There's four or five contests currently active in Australia (And one or two overseas that accept international entries) and I've taken it into my head to join in - good exercise if nothing else. Just curious about anyone's experiences in competitions - anyone been scammed? Has anybody won? That'd be cool =P
You have to look at the entry fees, the number of entries you can expect to compete with, the payoff, and above all, the reputation of the sponsor. Also, carefully examine the fine print. Are you obligated to give them exclusive use to the piece? For how long? Submitting to publishers is generally a better choice. It costs nothing but postage, and possibly manuscript printing costs. It's not as gentle to your ego as a contest, because the competitive nature of a contest is more obvious, and because you don't receive rejections - only silence. But winning a publishing contract is more real.
A whole bunch of contests - poetry, short story and novel Cog makes a very good point, especially with regards to novels (which I'd rather submit to a publisher than a comp). While I have you, would you say the same for short stories and poetry? I'm given to believe having those published is somewhat more difficult.
