Mind Meld of the Gods

I'm doing it again, I'm linking to another Mind Meld over at SF Signal. This one is about Gods in Speculative Fiction».

If you are unfamiliar with a SF Signal Mind Meld let me give you a heads up: This is not an experience for the unprepared. Brew some coffee, find a comfortable seat and settle in for an intimate look into the minds of some of the greatest SF writers out there. People like Elizabeth Bear, Gregory Frost, and L.E. Modesitt Jr.

I have some thoughts of my own as to the nature of religion in stories.

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Religion in real life (there's a mindbender) is something that comes easy for some, hard for others and not at all for the rest. In Fantasy it seems to generally be an expected and active component of the world and in Science Fiction an invisible or non-existent force. I'm not saying that those are the rules for all, in fact there are some fantastic stories that defy my above statement. And how do you really classify A Canticle for Leibowitz or The Algebraist?

In world building and writing I struggle to find the difference between a god and superhuman. What makes one divine and the other merely impressive? I don't believe there is a hard line, no simple criteria or checklist. On a bell curve I would place normal man at one end, and the monotheistic omniscient god at the other end. Then on the hump I would look for my stories. To me that space is where men can achieve greatness and where the gods can falter.

Ultimately given the role faith and religion has in the real world, and the influence it has on the lives of so many, it is a mistake not to give it some thought when world building. You don't need gods with winged horses and lightening powers, just a conscious knowledge of the role religion plays in your characters lives. Some of the most powerful stories written never show the gods, or their motives, but without the characters faith there would have been no story.


For more on the religions in the two books I mentioned check out this review of A Canticle for Leibowitz from SF Reviews.net and this article on The Algebraist from Gordon's Notes





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Advice fail? Me? Never.

So I open my mouth and make a silly statement.
I find Worldbuilding for short stories effortless.
And I get called on it (twice).

Hee hee.
And here I thought nobody paid any attention.
I think that my statement (which was meant as a joke on my laziness when worldbuilding) also illustrates one view of writing fiction. Write first, fix later and only if it needs fixing. I'm not saying that it is a superior view over others, just that it exists.

A few weeks ago I read an interesting Mind Meld Discussion over at SFSignal (seems all I do is read their Mind Melds) where they asked authors for the best advice they've received on writing.

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I've actually linked to this Mind Meld before. Proving just how full of info those Mind Melds are.

One of the answers came from Author John C. Wright and he discussed advice given by Robert Heinlein. I really want to include John C. Wright's answer in full but I don't think that's fair to SFSignal - so go there and read the whole Mind Meld. In the meantime here's a couple of the important bits from Wright:

Heinlein's rules for writing were professional and simple. "1) You must write. 2) You must finish what you write. 3) You must not rewrite unless to editorial demand. 4) You must mail your story to an editor who will pay you money. 5) You must keep it in the mail until someone buys it."

Rule number 1 and 2 are paramount and cannot be over-praised. The Dean of SF is exactly right. Rule 4 and 5 are paramount and cannot be over-emphasized. The Dean of SF speaks words of wisdom more precious than gold, more to be treasured than refined gold.

Rule 3 is just bad advice.

--snip--

Now, on the other hand, Heinlein not only sold these books, but won plaudits and awards for them, so take my caution with a grain of salt. On the gripping hand, A.E. van Vogt wrote tightly-plotting thrillers of cosmic wonder without a wasted scene and barely a wasted word; J.R.R. Tolkien rewrote and rewrote until magic shines from his pages.

Obey Heinlein's rule number 3 if and only if you have Heinlein's knack at charming characterization and if and only if you find a market for meandering, plotless, charm-driven stories.

Don't fall into the trap of rewriting if it means you cannot finish your work. That is a fine rule.

I like John C. Wrights reinterpretation of the Heinlein Rule 3. I edited out a chunk of his answer and again I encourage you to read the complete answer and see his justification for disagreeing with Heinlein. (Wright's is the 8th down the page)

The reality is that Heinlein was writing in a different time and what worked for him doesn't work in a more mature Speculative Fiction Market. I say more mature because our expectations are higher, we've been raised on a solid foundation of character and plot driven stories that make sense (worldbuilding!) and push the boundaries of literature even. Do I need to make a list ? (Simmons' "Hyperion", Atwood's "Handmaids Tale", Brin's "Earth", to start)

My personal opinion of Heinlein (formed when I was a judgemental youth) was that his early work was fantastic and he went crazy later when he was writing the big stuff ("Number of the Beast", "Cat Who Walks Through Walls"). Now I know that he just didn't edit.

Lesson learnt - bad editing and world building can make people think you are crazy. (Perhaps that explains the failure of my writing group to meet last week. ;)




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Fiction Fridays: Vampires and Nymphos?

For a brief period of time, until Feb. 24th 2009, Mario Acevedo's 2006 novel The Nymphos Of Rocky Flats will be available as a free online ebook. You can read it off of the publishers website here.

Mario Acevedo has combined humour, the supernatural and the classic hard boiled PI into a compelling story. The protagonist Felix Gomez is a Private Investigator, a veteran of the Iraq conflict where he became a vampire. He has come to the Denver area at the request of an old friend to investigate a serious of troubling events at an Dept. of Energy research facility. Throw in some nymphos, and aliens and you get a real page turner.
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Most novels couldn't pull it off. The subject matter seems too ridiculous, but Mario Acevedo succeeds in a way that even leaves you wanting more at the end. Things that worked in this story include the restraint on the sex, the fast pacing of the action sequences and the well constructed characterizations and plot.

Things that didn't work? Well it is what it is, a light afternoon's read. The author touches somewhat on the impact of current and past events on the character's lives, but very quickly moves us into another action sequence before any real character development is achieved. Only at the end of the novel, in a slightly predictable way, does a character show real change and growth, though it has more to do with advancing the next action sequence than enlightenment.

I don't mean to be harsh, for I enjoyed this story because of it's humour and lightness. A dark brooding vampire lamenting the torment of his eternal years for page after page is a tired cliché right now. A little action and getting on with your life (or undead) is a pleasant and refreshing change.

The main reason I'm mentioning this story, and linking to it, is because Mario Acevedo demonstrates very well the Scene-Sequel Pattern approach to creating a novel. That alone makes it worthwhile reading if you are interested in understanding and using this technique.

*Disclaimer some of the stuff on the above linked site is for pay - I link only for information, I am not suggesting you spend money.
*and yes Fiction Fridays can be posted on a Thursday, a calendar is just another cage man. ;)





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Market Mondays: Wednesday Worries

This post would have been up on Monday, but due too some, hmmm, "Database" issues, my domain was down for the first half of this week. So Today we get back on track.

The industry is in trouble. Well maybe not, some argue that it's actually in a down cycle but will rebound.

What's going on? A whole lotta changes, some driven by technology, some by consumers. But the end result is that a number of traditional publishers of speculative fiction are either cutting back or worse, getting out of the business.

Realms of Fantasy Magazine is closing. This year would have seen their 100th issue. Other magazines may not be closing their doors, but changing market conditions, lower sales, higher postal cost, etc, are leading them to modify their businesses.
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So who else is in trouble?

Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&FS) Magazine is changing from a monthly publication to a bi-monthly one.

Susurrus Magazine went on an indefinite hiatus starting January 2009

Southern Fried Weirdness closed to submissions January 2009

Æon Speculative Fiction, the quarterly electronic magazine published by Quintamid Publishing Inc., suspended publication November 2008

That's 4 examples from the past few months, but many more are in trouble and the closures in the industry will likely continue throughout this year.

What can be done? Subscribe. I'm renewing my subscription this month to my favourite Speculative Fiction Magazine: Neo-Opsis. If you don't currently subscribe to any magazines go to Ralans to see the active and dead magazines out there. Find something to your taste and get a subscription.



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Fiction Fridays: Tower in the Crooked Wood

Johanson, Paula : Tower in the Crooked Wood
(Bundoran Press, $11.95, November 2008, cover art Erich Schreiner)

I very recently got a chance to read Paula Johanson's YA Novel 'Tower in the Crooked Wood'. Why am I reading Young Adult Fiction?
Why not?!

I'm not young, sure, but I enjoy quality speculative fiction no matter who it's targeted toward. Recently my wife and I have been on a YA novel kick, though I'm unsure if everything in the Twilight Series is really 'Young Adult'. YA fiction has a lot to recommend it, one thing being a lack of pretentiousness. By it's very nature it's accessible to the reader and there are a lot of good authors writing young adult work. Paula Johanson being one of them.

At it's core 'Tower in the Crooked Wood' is a fantasy novel about a young woman trying to bring an end to an evil that is inflicting suffering and death on many people, including her own family. My one sentence outline makes it sound similar to many fantasy novels, and that's a failing on my part. This story is not some tired rehash of an orphan hero who saves the world, though that is what does kindof happen. Instead it is the story of a young woman struggling with emotions like loyalty, vengeance, & love, all the while discovering her own inner confidence and sense of self.
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Jenia, the hero, is an orphan, raised in a small village of mud huts. She's more comfortable trimming fruit trees, than she is in the environment that she now finds herself in. At the beginning of the story we realize that Jenia is running from man and beast, in an unfamiliar land and seeking a "..cursed mountain that she'd left bloody footprints on..".

Very shortly into the tale Jenia finds not what she was seeking (a great evil), but the exact opposite. After her long journey full of danger and fear, and after many sacrifices in pursuit of her goal, the greatest challenge she faces is the one offered by the warmth, respect, and even love of the villagers of Tlakwa.

Paula Johanson's solid writing paints a picture of the life of these villagers as Jenia assimilates into their world. They are a good people, full of love and laughter who's worldview is at times shockingly at odds with Jenia's. There is quite the subtext on the nature of war and the reasons behind fighting.

There are scenes in this story that are very familiar to someone, like me, who's lived on the west coast of Canada for a number of years. At one point Jenia, shortly after enjoying a meal of clams, is walking across the beach and realizes that just as she's discarded the shells from her meal on this beach, so have others. In fact so many others that the beach was almost entirely made of up shells or shell fragments. At that moment Jenia sees the vastness of time stretching behind her, and, with her small pile of shells, ahead of her.

It is scenes like the one above that differentiate this story. Paula Johanson has created a believable world for the village of Tlakwa. The people have a culture and a history. This should be expected from someone who is also a successful science fact writer, but the way those details are used shows Paula Johanson's strength as a storyteller. The Tlakwa have traditions and beliefs that challenge Jenia to examine her own values and morals. Here Paula Johanson gives us a wonderful view into the thoughts and emotions that drive Jenia. At the end we are able empathize with her, because we understand her. We share in her conflict, her triumphs and sorrows.

This a great coming of age story with a strong female lead that any reader of speculative fiction will enjoy. In a time when young adult fiction seems to be getting more and more graphically dark in content, this story was refreshing. 'Tower in the Crooked Wood' is available from the publishers website (first 2 chapters free!), if it's not in your local bookstore or library.



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Best writing advice EVER?

Not from me, however there are a few established authors willing to give that question a spin. Over at SF Signal are the collected answers of a number of authors, Ben Bova through to Robert Silverburg, in a little thing SF Signal calls a 'Mind Meld'. I suspect they borrowed the term from somewhere. ;)

The best advice I personally received came during a writing course conducted by Paula Johanson.
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She asked each of us if we wanted to become writers. Then, after a number of affirmative responses, she produced her magic wand (it was invisible!) and waved it over our heads, pronouncing the magic words "Yew Err Wryters". (Only it sounded more like "You are writers"). Then she said "Ok, that's done. Now there's nothing stopping you. Time to get started."

The point is: There really is nothing stopping you, or anyone from being a writer. Even Stephen Hawking writes and he arguably faces challenges most of us can't conceive of. Much of the advice in the SF Signal article is similar. Just write, don't fret or worry too much about it, just get the words on the paper. Once they are down then you can go nuts on the editing or submitting, but get the story out first.

Yesterday morning I found myself unable to finish my story for my writing group. It was due in the evening and I was stalled only a couple of thousand words in. I had already revised the beginning twice and changed the whole story in my head a dozen times.

In the end I had to produce something and felt like I'd made a mess of this story. So I put that story aside and sat down to start writing something new, something fresh. For the rest of the day I wrote and by the evening I had a story. It was a complete simple piece that didn't even need much editing to make it ready to send to the group. The key was I stopped questioning myself, my ideas or my story and instead just wrote.



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Market Mondays: Contests - Free Ones

Continuing on a little bit of a contest theme from last week, I've compiled a short list of some of the better Speculative Fiction Contests to enter. Ones with a name that are reasonably trustworthy.
* though I will note the Hubbard one does send a lot of emails, if you sign up for the newsletter
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FREE Short Fiction Contests: (no entry fee)

The L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Short Fiction Contest. Each year the winners of the contest wind up published in the Writers of the Future Anthology. Good books, and many good Authors have been winners in the past. This is a contest judged by some of the biggest names in the industry : Kevin J. Anderson, Gregory Benford, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle, Robert Silverberg and more.
Quarterly Entries.

The Jim Baen Memorial Short Fiction Contest sponsored by The National Space Society and Baen Books . This is a great contest meant to really encourage new writers. There are no guarantees of being published but the opportunity to have your writing evaluated by Baen Books senior editor Hank Davis and Authors Eric Flint and Mike Resnick is pretty valuable.
Deadline: April 1, 2009.

PARSEC Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story Contest. This is the 14th iteration of this annual contest. This year the judges are Tor Books Author Walter Hunt, Young Adult Author Sarah Beth Durst, and Author S.C.Butler. The winner will be published in the program book for the Confluence 2009, the annual literary Sci-Fi convention in Pittsburgh.
Deadline: April 15, 2009

The First Annual Spectra Pulse Short Fiction Contest. This one actually closes in a few days, but I'm mentioning it because it meets the criteria of a good contest and with luck will be run again next year. This contest is sponsored by Bantam Spectra, which ultimately traces back to Random House Publishing. This contest will feature the winners story in the summer issue of Spectra.
Deadline: January 31, 2009

Good luck. If you are looking for more contests, below are some of the sites I use.

The Canadian Authors Association website lists a number of markets, and contests.

Ralan's Webstravaganza contains both Market listings and contest listings.

Good information can also be found at Young Adult Author David Barr Kirtley's Resources for Teen Authors (not all the contests there are restricted to teens).

* remember to evaluate the contests before committing your work or money to anything



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Fiction Fridays: Vanity List

In this case the Vanity part is marking off all of the titles I've read on the list of 149 SF&F Novels Everyone must read. This started with a series of articles at The Guardian covering the 1000 Novels Everyone Must read. My copy of the list was taken from the SF Signal article where this little meme began.

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The Bolded Titles are ones that I have read. I counted 44, but my eyes went blurry near the end. This is also just from memory, however what looks clear is that most of what I've read is old. I blame that on inheriting a good chunk of my Sci-Fi Collection. Though my Dad doesn't seem to think I've inherited anything yet, something about him still being alive and wanting his books back.

A couple of books or authors that I would add: The Listeners by James Gunn or anything by Gregory Benford

Feel free to copy the list and do the same in the comments or on your own blog. *Thanks to SF Signal and other bloggers for compiling it in an easy to use format.

1. Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
2. Brian W Aldiss: Non-Stop (1958)
3. Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1951)
4. Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin (2000)
5. Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
6. Paul Auster: In the Country of Last Things (1987)
7. J.G. Ballard: The Drowned World (1962)
8. J.G. Ballard: Crash (1973)
9. J.G. Ballard: Millennium People (2003)
10. Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory (1984)
11. Iain M Banks: Consider Phlebas (1987)
12. Clive Barker: Weaveworld (1987)
13. Nicola Barker: Darkmans (2007)
14. Stephen Baxter: The Time Ships (1995)
15. Greg Bear: Darwin's Radio (1999)
16. William Beckford: Vathek (1786)
17. Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination (1956)
18. Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
19. Poppy Z Brite: Lost Souls (1992)
20. Charles Brockden Brown: Wieland (1798)
21. Algis Budrys: Rogue Moon (1960)
22. Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita (1966)
23. Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Coming Race (1871)
24. Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (1960)
25. Anthony Burgess: The End of the World News (1982)
26. Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Princess of Mars (1912)
27. William Burroughs: Naked Lunch (1959)
28. Octavia Butler: Kindred (1979)
29. Samuel Butler: Erewhon (1872)
30. Italo Calvino: The Baron in the Trees (1957)
31. Ramsey Campbell: The Influence (1988)
32. Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
33. Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
34. Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus (1984)
35. Angela Carter: The Passion of New Eve (1977)
36. Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000)
37. Arthur C Clarke: Childhood's End (1953)
38. GK Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)
39. Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004)
40. Michael G Coney: Hello Summer, Goodbye (1975)
41. Douglas Coupland: Girlfriend in a Coma (1998)
42. Mark Danielewski: House of Leaves (2000)
43. Marie Darrieussecq: Pig Tales (1996)
44. Samuel R Delaney: The Einstein Intersection (1967)
45. Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
46. Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962)
47. Thomas M Disch: Camp Concentration (1968)
48. Umberto Eco: Foucault's Pendulum (1988)
49. Michel Faber: Under the Skin (2000)
50. John Fowles: The Magus (1966)
51. Neil Gaiman: American Gods (2001)
52. Alan Garner: Red Shift (1973)
53. William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)
54. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Herland (1915)
55. William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954)
56. Joe Haldeman: The Forever War (1974)
57. M John Harrison: Light (2002)
58. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of the Seven Gables (1851)
59. Robert A Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
60. Frank Herbert: Dune (1965)
61. Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game (1943)
62. Russell Hoban: Riddley Walker (1980)
63. James Hogg: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)
64. Michel Houellebecq: Atomised (1998)
65. Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)
66. Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled (1995)
67. Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
68. Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (1898)
69. PD James: The Children of Men (1992)
70. Richard Jefferies: After London; Or, Wild England (1885)
71. Gwyneth Jones: Bold as Love (2001)
72. Franz Kafka: The Trial (1925)
73. Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon (1966)
74. Stephen King: The Shining (1977)
75. Marghanita Laski: The Victorian Chaise-longue (1953)
76. CS Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-56)
77. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: Uncle Silas (1864)
78. Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (1961)
79. Ursula K Le Guin: The Earthsea series (1968-1990)
80. Ursula K Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
81. Doris Lessing: Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)
82. MG Lewis: The Monk (1796)
83. David Lindsay: A Voyage to Arcturus (1920)
84. Ken MacLeod: The Night Sessions (2008)
85. Hilary Mantel: Beyond Black (2005)
86. Michael Marshall Smith: Only Forward (1994)
87. Richard Matheson: I Am Legend (1954)
88. Charles Maturin: Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)
89. Patrick McCabe: The Butcher Boy (1992)
90. Cormac McCarthy: The Road (2006)
91. Jed Mercurio: Ascent (2007)
92. China Miéville: The Scar (2002)
93. Andrew Miller: Ingenious Pain (1997)
94. Walter M Miller Jr: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)
95. David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas (2004)
96. Michael Moorcock: Mother London (1988)
97. William Morris: News From Nowhere (1890)
98. Toni Morrison: Beloved (1987)
99. Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995)
100. Vladimir Nabokov: Ada or Ardor (1969)
101. Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler's Wife (2003)
102. Larry Niven: Ringworld (1970)
103. Jeff Noon: Vurt (1993)
104. Flann O'Brien: The Third Policeman (1967)
105. Ben Okri: The Famished Road (1991)
106. George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-four (1949)
107. Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club (1996)
108. Thomas Love Peacock: Nightmare Abbey (1818)
109. Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan (1946)
110. Frederik Pohl & CM Kornbluth: The Space Merchants (1953)
111. John Cowper Powys: A Glastonbury Romance (1932)
112. Terry Pratchett: The Discworld series (1983- )
113. Christopher Priest: The Prestige (1995)
114. Philip Pullman: His Dark Materials (1995-2000)
115. François Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532-34)
116. Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)
117. Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space (2000)
118. Kim Stanley Robinson: The Years of Rice and Salt (2002)
119. JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
120. Geoff Ryman: Air (2005)
121. Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses (1988)
122. Joanna Russ: The Female Man (1975)
123. Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943)
124. José Saramago: Blindness (1995)
125. Will Self: How the Dead Live (2000)
126. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (1818)
127. Dan Simmons: Hyperion (1989)
128. Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker (1937)
129. Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (1992)
130. Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
131. Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
132. Rupert Thomson: The Insult (1996)
133. JRR Tolkien: The Hobbit (1937)
134. JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings (1954-55)
135. Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (1889)
136. Kurt Vonnegut: Sirens of Titan (1959)
137. Horace Walpole: The Castle of Otranto (1764)
138. Robert Walser: Institute Benjamenta (1909)
139. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Lolly Willowes (1926)
140. Sarah Waters: Affinity (1999)
141. HG Wells: The Time Machine (1895)
142. HG Wells: The War of the Worlds (1898)
143. TH White: The Sword in the Stone (1938)
144. Angus Wilson: The Old Men at the Zoo (1961)
145. Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun (1980-83)
146. Virginia Woolf: Orlando (1928)
147. John Wyndham: Day of the Triffids (1951)
148. John Wyndham: The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)
149. Yevgeny Zamyatin: We (1924)



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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?
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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.

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