April Contest Update

It's April and contest season is going strong. Are your contest goals still going strong?

Published Author Contests

Book Buyers Best Contest for Published Authors. Deadline April 13, 2013.Contest is accepting e-published and self-published entries.


International Digital Awards. Deadline April 15, 2013.


 Aspen Gold. Deadline June 1, 2013.

Unpublished Author Contests

  The Sheila. Deadline April 12. All electronic.Eligibility: all RWA members, published and unpublished, who have not published a full-length novel (40K words or more) in the category entered at the time of the contest deadline and within the past five years.
Entry: Total of 35 pages, including synopsis (not to exceed 5 pages).

  Categories and Final Judges: 
Romantic Suspense – Katherine Pelz
The Berkley Publishing Group
Historical – Elizabeth (Lizzie) Poteet, St. Martin's Press
Women's Fiction – Alex Logan, Grand Central Publishing
Single Title – Emilia Pisani, Gallery Books
YA – Wendy Loggia, Delacorte Press/Random House Children's Books


Orange Rose. The Contest is limited to the first 150 Entries. Contest Deadline is April 13, 2013. Note: finalists are chosen by overall score NOT BY CATEGORY. Entry: 35 pages in total maximum, which includes the first chapters of the manuscript and a synopsis – manuscript pages should be first.
Categories are:
 Contemporary Category Romance
 Mainstream with Romantic Elements
 Erotic Romance
 Paranormal/Time Travel/Fantasy Romance
 Historical & Regency Romance
 Romantic Suspense
 Inspirational Romance
 Young Adult Romance
 Single Title Romance (over 70,000 words

This is an evolving list; more judges will be added in the coming weeks and months.
Orange Rose finalists are chosen by the top 10 scores overall, and each finalist entry is matched with three editor and agent judges actively acquiring that subgenre.

2013 Orange Rose Final Round judges will include:
 Tessa Woodward, Editor, Avon/HarperCollins
 Heather Osborn, Executive Editor, Samhain Publishing
 Junessa Viloria, Assistant Editor, Ballantine Bantam Dell
 Deidre Knight, Senior Agent, The Knight Agency
 Laura Bradford, Agent, Bradford Literary Agency
 Mary-Theresa Hussey, Executive Editor, Harlequin
 Courtney Miller-Callihan, Agent, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates
 Danielle Poiesze, Editorial Director, Entangled Publishing



Duel on the Delta.  Deadline: April 15, 2013 *date extended*Entry: first 20 pages of manuscript (optional one page, non-judged synopsis). HELLO!! This is a no-brainer. They are short on entries, they have a Bethany House editor, whom you hardly ever see judging a contest. DO NOT LET THIS OPPORTUNITY SLIP BY!!!


Final Round Judges Contemporary - Jill Marsal- Literary Agent, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency

Erotica - Angela James, Executive Editor - Carina Press, Harlequin Ltd.

Historical - Jill Limber, Editor - Boroughs Publishing Group

Inspirational - Sarah Long, Senior Editor, Fiction, Bethany House Publishers

Paranormal - Deb Dixon, President/CEO of Belle Books

Romantic Suspense - Deborah Nemeth- Editor, Carina Press

Young Adult - Danielle Poisez, Editorial Director - Entangled Select and Entangled Edge 



Pitch Contest. Deadline April 15. Enter 200 word max. This would be the back cover copy or pitch letter blurb. Accepting a max of 100 entries only, so get yours in soon! All genres accepted. Published and non-published authors accepted, as long as the entry is not published. Judged fully by PAN members, three judges per entry. Top 10% move on to the final round. Scoring for final round will be based on a single score from each judge of 1 to 10.


Kristin Daly Rens, Senior Editor for Balzer + Bray
Pam van Hylckama Vlieg, Agent and partner for Foreward Literary
Abby Zidle, Senior Editor for Gallery & Pocket Books
Jill Marsal, Agent and founding partner for Marsal Lyon Literary Agency
Jennifer Enderlin, Vice President and Associate Publisher for St. Martin’s Press
Lauren MacLeod, Agent for The Strothman Agency




TARA. Deadline May 1st.  Entry:The first 4,500 words of a qualifying manuscript (actual word count). Eligibility requirements: The TARA Contest is open to unpublished and published authors of novel length fiction, however the entry must be the author’s original work, unpublished and not contracted as of the time of the contest deadline. No entry can have been previously published in any format. (on author’s website visible to the public, self-published, ebook, mass market, etc.)



The top 3 finalists in each category are determined by averaging each entrants’ scores and will be notified the first week in July 2013. To be considered a finalist, an entry must have a minimum average score of at least 40 points. If there are no average scores of 40 or above in a particular category, TARA reserves the right to select no finalists in that category. All finalists will have an allotted amount of time (approximately 1 week) to review judges’ critiques and make changes to her/his manuscript before it goes to the final-round judge.Note: Per the request of our editor judges, all finalist must submit a synopsis (up to 1500 words max) via email.


Category Romance-Brenda Chin-Harlequin

Historical-Elizabeth Bistrow-New American Library

Inspirational-Emily Rodmell-Harlequin

Paranormal-Sue Grimshaw-Random House

Romantic Suspense-Emilia Pisani-Pocket Books

Single Title-Amanda Bergeron-Harper Collins

Women’s Fiction-Katherine Pelz-Berkley Publishing





Ignite the Flame. Deadline May 11. Contest open to unpublished, uncontracted, book-length (40,000 words or more) manuscripts. COFW recognizes self-published books as published.

Entry: scene of your hero or heroine's first meeting or reunion (up to 15 pages.) You may also submit an optional, un-judged, one-page set-up providing necessary background for the first-meeting, as a page within your attached submission.
*Romantic Suspense -- Rebecca Strauss literary agent Mckintosh and Otis Inc
*Historical -- Julie Mianecki Junior editor Berkley
*Single-title -- Kate Dresser Editor HQN
*Paranormal -- Alicia Condon editor Kensington
*Young Adult -- Annie Stone associate editor Harlequin TEEN
*Erotic Romance -- Nicole Fischer Editorial Assistant Avon
*Category-length contemporary -- Allison Carroll Editorial Assistant Harlequin Desire

Other Contests 


2014 Great American Fiction Contest -The Saturday Evening Post. Deadline July 1st.  Prize is publication and cash! Stories must be 1,500-5,000 in length. (Thanks to Pat Jeanne Davis for this info).



BOROUGHS 2013 NOVELLA CONTEST. Deadline May 31st. Winner receives a publishing contract.  "We invite you to submit your 25,000-40,000 word, completed novella based on the title of a song – any song – that you adopt as the title of your story."

Congratulations to our April Contest Divas: Our Diva's are sharing a bit about the contest journey.

2013 RITA Finalist Missy Tippens 


I wanted to leave this space blank just to show I'm pretty much speechless over the RITA phone call last week. But since Tina is the boss--and since I'm a writer, I figured I better try to find some words for her. ;)

This contest journey began with me excitedly mailing off my first published novel the moment the RITA contest opened in late 2008. I was so excited that I probably frightened the post office worker. I remember even posting about my joy of sending off those books here on the blog (and felt foolish later because I realized it probably sounded arrogant, like I expected to win). But it wasn't arrogance at all. It was a matter of being thrilled and honored to FINALLY be able to enter. My journey had been well over 12 years to reach the moment where I finally had a book to enter in a contest I had only dreamed of entering.


I've happily entered every book I've published since then. And...wow. Here I am stunned to find my 5th book listed among the other finalists. I feel so blessed. And, yes, thrilled and honored. And so thankful for all of you here who have celebrated with me!





2013 Golden Heart Finalist Piper Huguley

A Contest Diva listens!

For many years, there has always been this voice telling me to use my fiction writing to “have something to say.”  Only in the last few years have I come to understand that this desire could be achieved by writing inspirational historical romance fiction. 

That desire, coupled with a promise I made to my grandmother and her sisters years ago, gave me the idea.  It was up to me to tell the story of how the Bledsoe sisters left the rural South for the urban North in the largest United States migration in the early 1900's. Each sister leaves home for a different reason, but as she finds a new home, she finds love and understands that God has guided her footsteps—as God has guided mine in this project.

As Tina advised, I have used contests to obtain feedback on my work. As with anything worthwhile, it has been a struggle, but this month I placed second in the NTRWA’s Great Expectations contest and I got a full request from Thomas Nelson. 

Also, this week, I was nominated for RWA’s Golden Heart in the Historical Romance category after the Inspirational category was canceled. 

So if there is a voice guiding your writing, listen.  God is speaking.  And always keep the promises you’ve made to your grandmother and her sisters.





In honor of Piper Huguley, Seekerville is giving two ten page inspirational or sweet romance (historical, contemp, suspense, single title or WF) critiques. We're also giving away two Kindle copies of Missy Tippens' RITA nominated Love Inspired book A House Full of Hope.

Let us know you want your name in the cat dish. Winners announced in the Weekend Edition.


That's it. Now go forth and contest!