Are you ready to W.I.N.? Enter the SmartWriters.com Write It Now Competition at http://www.SmartWriters.com. Grand Prize: $500, a 2006 CWIM, a six-month online subscription to the Children's Book Insider, and an editorial review of your W.I.N.NING manuscript! Six categories: Young Adult, Middlegrade, Picturebook, Poetry, Non-fiction, Illustration. Entry fee: $10 for first entry, $8 for additional entries. Enter by email. Entry deadline is February 28, 2005!
Of our winners last year, four are now under contract and one is pending!
Anne Bowen reported that she sold her first place picturebook, HARLEY HARRISON, TATTLE TALE, to Albert Whitman Publishers! "I do think it helped a great deal that I could say my manuscript took first place in the W.I.N. contest in my cover letter! " - Anne Bowen
Fiona Bayrock wrote: "The biggest thing the W.I.N. competition did for me was light a fire under me. It motivated me to go through my idea files and create a project to submit. I don't usually enter contests, but the stellar list of editors that SmartWriters had assembled to look at winning manuscripts was incredible. I *had* to try. Without the W.I.N. competition, BUBBLE HOMES & FISH FARTS would probably still be a "some day" project living in my idea files; now it's going to be a book!"
"My manuscript went on to win a SCBWI Work-in-Progress grant. Many writers I've met at conferences have recognized my name as one of the Smartwriters winners. It was a wonderful affirmation, and I appreciate the opportunities this win has given me." - Cynthia Lord, our first place winner in the midgrade category, HALFWAY BETWEEN HOPE AND HURRICANE.
"My win in the W.I.N Competition gave me the validation to submit my work to publishers." - Jennifer Roy, author of GROWING UP IN THE LODZ GHETTO. According to Jen, she first had interest from Dutton, who wanted her to revise it using the free verse to accent a book and as she was considering it, her nonfiction editor at Marshall Cavendish (Jennifer writes educational books) asked to read it out of curiousity. This editor passed it along to Margery Cuyler, their fiction editor, who loved it and bought it in September!
And she's not the only W.I.N.NER with a new book contract. Tammi Sauer, author of COWBOY CAMP, which placed in our picture book category, sold her book! Sterling Publishing, Inc. had expressed an interest in Cowboy Camp months before the W.I.N. Competition. The editor, however, was pleased to learn of the second place finish in the picture book division. A contract was extended to her for Cowboy Camp in June of 2004.
Of our twenty-two winners from last year, several have had their manuscripts requested by the editors who gave them editorial reviews as part of their prizes. Others report that their win has given them the confidence to keep submitting their manuscripts to editors, that we saved them from giving up on writing all together.
We started the Write It Now! Competition last year to do just that, give newer writers the impetus to finish their manuscripts and submit them. It's one thing to talk about writing a book. It's something all together different to finish one, polish it to a professional sheen, and then to submit that manuscript.
Come see the editors and judges who are participating this year, as well as a full list of prizes for all categories, FAQ, and entry forms, at
http://www.SmartWriters.com.
Enter to W.I.N. at http://www.SmartWriters.com!
