Writing Contests

There are a few contests open at the moment for Romance writers, for those of you into entering contests.

Local is lekker, so we'll start with two home-grown South African contests. First up is the second short story contest run by Essentials Magazine in conjunction with Mills & Boon. Deadline is 28th February and the details are available here. This year's prize is awesome so you really should give it a go!

Next is Penguin Books' Prize for African Writing. The deadline is 30th January and the contest criteria can be found here. This contest is for full-length adult contemporary novels out of Africa. Again, an awesome prize - but if you want to enter you'll either need a completed manuscript ready and waiting or be an awesomely fast writer.

Further afield, the Washington DC Romance Writers (a chapter of the RWA) is running its annual Marlene contest, open to entrants word-wide. The deadline is 15th January and you can find more information here. This contest does have an entry fee so I'd recommend it only if you want to get your work in front of these specific contest judges, all editors from top romance publishers.

Then there's the Chase the Dream contest. This annual contest for the opening 1,000 words of a novel, runs from 1st January to 3rd March. Details can be found here. It's great fun, easy to enter, completely free, and can also get your work in front of some top editors and agents.

If you know of any other contests for writers, and specifically for romance writers, open to South African residents, then please drop us a line in the comments section.