Contest Writing

There's a post over at The Rejecter today about Contests and Contracts. The Rejecter responds to a question about a subject rarely looked at, the obligations and restrictions upon you when you enter your work into a contest. One interesting restriction that sometimes happens is being unable to submit your work elsewhere while waiting for the contest judging to finish.

Let's be honest Speculative Fiction is a hard field to make money in, much less achieve recognition. This is really true of all artistic endeavours and while being unfortunate it does make what recognition there is all the more valuable. I have looked at many contests as routes to getting my work published. I haven't entered most though for a few reasons. The main one being cost.

Many contests require an entry fee, I understand that these fees are many times the only reason for the contest existing. The monies collected pay for prizes/andor/publication for the winners. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, especially in the age of the internet. There is very little accountability and trust possible with just email as a communication method. So, before sending out that work and the check with it, (or just your credit card info on a web form) how do you assess the validity of the contest?
More Below...

Google to the rescue?
A quick search for 'scam writing contest' turns up this page: Warnings About Literary Fraud and Other Schemes, Scams, and Pitfalls That Target Writers, from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. I already had it bookmarked, but that's because I read the Writer Beware Blog.

The Key points to assessing a contest from the above sites and similar (Canauthors.org) sites (Writing-World.com) come down to some common sense questions:
*this is just a quick summary, I suggest looking to the linked sites for a more comprehensive approach to identifying scam contests and markets.

* Who's conducting the contest?
This is where the trust relationship comes in, if you are unsure of the contest sponsors or judges motives, then stay away. Some contests are run just to gather money, others are run to get your information and possible future business through marketing efforts after the contest.

* What's the Prize?
Some prizes are too good to be true - enormous cash prizes that when you read the small print are actually subject to a number of conditions and restrictions where in the end what a winner receives may be a fraction of what was promised. Or is the prize the reward of being charged to work with their agency or publisher?


* Is the contest Free? or for Fee?
Cost to enter doesn't have to be a barrier to entry, however I ask you this: If it's free to submit your work to any number of publishing houses and Speculative Fiction Magazines, why would you pay someone to judge the quality of your work. Winning contests is nice, but the measures of success in this industry have more to do with successful publication. Pay to enter a contest that you trust and see value in, but remember the fees should never be excessive, less than 25$ for a manuscript is appropriate.


And finally the most obvious one:

* Have you read the fine print?
I actually advise you to save a copy of the fine print to a file on your machine, or print it out. The 'Catch' is never in the big bold letters at the top of the page, the Devil lies in the details.