Hundreds of literary contests are held every year around the world, most of them in Spanish speaking and distributed on both sides of the Atlantic. In your case, you may have just finished a story that you create with potential or that you are looking to publish your novel with a publishing house thanks to a literary contest, two compelling reasons to jump into the pool as long as you follow these tips for submitting to a literary contest.
Register your work
El rmain equisito when it comes to submit yourself to a literary contest resides in registering your work. Nothing has to happen, in fact it rarely happens, but you will gain peace of mind knowing that in case of any unexpected surprise you will have your work registered. If it is a single story, the best option is the web safecreative, since it allows you to accumulate records without having to do it individually in the Registration of the intellectual property and pay 13 euros for each story. If you still opt for the latter mode, better record all your stories in the same volume or, of course, if it is a novel. That the registered work is fully re-reviewed and corrected helps as well.
Search contests
Last minute literary contests are usually published on social networks that may not match well with your objectives, which is why we will have to look for websites that publish calls for daily literary contests. Webs like tregolam or, especially, Writers.org They publish practically every day all the contests in Spanish, both national and international, depending on the genre (novel, short story, letter, travel notebook...)
Read the bases well
Although most literary competitions usually introduce the call with some of the main requirements such as the nationality of the participants or the closing date of the reception of works, read absolutely all the points of the proposal it is extremely important when it comes to dismissing one contest and moving on to the next one. The required extension, the shipping method or, especially, the always controversial clause of the cession of rights they are important when deciding if we really want to participate and if our novel is suitable for that contest. Of course, if you introduce yourself, it meets all the requirements.
No spelling mistakes
The jury of a literary competition can receive hundreds of works in a month and for many members who have the dismissal tactics they will be the most aggressive. A paltry misspelling can be more than enough reason to dismiss a story or novel on the spot. Much attention to this aspect, as well as to all the other requirements of the call that you must meet.
What prize do you want?
When you consult a call and see the prize money that you can win in your eyes the symbols of the dollar of Uncle Scrooge are drawn. Then you continue reading, "but if you win 3 euros in exchange, you will have to assign all the rights to your work to the entity." Hmm, we don't like that that much. Being aware of everything that a certain award entails is important if we do not want to be disappointed, especially when in the world there are authors with different motivations: some appear in contests simply to be recognized, others for money and some to be published in magazines or editorials. Ask yourself: What do you want?
Start small
If you are an author who is just starting out and you plan to present your work to one of the most prestigious contests possibly someone more experienced will end up taking the cat into the water. What I mean by this? That it will always be better to start little by little, by participating in local competitions, those that despite not financially rewarding you better coincide with other of your motivations and that way you can acquire filming when betting on much more powerful contests.
Small details
If a hiking club, for example, has organized a contest to which you can send free-themed stories, wouldn't it be better to take advantage and send a story about two hiking friends instead of the one you had prepared about the Civil War? And if it is summoned by the Association of Friends of Macrame, don't you think something feminist would be good? Betting on these details is something very subjective but it can await surprises.
Do not despair
That your work does not win a contest does not mean that it is bad, in fact it may be a masterpiece, but the factors that can lead a jury to favor a certain work can be thousands. For this reason, the best way to continue tempting luck is not to lose hope and look for new competitions. I am sure that sooner or later your work will be recognized.
What has worked for you when it comes to submitting to a literary contest? What advice would you provide?