The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is down to the 10 finalists! There is one entry that sure sounds like spec fic (The Prospect of My Arrival by Dwight Okita) and another that could be spec fic but it's hard to tell (Wrecking Civilization Before Lunch by John Ring). Neither is what I would call "traditional" science fiction--science and ( Read more... )

Now that the writers' strike is over, scriptwriters can turn their attention to the 10th annual Scriptapalooza contest. The entry fee is $40 to $50 depending on when you submit, and they take e-mail as well as hard copy submissions. There's also a contest for TV scripts. Early bird deadlines are in March, regular deadlines in April. Check them ( Read more... )

The Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award is down to 100 semifinalists! I must say, though, that they seem to have dissed speculative fiction. There are only five novels listed under science fiction and fantasy. That's a pretty dismal showing considering we were 17 percent of the total entries, which, as I calculate was approximately 150 ( Read more... )

I tripped over a different kind of contest. If you have a "crime fiction" short story, and it has (or you can give it) a New England setting-or if you're a New England writer-you can enter the 2008 Al Blanchard Award. The prize is $100 and publication in an anthology, the time frame is an April 30 deadline, the word limit is 5,00 words, and the ( Read more... )

I couldn't remember the time frame for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, so I checked. If you're interested, they got their 5,000 entrants already. They're now busy making sure the entrants all meet their eligibility requirements. It's not clear, but from the FAQ, it sounds like Amazon "Top Reviewers" and Amazon editors are also ( Read more... )

I've learned a lot from entering writers' contests. Most importantly, when faced with a rigid rule on how many pages I could enter, I've learned to cut, cut cut! Do you really need that adjective? What, if anything, does that sentence add to the reader's knowledge of the character? Does it advance the plot? If it doesn't help, then it goes ( Read more... )

The ever useful Pikes Peak Writers list serve recently had an item on the fact that Amazon.com is now running a contest to find "the next great novel." The only requirement seems to be that the work not have been published before (although they ask for cover art "if available" which suggests self-published books might be OK). Follow the link to ( Read more... )

Fall must be on its way. The folks at Pikes Peak Writers have announced that the annual Paul Gillette Memorial Writing Contest will open on September 1 and close on November 1 ( Read more... )