Within the last couple weeks, we’ve heard news about two brand-new contests with no entry fees for book-length manuscripts.
- Mysterious Press Original Mystery Novel Contest. If you have an agented mystery manuscript that has failed to sell and remains unpublished in any format, you’re eligible to enter this contest by Mysterious Press, which is run by The Mysterious Bookshop, the oldest mystery bookstore in the country. The prize is a book contract with an advance of $25,000, which will be for an ebook with a print-on-demand edition available. Find out more.
- Amazon Poetry Contest for Emerging Poets. Amazon’s Little A imprint announced a poetry collection contest open to poets who have published no more than one book of poetry (not including chapbooks). The winner will receive $5,000 in prize money and a publishing contract with a $2,000 advance. Keep in mind that any book deal with Amazon more or less ensures you will be distributed and sold only by Amazon. Open to US residents only.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
