I became aware of my writing talent after I entered a writing contest and had my short story, entitled The Lucky Card, published. It can be found within the book Bardic Tales and Sage Advice at amazon.com. I didn’t get any money for entering this contest but what I got was worth a lot more. This was the first time that someone in the literary industry acknowledged that my writing was good. Wow, I was empowered.
Entering a writing contest is also a great way to practice and practice makes perfect, right? So, even if you don’t win keep trying. Some contest even offer money to the winners so there’s an extra incentive. Every year Bards and Sages has a writing contest and this year the theme is legendary horrors. There’s still time to enter if you’re interested.
The one drawback I have with writing contests is that I’m not sure how much legal rights the winners have afterwards. For example, would you be able to post your winning story on your blog? I don’t know. If anyone has any insight on one’s legal rights after winning a writing contest please leave a comment. I’ve been sued before for posting something that someone didn’t like and although we won the lawsuit I really don’t want to do that again. It was such an emotional strain that I couldn’t write until the issue was resolved and that took a while. This is the only issue where I would say be cautious.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
To answer your question, copyright ALWAYS remains with the author, unless you specifically give it away. When you sell a story to a publisher, you are granting them certain rights to publish the story, not ownership. Some of the most commonly used rights are as follows…
First North American rights: the right to publish a story for the first time in North America. This use to be rather common, but not so much anymore in the internet age. Back in them thar old days (you know, when we still had to produce everything on typewriters!) an American publisher would often only distribute a book in North America, and then if it was successful reprint it for the European market.
First Worldwide rights: The right to publish a story for the first time worldwide. More common in the internet age, as books are available around the world as soon as they appear on Amazon!
First Electronic Rights: the right to publish something for the first time online. NOTE if you have previously published your stories on a blog or your own website, you cannot legally sell first electronic rights to another publisher!
Reprint rights: the right to reprint a previously published story.
Never enter a contest that says your stories become property of a third party. You should ALWAYS retain copyright of your work.