There are many writing contests on the internet and sometimes it’s hard to pick which one is best suited for our stories. We try out a few and then after getting those “Dear John” rejection letters, we give up. But stop! Don’t give up!
I am fortunate to be able to manage a writing group on LinkedIn called The Aspiring Writers Short Story Competition and Discussion group. We have monthly competitions where the winners have their stories and biographies published in a yearly anthology, and we are currently working on our third edition and have two anthologies published.
But there’s more! We have just started a writing competition that you won’t find anywhere else. It’s called The Mayan Madness Manuscript Challenge and the goal is to see who can submit the most stories in a designated timeframe. If your story is rejected you could win; if it’s accepted you could win.
In this competition, you can enter and win in one or all five of the qualifying categories.
What is the competition?
Each contestant will write and submit as many stories to professional publishers as possible and record each submission on a special score sheet. In the end, we will choose winners who have the most submissions in the following categories:
The winner with the most submissions
The winner with the most acceptances
The winner with the most rejections
The winner with the most variety in genre
The winner with the most variety in publishers
What is the purpose?
The purpose is to encourage writers and authors to keep submitting regardless of the rejection letters. It’s too easy to get discouraged and quit writing so we want to encourage you to keep writing and keep submitting because in due season you WILL get your work published. In the past you may have written a great story but you submitted it to the wrong publisher or at the wrong time, but eventually, through the spirit of competition, we hope that you will find that perfect publisher and get your work published.
You need to be a group member to join in the challenge so if you’re not already a member, please join the Aspiring Writers Short Story Group and then sign up, read the guidelines and get going. Let the competitor in you out so that you can run this race, have some fun, meet some great people – and win!
