Next week I’ll be announcing the launch date for my latest book, Publication Guaranteed (well, almost!). Here’s an extract from the beginning of the chapter on writing competitions:
Is it a dream of yours to win a writing competition? To have your writing truly recognised? To know your story was the best? As a winner of several writing competitions, I know first-hand how special writing competitions are. Doing well in a competition changes how you think about your writing. It gives it authority, whether you’re shortlisted or a winner. It’s something to put at the top of your writing CV and it can lead to other work. Succeeding in competitions made me realise I could write and if my writing was good enough to win such well-known competitions, it was good enough to send out to editors.
Another attraction of writing competitions is they’re great fun to enter. Many competitions have cash prizes and publish the winning entries in print form, in a magazine or anthology, while others publish on the Internet. Some organisers also provide a critique to the entrant in exchange for just a few pounds. This can be invaluable as all too often editors reject our writing with no hint of why our precious piece of work isn’t suitable.
I then go on to explain how you can find out about writing competitions and how to write a winning story, together with plenty of tips and examples.
I’ll also be announcing a writing competition soon…
Esther Chilton 
Leave a reply to John Reynolds Cancel reply