short story competition – Life of Cri.me

Now open – Bristol Short Story Prize 2016

Posted on November 1, 2015November 2, 2015 by J

Not just one for crime writing fans, the Bristol Short Story Prize is an annual international writing competition open to all published and unpublished, UK and non-UK based writers. Each year they award cash prizes, publish the winning stories in their annual anthology. The 2016 competition opened this week, and don’t worry if you haven’t got a story ready yet, the competition doesn’t close until 30th April 2016. That’s a whopping SIX months away!

Here’s what their website has to say about entering and prizes.

Stories can be on any theme or subject and entry can be made online via the website or by post. Entries must be previously unpublished with a maximum length of 4,000 words. There is no minimum length. There is an entry fee of £8 per story.

20 stories will be shortlisted for the first prize and published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 9.

1st Prize is £1,000, 2nd Prize £700, 3rd Prize £400. 17 further prizes of £100 will be presented to the writers whose stories appear on the shortlist.
The winners will be announced at the 2016 Bristol Short Story Prize Awards Ceremony in October 2016. The Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 9 will also be launched at the event.

Rules of entry, and further information on prizes and previous winners can be found here.

Blogging, Festivals

Bloody Scotland Short Story Competition – Closing 27th July

Posted on July 8, 2015July 8, 2015 by J

This is what the festival have to say about the competition…..

The Great Agatha Christie Inspires our Short Story Competition

This year marks 125 years since Agatha Christie was born, known world-wide as one of the most well-loved crime writers of all time, one who had a penchant for poison and created unforgettably charismatic sleuths.

We wanted to celebrate her legacy with our short story competition this year- we’re inviting stories inspired by Christie and her writing.

First prize is £1000 and a festival pass to Bloody Scotland 2015.

Submissions of up to 3,000 words of unpublished work are invited from new and unpublished writers from all over the world, but entries must be written in English. Writers are welcome to submit as many stories as they wish, but there is an entry fee of £10 for each story submitted. The deadline for submissions is midnight on Monday 27th July 2015.

A shortlist of five to six stories will be selected by a judging panel comprising of University of Stirling postgraduate students, authors, booksellers and publishers, which will then be made available for an online public vote on Saturday 1st August 2015. This public vote will end on Friday 21st August. Winners will be announced during the Bloody Scotland Festival 2015, 11th – 13th September in Stirling, Scotland

Terms and Conditions & Details of how to enter can be found here

Blogging

CWA Margery Allingham Short Story Competition – Closing soon

Posted on February 27, 2015February 27, 2015 by J

3 WEEKS LEFT TO ENTER!!!!!

CWA MARGERY ALLINGHAM SHORT STORY COMPETITION

The CWA Margery Allingham Short Story competition was set up in 2013 to and is an annual competition to celebrate the short story and Margery Allingham’s contribution to crime writing.

The competition is open to all – both published and unpublished authors and is for UNPUBLISHED short stories of up to 3,500 words.

The winner will receive £1,000 courtesy of The Margery Allingham Society who sponsor this prize.

Entries cost £10 and the deadline for submission is 6:00pm on 16th March 2015(GMT).

Further information on the competition and details on how to submit your entry can be found on the CWA Website

Blogging

Britain’s Next Best Seller & Scriggler.com Short Story Competition

Posted on December 2, 2014December 2, 2014 by J

Scriggler.com and Britains Next Best Seller launched their latest short story competition this week, looking for the best 10 crime/thriller short stories to feature in a compilation book.

The 10 shortlisted authors will get a crowdfunding campaign that may see their story published and sold around the world. All author royalties earned from the book sales will be donated to “The Hope Academy for Girls” — a self-sustaining, multi-purpose school for at-risk girls in the rural area of Sierra Leone. So not only could you get to see your work in print, but you could help to fund the education of young girls in West Africa, without a doubt a very worthy cause.

The competition runs from 1st December 2014 until 31st January 2015 and is open to ALL authors from ANY country. Remember, the theme is crime/thriller and ideally word count should not exceed 7,500 words.

The overall winner will also see their story’s title chosen as the compilation’s title.

Rules of Entry

Participants need to register and publish their entries on Scriggler.com

All entries must be previously unpublished.

Entry is not limited to UK residents. Authors can be based in any country for the purposes of this competition.

Only entire stories would be considered, no extracts.

Word count should not exceed 7,500 words.

While authors keep their rights when publishing on Scriggler, the purpose of the contest is to compile and publish a book of short stories and winning authors would be expected to enter into an agreement with BNBS. Please consider this when entering.

Further information including introductions to BNBS, Scriggler.com, and what will happen to all entries once submitted can be found on the Scriggler.com website here.

Blogging

Bloody Scotland Short Story Competition

Posted on April 24, 2014April 24, 2014 by J

Today Bloody Scotland has announced the launch of this years short story competition.

The winner will receive £1,000, a bottle of Deanston Distillery Malt whisky and a weekend pass to this years festival, to be held in Stirling from September 19th – 21st.

The winning story will also be published as an ebook short by Bloody Scotland.

We invite writers to from anywhere in the world to demonstrate their skill in short-story writing by entering a story, for a chance to win a brilliant prize and be recognised as an exciting emerging talent in the crime genre.

We’re seeking exceptional crime short stories based on the theme of ‘ESCAPE’.

Stories should be a maximum of 3,000 words and must be submitted by midnight on 31st July 2014. There is an entry fee of £10 to cover the administration of the competition.

A prestigious judging panel comprising representatives from the University of Stirling and crime writers Alex Gray, Craig Robertson and Gordon Brown, will judge the entries and announce a shortlist. This shortlist will then be open for a public vote on the Bloody Scotland website

Further information on entering, including additional details for non UK entries can be found here

Blogging

Crime and Publishment is what you need…

Posted on December 11, 2013December 11, 2013 by J

Just finished NaNoWriMo?

Embarking on your novel and need some expert advice?

Still got that trunk novel under your bed you feel like digging out but you’re not sure what to do next?

Want some expert advice and an opportunity to pitch to an agent?

You can find the answers to all your questions and more available here….

Crime & Publishment is a two day course for writers, by writers, agents and industry insiders and will be held at The Mill Forge hotel, just outside Gretna Green from March 7th – 9th 2014.

They are also running a competition to win a complete package to attend the weekend. To enter all you need to do is submit your 2,000 word short crime story or the first 2,000 words of your opening chapter.

You can find all the details you need here.

I was around at the Mill for Crime and Publishment last year and can guarantee you will have a have a fabulous weekend, with great opportunities to learn, improve and network in a relaxed encouraging and informative atmosphere. Above all that it will be fun.

So if you want to win that weekend get your writing caps on because the competition closes on the 31st December, and if you don’t win, just book it up, because it’s an experience you will never forget.