Contest Circuit

In the last two weeks, there have been so many new, talented writers that have signed with agents as a result of contests. Most of their stories include many rounds of queries and rejections before getting "The Call" that they all so richly deserve. If you weren't convinced that entering contests is beneficial before this post, you will be after reading their success stories!

Congrats to the following:

Valerie Cole signed with Lauren MacLeod of The Strothman Agency as a result of The Writer's Voice contest. Success story here!
Leigh Ann Kopans signed with Tricia Lawrence of Erin Murphey Literary Agency as a result of The Writer's Voice contest. Success story here!
Dahlia Adler signed with Andrea Somberg of Harvey Klinger, Inc as a result of The Writer's Voice contest. Success story here!
Mary Elizabeth signed with Laura Bradford of Bradford Literary Agency as a result of The Writer's Voice contest. Success story here!
Jessa Russo signed with Curiosity Quills Press as a result of Sharon Bayliss's Wilde's Fire Editor Judged Contest. Success story here!
Deana Barnhardt signed with Sarah Lapolla as a result of Cupid's Blind Speed Dating contest. Success story here!

And now for this week's contests! 

Enter my first giveaway for SIGNED copies of NYT best selling author Veronica Roth's INSURGENT and Elizabeth Norris's UNRAVELING at the bottom of this post. Ends June 30!

Last week, I interviewed hilarious blogger Ruth Lauren Steven. (Check out that interview here). She mentioned "Christmas in July." Just today, she put up her first post about it. It will be featuring queries, first 500 words, and 10 agents stopping by to check it all out. Check out her post here!

Booktrust - This website gives a list of British competitions, mostly for short stories. Many of these competitions are held by publishing companies. From what I can tell, they are open internationally.

Unbound Press is holding a flash fiction contest. Prizes include money and publication in their anthology. This contest is open internationally and ends June 30.  It looks like they hold monthly contests.

Scribophile is hosting a Summer Solstice flash fiction contest. Write a fictional slipstream work of 2500 words or fewer. This is for members only, but membership is free. Ends June 30.

Mother. Write. (Repeat.) is giving away Carrie Harris's BAD TASTE IN BOYS to 3 lucky recipients who leave a comment following her post regarding what you'd do if a zombie plague took over your community. Ha! Love that. Ends June 26. Krista Van Dolzer also has a really great post about why blog contests are awesome. *paraphrasing - she says it much more eloquently* It's worth checking out!

A Thousand Wrongs has frequent giveaways of MG and YA books. Check out current giveaways at the top of each post. If nothing else, check out this blog. Author Laurisa White Reyes features book reviews, giveaways, monthly writing challenges and *rubs hands together* contests.

Fragments of Life is giving away signed copies of Elana Johnson's POSSESSION and SURRENDER. I want these books so badly, I almost didn't list this. However, I thought others might be just as excited to get these books as I am. *casts stank eye at competition* Ends June 28. And because I'm a new stalker of this website apparently, blogger Precious is also giving away an ARC of Alyson Noel's FATED. Ends June 26.

Nicole Pyles of World of My Imagination hosts a Wednesday Weekly Writing Prompt/Blog hop. Prompts are based on pictures and select words. Stop by each Wednesday for a new prompt!

Jen Bigheart of I Read Banned Books is celebrating her Blogiversary by giving away an ARC of Sarah Mlynowski's TEN THINGS WE DID AND PROBABLY SHOULDN'T HAVE. Ends June 19.

Seriously, how beautiful are these covers?

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