Succeed With Writing Awards - Five Ways To Identify A Profitable Competition

How can you win writing awards? By entering only those awards which have a history of being honest!

Oddly, many people who market story award schemes believe they are an easy way to generate money. So they will publish a website that costs them nothing, buy a free domain address, promote an enticing assortment of cash prizes that they've absolutely no intention of having to pay, buzz their offer with exclamation marks and breathless words produced by a sales software program.

Then think they'll gain a five figure payback in three months.

If this doesn't occur (and to get more than one hundred paying contestants for some award scheme released by a formerly unheard of promoter is a miracle), they'll turn off the site, start a further fraud under a different name and employ all the more punctuation.

This is strange because the only way to generate income in any enterprise (and several reliable award schemes are businesses) is always to build the customer relationship, over time, by being absolutely trustworthy. That's not merely moralising. It's tested financial sense.

Allow me to share the covert indications of a hungry award scheme marketer, who is lacking in financial foresight:

The promoter has no clear qualifications in literature, education or commerce.

You've never read about the judges or cannot quickly check up on them. Worse, no judges are named.

The words in the award scheme web page or announcement reveals evidence of illiteracy. If a contest can not even locate it's apostrophes in the proper position :), is it qualified to review your entry?

The award scheme doesn't display the work of previous winners. Why not? Unless the contest hasn't been run before, the organisers should yearn to show off this proof of their testimonials and, not least, motivate upcoming entrants to search for a similar recognition.

If the successful stories are exhibited, were they - in your opinion - worthy of an award? If not, chances are you'll justifiably feel encouraged to enter the competition since, you believe, you might readily defeat the previous winners.

In simple fact, if the stories are mediocre yet - strangely - they still won prizes, consider: did the promoters create the stories themselves? In that case, did they ever present any money awards?

In other words, watch for award schemes that seem to be operated ineptly and/or solely as a get-rich-quick system. Do note: there is nothing wrong in running a contest to generate money. Only organizations with vast pr budgets or taxpayer funding are able to afford to run a competition, at a loss, for goodwill merely.

Yet the '˜profits' attained by most honest competition promoters are little more than beer money.

Many organizers run a competitions (a) for fun and (b) because - having been a seasoned writer all their life and experienced the wretched hardships of breaking into print during their early years - they honestly choose to inspire writers who're just going through these problems. The winners collectively might make more revenue than they do.

These are the reputable organisers. They are often local writing groups, that consist of honest, well-meaning folks. Or writers who really wish to read other folk's stories. These people really like creating a little competition prize magic!

Yet there are many others - like 'award scheme mills' that exist solely to generate money. Their values are shady, and you simply may not even receive the cash payouts they pledge. So watch out for organisers who seem to be (too obviously) famished.


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Dr John Yeoman, PhD Creative Writing, is chairman of the writing awards centre Writers' Village. A university lecturer in creative writing, he is a veteran contest judge. Enjoy a wealth of original tips to win money prizes in his big guide How to Win Writing Contests for Profit. Claim it free now at:
http://www.writers-village.org/writing_awards