Monday 30 July 2012

More Words With Jam Competitions...

Bigger Short Story Competitions are open for entries-details and entry form here.

Words with Jam have an annual short story competition, but this year it's not just one competition but three.

There's the up to 2500 word one, and another for up to 1000 words, and finally a category for stories up to 250 words- so if you've been honing your flash/micro fiction skills, here's an opportunity.

There's no theme.

The closing date is 31st October this year.

Short Story Judge (up to 2500) Jane Fallon
Shorter Story Judge (up to 1,000) Benjamin Myers
Shortest Story Judge (up to 250) Zoe Fairbairns

1st prize in each category - £300
2nd prize in each category - £100
3rd prize in each category - £50

"5 runners up in each category will be published in the first volume of our Short Story Anthology (of which they will receive a copy), and awarded £10.
All winners and runners up will receive a printed copy of our first Short Story Anthology (inclusion optional*)."

As this is a pay to enter competition you need to make sure you read the rules and follow them.
But entry is online (so there's no queueing up in the Post Office to pay horrendous postage costs) as is the payment system- details on the page link above.

The main niggle I have is that regardless of category the first entry is £6 and further entries are £4. So if you just want to enter the shortest story of 250 words you're paying the same as a 1,000 or 2,500 word entry...

We all have to make individual judgements when considering pay to enter competitions- is the entry fee too much? Is the cash prize good enough? And, the anthology itself- with this one you do get a free copy (not always given in some competitions I've seen and heard of).

So if you do enter, good luck. :-)









2 comments:

Keith Havers said...

I thought exactly the same thing when I saw it, Carol. The £100 and £300 prizes seem reasonable. But to fork out £6 with a possible return of just £50 seems a pretty poor investment.

Carolb said...

I agree,Keith. But I expect it costs just as much for paying the judge whether it's 250 words or 2,500...