First-Book Contests: A Great Entryway to a Literary Career
plus 7 reputable contests that publish the winning manuscript
First-book contests have helped many writers of literary fiction launch their careers. These contests offer a cash award and publication, often by a university press. In this post, I’ll share why I’m a big believer in first-book contests. I’ll also recommend seven reputable first-book contests with upcoming deadlines (most on Sept. 30) and one contest for a mid-career writer.
My career began more than 20 years ago with a linked story collection, THE GIRL IN THE FALL-AWAY DRESS, published through a contest. The contest, still running to this day, is the AWP Awards, which gives annual awards for a short story collection (the Grace Paley Prize), a novel, and a book of poetry.
Back then, entering a contest required a trip to Kinko’s, twenty bucks or so to make a copy of the manuscript, the purchase of a manuscript box from Staples, and postage, in addition to the entry fee. I’d recently finished my MFA and was pounding the pavement in NYC selling credit processing machines. I still owed student loans from undergrad. Every dollar was hard to come by. But I rolled the dice and entered the contest, and the result was that the book was selected as the winner by Jill McCorkle. It received a $2,000 advance against royalties and was published by University of Massachusetts Press.
The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress sold fewer than 2,000 copies that year and didn’t make much of a splash, but it was reviewed in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the trade magazines, and it helped me find a publisher for my second book. Before the AWP Award, I had entered two other contests with the same manuscript. After the manuscript was a runner-up in one of those contests, I revised it before submitting it to the AWP contest.
I doubt that my first story collection would have been published if I had submitted it to agents or publishers instead of to a contest. For one thing, I didn’t know anyone. I had attended a new and relatively unknown MFA program (which I loved, by the way: The University of Miami James Michener Fellowship was fully funded, providing a full ride and a living stipend). No one was knocking down my door to ask what I’d written. I had published several stories in literary magazines by submitting “over the transom,” but I had no agent or publisher contacts. And the manuscript was very “literary,” which translates roughly to “this won’t sell.” It was a series of linked stories interspersed with flash fictions that served as a kind of narrative glue. (You can listen to the first story in the collection, “O-lama-lama,” here.)
Fortunately, the contest submission process was blind, which meant my manuscript was competing with other manuscripts—rather than my completely unknown name competing with other names. The AWP seeks to further level the playing field and avoid nepotism with this rule: “former students who studied with a judge in an academic degree-conferring program or its equivalent are ineligible to enter the competition in the genre for which their former teacher is serving as judge.”
Aside from blind submissions, one of the most appealing aspects of a first-book contest is that the university or organization that runs the contest has made a commitment to publishing one of the entries. Contests like the AWP are an easier way to break in with literary fiction than the traditional agent-to-publisher route, because a contest backed by a university press is not looking for a book that will be commercially viable. It's just looking for a book of literary merit. Usually, the university doesn’t have to make a dime on your book. When you submit to agents and publishers, on the other hand, commercial viability is always a factor.
Submitting to contests can get expensive, and it is wise to evaluate your submission budget. But when the prize is book publication by a reputable press, it can be a worthwhile gamble. Of course, you only get one chance to make a first impression with your manuscript, so wait until it is truly ready to submit. And, of course, read a few recent award-winning books from the series before you submit.
Here are eight reputable contests for first books of fiction.
Seven of the prizes include a cash prize and publication; one does not include publication but does reward the winner with $5,000. Several of the contests offer two prizes: one for a story collection and one for a novel. At the end of the list, you’ll also find a prize for a mid-career writer, with a $15,000 advance and publication. Keep in mind that all of these prizes are for literary fiction.