A good contest is great motivation to complete and polish your WIP! Check out some of these:
A. Current Contests
B. Monthly Contests (ongoing)
C. Query Critiques (ongoing)
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Current Contests:
1. Chase the Dream: running NOW until March 19. Enter 1000 words. Each week a finalist is chosen, as well as a winner of a mini-critique; you may reenter the following week. Genre: unpublished romance, chick lit, or mainstream fiction with romantic elements novel/novella. http://chasethedreamcontest.wordpress.com/rules/
2. Blog Followers contest at Shooting Stars: http://suzettesaxton.blogspot.com/2010/03/fantabulous-followers-giveaway.html
Suzie Townsend, literary agent with FinePrintLit is giving the grand prize winner a 40-page critique.
Contest ends Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 10pm MST.
3. Blog Followers contest at Texas Sweethearts http://texassweethearts.blogspot.com/2010/03/critiques-critiques-critiques.html
Prize: Query letter and 10 page critique by editor Madeline Smoot of Blooming Tree Press.
The contest will run through Sunday, March 28th.
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Monthly Contests:
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1. SECRET AGENT contest: Changing genres; check at beginning of each month. Participating agent is revealed at the end.
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. For January enter through January 26th. http://www.MargieLawson.com
3. Kidlit.com, blog of agent Mary Kole, associate agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency. She routinely has contests. None right now.
Details: http://kidlit.com/kidlit-contest/
4. Gotham Writers’ Workshop:
No contest, just a form to win a free class (appears ongoing):
http://www.writingclasses.com/ContestPages/
5. This is the one I can’t remember. It’s a certain new monthly contest. It’s put on by three (?) YA authors. Once a month they will select someone’s first 500 words to critique. Sound familiar? You get three perspectives on your first pages….anyone know about this one? I’ll post a link as soon as I figure it out!
6. Dear Lucky Agent Contest. Deadline: February 21st 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.
Current contest: The first 150-200 words of your unpublished, book-length work of urban fantasy or paranormal romance (adult or YA – both accepted).
7. NEW! Neverending Page Turner. New blog by Jr. agent Kathleen Ortiz. She is running a variety of contests–they come fast and furious so if you are interested you should follow her on twitter because by the time I post the contest will likely be over. Recent contests included a Query contest and a Synopsis contest. http://kortizzle.blogspot.com/
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Query Critiques:
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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. NEW! Query Ninja Critique: http://querytracker.blogspot.com/2010/02/query-ninja-critique.html A new service on the Query Tracker blog via Elana Johnson.