[Contest] America's Next Author

First, none of us would write if we didn't feel this is what we were called to do. It's a frustrating, hard industry to crack. It can take a long time to make money, even after a story gets published. It's a labor of love and we all know it.

wearywriter said:

I'm considering using a modified part of my manuscript to join this contest.

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Personally, I wouldn't do that, but I'm not entering. I just want to try to explicate some things because contests are a weird monster. See the above post about the rights grab. That's a full YEAR they have to publish and adapt your work to other formats. That's YOUR characters set in YOUR world.

Also, this makes me wary:

...to the extent that any moral rights (for example, the right to attribution and the right to integrity) apply, you waive (and to the extent that these rights may not be waived, agree irrevocably not to assert) your moral rights in your Entry for purposes of this Contest...

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No...

Just, no.

If you're going to put your work out there for public consumption hoping to get noticed, it needs to be in a contest you know people are paying attention to and where you'll ALWAYS get attribution, no matter what format it turns up in. You're not a catalog copy writer. You write fiction.

The judges aren't listed. Who are they? Important people? Agents? Editors? The staff of eBookMall?

For comparison, there's this contest for us romance types. I'd post my work to that with no qualms. It's a known entity people pay attention to (for better or worse). I'm certain there are well-regarded competitions for other genres, too.

Just some food for thought.

wearywriter said:

Like some of you said above: might be advertising. But either way I find this discussion interesting.

First of all: I write because I have to.

I also write because I think my writing appeals to a larger audience. It is very satisfying to get responses from readers. For me personally the financial aspect is less important and I'm not focused on short stories or selling them to magazines. In all honesty: I'd love one of the big publishers to pick up my writing and I'm considering using a modified part of my manuscript to join this contest. As it seems a different, interesting way to get my name out there.

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wearywriter!

If your goal is to get readers or noticed by publishers, I urge you to read Writer Beware on Contest and Awards, specifically the portion on Is it worth it.

Writer Beware said:

However, for novelists, poets, and short fiction writers, few of the hundreds of contests out there have that kind of prestige. Winning a contest run by an obscure magazine or a local writers’ group or an Internet contest mill won’t cut any ice with agents, editors, or readers–not just because they probably won’t have heard of the contest, but because they may be aware that small contests are much less likely to have professional judging standards.

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