Free to enter short story competitions?

A pay to play competition isn't going to get you any exposure unless it's a major competition with a good reputation. Free competitions won't get you any recognition either, unless they too are well thought of.

There are as many online magazines as there are, well, paper magazines. Most of them take submissions all the time. Without knowing specifically what you write, it's difficult to point you in the right direction.

If you write speculative fiction the Writers of the Future contest is free and has four judgings a year with cash prizes and publication of winning entries. It's also quite prestigious, although naturally all this makes it very competitive.

Forget competitions, free or otherwise. You only get the exposure if you win, or place highly.

There are thousands of online publications, the majority of which have a realistic readership you can count on one hand. A small minority are quite prestigious, and pay. And what's wrong with paper publications?

Do your research.

Starting point www.storypilot.com and www.ralan.com. And google, of course.

Mike Coombes said:

Forget competitions, free or otherwise. You only get the exposure if you win, or place highly.

There are thousands of online publications, the majority of which have a realistic readership you can count on one hand.http://www.

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This is very true. But to add to this, submitting to a magazine is somewhat of a competition when you break it down. You send a story in along with thousands of other writers to a particular publication. The editor will only take what they consider the best like in a competition. Then you get paid (depending on the publication, of course)...just like in a competition. The bonus of this process: it is FREE to submit to any magazine.

Also, I'd bet that if anyone did a study on this, the odds of getting published through regular publications would be greater than winning a writing competition.

It's true. I had 11 pieces published last year, all but one in print mags, and all but two paid.

for erotica desdmona.com has a free competition--there are a few around.

Free Online Contest

www.antipedantic.com and NFB will publish good writing. Submit work to [email protected] . We are indexed by google, so your name and story will appear when and if your story is published.

Stories

Evan said:

Does anyone know of any free to enter short story competitions? Or any online magazines or something like that who are accepting submissions in the near future?.

Ive had a look at a few sites but everything i seem to find you have to pay an entry fee. Im not looking to win anything i just want the exposure, so prizes are not an issue.

Thanks,
Evan

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Everythng depends on teh genre you write in. Without knowing this, pointing out markets or good contests is impossible.

Evan said:

Does anyone know of any free to enter short story competitions? Or any online magazines or something like that who are accepting submissions in the near future?.

Ive had a look at a few sites but everything i seem to find you have to pay an entry fee. Im not looking to win anything i just want the exposure, so prizes are not an issue.

Thanks,
Evan

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Evan, I'm hoping you will state the style of writing contests that you are looking for, because as many have already pointed out, it is difficult to point you in the right direction without knowing your genre interests.

I was also wondering what you meant by, "I just want exposure". Did you mean you want to build a resume of publication and contest wins, or perhaps have an agent read your winning story and approach you?

Something else that you might want to consider is that you stated that you have found a few fee-based contests, but didn't enter because you didn't want to pay the fee. I just want to point out that if these contests are in markets that you enjoy reading, and you wouldn't mind having your work published in these venues either, then why not "invest" in a market you enjoy. BUT, more importantly, if you are thinking of your writing as a creative activity as well as a self-directed business that you are looking to "expose", then you can also look at the contest fee as an investment in YOURSELF and or your business/profession too.

Just some food for thought