Tags
Almond Press, awards, competitions, Creative Writing Competitions, Dystopian Stories, flash fiction, list, short stories
You all know how much I love short stories, right? Well, enough to have published two collections so far, Infinite Waters being the latest one.
I recently entered a new short story of mine in a competition organized by Almond Press. While on their Dystopian Stories site, I noticed they have this great page with all sorts of short story competitions, with prizes up to $14,000. Naturally, I had to share.
And if you’re looking to get your short story published, check with my publisher friend Dan Dombrowski: he’s looking for stories to include in the next issue of his excellent Nonlocal Science Fiction Magazine.
Competition | Country | Closing Date | Max Words | Entry Fee | Top Prize |
The Pigeonhole Short Story Competition | International | August 3rd | 5,000 | Free | Publication |
The Reading Room Short Story Comp | International | October 20th | 2,000 | £3 | £50 + Publication |
Less than 100 words | International | Weekly competition | 100 | £20 | 99p |
The Short Story | International | Monthly | 2000 | £4.99 | £250 |
Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition | International | July 31st | 3,000 | £5 | €500 |
“Aestas” Short Story Contest | International | September 30th | 7,000 | $10 | $150 |
Wells Festival of Literature Writing Competition | International | July 31st | 2,000 | €15 | €2000 |
Cro Magnon Short Story Competition 2015: Primitive Humanity |
UK | September 31st | 3,000 | £5 | £100 |
Ilkley Literature Festival Competitions | International | July 31st | 3,000 | £5 | £200 |
Norwich Writers Short Fiction Competition | International | July 31st | 3,000 | £7 | £500 |
The Irish Times Amateur Travel Writer Competition | Ireland | September 26th | 600 | Free | Travel Assignment |
Alfie Dog Short Story Competition | International | September 30th | 2,000 | Check website | £200 |
2015 Rocky Coast Writing Contest for the Maine Review | International | 6pm (BST) every Friday | 2,000 | $10 | $100 |
International Hysteria Writing Competition | International | August 31st | 2,000 | £5.00 | £400 |
The British Fantasy Society Short Story Competition 2015 | International | June 30th | 5,000 | £5.00 | £100, £50, £20 |
Daily Science Fiction | International | — | 1,500 | $0.08 /word |
Free |
Bath Flash Fiction Award | International | Upon receipt of 1000 entries | 300 | £9 | £1000 |
Erewash Writers Short Story Competition | International | 24th September | 2,000 | £3 | £100 |
The Sunday Times Short Story Prize | International | 26th September | 6,000 | Free | £30,000 |
Zoetrope All-Story’s Annual Fiction Contest | International | 1st October (tentative) | 5,000 | $35 | $1,000 |
Aura Estrada Short Story Contest | International | 1st October | 5,000 | $20 | $1,500 |
Danahy Fiction Prize | International | 30 November | 5,000 | $20 | $1,000 |
Manchester Fiction Prize | International | 29th August | 2,500 | £17.50 | £10,000 |
Scottish Arts Club Short Story Competition | International | 12th September | 1,500 | £10 | £800 |
For an updated version of the page, don’t forget to bookmark the Dystopian Stories Creative Writing Competitions page. If you’d like to add an event to their list, you can contact them using this submission form.
janetweightreed10 said:
Good luck with this Nicholas. Having read ‘Infinite Waters’ – I would hope that you win a major award.
Each story stands on its own…and as mentioned before, when I came to the of end of one story I was sad, but then immediately gripped by the next.
Have a lovely day. Janet.:)
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
That’s such a sweet thing to say; thank you!!! The day is certainly lovelier now 😀
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janetweightreed10 said:
Good…and hope you enjoy a lovely weekend. Janet:)
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks! You too 🙂
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Courtney M. Wendleton said:
Reblogged this on Books and More.
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Solveig said:
Amazing! I was just trying to figure out where to start searching for short story competitions.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I was looking for competitions myself a couple of weeks ago, which is why I was so happy to discover this. Glad to have helped!
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beetleypete said:
That’s a handy list Nicholas, and my first experience of realising how many opportunities there are. Some of them do seem to be simple money-raisers though.
‘Less than 100 words’ costs £20 to enter, but has a prize of 99p?
Still, I have no doubt that the cachet of winning may well boost sales of existing work, so good luck to everyone entering them.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
A fair point (and one that’s crossed my mind, too, to be honest) 🙂
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Gisela Hausmann said:
@beetleypete
Personally I think winning a half a dozen award s is enough. How much more multi-award winning than multi-award winning can one get? Probably the first two or three awards are really important and after that this gets to be a difficult question. In the past I used to think that it’s not important but I happen to know that Jim Carrey enters each of his kids’ books at the Readers Favorite Award. That’ s Jim Carrey. One would think he does not need any awards. Since he (or his publisher) enters apparently there must be a reason.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
An interesting perspective. Thanks for that!
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beetleypete said:
I have to agree that six awards is enough. i would consider myself lucky to receive one, if I ever entered any such competitions. I wish everyone well, with whatever they do to get recognition for their work.
Regards from Norfolk. Pete.
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masgautsen said:
Good luck with your entry!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks! I can’t even remember which one of these it was; I have to check my emails 😀
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masgautsen said:
Heheh, if not you’ll find out when they get back to you 😉
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
That happened when Runaway Smile won the International Book Award. I had completely forgotten all about it until the email came 😀
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masgautsen said:
🙂
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Gisela Hausmann said:
No wonder you are so cool. @Nicholas. It also happened to a school college of mine who won a major science award in Austria. She told me, it took so long, which makes sense when it comes to the sciences (physics) almost half a year, by the time it actually happened she had forgotten. LOL
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – thanks for the “coolness” comment. It has more to do with my goldfish memory, of course 😀
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Ali Isaac said:
A very useful list, Nick, thank you and good luck with your entries.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks, Ali! I do hope you’ll enter some of these yourself 🙂
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Ali Isaac said:
I may do that… Not had much success so far this year, though!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – what hope do I have, then, if a wonderful writer like you has no luck? 😀
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Ali Isaac said:
Ah, your Greek blarney is back… Are you sure you don’t have any Irish ancestors, lol!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – I think the Greek part is more than enough 😀
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Ali Isaac said:
I think Greek and Irish would be a wonderful combination!!!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Scary. We’d take over the world in no time 😀
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Ali Isaac said:
Well wouldn’t it be a fun place to live then???
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
😀
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The Story Reading Ape said:
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
LOTS of links to LOTS of Creative Writing Competitions – GOOD LUCK EVERYONE 😀
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Charles Yallowitz said:
Reblogged this on Legends of Windemere and commented:
Step into the ring . . . sort of . . . Just have fun.
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Sue Coletta said:
I really have to start writing these one day. 🙂
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Sometimes I wonder if I should really be self-publishing my short stories, or sending them to competitions and magazines.
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Sue Coletta said:
You know what I’d suggest, but it’s your call. I do think they’re quite good if that helps.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks! 🙂
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macjam47 said:
Good luck, Nicholas!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thank you, Michelle! Likewise, if you choose to participate in any of these 🙂
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macjam47 said:
Reblogged this on BOOK CHAT and commented:
Do you write short stories? Nicholas Rossis shared links to creative writing contests.
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vanbytheriver said:
Great info, thanks. I’m looking forward to reading your book…love those short story collections ! ☺
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
That’s such a wonderful thing to hear; thank you! 😀
Which one have you got? I’d be happy to send you the other one as a thank-you gift for all your support 🙂
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vanbytheriver said:
Thank you, but no need. I love buying them. It’s a way to appreciate and reinforce the writer’s effort. ❤️
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I wish you lived closer, so I could bring you some cookies. As it is, I hope this will do:
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FastPencil said:
Reblogged this on FastPencil.com Self-Publishing Blog.
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BarbarianWriter said:
Wonderful info! Saves having to search for oneself, and makes it easier to find out which have too high a fee. Thanks, Nicholas!
(By the way, I think the posting for Daily Sci-Fi is backwards: Free to submit, pays $0.08/word. Yes?)
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – probably. I’ll check, thanks 🙂
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Smorgasbord - Variety is the Spice of Life. said:
Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
For all of you who write short stories, Nicholas Rossis has the mother lode of competitions.. I have not entered a story for several years but I think I might just get on with it… thanks Nicholas for the prompt..
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swo8 said:
Thanks Nicolas, I might try my hand at that.
Leslie
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Excellent! Best of luck, and do let me know how it goes 🙂
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swo8 said:
If I win the prize you’ll probably know. Chuckle.
Leslie
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gpeynon said:
Jackpot! Thanks a lot. My money worries are finally over 😉
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – oh, absolutely. Minus my standard finder’s fee, of course 😀
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gpeynon said:
Cool. How does a cut of 0.763% of the post-tax and post-spending-spree profits grab you? Along with car, dental and other benefits, of course.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I’m afraid that won’t do at all. I was planning to spend my fat profits on a motorbike, to join the sports car already in my desk drawer.
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D. Wallace Peach said:
interesting info. I’m always so torn about writing short stories with books in the works, screaming for attention. I don’t know how you do everything you do. Amazing.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
You’re too sweet, as always 🙂
I use short stories to “wash the palate” – pretty much like a lemon sorbet between dishes. When I collect enough of them, I send some to competitions and publish the rest in collections. It’s pretty simple that way 🙂
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D. Wallace Peach said:
😀 You make it sound so effortless!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – well, *some* effort might be involved 😀
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judithbarrow1 said:
Reblogged this on Barrow Blogs: .
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dgkaye said:
Thank you for sharing! 🙂
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
A pleasure! I do hope you take part in some of these 🙂
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dgkaye said:
I would love to. I need to clean off my plate for the next month or so before I can even think of adding anything else for now. But I’ve definitely bookmarked the links. Thanks again. 🙂
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Susan said:
Thanks for the link to the short story competitions. I entered something in the RPLA for Florida. It didn’t get far. I think it has some legs on it – just needs a different track to run on!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
In that case, I hope one of these alternatives proves to be just the right track for you 🙂
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Paula Cappa said:
This is a very handy list. Thanks, Nicholas. I adore short stories and am practically addicted to reading them, writing them, and blogging them. The companionship of flash fiction during a lunch hour makes a good day. While my books have won some awards, I haven’t done short story competitions much. You’ve inspired me, Nicholas! I have a few Kindle Singles but sales are spotty. Nicholas, do you think collections of short stories are more marketable than single shorts on Amazon?
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I’m so glad to hear that my post has inspired you! 🙂
As for your question, I haven’t seen any data on that. Or, to be more precise, I’ve seen contradictory data. So, in all honesty, I don’t know.
I do know what makes financial sense, though: a 20,000 book (novella size) may contain four 5,000-words short stories and sell for $2.99 – so you’d make $2.10 on each sale.
If each of the short stories sells for $0.99, you’d make $0.30 on each sale. In other words, you need to sell seven times as many singles.
To me, that implies that selling collections is seven times easier – unless you’re looking to saturate the market instead of making money 🙂
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Paula Cappa said:
Yes, you make a good point. I sell my short stories as singles right now for 99 cents and money is not the object, but building readership is. Part of the problem is where does one promote short stories for 99 cents? Facebook groups and Twitter for short fiction doesn’t seem to connect, and most internet promotion sites require book length fiction.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Sounds like you’ve done your homework, so if you wish to share what you’ve discovered so far on a guest post, I’d love to host you 🙂
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Gisela Hausmann said:
@Paula – Can you combine them? All I say is, “Chicken Soup for the Soul”. It had 101 stories. Once I heard the presentation of a gut, who said that 101 is the magic number, but a) I have forgotten who it was and b) I cannot remember that this person quoted any research. Maybe s/he just adopted the idea because Canfield was so successful with his “Chicken Soup”
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Drae said:
Good luck with the competition, and thank you for sharing the others 🙂
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
A pleasure! Hope to see you in one of them 🙂
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Margaret Jean Langstaff said:
Reblogged this on Margaret Langstaff.
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olganm said:
Thanks Nicholas. I used to write more short stories years back but not so much these days. Thanks for the information. It might come handy.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Best of luck if you do take part in any of these 🙂
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rung2diotimasladder said:
Thanks so much for sharing! I was thinking of starting to submit short stories, but there’s always something else to do…like write another one. 🙂
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – how true 😀
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theowllady said:
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
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