Sci/Fi Contests

[RhiannonKelley]

I have been high and low all over the net, and I have not been able to find a Sci/Fi Writing contest. Do these contests exist?

[azbikergirl]

Depends on what, exactly, you're looking for. I plan to enter a short story in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest (www.writersofthefuture.com). There are novel contests available also. This one offers publication as the top prize: http://www.archebooks.com/Contest2005.htm

[victoriastrauss]

If you enter a contest that offers book publication as the prize, be sure you have the option to refuse the contract if you win--some publishers that offer publication prizes are disguised vanity publishers, or have very nonstandard contracts, or don't do anything to market their books, or some other undesirable thing. Never commit to accept a contract you haven't read.

- Victoria

[azbikergirl]

If the option to refuse is not stated in the contest rules, nor is the requirement to accept publication upon winning, is it safe to assume entrants have that option?

[victoriastrauss]

If the option to refuse is not stated in the contest rules, nor is the requirement to accept publication upon winning, is it safe to assume entrants have that option?No. It's something you should clarify before entering. If pursuing clarification pisses off the people in charge of the contest, this tells you something about their professionalism.

Practically speaking, it's not likely that any of the kind of fly-by-night outfits whose contracts you'd want to avoid would be able to pursue you legally, even if the contest did require you to accept the contract. But they could hassle you to death, or threaten you with legal action--which isn't pleasant, even if you know the person making the threats won't follow through. It makes sense to clear this up at the outset.

- Victoria

[whitehound]

The archebooks thingy asks for a 1-2 page Treatment plus a longer Synopsis, then refers you for guidance to a .pdf article which treats Treatment and Synopsis as synonymous. Anybody know what the difference between the two is?

[azbikergirl]

By treatment, I think they mean a character and/or theme sketch, leaving the synopsis to cover the plot. There's a short discussion of that question on the writerbuddy site (http://www.writerbuddy.com/wbhome/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5813&sid=4982e5392046ebe4cddb4b3de0b3b395).

[whitehound]

Yeah, that would make sense, thanks. Under Synopsis/Treatment the .pdf article The Art of the Book Proposal does say "In heavily character-driven stories, where plot is less predominant, I recommend giving a short paragraph on your major characters." but it doesn't distinguish this as a treatment.

Despite this (and despite taking as its example the sort of airport novel which I personally would, quite literally, find less interesting than watching paint dry) it's a good article with some useful points about attracting the publisher's eye without descending to hysterical hype. It's at

http://www.archebooks.com/AuthCor/The%20Art%20of%20the%20Book%20Proposal.pdf

- although personally I think the suggestion that one should redesign the whole structure of a book so it can have a cliffhanger at the end of chapter #3, just so you can send the publisher the first three chapters and leave him/her eager for more, is going too bloody far. [But I suppose somebody who writes novels about "a high-dollar bordello for extremely rich and powerful women" won't have anything *except* crude cliffhangers to keep the reader wanting more.]

[victoriastrauss]

Writer Beware hasn't gotten any complaints about ArcheBooks, but my scamsense tingles when I go to its website. Be cautious.

- Victoria

[whitehound]

Yeah, it looks a bit fishy, and I suspect their books, although probably genuinely chosen, will be very badly distributed. But it's still quite a good article!

[azbikergirl]

I can't help but wonder if they are a POD publisher, but they say they only accept agented submissions. I "know" someone who won their novel contest last year and was published in hard cover, as advertised. We were in the same crit group for a short time. I've been meaning to ask how winning publication via the contest has worked out for him, and would he do it again if he knew then what he knows now, but I haven't yet.

[azbikergirl]

By the way, here's a whole bunch of contests:
http://manuscriptediting.com/contests.htm
not all are speculative fiction, though.

[whitehound]

What's POD?

As regards the contests, don't get your hopes up. I've just looked at about 20 of them and nearly all are links to competitions which are already finished - in some cases, finished a year ago.

[azbikergirl]

POD=Print On Demand

Yeah, I noticed that too about the contests linked on that page. I did find a couple that are annuals or quarterlies though.

[victoriastrauss]

I can't help but wonder if they are a POD publisher, but they say they only accept agented submissions.Given that there are so many bad agents, "agents only" doesn't mean much. I'm familiar with two of the agents ArcheBooks has worked with--neither has a track record of commercial sales, and both have a history of placing books with less-than-reputable publishers. One charges substantial fees.

- Victoria

[azbikergirl]

Thanks, Victoria. That's very good to know.

[whitehound]

Looking at what's being said about them on the net, they seem to be genuine, but small and new. Their printing is good-quality, they select books on a proper editorial basis, and they are friendly, helpful and responsive: but they expect you to do all your own promotion.

The prize money is supposed to be free money on top of any royalties, but it's not that much: and since you'd have to pay for your own advertizing, and since a normal publisher's advance often works out a bit more than you would have got from straight royalties anyway, it's probably not worth going for this unless you have despaired of placing your book with a more mainstream outfit, or you have really good contacts at the book-wholesaler end of the process.