Wordclay Short Story Contests Now Open: Submission Guidelines Posted

April 2, 2008

AnnouncementIt’s my pleasure to announce the official open of both the Wordclay Single Short Story and the Short Story Collection contests. As of 11 a.m. today, April 2, 2008, you can send our readers your stories and cover letters for a chance to win cash, publishing packages as well as copies of the Wordclay Anthology Best Modern Voices, in which the 15 story finalists will appear in Volume 2. 

And submitting doesn’t cost a dime either! 

Now, your writing mission, should you choose to accept it, is to visit Wordclay’s Contest Connection, read over the submission guidelines, polish your best pieces and e-mail your entry to contests@wordclay.com.  

Registration is not required, but I definitely recommend you join the Wordclay community. Maybe I’m just overly cautious by nature, but registration is free anyway; we never divulge any of your personal information; and we’ll have your contact information on file in case you win prizes or you’re chosen as a finalist.

Writer frustrationFar be it for me to limit the creative process and frustrate writers, but there are a few practical limitations for acceptable submissions. No entry for the Single Short Story Contest can be more than 5,000 words, and you can only submit a maximum of three stories attached to a single e-mail. To avoid confusion, you cannot submit revisions at a later date either, so make sure you’re satisfied with your work before you click send. 

As for the Short Story Collection Contest, we ask that you submit your potential book as a Microsoft Word document and indicate the three stories (no more than 15,000 words combined) that you would like our judges to review firsthand. Other stories from your collection can (and probably will) be selected at random for screening, so make sure all your stories meet our guidelines for publishable material as well as your own personal goals.

DeadlineThe deadline for qualifying submissions to both the story contests is May 31, 2008, by 11:59 p.m., and winners should be announced by the end of June.

For more details about prizes and submission guidelines, visit Wordclay’s Contest Connection, where you can read the winners of our previous poetry contest as well. 

Your own blogger, Justin Dimos, will be coordinating this round of short story contests, so feel free to post your questions or concerns about the contests here, and I’ll get you answers lickity split (or at least within a few days). 

This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off. 

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

Entry Filed under: Announcements, Publishing, Writing. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

25 Comments Add your own

  • 1. Don  |  April 2, 2008 at 3:27 pm

    Woo Hoo!!!

  • 2. jdimos  |  April 3, 2008 at 1:46 pm

    Thanks for the enthusiasm, Don!

    Good luck in the contest!

    -Justin

  • 3. Mr Surbade  |  April 12, 2008 at 6:43 am

    In my humble opinion you should be decorated.

  • 4. Jenny  |  April 15, 2008 at 2:45 pm

    Interesting.

  • 5. Arnold  |  April 16, 2008 at 2:37 pm

    Dugg for Arnold rocking the casket.

  • 6. the protagonize blog &raq&hellip  |  April 22, 2008 at 10:03 pm

    [...] May 1st. We’ll see if we can work out some more contests throughout the year! Check out their blog for more [...]

  • 7. rich  |  April 26, 2008 at 11:48 am

    that’s awesome

  • 8. Manuel  |  May 5, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    wow!, very intersting!

  • 9. Wordclay - Short Story Co&hellip  |  May 5, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    [...] Wordclay - Short Story Competition Posted in May 5th, 2008 by Mikeachim in Creative / Literary Where?      Here. [...]

  • 10. Got Em  |  May 8, 2008 at 1:29 am

    I hope no one wins. I hope everything enter is shit.

    Just kidding. This is an awesome contest. I hope the excellent entries will be sold in stores.

  • 11. Alex Moisi  |  May 18, 2008 at 6:25 pm

    My question is what about reprints? or multiple submissions?
    Can I send a story that was already published and what if I want to submit a story that is in the slush pile of a publication?

  • 12. jdimos  |  May 19, 2008 at 9:05 am

    Alex, unfortunately, we are not accepting stories that have already been published. It must be a previously unpublished story of which you are the author.

    Also, bear in mind that you can submit up to three stories for the contest, per our guidelines. Check them out at the Wordclay Contest Connection via our homepage http://www.wordclay.com.

    I’m not certain what you mean by “a story that is in the slush pile of a publishcation…” though. Usually, editors use slush piles to fill magazines when material is lacking for a given issue. Like I said before, however, you can submit any three stories (5000 words or less) that are previously unpublished.

    Thanks for your interest, and I hope to see your submissions soon!

    -Justin

  • 13. Alex Moisi  |  May 19, 2008 at 11:18 pm

    I am sorry if I was unclear, what I meant was a simultaneous submission.
    I have a story which I submitted to another market but have yet not heard back from them, can I still submit it to your contest?

    Also thanks for the clarification

  • 14. jdimos  |  May 20, 2008 at 9:31 am

    Alex,

    I’m glad you asked about simultaneous submissions, and Wordclay is happy to accept them. Just let us know if your entry is published elsewhere, so we can withdraw the published story. But feel free to submit up to three stories that are simultaneous submissions - we’d be thrilled to read them!

    Thanks again for the question.

    -Justin

  • 15. Alex Moisi  |  May 21, 2008 at 8:23 pm

    Great, thank you very much for the info, it has been really helpful

  • 16. Monday Market: 2008.06.23&hellip  |  June 23, 2008 at 6:00 am

    [...] the official open of both the Wordclay Single Short Story and the Short Story Collection contests. As of 11 a.m. today, April 2, 2008, you can send our readers your stories and cover letters for a [...]

  • 17. Marco Kaufman  |  June 23, 2008 at 9:10 am

    Are you accepting flash fiction pieces?

    -MSK

  • 18. angiekp  |  June 23, 2008 at 3:34 pm

    Sorry, but the Short Story Contest in now closed (the entry deadline was May 31). Winners will be announced June 30 and we plan to feature some of the winning work on http://www.wordclay.com if you’re interested. Or, if you want to get your flash fiction out there now, you can always use Wordclay’s free program to publish your collection.

  • 19. Marco Kaufman  |  June 23, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    Actually, I was wondering whether you would be accepting flash pieces for the next issue…

    -MSK

  • 20. jdimos  |  June 24, 2008 at 9:42 am

    Marco,

    The short answer is: we’re not sure… I suspect the next one will be a creative non-fiction contest, but we haven’t nailed anything down yet. We’re still waiting to flesh out the details of our budget. But I know that flash fiction interests us, and we would be fools not to have a short-short contest sometime in the future. My advice is to keep Wordclay in mind and just check our Contest Connection page periodically.

    Hope that answered your question.

    -Justin

  • 21. Monday Market: 2008.07.21&hellip  |  July 21, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    [...] my pleasure to announce the official open of both the Wordclay Single Short Story and the Short Story Collection contests. As of 11 a.m. today, April 2, 2008, you can send our readers your stories and cover letters for a [...]

  • 22. Monday Market: 2008.08.18&hellip  |  August 18, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    [...] Wordclay Short Story Contests Now Open: Submission Guidelines … [...]

  • 23. Ciara  |  October 12, 2008 at 4:47 am

    Just passing by.. don’t you have contests for personal essays..

    here’s my WP Blog,

    http://sanityandsensibility.wordpress.com/

  • 24. jdimos  |  October 13, 2008 at 9:05 am

    Dear Ciara,

    Wordclay isn’t offering a contest right now, but one of our other imprints is!!!

    Words of Belief is accepting stories of both nonfiction and fiction, so you’re welcome to submit personal essays. The only requirement is that you register for free, and the stories include or address the holidays, either Thanksgiving or Xmas.

    Deadline is Nov. 21st, and we hope you’ll submit.

    Check out the guidelines here:
    http://www.wordsofbelief.com/PromoPages/WOBContest.aspx

    Thanks, Ciara, for the question!

  • 25. mehmet  |  November 4, 2008 at 5:39 am

    realy interesting

Leave a Comment

Required

Required, hidden

Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Trackback this post  |  Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed

Links

Categories

Feeds

Category Cloud

Announcements Behind the Scenes Book Design Contributors Events Fonts Interviews In the News Marketing Opinion Publishing punctuation Reading & Writing Uncategorized Writing

Archives

 Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing by Email

Weekly Writing Prompt

The Domino Effect. Try thinking about a minor detail in your life that could have huge implications for a complete stranger. For example, perhaps you lose a dollar, which a homeless person uses to buy a lottery ticket, which wins them millions of dollars. Even the smallest occurrence could have global repercussions. Starting from a detail you take for granted, write a piece that captures the chain reaction that affects everything.

Weekly Writing Tip

Don’t write off anthologies. Pick up this year’s Best American series, or perhaps The O. Henry Prize Stories 2008. The diversity of styles and tones will definitely get you excited about writing, and just might plant the seed of a new book in your head.

Last Week's Writing Prompt

What’s on the refrigerator? Ever visited a friend or loved one’s house and discovered a collage of magnets, post-its, notes, menus and pictures stuck to their fridge door? Think back to the last time, and write a poem or a story that attempts to capture all these unique images, revealing a deeper meaning behind their home on the refrigerator.

Last Week's Writing Tip

No such thing as a stupid question. As a writer, you’re not only observant, but curious as well. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even ones that may sound a little obvious. You’ll need to understand how people react to all types of questions anyway, if you’re going to write compelling dialogue and interesting characters.

Blog Stats

AddThis Social Bookmark Button