How To Win Writing Contests

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Brought to you by Writers Village: http://www.writers-village.org/welcome.php
How to Win Writing Contests for Profit

A practical ebook by Dr John Yeoman, MA (Hons) Oxon, MRes, MPhil,
PhD (Creative Writing)
Legal disclaimer: the publisher has tried to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of
this report, but assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions or interpretations, or for matters which
are subjects of opinion, nor does he make any guarantees of income. The book is not intended as a
source of legal, business, accounting or financial advice. Professional advice should always be sought
where appropriate.
This book is offered free of copyright.

You may copy it, email it to others, sell it or give it away free as a bonus
product provided you retain at all times the references that occur in it to
the publishers web site:
http://www.writers-village.org/welcome.php
How to Win Writing Contests for Profit

Chapter 1: The Profit (and Fun) Potential of Fiction Contests
Chapter 2: Choosing Your Contests
Chapter 3: How to Spot Profitable Contests
Chapter 4: How to turn your contest hobby into a profitable
business
Chapter 5: Contests to beware of
Chapter 6: Understand the seven key ways that contest entries
are judged
Chapter 7: Congratulations, youve won! How to maximise
your win.
Chapter 1: My promises to you

In this short, easily readable report, I hope:
1.
to show you that winning several cash-prize contests every month

is achievable and, moreover, that it can bring you a four-figure
income.
2.
to give you strategies for turning your short fiction into money,
not only by publishing them in traditional ways, but also by
submitting them to contests.
3.
to alert you to what judges of fiction usually look for in an entry,

and how you can provide it.
The profit (and fun!) potential of fiction contests

I have discovered from my own experience, over 40 years as a successful
commercial writer and publisher, that anyone who has the talent to write
stories can gain a very useful income doing what they love to do - writing
stories.
I hope thats you!
You can generate a useful income at any time or place you choose, from
your easy chair at home, or travelling on a plane, bus or train, or even
lying on a beach. (Chances are, your contest income will fund some very
nice holidays each year.)
And you can do as much of it as you please or as little, when and where
you choose.
Whats more... follow this plan systematically, and you will develop a
portfolio of stories that you can also sell separately. And which may lead
to your work being accepted by a publisher. So it will become profitable
once again.
Entering contests is like enrolling in a university of creative writing. You
will hone your writing skills, painlessly, with every entry you submit. But
you dont pay this university - at least, no more than a few dollars a
month. It pays you!
Above all, you will enter an enchanting new world: the company of
serious fellow writers.
Untold thousands of us operate our own web sites or blogs, many of them
cross-linked with each other. It doesnt matter where you live in the
world, or what your personal circumstances are, you will still be
welcomed in this fabulous community. On the web, everyone starts out
equal.
Equipped with just a few contest wins, you can approach this friendly
virtual world with confidence and impressive credentials!
Thousands of contest opportunities
While doing competitor research for my own writing contests, I found
that more than 2100 contests per annum are being announced online,
throughout the world, for short fiction alone in the English language. (In
fact, no contest really competes with another. But I was interested to see
what other folk were doing.)
That awesome number does not include contests for novels, playscripts,
poetry, multi-media or other creative works, or those awards granted by
various bodies to honour works already published, or the many contests often local - that never find their way onto the web.
You will never discover all the contest opportunities in any one list,
online or otherwise. Lists, whether published in print or online, tend to
summarise only the most prominent contests and/or those announced in
their own countries.
To stay abreast of the latest contests, seek them out throughout the world.
New contest lists or directories appear continually on the web.
A tip: Do a periodic search via several different search engines
(Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc) putting in keywords like writing
contest list, fiction contest directory, story contests review, and
the like, plus the current year eg 2013. (Otherwise youll be
swamped by old listings.) Also use a search utility that gathers
together the results from several search engines eg. Dogpile:
http://www.dogpile.com
Why use several search engines? Google may bury an interesting
contest in, say, page 999 of its results whereas Yahoo or Bing will
put it in the early pages. And vice versa. Dogpile will show a
different sequence entirely.
Remember: not every contest organiser is adept at Search Engine
Optimisation (SEO) to assure that their contest appears on page
one. Some excellent contests may be buried very deep in the web!
Chapter 2: Choosing your contests

With so many contests to choose from, how do you focus on the ones that
will bring you the most profit? First, you look at the fee to prize ratio.
If you carefully analyse a large list of short fiction contests, as I did,
youll probably find a ratio of around 1:60 between the entry fee and the
total cash value of the prizes. (Thats if we leave aside some special cases
that skew the figures.) So a contest with cash prizes totalling around $600
will typically charge $8-$16 per entry.
Thats a fair ratio. Your risk is low, the payout is worthwhile and - unlike
a sweepstake or lottery - your skill (not chance) will determine if you win.
So theres a psychological as well as monetary reward.
But if a contest shows a ratio very different from 1:60, its worth asking a
few questions. Lets look at these questionable cases.
1. The contest offers prizes of very low value or no monetary prizes.
If no cash prizes are offered but an entry fee is charged nonetheless, this
may be acceptable if the non-monetary rewards are still attractive.
Ive noticed universities offering a top prize of a three-month study
residency. One promoter of a prestigious conference gave free places on a
three-day event - plus the presentation of the winners awards at the
conference podium magna cum laude! Such contests might be worth a
wager.
Sometimes, a contest has no tangible prizes - just a promise of
publication in an obscure magazine, web site or ezine (electronic
newsletter). Theres no harm in that if no entry fee is required. It can also
be very heartening, at the start of a writing career, to see ones stories in
print. Wherever they appear.
But you wont make any money. And thats what were here for!
And if all you win is a free magazine, maybe the organisers are simply
seeking free content for their magazine plus enough dollars to pay the
printer. I sympathise with such small presses (truly). They struggle hard. I
just wouldnt enter their contests.
2. The contest offers high prize values but also demands a high entry
fee.
At first sight, this looks compelling. If your story is good, it should stand
a better chance than usual of winning because the contest will attract few
entries. Or so you might reason. However... it also means that the
organisers, unless theyre separately funded by some reputable body like
a newspaper or university, will lose their shirts.
Ask yourself: are the organisers likely to pay out the prizes, if they make
a loss?
It gets worse. Sometimes the small print will reveal that prizes will
be paid out only if enough entries are received to cover the prize
monies. Or that the prizes stated are the maximum available. The
total pot of entry fees received will be split among the winners after subtracting administrative costs, of course.
So the organisers cant lose but the winners may receive little or
nothing. Check the small print!
3. The contest offers small prizes but demands no entry fee.
This seems good. What can you lose? In three words: time, labour and
postage. Often these contests are perfectly reputable but your only reward
is a smidgen of publicity. Remember: you cant take fame to the bank.
Theres also another point to consider. Why do organisers of
legitimate award schemes often ask for a token entry fee - although
they dont need the money? Answer: to be merciful to their judges!
They know very well, a totally free competition with no entry
preconditions will be swamped by dross. Do you really want to
keep such company?
Chapter 3: How to spot profitable contests

Tip #1. Look for contests that offer a good spread of prizes.
A good spread might be a top prize of 400 ($640), 2nd prize of 100
($160), 3rd prize of 50 ($80), plus runner-up prizes. (Forgive me if I cite
my own contest at Writers Village as a model. You can see how it works
at: http://www.writers-village.org/) Such a contest gives you several
opportunities to win.
However, if you strain every brain cell to enter a major contest that offers
just one stellar top prize, but no other prizes, its little consolation to be
haloed later among its top 100 also-rans (even if their names are
published at all).
Tip #2. Look for contests that offer cash awards but where
contestants must meet specific criteria.
The criteria might be that the author falls within a certain age range,
ethnic group, gender, occupation or nationality. Provided you truly fit
these criteria, you stand a better chance of winning than if you enter a
contest which places no restrictions on the entrant.
Why? The number of entrants should be fewer and the judges will be
looking for elements in the story which illustrate the criteria of the
contest. As an authentic member of this niche, you can persuasively
supply those elements.
The prizes might also be higher than usual because such contests are
often run by organisations which have some PR, cultural or political
agenda to pursue - plus a budget to match.
Of course, it would be very unwise to fake your identity to enter such
contests :)
The organisers will thirst to publicise their winners to support their PR
agendas. So if a contest is run to encourage female Canadian writers and
you masquerade as, say, a Vancouver-born mother of three it would be
quite embarrassing if you won and were asked to give a media interview.
Especially if you turn out to be, undisguisably, a male Australian.
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I do not joke. Something like this happened last year to the winner
of a UK romantic novel award who wrote under a female name.
When the winner arrived at the award ceremony, everyone was
surprised to find that she was a retired brigadier in his sixties,
heavily moustached. It wouldnt surprise me if the organisers took
back their award...
Tip #3. Seek out contests that ask only a token entry fee.
A fee of say $8-$16 (5-10) is a reasonable wager if the top cash prize is
in three figures. Its even better if the contest fee includes a free critique
of your story. A fee of $30 or more is probably excessive. For a weekly
investment of $160 (100) and entry fees of $8 (5) you could enter 20
contests a week and have a very good chance, not only of recouping your
investment, but also of making a healthy profit.
At $30 per entry, given a $160 budget, you could enter only five contests
per week and you would stand very little chance of winning at all (see my
thoughts later about contests that demand high entry fees).
Another tip: once your story has won, immediately submit it again
elsewhere - adapted to the rules of the new contests (see below).
But do check that the contest rules do not bar the submission of
stories that have previously won a contest.
Your chances of winning in a further contest are also now greater
because you are submitting a tested product!
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Chapter 4: How to turn your contest hobby into a

profitable business
If you are serious about making money from contests (even if you only
want your contest entries to be a paying hobby), you must organise
yourself. It is now your business! Search for contests online, then copy
the details of the relevant ones into a database.
Excel or ACT are sophisticated databases and they take some getting
used to. But a Table in Word.doc serves me well enough. It lets you do
simple sort and search routines, which are useful for keeping your contest
deadlines in chronological order and for finding a contest buried in a long
list. And the Table utility is easy to learn.
Youll need to set up around six columns: Deadline, Contest name, Prize
money & Entry fee, Basic rules (like word length, theme, etc), Contact
details, Action taken and Result.
Its then painless to switch between different windows - the Word.doc
Table and your web browser - to fill in more details from each contest site
online as required. The Table will also remind you of the deadlines for
submission and will make it easy to check periodically on the status of
entries youve submitted.
Note: a contest that fails to announce its winners after a reasonable
period, either publicly and/or to the entrants, should be put on your
iffy list for the future. How do you know the prizes were ever
awarded?
Moreover, a database can help you to avoid the faux pas of accidentally
resubmitting the same story to the same contest yet again. (Especially if
your story has already won that contest ;))
Accelerate your profits with multiple submissions
Most contests welcome multiple entries, provided you pay an entry fee
for each, nor do they usually try to prevent you submitting the same story
to several other contests simultaneously. Nor should they. You own the
copyright and, provided you havent signed a contract with a publisher,
you can do whatever you wish with your own story.
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We all know how much labour we put into creative writing. It can take
days, even weeks, to complete a few thousand good words. So dont
chance all that work on one wager. Submit the same story several times
to as many relevant contests as possible.
Is this ethical? Provided the contest rules dont forbid it, my opinion is:
yes.
Its akin to submitting your novel to several literary agents
simultaneously. No agent today expects you to make a submission just to
one agency at a time then wait patiently for up to six months to receive a
form rejection letter (if, indeed, you ever do get a response). Multiple
submissions to agencies are now the norm.
Will the contest organisers try to bar you from submitting your story
elsewhere?
Sometimes. Read the rules! It would be very galling to win a prize then
have it withheld because the judges discover your story has already won
another competition. (In these days of Google, it is quite easy to discover
evidence of previous publication.)
Likewise, a contest may require that the story has not been published
before in print media. I make this stipulation in the Writers Village
contest. I do it simply because I want to encourage those writers, in
particular, who have published little or nothing to date.
Plagiarism is very silly
Needless to say, plagiarism is a no, no. Worse, its silly. A well-read
judge can often spot it. If s/he doesnt, readers almost certainly will when
the story goes online.
I once received a brilliant entry to the Writers Village contest but
something about it made me pause. It used the phrases and syntax of a
previous era. My wife read it and exclaimed de Maupassant!. Sure
enough, it was a blatant adaptation, with only minimal editing, of one of
his classic tales.
Theres no harm in borrowing an idea from elsewhere. All writers do it.
(Shakespeare stole every one of his plot ideas.) But if you do it, you must
be 100% original in your composition!
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A clever, ethical and profitable strategy

Here is a strategy that is not widely known but it can make you a great
deal of money.
Its simple, but very powerful. You make multiple submissions, not by
submitting the same story to every contest but... by adapting the story
every time you submit it. Not only does this strategy increase the
frequency with which you can enter contests but also it will allow you to
enter contests that seem - unreasonably - to demand that you write your
story just for them.
Frankly, given the hours that a writer puts into crafting a good
story, thats absurd. (It might be fair enough if the organisers gave
every entrant a prize. But then it wouldnt be a contest!)
How can we enter many contests like that, rapidly and ethically?
Lets take a typical contest. It might have a specific theme such as: the
first day of spring. A company celebrating its silver or 25th anniversary
might run a competition where every story has to focus on the theme of
silver.
A contest might impose a specific plot: for instance, imagine that
somebody opens a letter or diary they are not supposed to read. What
happens next? Other contests might set you the opening words of the
story eg: My life might have been very different, if only I had....
Surely you have to write a fresh story every time to comply with such
rules?
No! Any well crafted story has a strong plot element or nugget that is
independent of its characters, descriptions, time, place or even genre.
So you can recompose that nugget to suit almost any contest!
Remember the story of Cinderella? The theme of rags to riches, complete
with wicked step-sisters and fairy godmothers, has been noted in different
cultures all over the world since records began. (Sometimes the
stepmothers are oppressive landlords, sometimes Cinderella is a poor
fisherman, sometimes the fairy is a genie, etc.)
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The same story has appeared in plays, ballets, poems and, of course,
pantomimes.
But surely (I hear you say) my story is essentially tragic or downbeat.
How can I edit it into a happy or comic one? Or vice versa? Very easily.
All downbeat stories contain a victim. Add comic punchlines and the
tragedy becomes a jest. Take away the punchlines and the jest becomes a
tragedy.
Its true! In the late 17th century, a producer called James Howard
staged Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet as tragedy and comedy
on alternate nights. For the comic version, he cut out a few scenes
and added upbeat endings to the existing scenes. In the comic
version, Romeo and Juliet got married. (In West Side Story today,
the star-crossed lovers sing upbeat songs - and dance too.)
So... simply recast your story to the demands of each contest!
You need do little more than write a fresh first paragraph, plus make
some cosmetic changes to character names, dialogue, setting and key
incidents. That way, if youre a competent writer, you should find it
possible to produce a half dozen new short stories in a single weekend
from one original, strongly crafted story.
True, you should revamp your story sufficiently so that its 80%+ unique
in its language. Otherwise, Google and Copyscape will detect it as a
dupe. So will contest organisers, if theyre astute. But you wont
plagiarise your own work if you adapt it individually to each contest.
Submit six stories a week, each to a different contest and - if youre
skilled at your craft - at least one story per week should win you
something. It may be that four-figure top prize!
Incidentally, you can find a treasury of free tips to improve your
writing at:
(Please pardon my unforgivable plug. I shall now move on :))
Whether you go on to adapt your winning story and resubmit it to further
contests depends upon the rules of those contests. But do be careful
which contests you select when resubmitting a newly adapted story.
Otherwise, before long, every contest judge in the world will chuckle
when your all-too-familiar entry arrives: here comes Cinderella again.
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Above all, dont cheat

As Ive said, contest organisers often allow multiple entries from the
same contestant. Even so, it would not be a good idea to make multiple
submissions to the same contest under several false names, using the
addresses of your complicitous friends, in some deluded hope of
improving your chances.
It doesnt work. Nobody can disguise their style that well. And besides,
suppose you won all the prizes and had to turn up in person to collect
them! You wouldnt know where to hide your face (or faces).
If you wish to pursue chicanery, go into public relations. Its legal.
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Chapter 5: Contests to beware of

Strangely, some folk who promote story contests think they are an easy
way to make money. So (Im told) they will put up a web site that costs
them nothing, buy a $10 domain name, advertise an alluring array of cash
prizes that they have no intention of paying out, hype their offer with
exclamation marks and breathless copy generated by a sales software
program.
And hope to pocket a five figure sum in three months.
When this doesnt happen (and to attract more than 100 paying entries for
a contest announced by a previously unknown organiser is a miracle),
they will shut down the site, start another scam under a different name
and use even more exclamation marks.
I find this strange because the only way to make money in any business
(and many reputable contests are businesses) is to build the customer
relationship, over time, by being scrupulously honest. Thats not
moralising. After 40 years of running my own companies, I can promise
you - its tested commercial sense.
Here are the tell-tale clues of a hungry promoter, who lacks commercial
sense:
1. The promoter has no obvious credentials in literature, academia or
business.
2. Youve never heard of the judges or cannot easily check on them.
Worse, no judges are named.
3. The text in the contest web site or announcement shows evidence
of illiteracy. If a contest cannot even place its apostrophes in the
right place :), is it qualified to review your story?
4. The contest does not showcase the work of previous winners. Why
not? Unless the contest has not been run before, the organisers
should lust to flaunt this proof of their credentials and, not least,
encourage future entrants to seek a similar fame.
5.
If the winning stories are showcased, were they - in your opinion worthy of an award? If not, you might understandably feel
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motivated to enter the contest because, you think, you could easily
beat the previous winners. In fact, if the stories are mediocre yet inexplicably - they still won money, ask yourself: did the
organisers write the stories? If so, did they ever hand out any cash
prizes?
In other words, watch for contests that appear to be run ineptly and/or
solely as a get-rich-quick machine. Please note: there is nothing wrong in
running a contest to make money. I do it myself at Writers Village. Only
bodies with large public relations budgets or taxpayer funding can afford
to run a contest, at a loss, for goodwill alone.
But my profits from Writers Village are no more than beer money. In
my retirement years, I run the contest (a) for fun and (b) because - having
been a professional writer all my life and experienced the wretched
problems of breaking into print in my early years - I genuinely want to
encourage writers who are newly facing these problems. The winners
together make more profit than I do. (True! And cue violins...)
So watch out for organisers who are (too obviously) hungry.
Here are some more clues to a hungry promoter:
1. Avoid the contest that tries to hard-sell you immediately on some
other service or product.
For a mere $59 to defray expenses your work will be included in an
anthology, they say. You can then buy copies in a hardcover edition for
the privileged price of $99 each (or, in gold-embossed leather, for just
$199!).
If your entry is part of a larger work, the organisers will praise you
unreasonably and offer to publish your entire work and promote it on
their website where customers will flock to buy it. (Allegedly.) Agents
regularly scan the site, they say, keen to find new talent. (Ho!) Moreover,
the organisers will circulate copies among literary scouts who have an
inside track to top publishers! (Ho! And ho again.)
Surely, all that is worth your life savings, paid up front, they will ask? (I
leave the answer to you.)
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Of course, this is vanity publishing. Every author knows the folly of it

and you can read about it in sickening detail via a Google search along
the lines: vanity publishing scams.
Unhappily, its quite common for vanity publishers to run contests solely
to entice gullible writers. So beware of any contest organiser who asks
money from you to publish your work.
2. Shun any contest that wants to take the copyright of your story.
Why any contest organiser would want to steal a writers copyright
defeats me. But some do.
(Amazingly, it can also be legal. The practice is widespread in
academia. Some academic journals not only refuse to pay for
articles but also steal their copyright. So an author has to beg the
journals permission to republish his or her own work elsewhere.
Unworldly academics might put up with such brigandry, but we
shouldnt.)
3. Beware of the contest that, in any way, implies that if you buy the
promoters other products you stand a better chance of winning the
contest.
There should be no objection to organisers who also sell, for example,
books, critiques or mentoring programs at a modest price. Maybe thats
their main business. (It certainly is mine.) Nobody criticises Writers
Digest or Writing Magazine for advertising, in their magazines and
websites, products alongside their contests.
But they dont imply that buying their products will give you a headstart
in the contests.
Entries in a reputable contest are judged solely on their own merits.
Amen. (How can you tell if a contest is reputable? See my remarks
above!)
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Chapter 6: Understand the seven key ways that

contest entries are judged
All writing contests, if fairly judged, will have strict criteria for assessing
entries. Some contests publish their criteria, some dont. But if they dont,
how do you know what judges are looking for?
Having judged many contests - and more stories from students in my
creative writing classes than I care to remember - I can reasonably
suggest that the following standards of assessment are true of at least
most contests.
Remember: all judges are subjective, as are literary agents and
publishers readers. A story that wafts one judge into a rhapsody of
incoherent joy will leave another unmoved. Thats why a respectable
contest will have a points system in place.
A system is essential - not so much in detecting an outright winner (the
quality of an outstanding entry usually speaks for itself), but in making
fine judgements between, say, the winner of a 3rd prize and a runner-up
prize. (It also reduces the risk of judges coming to blows.)
Here is the points system I use myself.
A perfect story would have a weighting of 45 points. My top three prize
winners usually score in the range of 42-43 points while the ten
shortlisted winners typically fall into the 40-41 points bracket.
True, there is still room for personal judgement. Each judge will award
slightly different - sometimes very different - points in each category.
Thats why a story that flops in one contest might well go on to win first
prize in another. Its also why, if you think your story is good, you should
keep on submitting - and improving it!
1. How well does the story reflect the theme, genre or author
requirements of the contest?
Not all contests are themed. If the organisers ask merely for short fiction
of any kind whatsoever, this category of assessment is inapplicable. But
beware of a contest that has no stipulations. Perhaps it lacks
discrimination in other respects too? :) Usually the rules for theme, genre
and/or author, etc, are clearly stated.
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It goes without saying that you shouldnt submit, for example, an

emphatically Christmas story under a summer vacation theme, or a
poem, playscript or noir detective mystery to a childrens fiction contest,
or a story to a competition intended to acknowledge Afro-Caribbean
writers if you cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, qualify as an
Afro-Caribbean.
Uh... if it goes without saying, why did I say it? Because, as many contest
organisers will doubtless tell you: people dont always read the rules. I
have had to exclude several entries from my quarterly short fiction
contest because, despite my guidelines, the stories were not (in my
judgement) short fiction.
Total possible points: 0. (I dont award points for this as, if the story
fails to meet the entry criteria, I simply return it with apologies.)
2. Does the story engage the reader emotionally throughout?
I have judged many stories that were impressively clever. They danced
with ingenuity, wit or wordplay. But they left me cold. They were
intellectual exercises, rather like the mystery tales of John Dickson Carr.
(True, he is a wonderful writer but he tends to appeal to readers who wish
to be cerebrally rather than emotionally engaged).
The characters in such stories are cardboard or the themes trivial or the
narrative tenuous. By the end the reader no longer cares how the tale
turns out. It takes enormous craft skill to make the reader care about
characters and incidents that are wholly imaginary.
Total possible points: 10
3. Is the story original in its concept?
By all means take a familiar plot or theme. There have been just 36 of
them since the dawn of humanity, according to Georges Polti (1916) - or
only seven if you believe Christopher Booker (The Seven Basic Plots,
2004 ) - so youre unlikely to invent a new one. But do something new
with them!
The jilted lover who plans a cruel revenge on his/her faithless spouse or
Significant Other goes right back to the tale of Medea. But (I hear you
ask) surely we could do a twist. We might have the jilted lover hide
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his/her murder victim in a garage freezer - only for the new lover, aghast,
to stumble upon it. Couldnt we? Nope. Thats just a re-run of
Bluebeards cupboard.
Of course, theres nothing wrong with reprising the theme of Bluebeards
cupboard, provided you disguise it with a highly original twist!
Total possible points: 10.
4. Does the first paragraph encourage the reader to read on?
You dont need a shock opening. In fact, the cheap thrill (I pulled the
trigger. The punk fell dead) is seriously to be avoided. Unless done very
well, its a yawn.
Instead, consider the elegance and poetry of the first line of the novel The
Go Between: The past is a foreign country. They do things differently
there (L. P. Hartley, 1953). Or that of Rebecca: Last night I dreamt I
went to Manderley again (Daphne du Maurier, 1938). Or the intriguing
start of the short story Harrison Bergeron: The year was 2081, and
everybody was finally equal (Kurt Vonnegut Jr, 1961).
Can any thoughtful reader not want to continue?
Unfortunately, although understandably, hard-pressed literary agents
today tend to judge a novel solely by its first paragraph or two.
In fact, one agent told me he kicks most of his submissions into the slush
pile after an appraisal of just the first paragraph of the covering letter. To
coax him as far as the novel itself, he said, is a major authorial
achievement. He claimed his practice was not untypical among agencies
faced with 10,000 submissions every year.
Its nonsense, of course. By a test so cruel and arbitrary, hardly any
distinguished novel published in the 20th century would have made it into
print. (In fact, most household name novelists did struggle in their
earliest years against such obstacles. But thats another story...)
Alas, the fact is that a short story - anything up to, say, 6000 words - must
seduce the judges in the first one or two paragraphs or risk being tossed
into the reject pile. (So should any novel presented to an agent or
publisher - unless, of course, your name is Dan Brown or J. K. Rowling.
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Then you could probably submit it, scribbled in crayon, on the back of a
Kleenex tissue :))
5. Does your story have a strong sense of form, a coherent narrative
progression and a satisfying conclusion?
A novel is a globed compacted thing, according to Virginia Woolf.
Even more so is a short story. In other words, it should be a unity.
True, many a fine story lacks closure. It may leave the reader with
untidy loose ends or an unresolved mystery. (A classic example is Henry
Jamess The Turn of the Screw (1898), where the reader is utterly
confused at the end as to what the story, absorbing though it is, had really
been about.)
A story might even appear, at first glance, to be a collection of vivid but
disjointed impressions. (Joyces Ulysses comes to mind.)
Yet such stories should still be rigorous in their construction. A judge
should feel, with admiration: nothing could usefully have been added to,
or cut from, this story. Its a whole. It works.
6. Is your story fresh in its use of language?
You dont need to litter every line with metaphors or have your syntax
turn somersaults. Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea (1952) is as
prosaic in its language and grammar as the label on a ketchup bottle.
Personally, this story underwhelms me. But folk wiser than me say that,
in its clinical simplicity, it is a triumph of creative writing.
They may have a point. Nobody would regard the blunt language of the
Ten Commandments in the King James Bible as creative writing. But it
was. The right words are used in exactly the right place. Creative
language is often just a matter of immense precision.
So a story that is imprecise and lazy in its language - for example, it uses
clichs and secondhand expressions (except for a deliberate purpose, such
as to define a ridiculous character) - will be heavily marked down.
23

7. Is your story competently presented, in terms of layout, spelling
and punctuation?
A wise contest judge will turn a blind eye to the odd literal (mistyping),
misspelling or punctuation error in a short story that is otherwise good. (I
make enough snafus myself :)) But do not tempt that wise person to reject
your story by ignoring the standard rules of presentation. You can find
them in any writers manual.
Contest rules might differ but not by much. For example, I always insist
that the story be presented in a standard Times Roman font, 12 point, 1
spaced, with good margins left and right. I ask that the story title, word
count, entrants name, snail-mail and email address, and phone number
(in case they win) appear on the cover page.
The entrants name, story title and page numbers should also appear on
each page in the header, in case a page gets detached.
Its only common sense. If such details are omitted, you cannot expect a
busy a judge, howsoever conscientious, to scribble your contact details on
the first page. And if the details are missing, and you win, where will the
organisers send your prize?
True, some contests insist that an entry be anonymous. The authors name
should not appear in the work itself, lest the judges be biased. Dont the
contest organisers trust their judges? To me, such a stipulation suggests
that the contest is judged by amateurs...
Total aggregate points: 45.
24
Chapter 7: Congratulations, youve won! How to

maximise your win.
Astute contest organisers will do everything they can to publicise your
win. Certainly your name, and possibly your winning story, should
appear in their web site or other publications to honour you and - not least
- encourage future entrants.
All money apart, to see your story published and accessible by thousands
of people is a joy in itself. Several of my own winners have told me that
the recognition is more gratifying than the cash.
(Hm... sometimes I wonder why I bother to offer cash at all :))
A tip: have a biographical kit ready to hand for those times, probably
many of them, when an organiser will ask you: please send me a photo
of yourself plus around 100 words describing your occupation, age,
family, hobbies, career to date, previously published works plus any
writers magazines or online groups you subscribe to.
The latter details are very important to a marketing-wise organiser. If you
subscribe to a writing magazine or online group, they will hustle to
publicise your win there to woo future entrants. They may even notify
your local newspaper or radio station. (Do make it clear to the organisers,
when they approach you, whether youre happy for them to do this.)
Compile that kit as a ready-to-go file on your computer along with a
suitable digital photo (jpg). If you happen to have your own blog or
website that features your writing activities some organisers will be
happy to announce its address (URL). That will bring more visitors to
your site.
Of course, theres also profit to be made in compiling your stories whether they win or not - into an ebook or other digital product and
selling the stories directly from your site. (Even as a conventional printed
book.)
Alas, I have no space here to explore ebooks and self-publishing. The
ways and means can easily be found via a Google search.
Just take note that some contest organisers might regard stories you sell
from your site as previously published works. So check the rules!
25
What (truly) might you earn from entering story contests?

Okay, Ill be candid. You are not likely to exceed the income of Dan
Brown from entering writing contests alone. (Though your stories will
probably be a lot better.) Never mind. Lets do the maths...
Suppose you enter 120 contests a year and, at the start, win a prize in only
20% of these contents (24). Your cash prizes in minor contests should
range between $20 and $500 and your entry fees will be around $8 - $16
each. So if your wins average out at $200 each, you have gained $4800
per year and made some $3840 profit.
In time, you will do far better as your writing improves and you gain a
feel for what judges look for. If your strike rate then goes up to 30% you
will gain around 36 wins per annum, bringing you $7200 gross and a net
profit of $6240.
Thats assuming you dont win a really major prize in four or five figures.
But, chances are, if you persist and your writing improves - you will. In
fact, you will probably win several major prizes in a year.
At this point you might want to increase your investment in the number
of entries you submit and your income will increase accordingly.
True, by then you will be devoting almost every leisure hour to entering
contests. But many thousands of people do! Several big-circulation
magazines and web sites cater for them. (My mother became an expert in
entering consumer contests. A day rarely passed when she did not receive
a prize for her slogans, ranging from a food blender to an expensive
holiday.)
Of course, at that point you may not need to enter any more contests!
Why? You will now have a portfolio to hand of several dozen, good
tested stories plus a glittering list of prize wins to boast about. You can
approach a literary agent with some more substantial project that youve
been working on, like a novel.
To be sure, a single win here and there in some obscure competition
wont impress that discerning person. But a dozen or more major wins
certainly will, especially if they include some very prestigious contests.
26
Then an agent might actually read your work and offer you a contract.
And your life will change. Most agreeably :)
Welcome to the world of the professional author!
Meanwhile, dont delay another moment. Youll find a wealth of free
writing tips that work - plus a contest with plenty of cash prizes on offer at my own web site:
I look forward to meeting you there.
27
About the author

Dr John Yeoman, MA Oxon, MRes, MPhil, Phd (Creative Writing) is the
penname of a tutor in creative writing at an English university. He was
the founding chairman of one of Britains largest regional PR
consultancies and is the author of eight published books of humour and
fiction. Many can be found at Amazon.co.uk. (He is the John Yeoman
who does not write childrens stories!) He has been a successful
commercial writer for forty years.

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