I’m a bit late on this one as the deadline is Tuesday (31st May), but if you’ve got a good short story that you’re sitting on somewhere, and you wouldn’t say no to having a literary agent, then you’ve just got time to enter the Frome Festival Short Story Competition. Here are some reasons to do it:
- The winning stories will be read by a London agent. Clearly, if he or she likes your story, that’s got to be good.
- The first prize is only £300. Why is that good? Well, think about the Bridport: £5000 for first means that everyone wants to win it, so everyone enters, and your chances of picking up a prize go down. £300 isn’t so much, so you’ve got a much better chance of being one of the three who gets read by that agent.
- Entering competitions is good for you. If you’re a procrastinator, it forces you to finish work and send it out; if you’re feeling stuck in a bubble, it makes you feel like you’re taking part in the literary world; and if you get placed, it means that someone who knows their stuff thought your writing was worth reading, and that builds both your confidence and your CV.
So dust off that story, give it a read-over and a polish, find a first class stamp, get it in the post. And good luck!