Florida First Coast Writers' Festival

OohLaLaura · Feb 9, 2008

Is Florida First Coast Writer's Festival legitimate?
I'm trying to find anyone else who entered. I submitted my novel along with a $39 entry fee, enclosed a SASE postcard (just to make sure they had received it) and have heard nothing. The deadline was January 7th.

http://www.fccj.org/wf/

I called the website's number to ask a question BEFORE the contest, but my call wasn't returned. I thought they might be swamped, and returning an entrant's call might not be top priority. AFTER the contest deadline, they updated the website to say they were NOT having a festival this year, but were still going to hold the contest. There isn't a way to contact anyone from the site.

Does anyone else have any information about the contest? How long do you customarily wait to hear contest results in a situation like this?

Thanks!
OohLaLaura

James D. Macdonald · Feb 9, 2008

Regardless of whether it's legitimate, is it useful?

Have you ever seen "Winner of the Florida First Coast Writer's Contest" on the cover of a paperback?

If not, don't bother with it.

Dragon-lady · Feb 9, 2008

But do you ever see that? Maybe a dumb question, but I've never seen Dave Farland mention WotF on the cover of his novels and most people seem to think it's pretty helpful from what I can tell. Maybe I missed it although I have a lot of his novels and the same with other winners of that particular contest. (Of course, the WotF anthology is a big seller so I suppose that counts.)

I don't know how you judge which contests are helpful really.

Edit: Maybe Farland doesn't mention it because he won under his real name. LOL

James D. Macdonald · Feb 9, 2008

You occasionally see WotF mentioned in sell lines or (more commonly) in the bios at the head of other short stories. Though WotF has problems of its own (the connection to Scientology), it's a publishing credit. Think of that as an open anthology rather than a contest and you'll be closer to understanding what it really is.

OohLaLaura · Feb 11, 2008

Thanks, everyone-

My main goal in entering a few contests was to up my chance of getting an agent. I am submitting my novel AND entering contests. If nothing else, I hoped a contest prize mention (if, of course, I ever get one) would appeal to an agent. Or, at least, give them one more reason to pull me out of the big, ginormous slushpile.

CaoPaux · Aug 1, 2010

Florida State College is now here: http://www.fscj.edu/

No further sign of the writers' festival or contests.

Florida First Coast Writers' Festival

OohLaLaura

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

Dragon-lady

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

OohLaLaura

CaoPaux

Mostly Harmless