Writing contests offer a variety of prizes for winners such as publication, trips, gifts and goodies, or cash prizes. Some contests simply award you with a first, second, or third place or maybe an honorable mention.

There are contests for poets, novelists, essayist, playwrights, short story and flash fiction writers. No matter what type of writing you like to do, there’s sure to be a contest out there for you.

Finding the right contest, however, can be tricky. Do you want paid-entry or free-entry contests? What are you hoping to get out of the contest? Is the contest right for you? What are the contest guidelines? And, most important: which contests should you take part in and which ones should you avoid like the plague?

There are many sites that can help you navigate the wide world of writing contests. The BS Vigilante page from the WM Freelance Writers Connection outs editors, publications and contests that have turned out to be scams. Writer Beware Blogs offers regular reports on fraud in the writing biz. FundsforWriters.com shares some of the best contests via their email newsletter. The popular site Predators and Editors also has a page devoted to contests that are NOT recommended.

Your best bet is a contest that’s been around for a while. Contests with lots of entries tend to be pretty reliable as well. And, if you can, have a look at the jury panel. You can often tell by the jury whether or not a contest is worth your while.

Here’s why writing contests are great for writers:

1. You might just win. You never know how your piece will do in any given contest. It might even win. If it does, your prize packet could include writing classes, free sessions with a mentor, a writer’s retreat, a subscription to Writer’s Market — all of which will help further your writing career. Prize money and grants can help pay for a writer’s website, an illustrator, a layout designer, or any other tool of the trade. If winning means publication in an anthology, on a website, in a magazine or newspaper, more people will have the chance to see your work and become fans.
2. You can add it to your writing credits. If you win or place, you can include your awards on your resume, blog or website. That recognition might help you get a writing job. After all, it says a lot when your writing was submitted alongside dozens upon dozens of other entries, looked over by many critical eyes and still ends up being chosen as one of the best.
3. Your writing might get noticed. A jury will be selected to read through all submissions and pick the winners. Jury members often include publishers, agents, professional writers, editors, and writing mentors. The chance to have them look over your work is an excellent reason to participate in a contest. Perhaps your submission will result in landing a publisher, an agent, a writing gig or a mentor. At the very least, you’ll get feedback on your work from professionals in the industry. What they have to say will help you become a stronger writer.
4. You’ll get feedback. Some contests share feedback from the jury with participants. If they don’t do it automatically, you can always ask. Feedback and critiques from the jury can help you see your strengths and weaknesses. You can see what mistakes you are prone to making and where your writing falls short. Is the story line confusing? Are the characters believable? Is there enough backstory? Is there too much? The feedback from the jury will answer all these questions and more. Contests that don’t offer feedback usually state so up front. And, even if they don’t, you can always evaluate the work of the winners and see how your piece measured up.
5. It will give you experience. Entering a contest means that you will be writing to a specific topic with a set word count and a deadline. This kind of practice is invaluable if you plan to write professionally. Besides, the more you write, the more your writing will improve.
6. You’ll develop thick skin. The writing business is a tough one with a lot of competition.  You’ll get turned down more often than you’ll get that writing gig or publishing deal. Get used to it. Those who make it in this industry have thick skin. So, you entered a contest and didn’t win anything. So what? You’ll eventually learn to move on and continue creating and submitting until you do.
7. You will be more likely to submit again. When you win or at least realize that it’s not the end of the world if you don’t, you’ll be more likely to enter other contests, send in that agent query or submit your work to other publications. The more you get your work out there, the more likely it is to be seen and accepted. Plus, putting your writing under of the noses of others is the only way to get feedback and critiques that will help you grow as a writer.

Remember, the worst that can happen is that they’ll say no. And then you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on to the next project. You also have the option of asking for feedback, reworking the piece and submitting it elsewhere.

When it comes to writing contests, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, find yourself a contest and start working on your submission!

Tiffany Jansen is a freelance writer located in the Netherlands. The author of Mary’s Story and Mary’s Holiday Story for Medieval Maidens, Tiffany is now working on an English-language guide to Dutch castles. Her writing can be found on her blog Putting Words to Paper.

One of the most basic and important things is to be able to write, and this includes a strong understanding of grammar. I think a lot of would-be freelance writers get rejected off the bat for grammar mistakes. I know it surprises me when I get emails from people interested in freelance and they seem unaware of all the errors in the message they sent me. There are plenty of books and online places where you can learn what you need to know about grammar.

I usually recommend to people that they start out small and build up. Unless they have connections, odds are their first article is not going to be in a big magazine. I had no connections, so I started where I could. I originally did freelance work for a small newspaper, but that counted on my résumé, and from there I started to get into smaller magazines. Once I had written for a few smaller magazines, I could go to bigger ones and they’d take me seriously because they saw I had a solid work record.

Persistence is key. Sometimes you have to write to a magazine (or newspaper, or website) more than once. I emailed places like Booklist and Publishers Weekly several times before they responded and began having me write for them. However, take breaks (a week to a few weeks) before writing back again. If you send them too much, you might annoy them and get deleted. Also, I recommend you only try this technique if you think you have a good chance of getting into the place. I wouldn’t go to the biggest magazine out there and email them over and over, because odds are you’re wasting your time and theirs.

Write about what you know. If you’re knowledgeable on a subject, try magazines that cover it. It might lead to other magazines of a similar nature. I wouldn’t recommend trying to write for a magazine that deals with something you don’t know about.

Having a website can be very useful. I have one, and on one of its pages I have links to about 200 articles I’ve published at various places. When I write to new editors, I can link to my website.

Be aware that becoming a freelancer is hardest at the beginning. When you’re brand-new and don’t have a résumé, it takes more effort to get yourself out there. However, with such things as good writing skills, persistence and knowledge, your efforts ought to pay off.

Danica Davidson is a professional freelance writer who is now actively seeking to publish a YA novel. She was interested in novels before freelance, and has been interviewed by the Los Angeles Times and featured on the Guide to Literary Agents about her novel-writing.  She has also adapted Japanese books into English. Please check out her website or follow her on Twitter.

I’ve worked for clients who use all of these methods. If you write for a magazine that pays by the page (say $50.00/page) and you write 4 pages, you just earned $200.00.If you write for a magazine that pays by the word (say 25 cents/word) and you write an article which is 1000 words in length, you just earned $250.00. Finally, there are magazines that pay a flat rate, say $500.00/article (and they will tell you how many words they want in the article).

The second thing you need to know is when the magazine will pay you. Like the section above, there are 3 main methods: On submission, on acceptance and on publication. The first method is self-explanatory and is one of my favorite methods of getting paid. The second method indicates that while the publication has received your submission, they still have to review it, edit it, make corrections, ask for clarification from you, etc., before they accept it. Once they do, you’ll get paid.

The third method, my least favorite, is on publication. This is when the magazine has a spot in their editorial calendar for your article and will publish it at that time. If you work for publications that do this, be prepared for a long wait. One magazine I worked for made me wait 9 months and they still hadn’t published my work. I finally pushed them to pay me, otherwise who only knows how long it would have been before they actually did so. I never wrote for them again.

Note: It’s important to understand that even when a magazine accepts your work, you probably won’t get paid right away. Many magazines have a 30 day payment policy. Some have a 60, 90 or even a 120 day payment policy in place. If this creates havoc with your cash flow, don’t write for these publications.

Looking for success as a freelance Writer? Download a *free* chapter and learn how to find great writing jobs at http://www.freedomfreelancewriting.com.

When you type keyword phrases into Google, you’ll notice that the search engine will give you other possibilities. Make note of these since they could guide you to even more targeted searches.

First off, we’ll look at Broad Match keywords: This keyword combination uses all the words in the search. For example, let’s say you search for the keyword: Technical writing. This brings up many millions results, which is huge. This is because the search is for both technical and writing.

If you look at the searches related to technical writing at the bottom of the page, you find a wide variety of keyword combinations. If none of these are what you want, your search is too broad and you’ll need to narrow it down.

The next keyword combination we’ll look at is Phrase Match. This keyword combination gives you search results that match the exact phrase. Here’s how it works. You add quotation marks around your keyword, like this: “keyword” In this case, the result comes back with millions of results, but less than before. That’s still quite a bit, but as you can see, we’re narrowing things down.

The 3rd option is Exact Match: This keyword combination is for searches that are for that phrase only and as written, without any other words in the search. Here’s how you would use it in a search: [technical writing] In this particular case, we received roughly 24 million results, which is not what we wanted. Sometimes this option gives results which are the exact opposite of what you would expect, as in this case.

Still, we can go even deeper, with Long Tail Keywords: This is where we really drill down and get specific. We’ll refine this search further by doing a broad match search with the keyword: technical writing jobs telecommuting. This returns roughly 80,000 or so results. If we want to narrow that down even further, we can do a phrase match search by adding quotation marks. This gives us only a few results. Be aware that this could be going too far, but I wanted to show you just how targeted you can get with your searches. And that’s it. With these 4 keyword research methods, you’ll be able to quickly narrow down your subject online.

Looking for success as a freelance Writer? Download a *free* chapter and learn how to find great writing jobs at http://www.freedomfreelancewriting.com.

1. Organization. This is one place where even established professionals fall short. It’s critical to keep your working space organized. As a freelance writer you’re almost certainly going to be dealing with a lot of paper, so it’s important to keep it categorized.

More than that, you’ll be working with various publications, so it’s wise to have a folders for each one and any correspondence. Likewise you’ll have that on your computer, as well. This is especially important when doing reseach, especially online. Make sure to store your important bookmarks in folders on your browser. One last thing, make regular backups, at least once a week. Nothing is worse than losing all your data. It could severely impact your business.

2. The 80/20 Rule of Marketing. More than anything else, marketing is the one thing that will make or break you as a freelance writer. It has to be done consistently, every day. To put this in perspective, at the beginning of your career, you’ll probably find you’ll be spending 80% of your time marketing and 20% writing. This is necessary, partly because you won’t have too many clients and you’ll need to spend time finding them, making pitches, etc. Over time, you’ll find this formula will shift in your favor and you’ll be spending 80% of your time writing, which is what you want.

3. Never Write Articles in Advance. Many freelance writers write an article in advance, then try to pitch it to an editor. This is one of the worst mistakes that you can make and is a major waste of your time. Never, ever write articles in advance. If you do and the editor(s) don’t like the story, you’ve wasted your time.

A better strategy is to write a short paragraph that describes what you have in mind. Here’s an example from one of my query letters: “How to Optimize Your Images for the Web. This article will address methods of compressing images, including JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Other options covered will be weighted optimization and selective use of color palettes.”

4. Don’t Use Microsoft Word for Web Writing. MS Word inserts all sorts of undesirable characters in the copy which make it a nightmare for the editor on the other end. It’s even worse when you save documents as HTML. A better option is to use a dedicated HTML program, such as Notetab or Dreamweaver.

5. Momentum. A big problem for freelance writers (and many other freelancers) is that they quit too soon, before they even get a chance to develop momentum. Make no mistake, freelance writing is a business and like any other business, it takes time to develop a client base. This won’t happen overnight. It’s important to think of your work as a discipline and to do it consistently. This is one of the crucial things that will lead you to enduring success.

Freelance writing is an exciting occupation with many benefits. Following these tips will help you get the most out of your business, for the short and long-term.

Looking for success as a freelance Writer? Download a *free* chapter and learn how to find great writing jobs at http://www.freedomfreelancewriting.com.

The reality is a different story. The editor is your best friend. He/she can teach you things about your writing that you might not learn any other way. If you are fortunate, you might find an editor who will quickly discover what your strengths are as a writer and will help you refine your craft.

This was my experience when I was writing technical articles for a magazine called: The Computer Paper. There, the editor took me under his wing and informed me that my greatest strength was as a “how-to writer” and helped steer me in that direction.

When you write articles, make sure you give them more than they asked for.  If the magazine asks for a word count of 1,000, I recommend adding 10-20% more. This is my standard policy. They can always edit the article, if necessary. When you send in an article, thank the editor for the writing opportunity.

If they have any suggestions or corrections, ask them to let you know. This shows you as a professional and, more importantly, that you are open to course corrections, if necessary. When writing for a new publication, you might have to go back and forth on your first few articles until you get a feeling for their style.

Some writers say that you should never call an editor. I disagree. Your editor is a human being like you. Be aware that the editor will truly appreciate it if you can make his/her life easier. If you feel you have a great idea, call the editor. It can be very effective in winning assignments. Note: Do not make the mistake of putting the editor on a pedestal. That puts you in a subservient position which is unwise.

When submitting query letters, here are several things to observe: If you are starting from square one as a writer and you do not have any articles to your credit, I recommend that you include a skills-based résumé. If you have writing samples, I recommend you send 2-3 in place of a résumé and place them in your document after writing the query letter. If you have some articles that match the topic or your query, that would be even better. Testimonials (aka client feedback) are highly recommended.

These are very powerful, especially if you can provide full names, cities and/or Web Site and email addresses. Use two or three of those with your query letter.

Important: Never send in a query with attachments. Many magazines have filters in place to strip these out since they might contain a virus. If you send in submissions with attachments, your query could be automatically filtered and/or deleted. The editor you sent your query to is unlikely to open your message for fear of unleashing a virus within their system. Instead, include everything you want to send within the body of your email message.

Looking for success as a freelance Writer? Download a *free* chapter and learn how to find great writing jobs at http://www.freedomfreelancewriting.com.

Writing for free is a great way of getting started and is a method I’ve used many times in the past. It might even lead to a job with that publication. Once you get a feeling for writing, and more importantly, working within the style guides of different magazines, you can move on from there.

When I began writing, I had many options. My decision was to specialize. I chose to stick with photography and computer graphics software. Both of these can be highly technical areas and if you write for these publications, you’ll be expected to do in-depth research. I started with reviews (which can be really time-consuming). Later on, I progressed to “how-to” articles, which were much easier (and enjoyable) to write.

The 2nd method is to write book reviews. This is an easy way of getting your writing career going and will give you referral material for other jobs. When you’re in the early phases of writing, getting credibility is very important. This will increase your value in the eyes of editors. When writing a review, create a strong opening paragraph. When writing the review, let the reader know what the book is about without giving away the story.

The 3rd method is to write profiles. This is one of my favorite forms of writing and is a great writers market. You get to interview a person and tell their story. It’s also an easy way of writing, if you do it correctly. I had one writing gig (Streaming Media World) and the vast majority of my work was interviewing people. Over time, I became quite good at it and could create articles quickly. Most of the time I recorded telephone interviews,which I’d transcribe and edit later. If I had enough lead time, I’d do an email interview, which made life easier.

I’ve saved the best for last. The 4th method is to look for editing jobs. If you have good writing skills, consider looking for work as an editor. Here are some compelling reasons why: The pay is better, the hours are generally better, you don’t have to write everything from scratch and you get to learn a new skill and improve your writing.

Looking for success as a freelance Writer? Download a *free* chapter and learn how to find great writing jobs at http://www.freedomfreelancewriting.com.

You need to build up clips. Clips come from writing, take a guess at what you need to do. Write, write, write, and write. If you are not willing to make this commitment, you are probably not going to make it as a freelance writer. It takes a commitment to writing, improving, learning, marketing, and promoting to make it as a beginning freelance writer, and even after you are established. No writer can rest on their laurels, especially the freelance writer. A freelance writer must work doubly on staying in the mind of clients and working on finding the next client, unless you work in-house for some company and they find your clients. If you want to keep busy, you will have to spend more time looking for work, than actually writing.

If as a freelance writer, you are not willing to do the work finding jobs and promoting yourself, you probably won’t make it in the freelance writing arena. Marketing and promoting have become an integral part of every writer’s life, not just the freelance writer. Especially as the economy slows down and companies merge, they can do the promoting for you any longer. You will need to reinvent yourself with almost every piece of copy you write.

Learn, read, and above all practice your trade. Learn to write press releases for your business to let people know you are there. Also look at the copy from businesses in your community, see if you can make it better. Approach the local Chamber of Commerce, social clubs, fraternal organizations, your church, and work on their newsletters, and pamphlets. Anything you can do to learn the art of freelance writing. Write web content for organizations, or church you belong to; any kind of writing to gain practice in the various types of writing freelancers write for a living.

If you cannot maintain this type of commitment, you should reconsider your choice of becoming a freelance writer.

Robert Medak built a website where he offers his services, and maintains five blogs. He also maintains two blogs for AllBook Reviews,
and does marketing for AllBooks. Robert created a social networking site for freelance writers at Ning.com. He keeps it an invitation only site to keep spammers out, he has been plagued enough with spammers in other writers’ sites where he is a member. He also maintains a critique group at Yahoo Groups called “critiquings”. Robert created a course for writers at Writers’ Village University (WVU) which he has facilitated, he has facilitated other courses at WVU. He also helped establish a Creative Writing Workshop at WVU.

Website: http://stormywriter.com or blog, http://rjmedak.wordpress.com/.

Here is the distinction:

• An author is someone with authority. That is, you are an author if you have something you wish to convey to readers, whether it is a story you have invented, an experience you feel is instructive, an opinion you want to express, or knowledge you want to preserve. You are the subject-matter expert.

• A writer is someone who expresses ideas, perhaps someone else’s ideas, in words. Writing is about the craft of expression more than about the content, whereas authorship is about the content more than the craft.

Authors can learn to be writers. Doing so requires gaining proficiency in the craft, of course; and that takes time and practice. But before you can even begin down that path, you must first internalize the necessary attitude.

I will consider you a professional writer, regardless of how well you sling words, when you can honestly say you accept these three principles:

It’s all about the reader. Your writing will improve significantly when you look at it not as a vehicle for expressing your ideas but as a vehicle for the reader to gain insight into those ideas. As a writer you have to form a partnership with the reader. You have to think about how the reader might interpret your words. Is there ambiguity in what you have written? Is the ambiguity intentional or unintentional? Did you say what you meant, and did you say it clearly? Those are nontrivial questions, but if you ask them as you work, your writing will improve.

The perfect manuscript does not exist. Not if it is longer than a single, short poem, anyway.

The goal of the editing process is to improve the manuscript, not to perfect it. While many editors are, in terms of personality, perfectionists, the realists among us understand that being a perfectionist is not the same thing as producing perfect work.

Good-Nature and Good-Sense must ever join;
To err is Humane; to Forgive, Divine.

—Alexander Pope
An Essay on Criticism

If I make a thousand improvements in the first hundred pages of your manuscript and you discover, on rereading, that there were two errors I did not catch, please exercise some divinity. We should be working as a team to catch and correct as many errors as we can, fully understanding that our humanness will always be there to trip us up.My clients generally react to the sea of red I send them by thanking me for catching so many errors and strengthening the book. Every now and then, someone reacts angrily because I missed something; they lose sight of the fact that before I edited the manuscript it had five hundred times as many errors. (They calm down when I have a chance to get a word in edgewise.)My larger point, though, is that, like any other editor, I am going to catch quite a high percentage of your errors and leave a small percentage uncorrected. The fewer errors in your original manuscript, the smaller the number of residual errors when I am done. If, as in the above example, I make a thousand changes in a hundred pages (not uncommon) and miss half a percent, that leaves five errors per hundred pages for you to find. If you do a good job checking over the manuscript before you send it to me and I make a thousand changes in a thousand pages, though, that leaves five errors per thousand pages, an average of only one error every two hundred pages for you to find—not perfect, but pretty darn good.

Your children are not yourself.

A healthy attitude toward the humanness of the people whose work you depend on is one important part of being a professional writer. Another big part of professionalism is separating your words from your self. Yes, writing certainly involves pulling from within and splaying bits of your self on the page. But once those bits, in the form of words, are on the page, they are just symbols to manipulate; they are no longer part of you.The editing process is all about the words on the page. If your ego is so invested in those words that you feel every editorial change as a knife to your heart, you need to adjust your attitude. Your words are your children; they are not yourself. You need to let them make their own way in the world.Sure, professional writers have spirited discussions with editors in which they defend their choices, their words, their commas; but both parties in the discussion understand that the goal is to serve the reader and the argument is about the best way to do that. There’s no crying in baseball.

Dick Margulis has been involved with editing and book design since the 1960s. The above article is adapted from his blog, Words / Myth / Ampers & Virgule. For more information on his services, visit the editing, typography, and self-publishing pages on his website.

Think small. Zero in on a small event. Let’s say you have been diagnosed with a particular illness. Many people send in a story that tells when they got the news, how they told their family, what treatments and medical procedures they have undergone, and so on. This is too much detail. A good Chicken Soup for the Soul story emphasizes just one pivotal aspect of that journey.

Start the story with action. Ever notice how a good movie or book jumps right into the action? Do the same with your story. Make readers want to read more!

Use dialogue. What words were spoken? Make readers feel as if they are actually in the scene with you.

Insert emotion. What were you feeling during this event? A good Chicken Soup for the Soul story induces tears, laughter, goose bumps—or all three!

Tell a story. Chicken Soup for the Soul submissions should read like short stories, not essays, lectures, eulogies, or political statements. They should have a beginning, middle, and end.

Close with a punch. Bring the story full circle to resolve the conflict or provide a satisfying ending.

Have a moral. What did you learn from this event? What can readers take away from this? Inspire your readers.

Ready to try your hand at writing a good Chicken Soup for the Soul story? Story guidelines can be found on the Chicken Soup for the Soul web site at www.chickensoup.com. A list of upcoming books is included. There’s sure to be an upcoming book that’s perfect for your special story.

See Susan M. Heim’s blog at http://www.susanheim.blogspot.com