I love Writer's Digest and they're totally legit without question... but I'm curious what y'all think about contests that charge an entry fee but have a capped prize. No, $15 per entry isn't outrageous... but for the short story contest, they're only giving away around $5,000 in cash. So if they get 1,000 entries... or 2,000... or 5,000, well, your winnings are capped.
Yes, they have expenses, but it would be interesting to know how many entries they get. The $15 fee is the same for the poetry contest, with lower prize payout. Again, it takes people reading all the entries, and I can see that they need to be paid... but it's not transparent.
Also, if you enter, you have to send a separate note to keep your information from ever being sold/given to others (which they only do "occasionally").
I think these are really great questions. WD is legit, which is why I posted this. Other contests--say ones that also take your publishing rights from you--are more worrisome. I do think it's questionable that they reserve one-time printing rights for Top 25.
In any case, always read the fine print.
I think $15 is an appropriate entry fee. It does take time to read/process these things. And adding a fee prevents people from sending along a TON of entries.
2 comments:
I love Writer's Digest and they're totally legit without question... but I'm curious what y'all think about contests that charge an entry fee but have a capped prize. No, $15 per entry isn't outrageous... but for the short story contest, they're only giving away around $5,000 in cash. So if they get 1,000 entries... or 2,000... or 5,000, well, your winnings are capped.
Yes, they have expenses, but it would be interesting to know how many entries they get. The $15 fee is the same for the poetry contest, with lower prize payout. Again, it takes people reading all the entries, and I can see that they need to be paid... but it's not transparent.
Also, if you enter, you have to send a separate note to keep your information from ever being sold/given to others (which they only do "occasionally").
I think these are really great questions. WD is legit, which is why I posted this. Other contests--say ones that also take your publishing rights from you--are more worrisome. I do think it's questionable that they reserve one-time printing rights for Top 25.
In any case, always read the fine print.
I think $15 is an appropriate entry fee. It does take time to read/process these things. And adding a fee prevents people from sending along a TON of entries.
Still, excellent questions, Gregory K! :-)
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