A Few More Words about Contests

I have the pleasure of wrapping up this series of posts about writing contests. Unlike Mary Ann, I've never won any money in a writing contest, but several of my entries, including the first two I submitted way back in high school, did lead to publication. The poem April shared in her post perfectly captures the sense of elation those publications gave me. In fact, it was that feeling that inspired me to want to become a writer.

As Esther mentioned in her post, I've updated our Links page to include a section on writing contests. I've added a few more since Esther's post, including the Shabo Award for Picture Book Writers. Entry deadline for that one is August 10 this year, so if you're interested, don't delay. And if you know of any contests I missed, please share the information as a comment below.

There's one contest I'd like to discuss here that I couldn't provide a permanent link to because it changes every year, and that's the fiction contest associated with the annual SCBWI Midsouth Fall Conference. Last year, I entered the YA category and was fortunate to receive an Honorable Mention. While that hasn't led to publication (yet), I believe that mentioning the honor has brought more attention to my queries--at least I'm getting personalized rejections. :-) I also know that one of the agents attending the conference went up to a contest winner and asked if she was seeking representation. When the winner said "yes," the agent asked to read her winning manuscript.

Unfortunately, the 2013 SCBWI Midsouth Fiction Contest is already sold out, though there are still openings to attend the conference. But there are plenty of other SCBWI contest and grant opportunities. For example, last year, SCBWI-Illinois offered a contest as part of the annual Prairie Writer's Day. I don't know if that contest will be offered again this year, but you can watch for details on the Illinois regional events page at SCBWI. And there are all sorts of awards and grants available through SCBWI, which you can read about on the official website.

As my fellow TeachingAuthors have already mentioned, one of the benefits of entering a contest is that it provides a deadline as motivation to finish a project. I have also entered contests where, even if you don't win a prize, you receive a critique of your submission. This is true of many of the contests offered by individual chapters of the Romance Writers Association. Author Stephie Smith regularly updates an online list of such contests, including those for young adult literature. Two other contests I've entered that offer critiques and that are open to YA and/or children's literature are the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association Literary Contest and The Sandy.

If we haven't given you enough reasons for researching and entering writing contests, read this blog post at writers-editors.com. And for tips from former contest judges, see this contest tip sheet, also from writers-editors.com.

Do keep us posted if you enter any of the contests we've mentioned in this series, whether or not your entry wins. And good luck!

Happy writing!
Carmela    

Writing Contests: You Can't Lose

     As a kid, writing was the one thing I knew I could do well.  There weren't many opportunities for me to shine, until I discovered writing contests. 

     Ironically, (for someone whose first published book was a historical fiction set in Civil Rights Era Mississippi), my first writing award was courtesy of....of all things....the United Daughters of the Confederacy.  In eighth grade I came in second place in a city-wide essay contest. The subject? General Peter Alexander Stewart, a fairly obscure Confederate officer.  Trust me, in those pre-Internet days, it took several weekends of camping out in the reference section of the library before I dredged up enough information for a 500 word essay. On Awards Day, I proudly skipped to the auditorium stage to collect my five dollar prize.

     Five dollars equaled ten hours of babysitting.

     Winning was good.   I was hooked.

      I was blessed to have grown up when Mississippi had an annual state Arts Festival.  Along with a multitude of other arts related events, there was a statewide junior writing contest for high school students.  I won the short story contest  my sophomore year. My prize?  Fifty bucks and lunch with Willie Morris. I had no idea who Willie Morris was other than the former editor of Harpers.  (Later he would write My Dog Skip and I would come to admire his talent.) Then I just knew he was an Important Writer from Mississippi.   I later found out that my hometown writing idol Eudora Welty had been one of the writing contest judges.

     Fifty bucks = One hundred hours of babysitting.

     Winning was good.

     Winning gave me confidence.  Having conquered Mississippi, I didn't think twice about entering a contest sponsored by the Girl Scout magazine, American Girl (not to be confused with the magazine sponsored by the Pleasant Company and the American Girl dolls.) Winning the top short story prize made me positively cocky. I actually got some fan mail, plus a strange phone call from a Baptist youth group in Florida, who wanted to know the "story-behind-the-story."

      The prize? A ridiculous amount of money (to a sixteen-year-old) for something I banged out in study hall one day.  My math skills could no longer translate it to babysitting hours.

     From American Girl it was a short hop to the Grandmama of junior writing contests...the Seventeen Magazine short story contest.  Seventeen Magazine was our fashion-beauty-dating bible. In between the  pictures of Christie Brinkley in hot pants and floppy hats and the Bonnie Bell Lipsmackers ads, there were at least two short stories per issue by nationally recognized authors. (One that made a huge impression on me was by Pulitzer winner, Annie Proulx.)  I entered the contest, hardly believing my own daring.  These girls were good.  They went to fancy Eastern private schools.  Could I compete? I could and I did.  I came in second behind a teenage Joyce Maynard who had just published her first book at 19.

     So what's my point?  My point is that I was allowed to experience early success and gain confidence through these contests.  Even thouh there was a decades long gap between winning my last contest and selling my first book, I never lost that winning feeling, that confidence that deep down, I had what it took.

     I no longer enter contests.  Most of them aren't open to me as a published writer.  The last one I entered was 25 years ago when Delacorte Press still had their First Middle Grade contest.  However, I recommend entering contests for several reasons.

     1.  A deadline.  When you are still a pre-published author, writing can get shoved to the bottom of your priority list. After all, the only person who expects you to write is you. There isn't a publishing deadline, no editor emailing you for revisions.  A contest deadline makes you accountable for getting the work done.

     2.  Honing your craft.  Contests not only have deadlines, they have rules. Word counts. Specific genres, formats, subject matter.  Working within contest parameters disciplines your writing.

     3.  Winning.  Winning isn't always about publication or money.  Sometimes the prizes are a conference scholarship or a free critique.  Whatever the prize, it is usually something that will help you in your quest to become a better writer.  (A caveat: I am wary of contests from entities I don't know that charge an entry fee.  Some of these are just plain scams.  When in, doubt check Predators and Editors.)

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman
   

Where Can A Young Writer Get Published? Happy Poetry Friday!

. ~
Howdy, Campers and happy 

...which is over at Check it Out today ~
thanks for hosting today, Jone!
.

We've returned from our blog-cation tanned and rested.  Esther kicks off this round's topic about contests with her post on Lee and Low's New Voices Contest, including several juicy tidbits (did you know that an early version of Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham lost a contest before it went on to win the Newbery?) 

Jeanne Marie continues the discussion, touching on Las Vegas, mowing lawns, selling one's first born, her years as a Hollywood scriptwriter, and winning Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's scholarship.

On today's TeachingAuthors menu:

• links to contests for young writers;
• a poem about the delicious feeling when you learn you're going to be published;
• the secret about entering contests.

Links to contests for young writers:
Here's the page on my personal website which lists a few select contests (including a peace poetry contest), and here, on the TeachingAuthors website, Carmela has compiled a ton more.

My poem for Poetry Friday:
I vividly remember learning I'd won a writing contest when I was in second grade.  Winning came with a fancy bookmark(!) and a certificate to Martindale's Bookstore in Santa Monica for any book in the entire store!  I was intoxicated.  Any book! 

I chose Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham, much to my father's disappointment. 

(He had his heart set on The Big Book of Japanese Fairy Tales.)

Winning a contest, getting something published...the POW! of this is experience is indescribable. And no matter how many books you have published, or how many of your poems are in magazines and anthologies, most writers will tell you that an acceptance is an acceptance--the ZING! is as powerful each time.

And so, Campers: get out of your comfort zone and enter a contest or try to get something published (which is the same thing, if you think about it). 

Which brings us to today's poem. It's in my verse novel, Girl Coming in for a Landing--a novel in poems, illustrated by Elaine Clayton (Knopf, 2002).  It can be performed by one, two, or three people.  

PUBLISHED!
by April Halprin Wayland

A letter in the mail!
They're going to PUBLISH my poem.
In their magazine.
In June.

My brain is exploding!  I can’t sleep!
I woke up early,
my body buzzy
like a playground ball boing-ing down a long hallway.

THEY'RE GOING TO PUBLISH MY POEM!
I won’t tell anyone. 
I’ll wait until the magazine comes out.
How can I wait that long?

I won’t tell anyone.
I’ll just casually hand them the magazine
or wait
until someone at school sees it.

What will Carlo think?
What will Frank think?
What will Yen-Mei think?
What will Leslie think?????????

I won’t tell anyone.
I won’t tell anyone
and boy,
will they be surprised.

They’re going to
publish my poem!
My poem!  My poem!
Who can I call at 5:30 in the morning?
 
So, teens, 'tweens, ten-year-olds, scribblers...all: go forth and enter!  

Because here's the secret:
whether or not you win, 
you've won.

poem and drawing © April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

Today's post is by April Halprin Wayland who thanks you from the bottom of her sandy toes for reading this far.

Winning the Lottery

It must say something about me that I have written two of my five published novels with contests as a central conceit.  Despite my generally abysmal luck, I love a trip to Vegas, a nice scratch-off, a good game of trivia.  Of course contests that combine luck with skill give one the feeling of more control and, generally, greater satisfaction.  (Give me video poker over straight slots any day -- though I seem to be an equal opportunity loser.)

I have spent the past week preparing my talk for the upcoming Nora Roberts Writing Institute on the topic of breaking in to the business of screenwriting.  When I moved to Los Angeles, I quickly learned that you can't get anywhere without a terrific spec script; and you can't get anyone to read your spec script unless you are either a Hollywood scion or are willing to sell your firstborn child in exchange for the opportunity.  [This is only a slight exaggeration.]  You need an agent in order to have your work read, but most agents accept clients only through industry referrals.  It's quite a quandary.  I once attended a writing seminar in which it was recommended that aspiring writers cultivate relationships with producers in any manner possible -- mowing lawns, washing windows, nannying.  Thankfully, there are alternatives.  One is to work as an assistant on a show for very little money but for the tremendous opportunity to learn the ropes from the inside (as I did).  The other respectable path to access is the writing contest. 

Children's books used to be the one area of commercial publishing in which an agent was not necessraily required.  Novels were still routinely plucked from the slush pile and published.  In the two decades since I began writing, many houses have closed to unsolicited submissions. The path of the unagented writer has become much more difficult.  Again, many agents accept clients only through referrals.  It's the same Catch-22 all over again.

Though I had had some modest success breaking in to publishing on my own, I determined that the best way to gain access and, more importantly, expertise would be through an MFA program.  I certainly did not enroll with the expectation that I might win a scholarship, but it was a happy surprise when I was awarded the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Prize (one of several scholarships offered by Vermont Collee) in my second year.   It was an even happier surprise when Houghton Mifflin offered to publish my creative thesis, which became Mind Games.

Even if a contest does not result in publication, the credibility garnered by a win is a terrific addition to a query or resume, and it can provide the access to the agent who can provide access to the publisher, who might just launch your career.  Which brings us to our...

Several of my writer friends have been on a sending-out-manuscripts spree, and it is my intention to join them.  Query an agent, submit to a publisher, enter a contest -- polish a manuscript and get it off your desk.

To get you started, here are two contests with upcoming deadlines:

The Cheerios picture book contest for new authors
and the Pockets magazine short story contest.

Good luck to all! --Jeanne Marie

A Winning Writer's Jump-Start: Lee & Low's New Voices Contest

Today’s post not only officially restarts our TeachingAuthors blog after a brief Summer Hiatus.
It jump-starts our writers’ engines with a winning opportunity: Lee & Low’s New Voices Contest.
That’s right: jump-starts.
IMHO, a Writing Contest serves as the perfect external battery to get any writer goinggoinggoing and moving forward.

Think Motivation – i.e. publication, prize money, a publisher’s attention, for example.
Think Focus – i.e. a specific format, theme or subject matter.
Think Opportunity – i.e. a guaranteed reading and audience!
And don’t forget DEADLINE – in this case, September 30, 2013.
(Deadlines excel at keeping writers writing.)

For those unfamiliar with this independent publisher, Lee & Low Books focuses on diversity, specializing in high quality multicultural children’s books.  The company’s mission is “to meet the need for stories that all children can identify with and enjoy.  They pride themselves on books about everyone, for everyone.

Established in 2000, the annual New Voices Award is given to a writer of color of a children’s picture book manuscript. The Award winner receives a cash prize of $1,000 and Lee & Low’s standard publication contract, including the basic advance and royalties for a first-time author.  An Honor Award winner will receive a cash prize of $500.

Check out these published winners that went on to win – other - awards: Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The SammyLee Story and TheBlue Roses.

Writers who have published other work in venues such as children’s magazines, young adult or adult fiction or nonfiction are eligible.  Only un-agented submissions will be accepted.

Work that has been published in any format published online or independently is not eligible for this award.

To click on the previous years’ winners and learn more about embracing this winning opportunity, click HERE. 

As luck would have it, in her recent June 27 blog post, Anastasia Suen interviewed Pamela Tuck, author of AS FAST AS WORDS COULD FLY which won the 2007 Lee & Low New Voices Award.  This debut picture book tells a story based on Ms. Tuck’s dad’s journey of desegregating the Pitt County School System in Greenville, NC in the 1960’s.

Of course, when it comes to Writing Contests and external batteries, it goes without saying: one might lose the Contest but still drive away a Winner.

Just last month, one of my students shared her Good News that while she hadn’t won the Highlights Fiction Contest this year, the magazine wished to purchase her story in rhyme for publication!

And two months ago, another writer’s Honorable Mention in a themed blog’s picture book contest kept her believing in and submitting her original manuscript.

I love sharing with Young Writers how Christopher Paul Curtis’ college manuscript became the novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham which eventually lost out in the no-longer-offered Delacorte Contest.  But he did win an editor (Wendy Lamb) plus the chance to revise, allowing the book to go on to win a Newbery Honor.

So,

TeachingAuthors is up and running again!
Stay tuned for more Contests to jump-start your writing.
And be sure to check out our the new Writing Contests section on our Links page.

Good Luck!

(And keep us in the Loop.)

Esther Hershenhorn

Just CLICK and CONNECT!

When it comes to celebrating Teen Technology, I feel Mary Ann’s and Jill’s pain.
I don’t exactly qualify as a Teen. 
(Click HERE to see just which high school Reunion I’m attending this May.) 
And, this is the book I’m currently reading.
I also boldly revealed my Inner Luddite in a post last March.  (Click HERE.)

BUT…

I sure do love to CLICK, then follow the links to CONNECT with all sorts of wondrous People, Places and Things.

Oh, the Possibilities!
Sigh.
Ah, the Opportunities!

For instance, there I was,

letting my fingers stroll the Internet on behalf of a writer with a UK-suited book,
and what did I come upon but

That’s why I’m wishing you a belated Happy World Book Day!
This site is ripe with new books, authors and curriculum connections for readers, writers, teachers and librarians.
(And yes, I found three, count ’em, three publishing possibilities for my writer.)

Booklist Editor Gillian Engberg sent me a lovely Quick Tips email, calling my attention
to Writing Resources for the Common Core Classroom.
Clicking and connecting I came upon a terrific timely opportunity for Kiddos co-sponsored by DC Comics and Capstone – The “Be a Super Hero, Read!” Writing Contest.  Running through April 15, the Contest encourages kids in grades 3 through 6 to write about a real-life superhero in their lives. 
Click HERE for the Rules.

And speaking of writing Kiddos, how could I not click on the Denver Post’s Next Gen, the online newspaper for youth-written stories.

I’d met several middle school reporters during my visit to the Colorado International Reading Association Conference in February.
Click HERE and connect to Collin Colaizzi and his write-up of author and Writing Guru Ralph Fletcher’s talk on the importance of a Writer’s Notebook.

It turns out that, despite my long-gone teenage years and my lack of Tech savvy, my  Inner Luddite and I have had One Swell Time CLICKING and CONNECTING this past week, occasioning numerous opportunities to showcase our gelasins.

(Click HERE if you’re eager to learn last week’s A.Word.A.Day.)

Who knows?

Maybe someday soon I’ll be CLICKING and MANUFACTURING, thanks to the opportunities and possibilities of  Tech’s newest child, 3-D Printing!

(Oy!)

Happy Clicking and Connecting!

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.

Be sure to click HERE to enter to win Tamera Wissinger’s Gone Fishing: A Novel in Verse. You only have until 11 pm, Wednesday, March 13.