by CWC Marin administrator | Feb 26, 2019 | Awards, Contests
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Kitty Baker
- Redwood Writers selected CWC-Marin member C.M. (Kitty) Baker as second place winner in their annual Young Adult/Middle Grade writers contest for her novel-in-progress, “Scenes in Syncopated Time.” (You can read the first two chapters here.)
Originally from Minnesota before relocating to California’s North Bay Area in 2016, Kitty is fascinated by the potential of coming-of-age fiction to speak to the hearts of YA readers. She has spent years learning and practicing the craft via classes at The Loft in Minneapolis, lectures in Hamline University’s MFA program in Writing for Children & Young Adult, private workshops, writers groups, retreats, and SCBWI conferences and events. She was recently chosen for the prestigious Djerassi Artist Residency in Woodside, California, and is currently enrolled in College of Marin classes, exploring the power and playfulness of poetry.
Redwood Writers in Sonoma County is a sister chapter to Marin Writers and is the largest of the 22 chapters of the California Writers Clubs with hundreds of active members and an emphasis on supporting writers interested in self-publishing. Because of its size, the Redwood Chapter offers many writing contests and publishes thematic prose and poetry anthologies annually. Members of the Marin Chapter are eligible to apply for dual membership in Redwood Writers for just $25.
by CWC Marin administrator | Oct 24, 2013 | Contests
We have just received a series of notices of upcoming writing contests run by JM Northern Media LLC, a group based in Hollywood, California that was founded in 1999 to “produce annual events and report on the people who are making things happen in the world of digital media and beyond.”
Their contests include DIY Convention: Do it Yourself in Film, Music & Books; the New York Book Festival; the Aliens to Zombies Convention; the Young Professionals in Energy International Summit; BookFestivals.com, and more. Cities for their contests also include New Orleans, San Francisco, and London, among others. 2013 winners are posted on their site(s). There are a few negative comments on various sites, but JM Northern Media claims to be legitimate.
Considerations — For ANY Contest
Do your part up front.
Enter contests where you feel you have a good chance of winning and where entering and winning does not hurt your marketing budget, but rather is likely to pay off in publicity and book sales.
Is the contest worth entering?
When a book wins the Pulitzer Prize or National Book Award, or a children’s book wins the Newberry Medal, readers take notice. The book and the author receive considerable media attention. While other contests, such as those run by JM Northern Media might be questionable, having an award sticker on your book cover or a statement about your award on your website will probably help your book’s sales.
Even if you win a contest, it does you little good if it doesn’t help increase sales and media attention for your book, so be careful what contests you enter.
Following are some guidelines for determining whether a book contest is worth entering, just a waste of your money, or perhaps even a scam.
What is the prize?
Consider if you are going to have a significant outlay of your own money to get to an awards dinner. That can get expensive: travel expenses, lodging, trophies or certificates. If it’s a legitimate contest, your expenses should be covered.
Read the fine print. Will you be published. Or, if published, will you be represented by a publishing house, literary agency, publicist? Who pays for what? In traditional publishing, the author does not pay for anything up front.
Who is conducting the contest?
Make sure the contest is being run by a reputable individual, company, or organization. Any legitimate contest will have a reputable website with a disclosure page listing contest rules, guidelines, and other information. Magazine or Craigslist ads are not indications of legitimate contests. While it’s true that anyone can build a webpage so that isn’t the ultimate proof, it does help because of the commitment of time and expense to build a site.
Judges and Judging
A legitimate book contest will have judges and a judging process in place.
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Don Quixote |
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How long has the contest been around?
If the contest has been around a few years and has a published list of winners, it might be worth entering. Consider the entry criteria (including fees), take time to Google the organizers to see what turns up. View their list of judges, which should consist of writers, publishers, and recognizable publicists. Not “Judges may include” but actually listing the names of the judges, or telling you what group of people compile the judges.
Fees? Who Pays for What?
A contest with a reasonable fee is usually legitimate, particularly if there are cash and/or travel prizes connected. Fees usually pay for advertising the contest, for prizes, and sometimes for small gratuities given to thank the judges for their time. Most importantly, the fee should ensure that a solid system is set up for reading/judging your work.
Beware of additional fees once you win the contest, such as receiving a discount on book coaching services.
Note how many copies of your book are needed. A legitimate contest will usually need more than one book because there are multiple judges who will need to read the book. See also if a statement is made about what happens to the books-do the judges keep them or donate them to a library?
Contest Deadlines and Rules?
At least a month should pass between the deadline and the announcements so the judges have time actually to read the books.
Be sure you hold onto the rights of your work, unless, of course, it is a top notch contest that comes with publishing with a major house.
by CWC Marin administrator | Aug 15, 2013 | Contests
THE 2013 HALLOWEEN BOOK FESTIVAL CALL FOR ENTRIES
HOLLYWOOD, CA (August 9, 2013) _ The 2013 Halloween Book Festival has issued a call for entries to its annual program honoring the best books of the season. The event is part of the annual Aliens to Zombies Convention (www.alienstozombies.com).
The Halloween Book Festival (www.halloweenbookfestival.com) will consider works in science fiction, horror, general fiction, non-fiction, biography/autobiography, young adult, fantasy, audio/spoken word, photography/art, comics, ‘zines, unconventional romance, wild card (anything goes!), alternative future, time travel and fan fiction. There is no date of publication restriction. All entries must be in English.
The competition honors general excellence and the awards are intended to draw public attention to worthy selections during the busiest season for book sales. Winners in the competition will be able to sell their books at the A to Z Convention, which focuses on monsters and the post-apocalyptic world in pop culture.
Our grand prize for the 2013 Halloween Book Festival winner is a $500 appearance fee and a flight to our awards ceremony in Hollywood.
NOTIFICATION AND DEADLINES: We will notify each entry of the receipt of their package via e-mail and will announce the winning entries on our web site. Regular registration deadline submissions in each category must be postmarked by the close of business on October 1, 2013. Winners will be notified by e-mail and on the web site. Please note that judges read and consider submissions on an ongoing basis, comparing early entries with later submissions at our meetings.
TO ENTER: Entry forms are available online at www.halloweenbookfestival.com or may be faxed to you.
CONTACT:
bruce@halloweenbookfestival.com
323-665-8080
by CWC Marin administrator | Feb 27, 2013 | Contests, Events
2013 SAN FRANCISCO BOOK FESTIVAL SETS DATE
SAN FRANCISCO _ The 2013 San Francisco Book Festival will return to the Sir Francis Drake Hotel on May 18 for its annual competition honoring the best books of the spring.
The 2013 San Francisco Book Festival will consider non-fiction, fiction, biography/autobiography, children’s books, compilations/anthologies, young adult, how-to, cookbooks, science fiction, business, history, wild card, gay, photography/art, poetry, unpublished, technology and spiritual/religious works. There is no date of publication deadline.
The grand prize for the 2013 San Francisco Book Festival is $1500 cash and a flight to San Francisco for our gala awards ceremony on Saturday, May 18 at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.
Submitted works will be judged by a panel of industry experts using the following criteria:
- General excellence and the author’s passion for telling a good story.
- The potential of the work to reach a wider audience.
TO ENTER: Entry forms are available online at sanfranciscobookfestival.com or may be faxed/e-mailed to you. Please contact the San Francisco Book Festival office at 323-665-8080 for fax requests. Applications must be accompanied by a non-refundable entry fee of $50 in the form of a check, money order or PayPal online payment in U.S. dollars for each submission. Multiple submissions are permitted but each entry must be accompanied by a separate form and entry fee.
AWARDS: The San Francisco Book Festival selection committee reserves the right to determine the eligibility of any project.
by CWC Marin administrator | Feb 18, 2013 | Contests
The 2013 Truth in Words Essay Contest
This year, Notes & Words is partnering with A Band of Wives and Nothing But The Truth Publishing to bring you the Truth in Words essay contest.
The topic of this year’s essay contest is “Transitions” and we expect to see stories ranging from starting a family, recoveries, graduations, aging, career changes/promotions, marriage and divorce.
The maximum length of the essay is 1,200 words. The submission deadline is March 18, 2013, the same day tickets go on sale for Notes & Words 2013.
Up to THIRTY semi-finalists will be chosen by a Truth & Words panel, led by New York Times best-selling author Kelly Corrigan (The Middle Place and Lift). Judging will be based on criteria such as originality, creativity, use of language, and appropriateness to contest theme.
The semi-finalist essays will be published in the next Nothing But The Truth So Help Me God anthology, available in bookstores and online December 2013. Their work will appear alongside that of influential writers, artists and thought leaders such as author and motivational speaker Gabrielle Bernstein, New York Times bestselling author Kelly Corrigan, and 85 Broads founder Janet Hanson.
Excerpts from each of the thirty semi-finalists will also be posted to the Notes & Words Facebook page, where users will vote on their favorite entry. The judging panel will factor those votes into consideration when they choose one grand prize winner. The grand prize winner will have one-on-one phone consultations with:
- A senior editor at Random House/Ballantine
- A literary agent at ICM
- The Executive Editor of O Magazine
The grand prize winner will also receive two tickets to the Notes & Words performance and after-party on May 18, 2013 at The Fox Theater in Oakland, where they will have an opportunity to meet all of the performers.
Contest entries must be emailed to submissions@abandofwives.com as a Microsoft Word attachment. Please attach a 100-word biography.
One essay submission is allowed per person. Please see notesandwords.org or abandofwives.com for a complete list of rules.
To read the 2012 winning essay, click here
Click here for a list of Frequently Asked Questions
Click here for the Official Contest Rules
by CWC Marin administrator | Dec 13, 2012 | Contests, Events
The Marin branch of the California Writers Club is delighted to announce the winners of the
Write Across the Golden Gate
2012 Fiction and Nonfiction prose contest
First Place(s) and Honorable Mentions
We appreciate the many submissions we received from as far away as Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The quality of the writing was first-rate and we encourage all to maintain this high quality, keep writing, and keep submitting.
Please join us in thanking our Judges for their commitment, and diligence.
Peg Alford Pursell
Charlotte Robin Cook
Priscilla Royal
Olga Zilberbourg
Barbara Truax, lead judge
Mary Jane Essex, screening judge
If you would like to be notified of future contests, please eMail: contests@JoHaraf.com
Contest Winners: 2012
FICTION
Winner
Reynold Junker, The Accordionist and the Sparrow
Honorable Mentions
Kasey Arnold-Ince, Dissolution
Patricia Morin, Passages
Kasey Arnold-Ince, Salt & Pepper
NONFICTION
Winner
Gail Stockwell, The Old Man and His Pies
Honorable Mentions
Susan Keller, A Turn in the Road: A Memoir
Delia Reid, Illuminations
Paula Nixon, The Life and Death of F521