October Contest Update

 

 Welcome to the October Contest Update. It's almost the end of the year and we've seen sales, winners, finalists and first steps here in Seekerville. Today we're delighted to offer two opportunities to win a ten page critique . All you have to do to enter is share what's going on in their contest world. One reader will win a copy of Glynna Kaye's October release, Look-Alike Lawman. Winners announced in the Weekend Edition.

 Don't forget our September Contest Update challenge that goes until Sunday. You still have time to enter. Winner announced next Sunday.



 Published Author Contests


 2013 RWA RITA Awards. October 15 the contest opens. Entries are novels and novellas with a 2012 copyright.

  Unpublished Author Contests


First Kiss Contest. Deadline October 1. All electronic. Send  the scene from your book where your couple first kisses. The scene should convey the emotion and romantic conflict between the characters, sparkle with creative dialogue, description, and characterization, and move the story forward.  "Good kiss scenes are essentially emotional discoveries. The first kiss brings a new closeness… but also a new set of complications."FINAL ROUND JUDGE: Patience Smith, Senior Editor, Silhouette Romantic Suspense
at Harlequin. She will judge six finalists.





The Suzannah. Deadline October 1. All Electronic.  Capped at 120 entries. Entry should be a maximum of 7,200 words, including synopsis (there is no restriction on length of synopsis, so long as the entire entry does NOT exceed 7,200.Grand Prize Winner Will Receive Three hundred dollars in cash, donated by the Nelson Family in memory of romance author Suzannah Nelson Davis, and a trophy.

"The Suzannah is different from most other writers’ contests in that  published authors and unpublished writers all compete against one another in a single pool of entries without categories. Yep, you read that right. Published and unpublished writers all hashing it out together for a spot as one of the six finalists. The only criteria we require is that the manuscript fit within the romance genre and that it be unpublished and uncontracted."


All six finalists will have their entries evaluated by the full panel of agents and editors. Our 2012 panel of final round judges includes:

Erika Tsang, Executive Editor, Avon Romance/Harper Collins
Wanda Ottewell, Senior Editor, Harlequin Superromance
Leah Hultenschmidt, Senior Editor, Sourcebooks
Saritza Hernandez, Literary Agent, The Corvisiero Literary Agency
Alicia Condon, Editorial Director/Editor, Kensington/Brava
Michelle Grajkowski, Literary Agent, 3 Seas Literary Agency

Categories:
Contemporary Romance 
Historical Romance
Inspirational Romance 
Novel with Strong Romantic Elements 
Paranormal Romance 
Romantic Suspense 
Young Adult Romance 

ACFW First Impressions. All electronic.The contest will begin October 15, 2012 at 9:00 AM central time. All contest entries and contest fees must be received by 5:00 PM central time on November 15, 2012. Submit a back-cover copy type blurb of 200 words or less, plus the first five pages of the manuscript in the same file. Indicate into what genre you would like your submission entered.

Contemporary ("Present Day" setting):
Final round agent judges: Joel Kneedler, Alive Communications, Inc. and Les Stobbe, Stobbe Literary Agency

 Historical (Up to and including the Vietnam era, westerns and Biblical-era fiction):
 Final round agent judges: Tamela Hancock Murray, The Steve Laube Agency and Mary Sue Seymour, The Seymour Agency

Mystery/Suspense/Thriller:
Final round agent judges: Mary Keely, Books and Such Literary Agency and Chip MacGregor, MacGregor Literary

Speculative Fiction:
Final round agent judges: Greg Johnson, WordServe Literary and Nicole Resciniti, The Seymour Agency

YA/Children’s:
Final round agent judges: Terry Burns, Hartline Literary and Sarah Younger, Nancy Yost Literary Agency





Love Inspired Suspense Fast Track Event. All electronic.Check out the LI S Guidelines at eharlequin.com

• Email your submission to LISfasttrack@harlequin.ca
• Attach your first chapter and a short synopsis (no more than 2 pages) to the email as well as a short query letter indicating how much of the manuscript is complete.
• Fast-track submissions received between October 15-26 will hear back from LI no less than one more after the closing date, before November 26th.

2013 RWA Golden Heart Awards. Please note the deadlines for the Golden Heart have changed. November 15, 2012, the 2013 Golden Heart Contest opens to entries. This contest requires a full manuscript. There is no feedback.

Entries must be submitted to RWA's contest site no later than 5 p.m. CT, January 2, 2013. Entrants who fail to meet this deadline will be disqualified, and the entry fee will be forfeited.

The Golden Heart contest is limited to 1,200 paid entries.

Once again this year Seekerville will be reimbursing one person their Golden Heart Entry fee. This opportunity is open from November 15 through to the Golden Heart deadline of January 2, 2013. Send proof of entry to the Seekerville email address. Winner will be announced on January 7, 2013.




AND!!!  Seekerville's Fifth Birthday Party is coming October 1-31. Get those manuscripts polished. We have a contest coming up...shh, it's a surprise.

 Random Contests & Just For Fun

 WOW: Women On Writing Fiction Quarterly Contest. Open September - November 30th, Midnight (Pacific Time). "WOW! hosts a (quarterly) writing contest every three months. The mission of this contest is to inspire creativity, communication, and well-rewarded recognition to contestants. The contest is open globally; age is of no matter; and entries must be in English. We are open to all styles of writing, although we do encourage you to take a close look at our guest judge for the season and the flavor of our sponsor, if you are serious about winning. We love creativity, originality, and light-hearted reads. That's not to say that our guest judge will feel the same... so go wild! Express yourself, and most of all, let's have some fun!"

Maximum: 750--Minimum: 250 The title is not to be counted in your word count. We use MS Word's word count to determine the submitted entry's word count.Open Prompt: Open to any style and genre. From horror to romance!

Entry Fee: $10.00 We are limiting the amount of entries to a maximum of 300 stories. Please enter early to ensure inclusion. If we reach 300 entries, we will disable the PayPal buttons.

Check out the great prizes, including cash! Final judge is Literary Agent Jessica Sinsheimer.

 



Courtesy of Cindi Myers Market News Blog:

Chicken Soup For the Soul is always on the lookout for new stories for its many anthologies. Currrently, the editors are seeking stories on the following themes:

Devotional Stories For Wives — 500 word devotionals showing how faith in God has shaped your role as a wife.   Deadline Feb. 28, 2013

Holiday Stories — stories about Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanzaa. Deadline Feb. 28, 2013

Lemons to Lemonade — How you made the best of a difficult situation. Deadline Feb 28, 2013

Raising Kids on the Spectrum — Stories about parenting children with Autism or Asperger’s. Deadline September 30, 2012.

Unless otherwise indicated, Chicken Soup stories are true, emotional stories up to 1,200 words. Find the submission guidelines here.






 Writer's Digest Short Short Story Writing Competition. Deadline November 15. Electronic. Submission of 1,500 words or less.
Now accepting entries for the Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Writing Competition. The top winner will receive over $3,000 in cash and prizes and a trip to the Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City.  The top 10 winners will also be featured the July/August 2013 issue of Writer’s Digest Magazine.




That's it! Now go forth and contest!