Online Poetry Contests – What You Need To Know By: Money-Pen
The answer is a resounding "Yes" as long as you keep these salient points in mind!
1. Online contests are quick and easy to enter and result in instant publication. Often voting and commenting play a prominent part in the competition and the site will help you to promote your poem to your friends, family and perhaps social media websites. This is done through the use of email forwarders, invite a friend and sometimes a daily update which you can also use as a forwarder.
This is in marked contrast to sending it off to a traditional contest where often it seems to evaporate into a pit of anonymity!
All well and good, but if you need to be careful you have not entered a popularity contest instead of a proper arts competition. Check the winners are not decided just on number of votes.
2. If the contest is being judged by a human being check their qualifications. You want to win the competition on the say so of a literary expert, not some designer with an eye for easy profit.
3. If an entry fee is charged there should be cash prizes. Sometimes publishing contracts are offered, but again you need to take care. Vanity publishers run contests to drum up business to their publishing services so be especially wary if you are asked to buy or contribute to an expensive print book.
4. Whether you make the winners podium or not, you should see a full judge's report and a list of results. It should be made clear that these will at least be available on the competition site and ideally emailed to all entrants.
5. In spite of the size of the web, people often recognise others in their pond and judges are no exception. To be assured of complete fairness, your entry must appear on the site anonymously.
6. Though your entry should be displayed anonymously, you will have to submit some personal data such as your email address and name otherwise the organisers won't be able to contact you should you win a prize, but check that the contest has a privacy policy stating that your personal details are secure and are not shared with third parties.
7. If you enter a contest that offers cash prizes in a currency other than your own, you need to know you can receive it! Paypal is a popular payment gateway which will get over the problem for most entrants. You simply open and account and then download your winnings to your own terrestrial bank. You can also use Paypal to send money which makes it a very convenient way of paying entry fees!
O.K. now you know what to look out for in an online poetry contest, where do you find them?
Run a search on Google and you should find lots of writers' sites listing poetry contests of all kinds, including online poetry competitions such as the Grape and Grain harvest themed contest.
online poetry contest
(features one of the submitted poems.) Or check out this video on one of the large online writing communities.
1. Online contests are quick and easy to enter and result in instant publication. Often voting and commenting play a prominent part in the competition and the site will help you to promote your poem to your friends, family and perhaps social media websites. This is done through the use of email forwarders, invite a friend and sometimes a daily update which you can also use as a forwarder.
This is in marked contrast to sending it off to a traditional contest where often it seems to evaporate into a pit of anonymity!
All well and good, but if you need to be careful you have not entered a popularity contest instead of a proper arts competition. Check the winners are not decided just on number of votes.
2. If the contest is being judged by a human being check their qualifications. You want to win the competition on the say so of a literary expert, not some designer with an eye for easy profit.
3. If an entry fee is charged there should be cash prizes. Sometimes publishing contracts are offered, but again you need to take care. Vanity publishers run contests to drum up business to their publishing services so be especially wary if you are asked to buy or contribute to an expensive print book.
4. Whether you make the winners podium or not, you should see a full judge's report and a list of results. It should be made clear that these will at least be available on the competition site and ideally emailed to all entrants.
5. In spite of the size of the web, people often recognise others in their pond and judges are no exception. To be assured of complete fairness, your entry must appear on the site anonymously.
6. Though your entry should be displayed anonymously, you will have to submit some personal data such as your email address and name otherwise the organisers won't be able to contact you should you win a prize, but check that the contest has a privacy policy stating that your personal details are secure and are not shared with third parties.
7. If you enter a contest that offers cash prizes in a currency other than your own, you need to know you can receive it! Paypal is a popular payment gateway which will get over the problem for most entrants. You simply open and account and then download your winnings to your own terrestrial bank. You can also use Paypal to send money which makes it a very convenient way of paying entry fees!
O.K. now you know what to look out for in an online poetry contest, where do you find them?
Run a search on Google and you should find lots of writers' sites listing poetry contests of all kinds, including online poetry competitions such as the Grape and Grain harvest themed contest.
online poetry contest
(features one of the submitted poems.) Or check out this video on one of the large online writing communities.
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