Thousand Thursday April 10, 2014

Hi!  It is Thousand Thursday again.  I hope your pen and paper or printer is ready to capture the following rent paying opportunities.

1. 2. 3. The American Fiction Prize offers a whopping $1,000 for a short story.  Second place is $500 and third place is $250.  I think that is good money for up to 7,500 words.  The deadline is June 15  Start writing and see what you can do.

4. If you write nonfiction you can earn a cool $1,000 for up to 6,500 words when you win the American Literary Review Creative Nonfiction.  The deadline for this contest is October 1st.

5. Are there 8,000 words inside of you? If there is you could probably win $1,000 for your short story of 8,000 words or less.  This is another contest from the American Literary Review the deadline is October 1st.

6.  Have you written a first book of poetry. The American Poetry Review will pay you $3,000 and publish your book of poetry if you have never published a book before.  The deadline for this contest is October 31st.  You can pay your rent for 3 months with $3,000.

7.  If you want authors copies of your book you can give as gifts or sell then have your manuscript of poetry ready by September 30th.  The Philip Levine Prize in Poetry Department of English will pay you 25 author’s copies of your book of poetry and as an added bonus pay you $2,000.  You can pay your rent for 2 months with $2,000.

8.  The Austin Film Festival offers several screenplay awards with a generous prize of $5,000 and the best part is it is required that you have not published a screenplay nor earn a living writing for television or film.  You can’t get better than that.  There are several screenplay contests for  comedies, dramas and television.

 

Thousand Thursday April 3, 2014

I hope I have been helping you increase revenue and make serious money with your writing.  This is the blog for writers who don’t want to starve.  Here are a few more markets for you to look at.

1. 2.  Alice James books has two awards that provide publication and $2,000 advance.  One is the Alice James Books Beatrice Hawley Award deadline is December 1st and the Alice James Book Kinereth Gensler Award deadline October 1st.

3.  If you haven’t written a lot this is the perfect contest for you.  Submit a story of up to 30 pages or 5 pages of poetry and you may win $1,000.  If it takes you an evening to write 5 poems like I have done sometimes that is a nice day’s work.  The contest is called the Alligator Juniper National Writing Contest.  The deadline is October 1st.

4.  Would a grant of $1,100 for a four-week period help you write for a month.  The great part of this fellowship is that your travel expenses are also covered.  You can get started on your application because the date for the contest is January 15, 2015.  This fellowship is sponsored by the American Antiquarian Society.

5. Are you a journalist?  Well you can earn a nice $3,000 if you have a love for science, engineering or mathematics.  The contest deadline is August 1, 2014.  Visit the American Association for the Advancement of Science for more information.

6. Are you a female with a school loan to pay off?  The American Association of University Women offers multiple grants of up to $12,000 to ladies with a bachelor’s degree who is changing, advancing or re-entering the work force.  They especially want to help minorities or those pursuing their first advanced degree.

Please let me know if you have success with any of these listings.  Some people have been telling me about their contests.  However, I have decided to only list the contests I confirm and know are legitimate.   Since I find the contest listing I can vouch for its legitimacy.

See you next Thursday for more thousands….

 

 

 

Thousand Thursday March 27, 2014

Hi!  It is Thursday and it is time to talk money.  I have reserved Thursdays for telling you about contests, awards and fellowships that if you enter the competition and win you will be able to pay your rent.  Most contests offers only $100 or $250 a prize but, you must pay a $15 entry fee.  Those contests really irritate me.  I do not want my readers to be starving artists.  I believe that if you are going to write for a living you should earn enough to live off of, not just buy yourself dinner and a nice movie.  These days that is pretty much all that $100 will cover.

To qualify for my blog post on Thursday your contest must earn writers at least $1,000.  Just press the name to visit the site and read the writer’s guidelines.  If you haven’t done so already visit last week’s post on March 19, 2014 for the absolute best contests to enter.

1.  It is hard to make a living as a poet.  however these contests are made for poets to earn money.  Bomb Magazine offers $1,000 and publication.  You must hurry.  The deadline for this contest is April 30.

2.  If you need a little more time and you are a female enter the annual contest by “A Room of Her Own Foundation.”  This contest will pay $1,000 and publication by Red Hen Press for a book of poetry between 48 and 96 pages.  The deadline for this contest is August 31.

3.   Another company pays you $1,000 for your poetry for publication of your first full-length book of poems up to 76 pages.  Plus they give you 50 copies.   The deadline for this contest is June 30. This is called the ABZ First Book Poetry Contest prize.

4.  Have you written a short play that can be put on in 10 minutes?  Then the Actors Theatre in Louisville Kentucky wants to hear from you.  They offer a prize for $1,000 and production of your play by their apprentice company of young actors.  You have until November 10 to apply for this annual contest.

5.  The Happy Hour Poetry Award offers a prize of $1,000 for a single poem.  You can’t do better than a $1,000 for a poem 40 lines or less.  You can submit up to three poems for this contest.  Your entry fee includes a one-year subscription to “Alehouse.”

Please come back next week with your pen and paper to write down more contests and markets for your work.

 

 

 

 

Thousand Thursday

This is the most important day of the week.  This is the day that I will make sure I publish every week.  Therefore you must visit my site on Thursdays.  This is absolutely mandatory because I will list contests, awards and fellowships that will earn you $1,000 or more.  I believe that if writing is truly going to be a business you have to earn enough to pay your rent.  I am extremely irritated when I see contests that require a $25.00 reading fee and the winner only gets $250.  I will not enter a contests unless I am going to win $1,000 or more, especially if there is a reading fee.  Here are the contests for this week.

Get started writing your novel so that you can have it ready by November 15.  Amazon.com has the “Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.”  The winner will get publication and a $15,000 advance.  There is no reason to save the best for last.  Look no further.  This contest is as good as it gets.  www.amazon.com/abna.

If you don’t write novels but love poetry try the “Academy of Poets James Laughlin Award.”  They offer a prize of $5,000.  The deadline is May 15.  Not only that but they will publish $10,000 copies of the winning book to distribute to their members.  www.poets.org/page.php/prm/109.

Are you looking for serious money so you can relax and just write.  How about receiving a six month fellowship for $14,000 or a eleven month fellowship for $26,000?  You have to have a degree however, a fellowship with a reward that large can definitely help you pay your loan.  Oh, by the way, the fellowship is in Rome.  The Academy’s Rome Prize Competition.  www.aarome.org/apply/rome-prize/procedure-requirements.

This is but, a sample of what I will offer you on Thursday.  Please write if you have any contests you want to tell my readers about or if you win a contest.