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- Feb 14, 2005
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On the subject of contests, I think writers of sci-fi, horror and fantasy should consider the Writers of the Future contest. It's a quarterly contest that not only pays good money for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers, but also publishes a mass maket paperback every year. So you get money AND get to be published.
I haven't entered the contest in years, but I think it's still going on. It started at least 15 years ago, and a lot of its winners have gone on to publish books regularly. You have to have three or less professional short story sales. I had a story place as a finalist a few years ago. They publish a few finalist stories in the anthology every year, but of course mine was turned down. Then I tried sending it to magazines, figuring if it was good enough to finish so close to the top among hundreds or thousands of quarterly entries, it would be a cinch to sell it to a magazine. I couldn't even sell it for half a penny a word. Then I tried Weird Tales and they requested a small rewrite of the last page, and bingo, probably my biggest sale.
So basically I'm saying the contest is a good one. It inspires you to send off a story every three months and they even have a week-long workshop for the winners and an award ceremony every year.
I haven't entered the contest in years, but I think it's still going on. It started at least 15 years ago, and a lot of its winners have gone on to publish books regularly. You have to have three or less professional short story sales. I had a story place as a finalist a few years ago. They publish a few finalist stories in the anthology every year, but of course mine was turned down. Then I tried sending it to magazines, figuring if it was good enough to finish so close to the top among hundreds or thousands of quarterly entries, it would be a cinch to sell it to a magazine. I couldn't even sell it for half a penny a word. Then I tried Weird Tales and they requested a small rewrite of the last page, and bingo, probably my biggest sale.
So basically I'm saying the contest is a good one. It inspires you to send off a story every three months and they even have a week-long workshop for the winners and an award ceremony every year.
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