I’m a fan of deadlines. If you have to set your own hours and organize your own day, you might be a fan of deadlines as well. Lately, I’ve been using calls for themed anthologies as deadlines for producing short stories.
I don’t enter a lot of contests (other than my publisher sending my published books out). I prefer to put my energies toward submitting for publication. But this Writer’s Digest contest seems like a no-brainer to me:
Writer’s Digest “Dear Lucky Agent” Contest
First off, I love that they call it “lucky agent” instead of lucky writer. 🙂
Second off, it’s completely free to enter. And easy.
This is a recurring online contest with agent judges. The details of each contest are essentially the same, but the genres change. This round the focus is on science fiction (adults or teens) or any kind of young adult novel.
Top 3 winners get a critique of the first 10 double-spaced pages of work by the agent judge (Victoria Marini). Apparently in a previous Lucky Agent contest the agent judge signed one of the winners. Getting agents to read your work is always a great thing. Getting them to critique it is GOLD.
Deadline: January 31, 2013
Their requirements are simple. You make 2 social media posts to promote it, and then email in the first 200 words of your novel. What have you got to lose?
(on a side note, this was posted on Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Literary Agents Blog, which I suggest subscribing to for information on literary agents, literary agencies, query letters, etc. I like reading his agent profiles.)
Spellbound Children’s Fantasy eZine
If you write for a slightly younger audience (8-12 yrs), I just discovered this fantasy eZine (they were a print mag for years and now relaunched). They publish themed magazines and the theme for their summer 2013 issue is: DRAGONS.
Since I’ve not written a short story with dragons in it, I’ve accepted this challenge. HERE are the guidelines. This is a paying magazine. We like that.
Deadline for Summer 2013 Dragon issue: March 31.
Always remember if you submit to a magazine or anthology, READ the previous magazine or work by that publisher to see if your work is a match.