How To Receive Money from Writing Contests All Year Long

Receiving money from writing contests that you enter and win is a way to grow your income and gain increased exposure in literary circles.  By winning writing contests you can also catch the attention of media outlets, thereby increasing your book sales and speaking engagement requests. 

Make Lots of Money by Winning Writing Contests

Poets & Writers, Writer’s Market, The Writer and The Book Lover’s Haven are a few of the print and electronic literary periodicals that list writing contests.  If you’re a creative business leader who loves writing poetry, you’re in good fortune as a large number of writing contests are designed for poets.  In addition to searching for writing contests in magazines, journals, newsletters and at literary websites, you can enter contests that are solely affiliated with one or more writing conferences.  Several of these contests (and conferences) are operated by accredited colleges and universities.  Check with local colleges and universities in the city where you live to see if they host writer conferences that judge writing contests, keeping in mind that operating a writing contest is an effective way to peak interest in conferences and literary websites. 

Additional places (and URLs to the above periodicals) where you can find lists of writing
contests are:

• Poets & Writers – www.pw.org (they have a print
  magazine you can subscribe to and an online presence)
• Funds for Writers – www.fundsforwriters.com
• Writers Digest – www.writersdigest.com
• American Association of Community Theatre – www.aact.org (http://www.aact.org/cgi-bin/webdata_contests.pl?cgifunction=Search,
  takes you directly to contests list)
• Lorain Hemingway Short Story Competition – http://www.shortstorycompetition.com/
• The Writer – http://www.writermag.com/events.aspx?page=list&type=2
• Book Lover’s Haven – www.chistell.com (free
  subscription to newsletter listing contests & paying writing jobs)
• Writers Market – http://www.writersmarket.com (You can
  get access to a free print version of the guide at your local library)
• University of New Orleans Writing Contest – http://lowres.uno.edu/contest.cfm
• Nimrod Literary Contest – http://www.utulsa.edu/nimrod/awards.html
• CNW Publishing, Writing Contests – http://www.writers-editors.com/Writers/Contests/contests.htm
• United States Institute of Peace Essay Writing Contest – http://www.usip.org/npec
• Brigham Young University Writing Contests – http://english.byu.edu/contests/

You may be able to improve your chances of having your work noticed more quickly when you enter writing contests if you: 

• Read instructions associated with the contests in detail (rather than simply skimming the instructions to get the contests’ deadline dates)
• Address your writing contests entries to the correct person and/or department
• Ask a friend to read over your contests entries to make sure the entries are grammatically correct
• Distribute copies of your contests entries to members of professional writers groups you’re a member of to get feedback on the work
• Read your writing out loud as your ear might catch an awkward phrase that your eye misses
• Stick to themes associated with writing contests (some contests ask you to submit poems or short stories based on given themes, while other contests are open and will accept written works that focus on a variety of themes)

Connecting With Writing Contests Judges

Should you enter contests that are associated with writing conferences, see if you can meet briefly with editors or judges of the contests to get additional feedback on your work.  After all, just because you didn’t win a contest doesn’t mean that your work doesn’t merit further attention.  You might even strike a chord with an editor or publisher and land a writing contract. 

Furthermore, some creative business organizations that host writing contests will email you a list of winners after the contests close if you include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with your contests entries.  Also remember that not all contests charge
reading fees to help cover the administrative costs associated with managing the contests.  If contests have a reading fee, check to see how long the contests have been operating and ask for a list of previous winners (many legitimate contests post previous winners at their websites or in their periodicals).  If contests charge a $15 reading fee and only pay a small award (e.g. $200), you might want to give the idea of entering those contests a second thought as the organizers might make more money, by far, off running the contests than they award to writers.  In addition to winning money, you can also win fellowships if you enter certain types of contests that aim to make it financially possible for creative artists to afford to focus solely on sharpening their craft. 

Get into Spiral online at:  https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000000841/Spiral.html

Check out Long Walk Up online at:  https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000000531/Long-Walk-Up.html