Publishing Contests confuse me

[image error]Ok, recently on facebook, I’ve been seeing a slew of “Enter this contest, and the winner will get their book published!” type posts. Previously, I’ve seen this sort of thing on Twitter, as well. It’s everywhere, and I’m afraid I just don’t get it.

First off, why would you want to fight to win the right to be published by some small press? What can they offer you? How will your royalties look compared to your other options? How much are they going to invest in promoting YOUR book? These are al...