The Malahat Review has a novella competition open right now, and it’s submission period ends February 1st, so get your 10,000 to 20,000 word stories into the mailbox (no email for this one, suck) soon. The only problem I have with this competition is the submission cost. Most competitions have submission costs, though they don’t typically exceed $20.00 per story. The submission cost for this competition is $40.00 (if submitting from the US, since Malahat is in Canada). That’s a lot of money. In writer money, that’s the equivalent of $176.50. In college money, it’s $212.07. Don’t ask about the conversion rate–it’s accurate. I’d understand this hefty submission fee if the prize for winning the competition was comparable. A lot of competitions I submit to have a $20.00 submission fee, but a $1000.00 to $3000.00 top prize. The top prize for this competition is $500.00. Then again, they also pay $40.00 per printed page for the winning story, and since it’s a novella, that’s a lot of pages, so that may make up for it. Had I the requisite $40.00, I’d submit, but I think I’ll save my money for groceries and beer.
Unrelatedly (not a word, but go with it) Narrative has a new Puzzler challenge out, and it is actually one where you are charged with writing something, as opposed to answering trivia. The challenge for this week is to write an entire story in six words. Sounds awesome. And challenging. The shortest story I’ve ever written is around 300 words, so I’ll have to trim it down a smidge. Or write something from scratch, which is most likely what I’ll do.
Entries are due next Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 (pronounced “twenty-ten”, as you know).
Finally, I’m very much enjoying chatting with people on Goodreads, and am looking forward to future discussions about short stories, novels, and writing in general.
