Archive for category Competitions
Books to be Won!
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions on January 3, 2011
One of my goals for 2011 is to grow the readership of this blog – it can feel quite lonely sitting here, prattling away and 
not knowing if anyone will read it!
I plan to do this in 2 ways:
- Include information that can be ‘used’ (e.g. markets, competitions and writing tips etc.) in as many posts as possible
- Hold a prize draw
The draw prize is the 3 best-selling books in the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. If you’ve already enjoyed these novels about Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo, then they’d make a great gift for a book-loving friend.
To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is use the box to the right of this page to sign-up for email updates. This means that each post on my blog will be sent directly to your inbox. You can un-subscribe at any time (although I hope you won’t!).
Simply enter your email address at the Email Subscription heading to the right of this post. You will receive a confirmation email asking you to confirm your subscription and then, hey presto!, you’re done.
Everybody on the subscription list on Friday 4th February will be entered into the draw – including those of you that already subscribe. I will contact the winner via email and when he/she has confirmed their name and address, I will announce the result here. I will also give a plug to the winner’s blog, book or anything else (writing related) they wish to publicise.
Please note the books can only be posted to UK addresses (excluding the Channel Islands).
N.B. If you prefer to manage your blogs via RSS Feed you can still enter the draw. Just add this blog to your feed, contact me via the form on my ‘About’ page and I will enter you into the draw.
Another couple of things I’ve thought of since originally posting this:
- If I can’t get hold of the winner within 14 days of the draw taking place then I reserve the right to re-draw (so let me know in advance via the contact form on my ‘About’ page if you’re going away).
- If your confirmation email isn’t coming through – check your spam folder in case it’s hiding there
Best of Luck!
The Enfield Mayor’s Poetry Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Poetry on December 30, 2010
I’ve just come back from visiting my mother-in-law in North London. She took me to see the lovely new library in Enfield and whilst I was there I picked up some information on The Enfield Mayor’s Poetry Competition with a £500 first prize. There is £200 and £100 for second and third places plus a special prize of £50 for a poem using Enfield as its theme. The closing date for the competition is 31st January 2011 and it will be judged by Mario Petrucci.
The competition is open to anyone aged 16 or over. Poems must be previously unpublished and not exceed 50 lines. Entries should not identify the author but a cover sheet should be included giving contact details. No entry form is required. The entry fee is £3 per poem or £10 for 4 poems. Full details and comprehensive rules (including where to send your poems) can be found by clicking here.
The purpose of the competition is to raise funds for the mayor’s charity appeal which, this year, is supporting the arts in Enfield.
Best of luck to all you poets out there!
Reader’s Digest 100 Word Story Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Writing on December 19, 2010
Image by העין השביעית • the7eye.org.il via Flickr
See Results update at the end of this post.
Reader’s Digest are running a 100 word story competition. Stories should be original, unpublished and exactly 100 words long (99-worders will be disqualified). The title will not be included in the 100 words.
Email your stories to theeditor@readersdigest.co.uk by January 31. The winner will receive £5,000 and the two runners-up a £100 book token each. All 3 stories will be published in Reader’s Digest.
There is also a schools’ section to the competition with the winner in each of the 2 age groups getting £1000 in high street vouchers plus £1000 for the winners’ schools.
Full details of the competition can be found here.
However; there has been some controversy in writing circles about the terms and conditions of this competition. These state that ‘contributions become world copyright of Vivat Direct Ltd (t/a Reader’s Digest)’.
This means that Reader’s Digest take the copyright of all stories entered, not just the winning stories that are published in the magazine – therefore you couldn’t then publish or enter your (winning or losing) story in a similar competition elsewhere. There has been discussion about this on the Writers’ News Talkback Forum, with the participants split between those willing to give up copyright on their story for the chance to win £5,000 and those who thought that writers should never give up copyright on anything without some form of payment or acknowledgement.
Gill Hudson, editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest, explained the policy to Alex Gazzola in the January issue of Writers’ News.
“We’ve had to do it this way beacuse, with the small team we have, and the sheer practicalities of thousands of entries, I don’t think we could run this competition if we had to deal with all the various rights, permissions and queries that could potentially arise.”
You will have your own opinion about whether you want to give away your carefully crafted 100-word story in exchange for a chance at a £5000 jackpot. Personally, I think it’s worth the gamble. I do recycle work that is rejected by its original target market or fails to make the grade in a competition. However, I usually find that the work has to be tweaked in some way before it can be resubmitted, this may mean lengthening or shortening it or changing the tone slightly to fit the new market. I expect this would be the case if I wanted to recycle my 100 word story for another micro fiction market – it may have to be moulded to fit a set theme or again, made longer or shorter to suit the new requirements.
So, I will make a note on the filed copy of my entry, to remind myself to wait until the results of the Reader’s Digest competition have been announced and then (if I lose) to change the story substantially before resubmission.
POST UPDATED 21 APRIL 2011
The winner is announced here. The standard of writing was so high that Reader’s Digest have decided to feature one story a day on their website – please leave a comment if yours is featured so that we can all admire it!
West Country Writers’ Association Annual Congress
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Events, Successes on December 7, 2010
I heard today that I’ve been awarded a bursary to attend the West Country Writers’ Association 2011 Annual Congress in Plymouth next April! Two nights and three days away from home to indulge in all things literary – I can’t wait. Speakers include Jean Saunders, Rachel Billington and Rebecca Tope.
Applicants for the bursary had to write a letter outlining their literary achievements so far, their hopes for the future and why they would like to attend the Congress.
If you fancy joining me, the Association is also running a short story competition with a first prize of £50 and 24 hours at the Congress. Stories can be on any theme but must include the word ‘Dartmoor’ and be less than 1200 words. The closing date is 12th December and entry is only open to those with no more than two short stories professionally published. Full details are here.
Writing Magazine Crime Story Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Successes, Writing on November 30, 2010
Just wanted to share my good news with you – I was shortlisted to the final judging stage in the Writing Magazine Crime Story Competition. The winning story (and the shortlist) is in the January 2011 issue of the magazine (just out) and the runner-up’s story will be published on the Writing Magazine website.
No prize or publication for me but I was chuffed because it means I’ve learned something from reading the winning entries over the past months:
- The stories that do well in both Writing Magazine and Writers’ News competitions are very strong on character.
- The reader is taken right inside the mind of the protagonist.
- Other characters are few and minor.
- There is often little or no ‘action’ in the story.
Writing Magazine competitions manager, Richard Bell, reinforced this emphasis on character in the magazine’s Competition Special, earlier this year, when he said, “We have seen several excellent stories in which the main character simply undergoes an attitudinal shift; they are shown changing their opinion about something. That is not an earth shattering event, but it can be enough to provide a storyline. “
Homelessness Short Story Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Writing on November 26, 2010
You’ll have to be quick to catch this one – it was announced in our local paper, The Sutton Coldfield News, today but entries must be received (via email) by December 6th.
It’s an annual competition to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people.
Stories should be 500 words or less and be emailed to sutton_news@mrn.co.uk. Please specify which age category you are entering, 10 and under, 11-17 or 18 and over.
The winner in each category will receive a £20 book token and be published in the Sutton Coldfield News.
The prize may be small and the deadline tight but it’s a competition worth entering because:
- There is no entry fee
- It’s email entry
- It’s only 500 words
- The field will be small because it’s not widely advertised
- The field will be small because the deadline is tight
- Meeting the deadline will be a good exercise in self-discipline
- If you win it’s another cutting for your file
But don’t think you can get away with sending any old thing. I won this competition the first time it was run and have entered every year since – with no success. Each time I’ve read the winning story and realised it was more original than the tired old stereotype I was using.
So now I’m off to dream up a unique take on the homeless!
The Daily Telegraph Ghost Story Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions on November 3, 2010
Courtesy of Elvis Santana, U.S.
Finally got round to reading the Review section of Saturday’s Telegraph and came across this competition for a Ghost Story of 2,000 words or fewer
- Entries to be received by November 20th (not much time then!)
- Shortlist of 6 will be published on telegraph.co.uk on December 4th
- Winning story will be published in The Daily Telegraph on December 11th
- Winner will receive a unique specially bound copy of The Small Hand by Susan Hill, who is also one of the judges.
Full details are available here plus some useful tips on writing ghost stories.
Good Luck!
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