A person's chances of winning a contest is based as much upon the number of entries with which his/her own competes as well as the quality of the contest submission. When a writer considers how astronomically better the odds of winning a writing contest are than the local lottery, it might well behoove him/her to spend some time at the keyboard.
Why enter writing contests? I would counter with: why not? Even if a person never wins a contest, just the practice of writing, of honing one's skills is worth its weight in gold. The submissions to contests, if not prizewinners, can then be utilized for other things, submitted elsewhere. And as so often happens, one piece of writing often begets another, or at least an idea for another piece or pieces. Something else to consider is the weight winning a contest can add to a writer's portfolio in the eyes of editors, agents, and prospective payors of freelancers; the more prestigious the award-granting entity, the better.
Where does a person find contests to enter? The Internet offers a virtual smorgasbord of contest opportunities for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenwriting. The question then becomes which contest(s) to enter? That answer is a little more complicated and requires some discernment of the potential contestant.
What things should the prospective contestant consider when looking to enter a contest? Here are a few suggestions:
A. The mere presence, or absence, of an entry fee is not an indicator of legitimacy. What should be considered, however, is if an entry fee is required, how is it in proportion to the prize award? Be wary also of contests which charge a high entrance fee, regardless of prize awarded.
B. The contest holder wants to claim rights to your entry, winning or not. If any rights are going to be claimed to a winning entry, consider strongly whether you want to forfeit those rights in advance.
C. Look at who is sponsoring the contest. Those that are sponsored by well-known publications and companies are more likely to be legitimate than those sponsored by a single individual or an unknown entity.
D. Beware of vanity anthologies. The premise of these is to entice the entrant to purchase an anthology in which the entrant's "winning" entry is published. In reality all, or nearly all of the contestants entries are published in said anthology and the company makes a neat profit by selling the books to the "winners."
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