This N' That

Here's a few things I ran across and thought I'd pass along. Hope you find something useful. :) Grassroots Publishing Co. Inc. is seeking 3-5K short stories that are "contemporary, historic, inspirational, paranormal, or any other theme as long as love and romance are the main thrust of the story", pays $300.00 flat rate for "first global publishing rights and electronic and internet rights in all languages as well as future anthology rights", electronic and snail mail subs okay, see guidelines for more details here (spotted in the November print issue of The Writer.) Manic Readers is hosting a Romance Novel Writing Contest with NAL editor, Becky Vinter judging. Here are the rules: Contest Rules 1. Entries will be accepted between January 3, 2009 and February 28, 2009 2. Entries must be written to the theme of "Men in Uniform". Heat level: Steamy! 3. This is a novel length (80k - 100k) contest. Entry length of the excerpt is 1000 words (computer count). Entries over 1000 words will be disqualified. Excerpt can be any part of the story as long as it follows the above theme. Excerpt must be from a new, not yet published, manuscript. 4. Entrants must be registered with the Manic Readers website 5. All entries will be submitted via a submission form on the Manic Readers website, more info on that coming soon. 6. All entries will be kept anonymous but assigned an entry identification number 7. Beginning March 1, 2009, Manic Readers will post 20% of the entries at the beginning of each of the following weeks: *March 1st *March 8th *March 15th *March 22nd *March 29th 8. Each week registered users can vote for their top two entries (one vote per entry) 9. The top two entries from each week will be posted April 5, 2009 and read by Becky Vinter 10. Contest is open to unpublished writers and published authors not published with NAL Publishing 11. One entry per person – multiple entries will be disqualified Contest Prizes: 1. The top 10 entries receiving the most votes will be read by Becky Vinter 2. The entry with the most votes will be named “Readers’ Choice” 3. Becky Vinter will name one of the top 10 entries “Editor’s Choice” Frequently Asked Questions Q: Does the manuscript have to be finished in order to enter the contest? A: That’s up to you. However, if the editor really loves your excerpt she may ask you for the full manuscript. This might be old news to some of you, but I thought I'd post for those of you who, like me, nearly missed out on. Donald Maass, President of Maass Lit Agency in NY is giving away PDF copies/downloads of his book "The Career Novelist - A Literary Agent Offers Strategies forSuccess" . The book is almost 200 pages and is available for download here: http://www.maassagency.com/books.html Win a professional edit, up to 5,000 words, from FreyasBower/Wild Child Publishing editor Faith Bicknell-Brown. Just answer a couple of questions from her books to enter. Deadline is December 20th. Go here for contest rules. And lastly, you're invited to join the Lyrical Press Author's on Monday, October 27th @ 9:00 PM in our private chat room for fun and prizes! (see announcement below) We do hope to see you there. Happy Writing!