Anybody know of Any Good Writing Contests?

Question

Anybody know of any good writing contests that I can apply for? Preferably ones that don't require an entry fee and ones that allow writers of all geners to apply for?

Answer 1

A word of caution about writing contests. Most of the serious ones do in fact require small reading fees (as the fees offset the costs) and have narrowly defined guidelines. Many "free" contests that claim to be open to all genres are normally either ran by people with no real credibility to run the contest in the first place (Sally's writing contest: *** entr and ill jugde U") or con artists (congratulations! You are a semi-finalist, now if you would like to buy a copy of the contest book...).

I've included some links to sites that have information on writing contests in general that may be helpful to you.

And as a cheap and shameless plug, we run an annual writing contest for charity, though it is genre specific (speculative fiction) and there is a reading fee (which helps supports charity)

Answer 2

My experience with contests is this: The results are often all over the place, with one judge hating the writing while another one loves it, so the scores are just crazy. However, I have had some constructive criticism (comments/advice/suggestions) left by some judges, which helped me a lot in revising the piece. Not all do this, though.

Also, look for a contest where final round judges are industry professionals - editors, agents - in the genre you are targeting.

Answer 3

go to www.winningwriters.com they have a list of free contests. you have to join but it's free. i'm in it and it's awesome having so many contests that aren't scams and free at your finger tips :)
peace

Answer 4

Did you mean genders or genres?