Lorian Hemingway Short Story Contest

MacAllister · Feb 21, 2010

I hardly ever see contests I like enough to recommend, but the Lorian Hemingway contest kinda rocks my socks off:

Check it out.

In the interest of full disclosure - Lorian is running an ad with us, currently. However, I'd recommend you guys check this one out even if she hadn't.

There are a ton of details on their website.

astonwest · Feb 21, 2010

Not sure about a $12 entry fee when they're only giving out $2K in prizes to three people...

Also looks like they follow this new trend I've seen in several major contests, using unclear restrictions on what they consider "unpublished" authors, which are the only people allowed to enter.

MacAllister · Feb 21, 2010

$12 is two grande lattes and a tip. It's a token fee, really.

I'm not sure what's confusing or unclear about:

The literary competition is open to all U.S. and international writers whose fiction has not appeared in a nationally distributed publication with a circulation of 5,000 or more. Writers who have been published online or who have self-published will be considered on an individual basis.

And the winning entry is published in the Saturday Evening Post, as well.

Heidi Durrow, the 2004 winner, recently won the Bellwether for The Girl Who Fell From The Sky (from Algonquin), an expansion of her winning story.

JeanneTGC · Feb 21, 2010

This is an extremely good contest, with a great reputation, that takes any genre in terms of submissions. Most contests have entry fees, not all of them are able to give the winner publication in an old, established, and reputable magazine in addition to the regular old 'win'. And none of the others are sponsored by Hemingway's granddaughter. Call me an old-fashioned literary elitist, but that's worth entering.

Ken · Feb 21, 2010

... 2K, plus:

The Post will pay a fee to winners upon publication of his or her story, in addition to the $1,000 first-place prize given by the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition.

Seems pretty cool. Ain't up to it myself, but others here sure are.

Manuel Royal · Feb 22, 2010

MacAllister said:
$12 is two grande lattes and a tip. It's a token fee, really.

Twelve bucks is a lot to me; guess that's why I don't buy fancy lattes.

But I'm glad to learn the Saturday Evening Post is still around. Getting published there would mean more than would the cash prize.

Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition said:
Stories must be original unpublished fiction, typed and double-spaced, and may not exceed 3,000 words in length. There are no theme restrictions.

Certainly tempting; and it's run out of my birthplace, Key West. Wish I could see the stories that have previously won.

Note that the website seems to have server problems; not up right now.

alleycat · Feb 22, 2010

Manuel Royal said:
Wish I could see the stories that have previously won.

Note that the website seems to have server problems; not up right now.

You can. Click on Writing Blog on the top menu bar.

And the server is up; I just checked it.

Manuel Royal · Feb 22, 2010

It's intermittently up. Here's a direct link to the blog.

ETA: Interesting stuff. I normally don't enter competitions with a fee, but this is a special case.

Julie Worth · Feb 22, 2010

Manuel Royal said:
But I'm glad to learn the Saturday Evening Post is still around. Getting published there would mean more than would the cash prize.

Think so? Last year's winning story may reflect well on the contest, but doesn't say much for the Post, which seems to have published it online without bothering to read it.

Manuel Royal · Feb 22, 2010

Julie Worth said:
Think so? Last year's winning story may reflect well on the contest, but doesn't say much for the Post, which seems to have published it online without bothering to read it.

Wow. How did that happen, and why haven't they fixed it after several days (and several comments on the same page)?

Not overly impressed by the story itself, either. (Which ran about 5400 words, not 3000.)

ETA: On the other hand, it gives me confidence that I've got a shot, so I think I'll enter.

Stew21 · Feb 22, 2010

I'll be entering this one.

I have a long-standing love of Ernest Hemingway and this feels like a good omen for me.

Julie Worth · Feb 22, 2010

Manuel Royal said:
Wow. How did that happen, and why haven't they fixed it after several days (and several comments on the same page)?

Not overly impressed by the story itself, either. (Which ran about 5400 words, not 3000.)

ETA: On the other hand, it gives me confidence that I've got a shot, so I think I'll enter.

I checked the print version, and that one has no obvious errors. It also has a page about the contest and the author, which explains that the published version is an extended version of the winning story.

astonwest · Feb 22, 2010

The literary competition is open to all U.S. and international writers whose fiction has not appeared in a nationally distributed publication with a circulation of 5,000 or more. Writers who have been published online or who have self-published will be considered on an individual basis.

The second line seems to add an additional criteria for those authors who were published online. Just the first line would seem to be all that is needed...

I'm also curious what they do with your $12 if they deem you ineligible...

Everyone can do what they want, of course, but it seems a double standard when we point out to authors that "money flows to the writer" on one hand and then turn around and say that contest entries are a "token fee" on the other.

Manuel Royal · Feb 23, 2010

astonwest said:
The second line seems to add an additional criteria for those authors who were published online. Just the first line would seem to be all that is needed...

I'm also curious what they do with your $12 if they deem you ineligible...

Everyone can do what they want, of course, but it seems a double standard when we point out to authors that "money flows to the writer" on one hand and then turn around and say that contest entries are a "token fee" on the other.

Well, this is different than an ongoing commercial enterprise like a magazine or a book publisher. A magazine's revenue comes from advertisements, subscriptions and newstand or online sales; a book publisher makes money by selling books. It's in the nature of the business that they have to go through a lot of crappy submissions to find something worth publishing.

This contest isn't connected with advertising (as far as I can tell), and isn't selling a publication at the end (though I don't know the details of their arrangement with The Saturday Evening Post).

According to the site, they average 800 - 1,100 entries per year. That's at most $1,320 in fees. Whereas the cash prizes total $2,000. I don't know how they make up the difference, or if the judges get any compensation.

I'd never pay for vanity publishing or anything like that, but this ain't that. (Note to self: write something titled This Ain't That.)

ETA: My math error above: that should be $13,200, not $1,320.

Manuel Royal · Feb 23, 2010

alleycat said:
Move the decimal place over to the right one place, Manuel (it would be $13,200). But you're right, they are not running the contest as some sort of money-making scam.

God damn it. I used to do calculus in my head. Thanks for correcting my stupid error.

johnnysannie · Feb 23, 2010

Manuel Royal said:
Twelve bucks is a lot to me; guess that's why I don't buy fancy lattes.

QUOTE]

I count my pennies too but I just paid 2010 dues to both the professional writers organizations that I hold membership in and it was far more than that!

bigb · Feb 25, 2010

If you have a story and 12 bucks seems like a good idea.

alleycat · Feb 26, 2010

I'm think about entering (and was even before Mac posted this reminder). Does anyone think it would be fun or helpful to start a separate general-purpose thread in Short Fiction for the contest similar to what they usually do for NaNoWriMo? Kind of a fun, helpful, bat around ideas if needed, stay on track sort of thing.

Polenth · Mar 7, 2010

One thing about this... I've seen people saying they're hoping to enter who have stories online. As we have no idea what criteria will be used to judge online publications, anyone with stories online shouldn't get their hopes up. The fact it was low paying may not matter if the criteria is based on site popularity (I'm guessing it will be, as print publications are judged by circulation rather than payment).

Manuel Royal · Mar 9, 2010

This weekend I made my first sale; happy about that, but it only just now occurred to me that I may have disqualified myself for this contest. Still, good luck to everybody here who does enter -- I'd love it if somebody at AW won.

pdknz · Mar 13, 2010

Hi MR--

Not to sound legalistic, but the qualifying statement-- "has not appeared in a nationally distributed publication with a circulation of 5,000 or more" seems to indicate actual publication rather than acceptance/sale. FWIW.

I'm toying with submitting something, although it seems way out of my league.

Manuel Royal · Mar 13, 2010

pdknz said:
Hi MR--

Not to sound legalistic, but the qualifying statement-- "has not appeared in a nationally distributed publication with a circulation of 5,000 or more" seems to indicate actual publication rather than acceptance/sale. FWIW.

Hmm.

pdknz said:
I'm toying with submitting something, although it seems way out of my league.

Have you looked at last year's winner? Not awe-inspiring.

shadowwalker · Mar 13, 2010

I'm a fan of contests - I'm doing the final prep for my first entry right now

Most will require an entry fee - what you want to watch out for are exorbitant entry fees. A prize of $1000 or more will typically have an entry fee from $10 to $25. If it gets much higher than that, you want to take a second look.

A decent reference article on writing contests is here (and my apologies if this has appeared elsewhere here):

http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/contests/

MacAllister · Mar 13, 2010

Good link, shadowwalker. Thanks!

juniper · Mar 13, 2010

Looking through that link I saw this:

Something else to think about: submitting to a contest takes your work off the market, at least temporarily, since most contests demand exclusive submission. It always amazes me that writers who grouse about agents who want three-month exclusives will happily consign their manuscripts to contest oblivion for much longer periods of time.

... which leads me back to the new thread I just started in the FAQ forum about understanding multiple submissions.

Although it doesn't seem to apply to this Hemingway contest, since they say:
We do accept simultaneous submissions; however, the writer must notify us if a story is accepted for publication or wins an award prior to our July announcements.

Lorian Hemingway Short Story Contest

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