Current Writing Contests Novels & Stories

I'm skeptical of most free contests, honestly. Too many feel like data collection or anthology-mill schemes, where you 'win' a spot in a pricey collection you have to buy. But I found one exception last year: 'The First Chapters Prize' from The London Library. No fee, open internationally, decent prize money and mentoring. I entered on a whim, didn't win, but the feedback was genuinely thoughtful—more than I got from some paid submissions. The key is vetting: if it's run by a legit literary journal, university creative writing department, or a major publisher's imprint, it's usually okay. Random websites promising 'exposure'? Run.

WordHunt (formerly Scribophile's) quarterly contests are another solid free option. You need to critique others' work to earn karma points to enter, which keeps the community serious. The prizes are small but real, and the feedback you get during the process is the real value. Helped me tighten a short story that later got published elsewhere. I'd take that over a hundred no-feedback rejections from random places.

You're asking the right question—this is how I got my first piece published, actually. The first place I'd recommend is a bit obvious but reliable: 'Reedsy' has a frequently updated contest page that filters for no-fee options. I check it maybe once a month. Their blog also often does roundups for specific genres, which saves a ton of scrolling time.

Beyond that, university writing department websites are a goldmine people forget. Even if you're not a student, many MFA programs list competitions that are open to the public, and they tend to be legitimate, often connected to literary journals. I've submitted to a few from the University of New Orleans' 'Press 53' page, for instance. The key is to treat the search like a part-time job; bookmark a few trusted hubs instead of googling 'free contest' every time, which just leads to sketchy sites wanting your data.

One more tip—follow the magazines you admire on Twitter or Mastodon. Editors often announce their own open submission periods or contest extensions there before it hits the main aggregators. I snagged a last-minute slot for the 'Bridport Prize' flash fiction category that way, though some of their contests do have fees so you have to read carefully.

I was just researching this because a friend asked, and honestly, the ones with the biggest numbers aren't always the most visible. The Reedsy platform runs a weekly contest with a $500 prize, which adds up if you're consistent, but the submission window is tight. For sheer scale, the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition used to have a $10,000 grand prize funded by sponsors, though I think the structure changed recently. A lot of the 'big money' contests seem to be tied to specific genres or very niche themes from private foundations, which can feel a bit like winning the lottery.

What surprised me was discovering some university-affiliated short story contests for 'emerging writers' that offer upwards of $2,500. They aren't advertised on mainstream writing sites, you have to dig through university English department pages. The catch is they often require the work to be unpublished anywhere, even on a personal blog, which is a huge commitment for a single piece. It makes you weigh whether locking a story away for a year for a chance at a prize is better than just publishing it serially online and building an audience. Still, for a clean, unpublished manuscript, those can be a decent shot.