 and £50. Entry fee is £4 or three for £10.
Full details can be found here.
Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition 2014
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Non-fiction, Short Story on January 12, 2014
This week I’ve been thinking about my entry for the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition. 
As I’m sure most of you know, the first prize is £500 and an Arvon writing course. So it’s a prize worth winning and it’s also free entry – which makes it doubly good! But the closing date is 15th February 2014 – so it’s time to start getting my entry together.
In preparation I’ve been flicking through my copy of ‘Writing Competitions the Way to Win’ by Iain Pattison and Alison Chisholm.
Iain judges a lot of competitions. In the book he gives the following reason for why a lot of stories fail in competitions:
The stories were obviously written for a women’s magazine and failed to find a home. Therefore they often have a domestic setting, a female protagonist, a twist ending and the plot is a variation on a theme. The stories lack an individual voice.
As a judge, Iain wants to be taken somewhere he’s never been before. He doesn’t want to read about office life and how the junior is plotting revenge on the boss who passed her over for promotion.
So, it seems there’s no point in me going through my rejected womag stories to find one that might fit a theme of ‘The Visit’.
Incidentally, Iain suggests that this may be why men might seem to do better in writing competitions. Fewer of them write for women’s magazines and therefore they compose a fresh story for a competition without the restrictions of womag writing.
What does anyone else think? Have you ever won/been shortlisted in a competition with a story originally written for a womag?
And talking of competitions, Nick Daws is running a Guest Post Competition over on his blog. First prize is $50 (or the equivalent in UK pounds). The post must be on a topic of interest to writers and be 500 – 1000 words long. Closing date is 31st January 2014 and entry is free. He ran a similar competition last year and then I was lucky enough to be the winner – this time it could be you!
Finally, the first anniversary of the publication of One Day for Me is almost upon us and next week I will be announcing a special offer …
What Am I Working On?
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Lifestyle, Self-publishing, Writing on January 6, 2014
The talented Tracy Fells has invited me to be part of a blog chain, linking writers up across the vast, virtual world that is the internet.
Chain link (Photo credit: Matti Mattila)
Tracy writes short stories, flash fiction, the occasional article plus drama for theatre and radio. Her stories have appeared in Take-a-Break Fiction Feast, The People’s Friend, The Yellow Room, The New Writer and Writing Magazine. If you’ve got a minute drop in on her blog – http://tracyfells.blogspot.com/ – it’s full of good ‘writerly’ things.
My task, as a tiny ‘link’ in this vast chain, is to reveal something about what I’m working on now.
I’d like to tell you how I’m deep into a novel which has been painstakingly planned out, has a perfect story arc and is full of characters that are constantly ‘talking’ to me. Unfortunately, this is not the case. When it comes to writing I’m something of a butterfly. I settle on one project for a while and then I decide that my time might be better spent on a different piece of work, so I switch. Or I spot a competition with a wonderful prize and I drop everything to enter it – fully aware that hundreds of others are doing exactly the same thing and I therefore stand little chance of winning.
So, I currently have a few things on the go:
- I’m working on the third story in the Museum of Fractured Lives series. When that’s ready I will be publishing it as an e-book for Kindle and also producing an omnibus edition containing all three of the stories plus a short prologue about how the museum came into existence. So I’m also thinking about book covers, marketing and other stuff that goes along with putting a new book out.
- On the back burner I have the NaNoWriMo manuscript that I completed in November. Before Christmas I polished up the first three chapters, wrote a synopsis and entered it into the Ian Govan Award. Whatever the outcome of the competition (& I’m not holding my breath!) I hope to get round to finishing this novel at some point.
- I also have ideas for a couple of articles which I’m doing preliminary research for, prior to pitching to editors. I won’t tell you what they are in case anyone out there can write them up better (& quicker) than me!
- I’m also toying with entering the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and Swanwick competitions because I fancy the prizes.
I just wish I could focus on only one thing and then maybe I’d actually get something done!
Back to the blog chain – the following two links in the chain will all post next Monday (13/1/14) about their current writing projects – but why not pop over to their blogs now and see what they’re up to?
- Debbie Young is a keen blogger and also writes short stories, flash fiction, travelogues, memoirs and non-fiction. Samples and links may be found on her author website: www.youngbyname.me. She is also blog editor for the Alliance of Independent Authors (http://www.selfpublishingadvice.org) and blogs about book marketing on her own website, www.otsbp.com. A keen reviewer of indie and self-published books, when she’s not writing, she’s reading and reviewing.
From personal experience I’ve found Debbie the fount of all knowledge when it comes to book marketing.
- Alison Maynard writes contemporary romantic comedies, and is published by Choc Lit. Her debut novel, Much Ado About Sweet Nothing, is inspired by the Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. I found it a fun, escapist read.
Fiction Writing Advice From Crystal Lake Publishing
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Markets, Short Story, Writing on December 22, 2013
Joe Mynhardt runs Crystal Lake Publishing in South Africa. He publishes horror and dark fiction in both paperback and e-book format. 
Joe’s put together some advice for horror writers but it can apply equally well to fiction writers in any genre so I thought I’d share it with you:
- Write
- Read
- Join a forum and participate in it
- Read non-fiction books, especially about marketing. You’ll need it eventually.
- Always be open and ready for opportunities.
- Have confidence in yourself. Every small step becomes part of the bigger journey.
- Have a story or two on standby at all times.
- Write every day, even if it’s only 10 minutes.
- Learn how to edit your own work.
- Be as visible as possible on the internet.
- Be professional in everything you say and do. Growing a tough skin goes a long way in not acting like an emotional roller coaster on social media. Think before you post on impulse!
- Help others as much as you can, even if you just share or re-tweet/re-blog their stuff. Celebrate their successes with them, and don’t be jealous. One day you may be grateful for their help!
- Eat, breathe and sleep stories, but take time to rest. Writer’s fatigue is no joke.
- Take some time to just sit and think about creative things to do, whether they’re story or promotion ideas.
- Don’t listen to negative thoughts. You’ll have off days when you’ll just have to ignore yourself.
- Take care of your body, especially your back and wrists. Being an author is not a race, but a marathon that never ends.
If I had to pick out just two of those points as being the most important I’d go for ‘Write every day’ and ‘Don’t listen to negative thoughts’. What about you?
Joe is currently running a competition on the Crystal Lake Publishing website. First prize is e-book copies of the first seven books published by his company so far. Details are here. It closes 31/12/2013.
And do have a look at the brilliant covers on the Crystal Lake books – some of them are quite terrifying!
Related articles
- Spotlight: Crystal Lake Publishing (davebrendon.wordpress.com)
NaNoWriMo & Nottingham Writers’ Club Short Story Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books, Competitions, Short Story, Successes on December 1, 2013
I did it! I wrote 50,000 words! 
I hit the NaNoWriMo target on 25th November – I had planned to write 2,000 words per day and, amazingly, I managed to stick to it.
Now the not so good bit. As soon as I hit 50,000 words I abandoned my routine. I had planned to keep going all the way to November 30th and thus amass 60,000 words. But once I knew I’d done enough to be a NaNo winner, I could no longer drag myself out of bed at 6:15 am to write 1,000 words before breakfast.
So now I’m gearing myself up to write the last little bit of the story, and then it’s the scary part – reading back through it all and discovering it’s all mumbo jumbo!
And if you’re looking for a new project now that NaNo is over:
Nottingham Writers’ Club are holding their first National Short Story Competition. The winner gets £200 and there are 15 prizes in total. ‘Emotion’ is the theme of the competition and the word limit is 2,000.
Entries can only be submitted between 1st and 31st January 2014 and, “All entrants must be non-professional writers. For the purpose of this competition, we define ‘non-professional’ as a writer who has earned less than £500 from short story writing during 2013”.
Request an entry form and further details here.
Finally, a quick shout out for Alison May. Alison is a fellow member of the Birmingham Chapter of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and has just had her debut novel published via Choc Lit Lite.
It’s titled ‘Much Ado About Sweet Nothing’ and is available initially in e-book format.
Congratulations, Alison!
Winnie the Pooh Laureate Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Short Story on November 24, 2013
Calling all Winnie the Pooh fans!
Winnie the Pooh (Photo credit: Anton Ruiter)
Disney are looking for five regional winners across the UK and Ireland to be crowned ‘Winnie the Pooh Laureate’ and read their story in their local Disney store.
Entrants are asked to take Winnie the Pooh and his friends outside of 100 Acre Wood and into their own locality for an adventure. The story should feature landmarks unique to the writer’s home region. Maximum number of words is 500.
The winner from each region will also see their story printed in a special book and win a goodie bag of Winnie the Pooh merchandise.
Entry is free and is via the competition’s Facebook Page. Closing date is December 17th 2013.
Click on the Terms and Conditions tab on the Facebook Page before you enter to read full details of the judging process – the final three in each region are asked to read their story on the phone in order to judge their performance ability.
Morley Literature Festival Prize Giving and Public Speaking
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Books, Competitions, Events, Short Story, Successes on October 20, 2013
I mentioned a few weeks back that I won first prize in the Friends’ of Morley Literature Festival Short Story Competition 2013.
Last Sunday was the prize giving and I travelled up to Morley in West Yorkshire to receive my certificate and a cheque for £50. The certificate came nicely framed and it’s gone straight on my mantelpiece.
Gervase Phinn is the patron of the festival and he rounded off this year’s festival with an entertaining talk before making the presentation. As well as telling us about his experiences as a country school inspector (think James Herriot in a school inspector’s clothing) he was full of funny examples of mistakes we make with the English language, from his new book Mangled English – A Humorous Anthology of the Misuses of the English Language. I wish I’d written them all down now but if the book is half as enjoyable as the talk it will be a good read – and might make a good Christmas present for someone interested in words.
If you’d like to enter the Morley 2014 short story competition contact the organiser, Stuart Pereira, by emailing fmlitfest@yahoo.com for full details and an entry form. Entry is free and it’s an open theme – so what have you got to lose?
Gervase Phinn is an accomplished public speaker who knows how to hold an audience and keep them interested. I think it’s a skill that today’s writers need to master – whether it’s for promoting their work or teaching and running workshops. It’s also something that I’m useless at – so I’ve joined my local Speakers’ Club, whose strapline is ‘Speaking with Greater Confidence’.
If you’d like to find out how my first meeting went have a look at my guest post on the Sutton Coldfield Speakers’ Club Blog.
Many thanks to those of you who’ve taken the time to review Karen’s Story – The Museum of Fractured Lives. I do appreciate your honesty and I’ve learned a lot from the comments. There’s still time to enter the draw to win a Book Journal by leaving an Amazon review. Full details are here.
Finally, if you’d like some tips on plotting your novel, Nick Daw’s Three Great Techniques for Plotting Your Novel or Screenplay is going to be free on Amazon over the next few days. If you want some ‘straight to the point’ advice it’s worth a read (and, as with any free book, please consider leaving a review if you enjoy it).
-
You are currently browsing the archives for the Competitions category.
Sally Jenkins 