Contests for Writing and Books, Oh My!

It’s contest season, folks. Let’s see what’s cooking:

At Margo Berendson’s “Writing at High Altitudes” you’ve got an awesome contest to help push yourself and a fellow author. Margo is offering a commenter a $30 Amazon giftcard for their comment regarding her New Year’s resolution word count  goal. Read her post, get inspired.

Many of you know I entered and won second place for fantasy in the 2010 Sandy Writer’s Competition last year. It’s time to send in your chapters for 2011 and I can’t recommend doing this enough. Seriously. For $30, you get constructive criticism from three published authors AND if you place in the top three positions, your ms goes before an agent. Ginger Clark was my agent-judge last year and she requested my first 50 pages. Pretty darn cool. Check out the competition’s guidelines and get your work in. The deadline is February 13th.

Unless you’re dead or uninterested in writing, you’re aware the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Competition opens on January 24th and closes to entries on February 6th OR when they receive 5,000 entries in a given age range (adult or YA). This competition is FREE and as I posted a few days ago, there are communities at the site who will critique your opening chapters for you while you await the judges’ decisions. Two years ago they helped me polish my opening and made winning second place in the Sandy possible. This contest is well worth your time and you have nothing to lose.

The annual Chase the Dream contest (for you Romance authors) will be rescheduled this year. Make sure you check their website periodically for more information, but if I hear when it will be, I’ll try to post the dates here, too.

Addendum! Maria Zannini was so kind as to let me know about her critique contest! Be sure to go there next for a chance to win a free critique!

Good luck and God bless you all!

10 Responses to “Contests for Writing and Books, Oh My!”

1. Maria Zannini says:

   January 12, 2011 at 2:32 pm

   I'm having a little contest at my blog too. It's a follower contest. The winner gets a full manuscript critique from yours truly.

   The last time I asked for suggestions on what to offer as a prize, this came up the most.

   –I aim to please. 🙂

   Reply
2. lilacfield says:

   January 12, 2011 at 11:51 pm

   Thanks for sharing these!

   Reply
3. Victoria Dixon says:

   January 13, 2011 at 3:27 am

   Thanks Maria! I've added you to the list.

   Thanks for dropping by, Lilac! I'll drop by to see you in just a bit. ;D

   Reply
4. Rachna Chhabria says:

   January 13, 2011 at 4:09 am

   Wow! So many contests. Will hop over to all those links and check them out. Thanks for sharing!

   Reply
5. Natalie Aguirre says:

   January 14, 2011 at 12:42 am

   Thanks for sharing the info. I'm not ready for any contests. Good luck if you enter.

   Reply
6. Victoria Dixon says:

   January 14, 2011 at 4:20 am

   I hope you find something you can use, Rachna!

   Hey, Natalie. Thanks for dropping by. And you know what, even if you're not ready for Maria's critique offer, I think there's the optional T-Shirt prize. ;D Go for it!

   Reply
7. Janet Johnson says:

   January 14, 2011 at 1:48 pm

   Great contests! Thanks for sharing. And good luck in the Breakthrough novel contest! 🙂

   Reply
8. Victoria says:

   January 15, 2011 at 2:40 am

   Thank you, Janet! And in the best tradition of contest blogging, I'm about to offer my own contest.;D More on that next week!

   Reply
9. Margo Berendsen says:

   January 16, 2011 at 6:01 am

   Thanks for mentioning me and wow, lots of other links I have to check out here! I've been thinking I need to start entering contests…

   Reply
10. Victoria says:

    January 16, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    You're so welcome, Margo! I need to go whoop you on on your goal. I hope you're cookin' now. ;D

    Reply