Writing Contests to Increase Exposure

One great way to increase your exposure as a writer and to stretch yourself in terms of taking risks with your writing is to enter your work in writing contests. I will say it up front: I’m not a huge fan of writing contests. Really funny, since I hosted one on this site!

As with all things internet-related these days, there are far too many scams out there. You send in your work, you attach a hefty entry fee, somebody pockets your money, and you never hear from them again. Don’t let my cynicism prevent you from jumping in the pool!

You just have to seek out reputable agencies who are hosting the contest, and finding some other writers who’ve participated with happy results can’t hurt either. Do your homework and check them out before you send them anything. You might think that the worst that can happen is you lose your entry fee, but actually, the worst that can happen is you just signed away your rights to your own work! Read the terms of agreement!

Having said all of that, there are some names you can usually trust, and one of my favorites is Writer’s Digest. As a nationally known writing magazine, they really can’t afford the negative publicity that would come from legions of scorned authors taking to social media to announce that they were swindled. NOTE: do remember that you are entering a contest, and only one person in each category will win. Your entry fee is gone once you enter, because it’s used for things like the publicity, paying the judges to read thousands of entries, etc.

WD actually has several contests coming up, and I’m linking to them here. Take the risk, jump into the pool , and write!