You could call pitching your book idea to a publisher a type of writing competition. You're competing against all of those other authors for the attention of a commissioning editor.
Well, here are three opportunities that might help your manuscripts avoid the slush pile and put you ahead of the pack.
Pan Macmillan Australia's Manuscript Monday
Penguin Books Australia's The Monthly Catch
Allen & Unwin's - The Friday Pitch
Be sure to read and follow their guidelines very carefully.
Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts
Saturday
Bridport Prize for Poetry, Short Stories & Flash Fiction
Founded by the Bridport Arts Centre in Dorset UK, this writing prize has been going since 1973. This was a time when writers belted out novels on manual typewriters, there were fewer than 60 computers connected to the internet and long-distance phone calls were so expensive, we spent the first minute of the call talking about how expensive the call would be.
Now that we live in a much faster world, a new "Flash Fiction" category has been introduced. If you're a Twitter fan you shouldn't have any trouble creating a complete micro-story using no more than 250 words.
Short story writers have 5,000 words to play with and poets can write up to 42 lines.
Entry fee: £6 per flash fiction, £7 per poem and £8 per story
Prize for poetry and short stories:
Prize for flash fiction:
Open to: Writers worldwide (over 16 years old), writing in English
Deadline: 31 May
2012
Website: The Bridport Prize
Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards
The Australian Prime Minister's 2012 Literary Awards are one of Australia's richest and most prestigious prizes - about which we can all dream! There is a total prize pool of AUD$600,000!!! (Worth the exclamation marks!). Authors who have had a book published between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2011 in a range of categories can enter it for the Awards, though self-published books are not eligible.
Categories include: fiction, non-fiction, young adult fiction, children's fiction, Australian history, and for the first time, poetry! It's important to read the varying eligibility criteria for each of the categories.
Categories include: fiction, non-fiction, young adult fiction, children's fiction, Australian history, and for the first time, poetry! It's important to read the varying eligibility criteria for each of the categories.
Entry fee: Free
Prize: First prize in each category AUD$80,000 tax free; short listed entries in each category AUD$5,000
Open to: Citizens or permanent residents of Australia
Deadline: 1 February 2012
Website: Prime Minister's Literary Awards
Tuesday
The Next Big Author
TheNextBigAuthor.com is a joint initiative by a group of big-name publishers, UK Art Council-funded writeon.com, and writers themselves. You submit the opening chapters of your book (completed draft or work-in-progress). You retain the copyright of your work at all times. You then review and rate fellow entrants' chapters, and have your own reviewed/rated in turn. The more reviews you do, the more your own work will be reviewed. Great practise in giving and receive critiques!
The 10 highest rating entries will then be reviewed by the major publishers, or leading UK literary agents, and feedback provided. Some past winners of this competition, which has a number of entry deadlines throughout the year, are now best selling published authors. It could be YOU!
Entry fee: Free
Prize: Top 10 rated chapter entries will be read and feedback provided by some of the world's most well known and high profile publishing groups.
Word limit: Opening chapters of between 5000-7000 words
Open to: Everyone, everywhere!
Deadline: 31st December 2011 (12 noon Greenwich Mean Time!)
Website: TheNextBigAuthor.com
The New Writer Prose & Poetry Prize - Closed for this year
The UK based New Writer's Magazine invites writers worldwide to submit 'Fact, Fiction and Poetry' in a range of categories to their 12th annual Prose & Poetry Prize. While themes are wide open, they are particularly keen to receive 'bold and incisive' entries which reflect writing today. Time to exercise your mind and your imagination!
There will be up to 20 prizes awarded, and all winners will be published in the New Writer 'Special Collection'. Categories include: Fact, Short Stories, Micro Fiction, Single Poems and Poetry Collections (which may include previously published works).
Entry fee: GBP5 per entry; GBP12 for poetry collections.
Prize: Total prize pool of GBP2000. First prizes of between GBP150-300 each, Second prizes GBP100 and third = GBP50
Word limit: Fact = 2000 words; Short Stories = 500 to 5000 words; Micro-fiction up to 500 words; Single Poems up to 40 lines; Poetry Collections of 6-10 poems.
Open to: Everyone!
Deadline: 30th November 2011
Website: The New Writer Prose & Poetry Prize
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