Competitions - how do you know if they're legit?

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Competitions - how do you know if they're legit?

(13 posts)

Started 1 year ago by mike
Latest reply from mike

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writing competitions

mike
Member

I've just read the post about the Wergle Flomp poetry comp and I wondered how you're supposed to figure out which competitions are legit and which are just ways for the organisers to get your details so they can bombard you with advertising. I was considering entering the Academy of Childrens' Writers' children's short story competition, but couldn't find any details on previous winners, which seemed a bit weird. They claim to offer a first prize of £2,000, which made me suspicious too, especially as the entry fee is only £2.70, and they ask for it to be entirely in the form of 2nd class stamps - presumably so they can afford the postage of the junk mail they'll then send you. They also specify that they want your name and address on the entry, which seems unusual. Ah, I think I've answered my own question, but what does everyone else think?

Posted 1 year ago #
Rebecca Lloyd
Member

Hi Mike,
If you were suspicious of a compo. you might try 'Watercooler' and see if anyone on there has made any comments about it. But on the Academy of Children's Writers' compo., I wasn't particularly suspicious of them, and did enter it. I'll let you know if junk comes my way. But although you put your name on the entry form, you don't on the work itself, so that seems standard enough. As for the stamps - I thought it was an ingenious way of not having to faff around with cheques. I wonder if I'm terribly naive? I promise to let you know if I am. But £2.70 is less than the price of a glass of horrible wine in a rundown pub....
Becca.

Posted 11 months ago #
Rebecca Lloyd
Member

I've just had a scout about, and I think the chances of them being scammers is higher than 50%. They're very low key and I can't find anything definite, but it did occur to me that they work like this:- they send everyone a letter saying they've been shortlisted and with it an ad. for their courses - and they use the stamps they get from the contestants on these postings! Anyhow, I'll know more later, and keep you updated.
Becca.

Posted 11 months ago #
mike
Member

Hi Rebecca, what did you find out that made you think they're scammers? Will be v interested to find out if you're right - let me know what happens!

Posted 11 months ago #
emily
Member

Ooh, interesting stuff! I'm planning to enter as many comps as possible this year and see what happens - I've heard it's a great way to attract the attention of publishers and agents. Suppose that's only true if it's a prestigious competition though. What does everyone else think?

Posted 11 months ago #
Rebecca Lloyd
Member

Hi Mike,
I just scouted around a few of my online connections and found a few suspicious comments about them, but nothing definite. I'll let you know if I get a 'you've been shortlisted, and now take one of our courses' letter.
Hi Emily,
yes prestigious compos are better, but you also have to weigh up the amount of money you have to give them with your submission. You'll find on Editors and Preditors, [google it], that they think writers' shouldn't have to pay to enter. They're fantastic people providing a brilliant service for writers, but I don't agree with them on this particular matter.

Posted 11 months ago #
Rebecca Lloyd
Member

Well, I received what I expected to receive from the Academy of Children's Writers which was a letter saying I'd been shortlisted, and having come so close, they suggested I take their course, oh, and I'd get a discount - 'your 'way with words' indicates that with a little effort your natural talent could be developed to enable you to produce work of publication standard.'
They sent an application form for their course in which you enclose a cheque etc.
They gave the names of the first, second and third prize winners, and there is no evidence online anywhere of these people because they are made-up names, I'll bet.
So the competition is a fake and used as a hook to entice people to them so they can persuade them to take the course. The course itself could be genuine, though.
Rebecca.

Posted 9 months ago #
Judy Darley
Administrator

Thanks so much for the update on this, Rebecca. Has anyone else had experiences like this?

Posted 9 months ago #
mike
Member

Wow - nice to know how this turned out. Yep, I've had this kind of experience before, which is why I was so suspicious! I entered a poetry competition and was a runner up, which I was chuffed about until I received the anthology (which I had to pay for!), and it was an immense tome containing every entry they'd received! Not my best writing day.

Posted 9 months ago #
wayne
Member

Another thing to watch with on-line competitions - is the prize worth having? I submitted a short story, won the competition and all that happened was my story was on the website for a month, which wasn't worth the cost and also means I now can't submit that story to other competitions which prohibit previous publication. In another competition I won, the prize was to be considered for publication by an independent publisher (gold dust to a new author) but they sat on it for 6 months - always promising to look at it in a few weeks - until I got fed up and withdrew it - and then they answered aqlmost instantly. It was just a waste of my time.

Posted 9 months ago #
mike
Member

I guess what you have to decide is whether the prize or the prestige is worth it. If neither of these is up to much, don't bother. Rebecca, I couldn't find the Watercooler site you mentioned. What's the URL?

Posted 8 months ago #
Rebecca Lloyd
Member

More on the Academy of Children's Writers - I got in contact with someone who has a website with a list of compos. and mentioned the suspicions about the Academy, and he sent me the following, [and said I could use it],

I’ve conducted an investigation into the competition in question, and I agree that there is no proof that any prizes have been awarding recently. I do know of a writer who won a third prize back in 1998 (http://merlinscrystal.co.uk/about.html), so the contest seems to have been okay at that time. But the absence of any publicity-seeking winners in recent times, plus the fact that no winning entries are shown on the website, does make me wonder. However, wondering is not knowing.

The fact that the Academy of Children’s Writers uses a contest to promote its writing courses is not in itself a cause for concern. Every competition is run either to promote something or to make money out of the entry fees. The former type are usually cheaper to enter and might well be preferred by some people. After all, there is no obligation to buy, so as long as the prizes are being awarded, why worry?

But has the Academy been awarding the prizes? There will have been 33 of these since 1998. Not a lot, really. It isn’t inconceivable that the recipients have no websites or blogs through which to boast about their success.

I emailed the Academy and told them there were doubts about the competition, and I asked if they made the winning entries available in any form. Someone responded with a reply that failed to answer the question, saying all entrants are notified of the results in May. I wanted to know if the winning stories would be included in this notification, so I asked. The answer was no. I was told they used to do an anthology but there was no demand for it, so they put the winners on the website instead, only to find that some writers demanded royalties, while others felt that their chances of placing their story with a publisher would be destroyed if it had been made available for all to read on the web. A lame excuse, I thought. I told the person that the norm was for competition promoters to reserve the right to publish winners without further payment, and if there were any genuine concerns about future publication, these would not apply if the stories simply appeared in a privately circulated results newsletter.

The end result of the correspondence was that the person now understood why suspicions had arisen, and the Academy would ‘address the situation with the winners this year’ and make adjustments to the rules for future years, and that they will take the website route as they don’t wish to produce hard copies again.

So all being well we will be able to read this year’s winners on the website. This is the best we can hope for in the way of proof in most literary competitions. Some have a glittering awards ceremony and send out press releases with photos, but the majority don’t. With the latter you just have to take a chance.

Further to the above email, I did a bit more research myself and found a site where the Academy claims that 'every year, about two thousand novice children's writers become sucessful authors.' That would flood the market, wouldn't it!!!
Becca.

Posted 1 month ago #
mike
Member

All sounds highly dodgy to me.
I've also come to realise that there's no point entering competitions with small prizes, little prestige and based miles away. I'm not going to pay £100+ for a trip to Scotland if the prize is only £100... Or does that seem churlish?

Posted 2 weeks ago #