Thanks to the Facebook page of the Romantic Novelists Association, I saw the link for the write for Elle competition.
Elle is a glossy monthly magazine you're guaranteed to find on the shelves of your local newsagents and supermarkets. Like many of its competitors it has a strong online and social media presence too.
So for the seventh year of this competition, they want a 500 word piece inspired by the hashtag #RelationshipGoals so who the relationship is with that matters to you, and what you want from it, all that is up to you.
The competition opened 6th August and closes just before midnight on the 10th September.
Submission is by email and you'll find the link for the address to send it to on the competition information page, here.
Entries will be judged by an editorial team from Elle, and the remainder of the judging panel will be made up by author Jessie Burton (The Miniaturist), and novelist Kate Mosse.
Now to the prizes. The winner's piece will be published in the January 2016 issue of Elle under your own name, and you also win a Smythson monogrammed Dukes manuscript book (worth £135) - as do the remaining four finalists. There's no actual cash involved...
As with any writing competition there are terms and conditions you need to be aware of.
The winning entry may be edited "at the sole discretion of the ELLE editorial team" and "by entering this competition you consent to this and grant Hearst an exclusive licence in and to your work, in perpetuity."
The wordage is a little unclear, and I'd want clarification of whether the exclusivity is just with the winning entry, or every entry submitted (I'd suspect the latter, but I'd like to be surprised).
And whether they're 'in and to your work, in perpetuity' ONLY applies to the 500 word piece, and not any other potential articles for the magazine?
Don't forget to read the full competitions on the blue highlighted link further down the instructions page too.
Finally, you need to be over 18, resident of the UK and Ireland, not had material published by Elle or on elleuk.com and the piece submitted must not have been previously published.
If you enter, good luck...
Carol Bevitt's blog on her writing and inspirations, along with occasional literature related news...
Thanks for the link, Carol. Good luck if you're going to give it a go.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Keith. I probably won't enter this unless I suddenly think of an angle for it.
DeleteThanks for this, Carol. It's probably not my cup of tea, and thanks for highlighting their T&C's - always important to make sure we're not giving all our work away!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan.
DeleteI know that many writers don't mind such terms as those highlighted, but I do feel it's important that less experienced writers get into the habit of reading and understanding competition terms and conditions, so if pointing out these things helps, then that's good.
I can't work out if they want fact or fiction, Carol.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the type of magazine it is I would say factual- have a look at their online presence for the general tone.
DeleteNot my style, Carol, but thanks for the nudge!
ReplyDeleteWon't be too long before you'll have lots of competitions to choose from once you're relocated, Lizy. :-)
ReplyDelete