Romance Writers Contest

Posted by Jennifer Jensen Aug 2, 2007

Calling all romance novelists! Entries are open for Gather.com’s “First Chapters Romance Writing Competition,” and the contest is free.

The process is fairly simple:

1. Join Gather.com (a social and sharing network) if you haven’t already. It’s free.
2. Polish and prepare your manuscript according to guidelines.
3. Submit your first chapter to the romance writers’ group, and send the first two chapters to a contest administration site, all by August 22, 2007.
4. Invite other people to join Gather, read chapters, and vote.

Other guidelines:

• You cannot have published a full-length book in any genre (subsidy publishing doesn’t count).
• You must be over 18 and living in the United States.
• Your chapters should be 2,000-5,000 words, your completed manuscript cannot exceed 100,000 words.
• Your romance should be “between a man and a woman, which captures the joy of falling in love,” any setting, no erotica.

What happens then? There are several rounds of voting and elimination, with the winner and runners-up announced on October 30, 2007.

All the specific details are included in the guidelines. Be sure to click on the bottom links – not all information appears on every page. Good luck to all romance writers, and for those who write in other subjects, it looks like other competitions are planned.