Tag Archives: books

Contest: Emerging Southern Writer

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EMERGING WRITERS CONTEST

Deadline: January 7

Award: $300 / $200 and invitation to Symposium

Fee: $15

Entries are now being accepted for the 2013 Southern Writers Symposium Emerging Writers Contest. This year categories will feature fiction and poetry. The contest is open to writers who meet at least two of the following criteria: currently live in the South; are natives of the South; write about the South. Additionally, writers must have not yet published a full-length volume in the genre that they are entering. For example, writers are still eligible for the emerging fiction writers contest if published in volume form in nonfiction or poetry. Manuscripts of fiction considered: up to 5,000 words, typed and double-spaced. Poetry considered: a single poem, or up to five to be counted as a group, typed. Entry must not have been previously published in any form. Entry must not have previously won recognition in any other contest. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable.

 

Contest: Novel and Story Collection

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FICTION CHAPBOOK CONTEST

Deadline: January 5

Award: $250, publication, 25 contributor copies

Fee: $15

We are pleased to announce the first ever Origami Zoo Chapbook Contest. The final judge will be the cataclysmic Matt Bell. Origami Zoo Press has published chapbooks by Laura van den Berg, Chad Simpson, BJ Hollars and Brian Oliu. Submit manuscripts of 40-80 pages. Both novellas and collections are welcome. It’s great if pieces of the manuscript have been previously published as standalone pieces or excerpts, as long as the manuscript as a whole has not been published.

 

Contest: Multiple Fiction Categories

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PRESS 53 OPEN AWARDS

Deadline: March 31

Award: Five beautiful etched-glass awards (personalized award certificates for Second Prize and Honorable Mention) and publication

The sixth annual Press 53 Open Awards is now accepting submissions. Five Categories, three Winners in Each: Poetry, Flash Fiction, Short-Short Story, Short Story, Novella (Finalists and Winners Announced No Later Than June 28, 2013). Five Industry-Professional Judges. Thirteen opportunities for publication: First Prize, Second Prize, and Honorable Mention in Poetry, Flash Fiction, Short-Short Story, Short Story, and First Prize in Novella will be published in the 2013 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology.

 

Marketing Article

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This is a very short essay about one author’s experience marketing her book after a traditional publisher picked it up. Although she’s a children’s book author, the core of her experience is pretty common.

Most important lesson:

Publishing is a business and books are products. Help buyers understand why they should purchase your product over someone else’s.

Writing a Novel

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Here’s a very in-depth article from Writer’s Digest that helps you plan out a novel’s structure, character development, and other key points.

I find some of the recommendations too detailed. There’s a point at which authors have to stop worrying about minor details and allow the story to flow. There are two important things to remember when you start writing a novel:

1. You can’t fix it in your head. No matter what issue you’re wrestling with, you won’t be able to truly work with it until you have it on the page. Manipulating it in your mind doesn’t give you the same hold on the work. Put the material on the page where it remains fixed. Then you can adapt, adjust and revise.

2. Creativity is not logic. Writers need both skills to create a novel…and each skill is used at different times. Don’t allow the critical (logical) judge to ruin the flow state. Don’t allow the illogical creative flow ruin your revision process.

 

Link

Another database stuffed with information about literary magazines. From Literary Magazines Online!