A good contest is great motivation to complete and polish your WIP! Check out some of these:
A. Current Contests
B. Ongoing Contests
C. Query/First Pages Critiques (ongoing)
.
Current Contests:
.
The Maggies–June 10 deadline
http://www.georgiaromancewriters.org/the-maggies/
From their website: Each year countless generous published authors contribute their time and expertise to critique the first round of Unpublished entries. This hands-on approach by the first round judges is a hallmark of the Maggie Award. An always stellar line-up of editors judge the final round. This year’s judges for the unpublished Maggies are
Single Title–Holly Blanck, Editor, St. Martins Press*
Series Contemporary–Victoria Curran, Editor, Harlequin*
Inspirational–Charlene Patterson, Editor, Bethany House*
Historical–Tessa Woodward, Editor, Avon
Paranormal–Claire Eddy, Sr. Editor, Tor
Young Adult–Leah Hultenschmidt, Editor, Sourcebooks*
*Also attending the 2011 Moonlight & Magnolias conference.
.
Monthly Contests:
.
1. SECRET AGENT contest: Changing genres; check at beginning of each month. Participating agent is revealed with the winners.
http://www.misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/
2. Margie Lawson’s DAREDEVIL DACHSHUND contest.
Find the cartoon dachshund on her website, email her the location and be entered to win her EDITS System Power Pack, including a certificate for one hour editing consult.
3. Query Tracker Blog. Various agent-judged contests.
Details: http://querytracker.blogspot.com/p/latest-contest.html
4. Gotham Writers’ Workshop:
No contest, just a form to win a free class (appears ongoing):
http://www.writingclasses.com/ContestPages/
5. Dear Lucky Agent Contest. Hosted by Chuck Sambuchino over at Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents blog. The contest is reoccurring with a changing focus. Keep checking for when your genre is represented. Contests are judged by agents and offer great prizes.
Here is a sample of a past contest:
http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/Dear+Lucky+Agent+Contest+Fantasy+And+SciFi.aspx
.
Query/First Pages Critiques:
.
1. Query Shark: http://queryshark.blogspot.com/ (Janet Reid, lit agent)
2. Query Project: http://jmeadows.livejournal.com/tag/query+project (Jody Meadows, former slush reader for the now-closed Rappaport Agency)
3. Query Writing 101: First Monday of the month, critique by C.J. Redwine http://romanceuniversity.org/labs/
4. About My Query: http://ktliterary.com/category/ask-daphne/ (Kate Schafer Testerman, lit agent)
5. First Page Critiques: Former lit agent Nathan Bransford hosts First Page critiques on Tuesdays. http://blog.nathanbransford.com/
6. Workshop Wednesday: Query Critiques at BookEnds literary agency. http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2011/02/query-workshop.html
7. First Page Critique: at The Kill Zone http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/search/label/critique
8. Monthly First Five Pages: at Adventures in Children’s Publishing http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/2011/03/announcing-monthly-first-five-pages.html