issi
member
Reged: 30/09/2007
Posts: 2436
Loc: Surrey
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I read a writer's magazine a while ago which gave a free booklet of tips for people sending stories to competitions. It is worth sharing with you the most important ones. First, if a story is requested at 2000 words, you must make sure you reach and do not go over 2000 words. It has to be correctly typed and punctuated - you cannot expect the editor to put it right once you have written it. And lastly, the tip I really had not understood before - you must send short stories to competitions as early as possible. I read that many publications that hold short story competitions will pick the winners as they come across them and entries sent late will often not be read at all! As my habit was so often to send a story on the last possible day I feel a bit miffed that it was probably binned whilst still in its envelope. Hope these tips help you all out there.
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Ashbee
member
Reged: 13/06/2008
Posts: 353
Loc: North Buckinghamshire
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Oh, that last bit is a shock. I thought they'd hold all the entries together until the closing date then work through them...not fair if they do anything else, particularly if they charge an entry fee...
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issi
member
Reged: 30/09/2007
Posts: 2436
Loc: Surrey
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Couldn't agree more Ashbee. I have spoken to a girl who worked for a magazine (admittedly years ago) and she said that she and her colleagues (basically secretaries) used to read the stories as they came in and only passed on the ones THEY thought were worthy. It would be nice to read that the judges would be reading the best ones, and to find out who in fact would be reading all the rest.
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