Ah, Contests

Contests seem to spur a bit of debate in emails I get about this blog. They do so elsewhere, too. From today's Publishers Lunch:

"The story about the cancellation of the Zoo Press fiction contest began with a blogger in April, moved to Poets & Writers Magazine recently, and is now back in blogs all over, including Maud Newton's, and you can follow the thread from there."

And here's the blog they're referring to: Maud Newton: Blog. (Actually even this one post on Maud's blog has a lot of links interesting to a new writer.)

So contests . . . sometimes useful, sometimes . . . sometimes something else.

I will say that while winning a contest or two can help, what's really important is to keep writing and keep submitting your stuff. There's no substitute for that.