Writers of the Future

[Karpinskaia]

Hi everybody, I'm new here so if I have posted this in the wrong place, any moderator is more than welcomed to move it in the correct section.

Now let me tell you a little story: a few days ago I was aimlessly navigating the Internet and I stumbled across a writing contest, "Writers of the Future" which seems like a preety good idea for all amateur writers who wish to be published. The rules are simple: there is no participation fee, the authors must have no material published so far, all short storyes(for only short stories are accepted, no more than 17k words) are judged by a jury of profesional writers such as Neil Gaiman or Orson Scott Card(my favourite SF writer by the way) and the best thing is that all the winning stories are being published in an antology bearing the same name as the contest. Going back to the purpose of this tread, I was wondering if anyone here on the Chrons has heard or even participated at this contest and what do you think about it?

P.S. I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes I might have made but my English is a bit rusty, not having used it for quite a while and it's not my native language either.

[Anne Lyle]

I'm afraid I rarely pay attention to contests - I don't write short stories, and the ones I've seen for novels all too often seem to have rather dodgy terms and conditions (e.g. non-negotiable contracts) and are thus on the "don't touch it with a bargepole!" list of many writing advice websites.

Having Neil Gaiman and OSC on board does give this one cred, though. In case anyone else is interested, do you have a link for it?

[MG1962]

Yes the writers of the future has been going for a few years now, and is very well respected as a competition for unpublished authors. It is on the level, people do win, and a volume of the winners is published each year.

Here is a wiki entry

Writers of the Future - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A friend of mine in the late 90's won a quarterly award, meant she went to the US for the big award ceremony - other than the Scientologists being in her ear a bit - everything else went as advertised, and other than her personal spending in the US, cost her nothing

[power to the J]

I think Pat Rothfuss won this and then went on to have his excellent debut published after talking with a judge who was an editor or something. I might have the details confused in my head. Anyway, he won with an excerpt from his book. I hope I have the right contest; my brain is a bit fuzzy right now.

[scalem X]

Who doesn't know about them? The only thing which prevents me from entering is that, although there isn't an entry fee, I'm reluctant to pay postage to have manuscript sent to the US. I pay more than the regular contest entry fee in postage. (I guess it must be the same for you, living in Romania)
Second I'd like to have at least one short story published through a decent paying channel, before I'd even consider myself having a chance.

[jenna]

I have intended on entering this comp for a couple of years, but I never seem to come up with anything I think is good enough.. You should definitely enter it if you can though, it could be a great opportunity.

[Karpinskaia]

@ Anne Lylle Here's the link: writersofthefuture.com
@ scalem_x Now that you mention the postage cost, I realize I never thought about it. By the way, this contest is for amateur writers only, so having one short story published means you are no longer eligible to enter the competition, though I'm not really sure about this.
@ jenna I think you should let the judges decide wether your story is good enought or not, and who knows, you might be in for a pleasant surprise.

[Karpinskaia]

@ scalem_x Now that you mention the postage tax, I realize I never thought about it. By the way, this contest is for amateur writers only, so having a short story published means you are no longer eligible to enter the contest.
@ jenna I think you should let the judges decide wether your story is good or not, and who knows, you might be in for a pleasant surprise.

[scalem X]

@ scalem_x Now that you mention the postage tax, I realize I never thought about it. By the way, this contest is for amateur writers only, so having a short story published means you are no longer eligible to enter the contest.

Their rules state: 'less than 3 short stories published'.

[jenna]

Originally Posted by Karpinskaia

@ scalem_x Now that you mention the postage tax, I realize I never thought about it. By the way, this contest is for amateur writers only, so having a short story published means you are no longer eligible to enter the contest.
@ jenna I think you should let the judges decide wether your story is good or not, and who knows, you might be in for a pleasant surprise.

Yeah, you're probably right! Maybe I'll finish that sci-fi I've been working on and enter it...