Streamwriting

Confession - I nicked this from Cordia’s forum post on authonomy!  Hope she won’t mind but she wrote it so beautifully….

There’s a new novel competition in town.   The grand prize? A $25,000 publishing contract with Penguin.

Here’s the basic info:

ABNA or the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award will be accepting submissions from February 2–8. Up to 10,000 entries will be accepted. Amazon editors will narrow the field to 2,000 by reviewing pitch statements from the entrant. Amazon Editors will then read 3,000 to 5,000 word excerpts from the 2,000 to narrow the field to 500 Quarter-Finalists. Those quarter finalists will have their book reviewed by Publishers Weekly. Penguin editors will then narrow it to 100 semi-finalists.

Sorry, but there are numerous restrictions, including:

-No self-published or previously published books. Authonomy does not count as previous publication.
-Only residents of 20 countries are allowed to participate. Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (excluding the Province of Québec), China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States (the 50 states and D.C.), and the United Kingdom.
-The book must be in English.
-It must be written by only one person.
-It must be fiction.
-No poems or short stories, even if submitted as collections.
-"Sponsors reserve the right in their sole and unfettered discretion to disqualify at any time any Entry containing obscene, offensive, pornographic or sexually explicit material, or libelous, disparaging or other inappropriate content."

Questions? You can visit the official sites at: http://www.amazon.com/b?node=332264011 and https://www.createspace.com/abna

OK, so not Dragon’s Den exactly - but almost as scary!!!

Novel Pitch
Deadline: 2 March 2009
You walk into a bookshop, your novel lies in glimmering piles as you sit calmly behind the table and prepare to sign… Bring this dream a step closer by entering Novel Pitch. Novel Pitch gives 6 unpublished authors the chance to pitch their novel to a panel of experts from the publishing and literary world at a unique live event.
Panelists include:
Juliette Mitchell - Penguin
The Literary Consultancy
Ellah Allfrey - Random House
Nii Parkes - Flipped Eye

Each finalist will get feedback from the panel and ideas for next steps. The winner will receive a professional reading of their work. To submit; please send a 2000 word extract form your novel or work in progress, plus a synopsis of no more than 300 words (12 point font, typed and double spaced) to Spread the Word. Please mark you envelope ’Novel Pitch’. Submission is free.

Spread The Word

77 Lambeth Walk
London
SE11 6DX
0207 735 3111
www.spreadtheword.org.uk

Upcoming deadline – 12th September 2008
The Times Literary Supplement Poetry Competition 2008

www.timesonline.co.uk
Poems may be in any style, on any subject, and printed on one side of A4 paper. The competition is open to all.

Entry form available on the website. Entry fee: £5 for first poem, £3 for each additional poem, to a maximum of five per entrant.

First prize: £2,000
Runners-up prizes: £750, £500 and £250

JUDGE: Elizabeth McCracken, National Book Award-finalist and Zoetrope: All-Story contributor, will award the top prizes.

PRIZES: First prize is $1,000; second prize $500; and third prize $250.

LITERARY AGENCIES: The winners and seven finalists will be considered for representation by the William Morris Agency, ICM, Regal Literary, the Elaine Markson Literary Agency, Inkwell Management, Sterling Lord Literistic, and the Georges Borchardt Literary Agency.

DEADLINE: All entries must be postmarked by October 1, 2008. Results will be announced at the website December 1, 2008, and in the Spring 2009 issue of the magazine.

LAST YEAR’S WINNER: Janice Macdonald’s “The Plainness of My Fall” was published as a special online supplement to the Spring 2008 issue.

COMPLETE CONTEST GUIDELINES:
We accept all genres of literary fiction. Entries must be: unpublished; strictly 5,000 words or less; postmarked by October 1, 2008; clearly marked "Short Fiction Contest" on both the story and the outside of the envelope; accompanied by a $15 entry fee per story (make checks payable to AZX Publications). Please include name and address on first page or cover letter only. There are no formatting restrictions; please ensure only that the story is legible.

We welcome multiple entries ($15/story) and entries from outside the U.S.; please send entry fee in U.S. currency or money order. While we cannot return manuscripts, we will forward a list of the winning stories to any entrant who includes an SASE; as well, we will e-mail contest updates to anyone who provides an active e-mail address. Entrants retain all rights to their stories.

MAIL ENTRIES TO:
Zoetrope: All-Story
Short Fiction Contest
916 Kearny Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

Please find contest guidelines online at www.all-story.com/contests.cgi, and please e-mail us at contests@all-story.com with any further questions. Good luck!

An annual short story dedicated to one of Ireland’s most accomplished story writers and theorists, sponsered by the Munster Literature Centre.  The judge for 2008 is Nuala Ni Chonchuir and the1st prize is 1,500 euros and publication in the literary biannaual Southward.  The winner can also submit their manuscript to London literary agent Lucy Luck for a reading without having to sit in the slush pile.  2nd prize 500 euros and publication in Southward.  4 other shortlisted entries will be selected for publication in Southward and receive a fee of 100 euros.

The competition is open to original unpublished short stories in the English language of 3,000 words or less.  The story can be on any subject, in any style, by any writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world!

For competition entry guidelines (and they do accept submissions by email) visit http://www.munsterlit.ie/

Closing date is July 31st.  So get writing and get luck!