Big Profits From Writing Contests - At Minimum Cost

How could you profit from short fiction competitions more systematically and enjoyably? Here's a win-win story plan to help you succeed with creative writing competitions.

Tip #1. Look for competitions that offer you a superb range of prizes.

A good span could be a major prize of $250, 2nd prize of $50, 3rd prize of $30, and ten runner-up prizes of $15. Such a contest provides you thirteen prospects to profit. That is a good writing contest!

To provide a bonus offer, a lot of competitions additionally provide their own commentary for the main winners.

Even so, in the event you strain every single brain cell to enter a major competition that offers only one exceptional top award, yet absolutely no other prizes, it's actually little comfort to become haloed afterwards amongst the prime one hundred near winners - if their names are publicized in any way whatever.

Tip #2. Search for contests which supply money prizes but where competitors ought to fulfill certain factors.

The standards may require that the writer comes within a particular age group, ethnic group, sexual category, occupation or nationality. Provided you genuinely suit those considerations, you have a much better chance to win than when you enter a contest which sets hardly any limits upon the participant.

Why? The total of participants must be a lot fewer and the judges will be searching for elements inside the narrative that reflect the criteria of this contest. As an actual person in this kind of niche, it is possible to persuasively provide those factors. The prizes may also be higher than normal due to the fact these contests are frequently run by companies that have some public relations, cultural or political goal to pursue - together with a spending budget to match.

Obviously, it would be really risky to fake your personality to enter these contests...

The organizers of a writing contest will lust to display the winners to aid their PR activities. Thus if a contest is organized to encourage female Canadian writers yet you masquerade as, for example, a Vancouver-born mother of three it would be really discomforting in the event you win and are asked to present a radio interview. Specially in the event you turn out to be, unquestionably, a macho Australian.

Some thing similar to this took place not too long ago for the recipient of a romantic novel award who published under a woman's identity. As soon as the winner visited the prize ceremony, every person was astonished to discover that the woman was obviously a retired soldier of advanced age, heavily moustached. It wouldn't come as a surprise if the promoters took back the prize...

Tip #3. Search for competitions that ask simply a token entry payment.

A fee of simply $8-$16 (£5-£10) is really a reasonable gamble if the top cash award approaches three figures. A cost of $30 or far more is probably not. For just a regular expense of $160 (£100) plus entry charges of $8 (£5) you can enter something like 20 contests each week and have a very good chance, not just of recovering your money, but also of creating a wholesome revenue.

At $30 per entry, given a $160 spending budget, you can enter just five contests per week and you'd have extremely little chance of profiting at all.

An additional tip: once your entry has won, instantly send it once more elsewhere - tailored to the policies of the further contests. But do check that the contest rules don't explicitly bar the submission of tales which have formerly gained a top prize in a contest.

Your chances of succeeding in a new contest are usually now greater because you are presenting a tried "product"!