Entering Contests

A week or so ago, Jan 8, 2007, the Sobol Award Staff announced it was canceling its highly criticized first novel contest due to an insufficient number of entries. Shortly after its inception in 2006 the literary community labeled the contest as a scam, largely due to its $85 entry fee and the winners’ subsequent contractual obligations to Sobol and its affiliates. One year later, the contest was shut down.

I guess it goes to show that big-time agents and publishers are fading from the limelight that artists are seeking for their work. Freedom of the press is available to anyone who has the will to publish. But that is not the point of this commentary.

What I would like to address is the ebbing contest pool and how to float through it without being scammed.

If you search the phrase “literary contest” on Google, you get 1.4 million results. How does the inexperienced author find the best contest to submit their work to? Certainly no one has enough money to cover the entry fees of every one of those contests.

My advice is to look deeper than the Internet. Subscribing to literary magazines is one good place to start. Many lit mags have a contest listing of reputable organizations with a history of finding quality work from annual, semi-annual, even quarterly or monthly contests, and news about other prizes. Also, investigate the possibility that a local organization (i.e.: a local writers group) might hold a contest that you could enter.

Know your work. Know the industry differences between fiction, short fiction, very short fiction, flash fiction, etc. Does what you want to submit fit the category offered by a particular contest?

Take a look at your body of work. Has anyone (besides your friends or family) ever read it? Know that other authors have spent hundreds of hours pouring over their submissions to the same contest you are considering entering. Several of them have won other contests. Is your work ready?

Look at the entry fee. Compare its weight on your budget and in relation to the award offered for the winning submission. READ THE RULES of the contest. Be sure that your rights remain intact whether you win or lose.

If you do begin submitting your work to contests, keep a log of what’s gone out and who has responded, how much you’ve spent (that includes entry fees and postage – sometimes you may be able to use it as a tax write-off*).

There are contests for emerging and accomplished writers. If you have searched and are still confused, ask an author that you respect or their opinion. And be prepared for rejection. I know someone who submitted his collection of poems to over 115 contests before he won a substantial award. (Likely, it was not only an award for the quality of his writing but for the karmic value of his persistence.)

Be patient, be persistent. Very good things come to those who work hard and wait.

- Benjamin Spencer
Senior Editor


* ask your tax man whether you qualify for any write-offs when it come to promoting your work through contests.

Finding the right workshop

In the spring of 1995, I was a sophomore in college in upstate New York. My creative writing instructor, Whitman scholar and poet Sam Abrams, handed me a pamphlet about the Naropa Summer Writing Program in Boulder Colorado and suggested I attend. I had never heard of the place, but I had recently read "On The Road" and knew who Jack Kerouac was. Naropa's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics was the host of the writing program.

I went. Blindly. I didn't do any research. I only knew one name of one author who was going to be there. Allen Ginsberg. I paid a few hundred dollars for a couple of weeks of the program and drove from New York to Colorado with a couple of friends. With some hindsight I can say it was one of the best moves of my life. It was the summer I met Allen Ginsberg (We spoke during the program and occasionally in the years to come about the use of breath when performing, and ways to beat writers block). It was the summer I committed my life to the written word.

However, this is an aside. The point of this article is to offer a few key items to think about when looking for a good workshop to attend. I offer that story to suggest that with some luck and a little patience you can find a truly memorable experience that feeds your art and builds relationships.

1) The first thing to think about is what type of workshop you want to attend. What are you looking to accomplish? If you want to hear other acclaimed authors speak about the craft of writing, you might look for a shorter weekend series that features back-to-back panels and live interviews with authors. In some cases you can take part in longer workshops in an ala carte fashion, handpicking the classes and/or lectures you want to attend. If you are interested in a more hands-on workshop where you actually get to work with the authors who attend, then you should look for a longer more intense workshop, perhaps one that lasts as long as a month.

2) That brings us to cost. How much are you willing to spend? This will determine with a varying amount of accuracy, what where how and when you will be able to attend a workshop. If you have some flexibility (and are very patient) you may find a really good event as far as a year in advance and begin saving money to attend. A few hundred dollars can sate your appetite. A few thousand dollars could earn you a contract with an agent, or help you perfect the novel you've been working on. Free, local workshops sometimes offer frequent events, talks, and workshops with credible authors working in your own community.

3) You should weigh your investment in any workshop with its reputation, the authors, and modalities it features. If you see a new workshop with a large entry fee and unknown "authors," you may want to look elsewhere. Big conferences sometimes are too big and you can get lost in the fold. Look for workshops that at least offer you the sort of treatment that you believe balances its cost.

4) There are varying degrees of comfort that we are all willing to deal with. When choosing your next workshop, you should ask yourself if you are willing to sit on the floor of a cabin with fifty other people to hear a reclusive legend talk about how to make coffee without a filter. Or do you want a lot of luxury and not a lot of talk about, or time spent writing? Do you want a mild level of comfort and a lot of talk and time dedicated to writing? Find the workshop that fits your idea of what a workshop is and should be.

5) Then there's location. Where you are able to go for a workshop depends heavily on your budget. If you are able to travel, I suggest looking to parts of the world that you want to go. Whether it's Santa Barbara, California or Ezra Pound's castle in Italy, you should think about where you want to be and go there. If you can afford to take time off from work to travel for a few weeks, try it.

Choosing the right workshop is ultimately a very subjective decision. If after doing research and coming to the conclusion that attending a workshop isn't right for you at this time, consider your local bookstore. Sometimes reading a good book about writing is all you need to get inspired. One good book is Stephen King's "On Writing," a very intimate look at the author's struggle to not only keep writing but to stay alive.

With a little research you will find the perfect workshop for your needs. One place to start looking is on our own links page at NorthernPros.com. We offer scores of links to workshops around the world. If you know about a good workshop that's not on our site, contact us.

Good luck and happy hunting.

- Benjamin Spencer
Senior Editor