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Free Contests May Not Cost You Money, But They Can Still Cost You
By Shelley Wake
If there�s no entry fee, why not enter? If I don�t win, I don�t lose anything. Many a new writer has been burned by thinking this way. Free competitions may not cost you any money to enter, but they can still cost you.

The Big Beware: Are You Selling Your Rights by Entering?

Beware of competitions that have no entry fee but a statement saying they have the right to print your work, regardless of whether or not you win. In some cases, these competitions also take the copyright to your work. That means your story is no longer yours�whether or not you win.

To avoid getting burned, read the contest guidelines and make sure there is no statement that says anything like �all entries become the property of XXX� or �by entering, entrants grant permission for XXX to publish, edit, or sell the work.�

Is Your Work Automatically Going to be Published?

Be careful of free competitions where entries are automatically published online. If they�re published online, that means you can�t sell them as first rights anywhere else. Selling reprints isn�t easy and you usually can�t sell reprints for much.

For these competitions, your entry can become your only chance to sell the story. In these cases, it�s often better just to try and sell it to a market. At least then, you get more than one chance.

The BIG Prize Money

Some competitions that require publishing rights to all entries have large prizes to attract people. But if a lot of people enter, that means your entry will have to be pretty good to win.

If you can write a story that will be better than 2000 others, it�s quite possible you�d be able to sell it to a magazine for almost as much as the prize money. And that way, there�s no risk to you.

And what if your story is almost good enough to win? You don�t win and you risk a story that you could probably sell somewhere else. It�s not worth the risk for a chance at the big prize.

Who is the Contest Benefiting?

Katrina�s Story: When a �Highly Commended� is Your Loss

�I was really unhappy when a story I wrote got published online for no pay. It was published as one of the �Highly Commended� stories, with two stories published each month�none for any pay. Looking at the competition now,

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