Gain More Money In A Writing Award - The Best Way To Maximise Your Competition Success
So you've triumphed in a writing award? Congratulations! Exactly what can you do at this moment to make the most of the honor, so that it can bring you even greater cash?
Clever contest PR people are going to do every little thing they can to promote your achievement. Of course, your writer's name, plus possibly your winning entry, ought to appear in their web site or some other public spot to honor you and also - not least - to entice future entrants to enter in upcoming contests.
All revenue aside, to view your story publicized and readable by a lot of folks is often a pleasure by itself. Many top contestants in a creative writing contest claim the status is a lot more gratifying than the revenue. Indeed, numerous contest promoters have questioned why they bother to mention cash at all.
Here's a word of advice: create a 'personal biog' dossier easily accessible for those instances, perhaps many of them, when some organizer asks you: 'do email us a graphic and about 100 words outlining your profession, age group, family, hobbies, recently published tales plus any authors' journals or web groups you participate in.
The latter details are important to a marketing-wise organizer. If you subscribe to a writing journal or Internet forum, they should lust to promote your latest achievement there to attract potential entrants. Some may even advise your neighborhood newspaper or radio stations.. (Be sure to make it clear to the promoters, when they approach you, whether you're happy with such publicity.)
Put together this kit into a readily accessible folder on your hard drive as well as a good digital photograph. If you happen to possess your own blog or website that displays your current creative activities many promoters will likely be happy to mention its address. That will bring in extra folk to your website.
It goes without saying, there is additional cash to be found by collating your stories - no matter whether they gain a prize or fail to win - in to a book or some other digital product and promoting the stories straight from your web site. You could even sell them in the form of a traditional print book, produced in minimal quantities using a print-on-demand supplier.
It's easy to get the key facts of e book manufacturing on-line.
Do take note that quite a few organizers of story writing contests will want you to send wholly unpublished stories. So they may possibly regard stories you sell at your online site as 'already written and published' stories. Check the guidelines!
Precisely what could you gain by entering story contests?
You are not likely to surpass the net income of Tom Clancy by going into writing contests by themselves, though your stories might be a whole lot better. That doesn't matter. We'll do the sums...
If you enter into only 110 contests every twelve months you'll likely win about $5500. That's provided you're a seasoned writer, of course.
Soon enough, you will do much better when your craft skill gets better and you acquire a sense for what contest judges look for. When your strike rate climbs up, you can easily accrue $10,000 or even more each and every year.
That's assuming you don't win a really serious prize in four or five figures. Nevertheless, it's quite possible, if you persevere and your writing improves - you will. In all probability you'll win a number of serious prizes every year.
At this point you might want to raise your investment in the volume of entries you enter and your profits will rise as a result.
To be sure, by that time you'll be dedicating virtually every free time hour to working for contests. However some thousands of folks do just that! Several top-circulation publications and websites appeal to dedicated competition entrants. Almost every day of the week these people accept wins, which range from a chocolate snack to a five figure dollar sum or some expensive holiday break.
Needless to say, at that point you may not want to enter any more competitions!
Why? You'll now have a collection of several great proven stories as well as a glittering number of award wins to brag about. You'll be able to approach a publisher's agent with a larger project that you've been perfecting, such as a full novel.
Of course, one win every now and then in a very obscure competition won't wow a discerning agent. Nonetheless twelve or even more major wins certainly will, especially when these feature some very impressive competitions. And then an agent might actually look over your project and provide you with a written contract. Then your life is going to shift. Very agreeably.
You will have discovered your own win-win contest workshop. The first step towards a rewarding writing future is quite often to work as a professional competition entrant.
About the Author
Dr John Yeoman, PhD Creative Writing, is founder of the writing award centre Writers' Village. A university lecturer in creative writing, he has been for many years a contest judge. Discover a wealth of clever plans to gain major prizes in his practical manual How to Win Writing Contests for Profit. Acquire it entirely free now at: http://www.writers-village.org/writing_award
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