Contest for 1st Chapters

The Writing Show is proud to announce our first ever writing contest. We are looking for the best first chapter of a novel. That’s all you have to do—just the first chapter. Set up your story and hook us!

Prizes
There will be three prizes: a first prize of $150 and two second prizes of $50 each. Each winning entry will be featured on our Web site, and we will also have them read by some excellent voice actors and made available as audio files.

Your writing will be judged on the following 5 criteria:
1. Concept. Is it a compelling read with a great hook?
2. Style. Is the writing smooth and flowing?
3. Dialog. Is the dialog natural and does it move the story along?
4. Character. Are the characters interesting?
5. Mechanics. Are grammar and punctuation correct?

Specifications
• Entries are limited to 3000 words.
• Any fiction genre is okay.
• You must write in the English language.
• G, PG, and R ratings are okay.
• The chapter must be your original work and must be unpublished.
• You must hold all rights to the material.
• Relatives of the judges may not enter the contest.
• Only one entry per person.

Deadline
Entries are due on the first anniversary of The Writing Show, which is July 6, 2006.

Announcement of Winners
We will announce the winners on Labor Day 2006, which is the first Monday in September.

Judges
• Book publicist Karen Villanueva, who was on the show on October 3, 2005.
• Author Harriet Smart, who was on the show on March 6, 2006.
• Guest host Mick Halpin, whose interviews were posted on January 30th and March 27th of this year.
• John Bryans, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher at Information Today Books and Plexus Books.
• Georganna Hancock, who writes the fabulous blog Writer’s Edge.
• Alan Chaney, co-founder of The Writing Show.

How to Submit
This contest will be conducted entirely electronically. To send us an entry, you should do one of two things:
• Send a link to a PDF or HTML version of the work
• Send an email attachment of a txt, doc, rtf, or pdf file.
The address to submit to is: contest@writingshow.com.

Your submission must include the following. Do not put these on the chapter itself, only in your email. If you include any identifying information on the chapter, it will make more work for me as I will have to strip it out before I give it to the judges:
• Your name.
• Your phone number.
• Your email address.
• Your snail mail address.
• Title of the work.
• Word count.
• A log line—a one-sentence description of the work. Use it to hook us!
• The following text: “I am the author of this work and hold all rights to it. If I win, I grant The Writing Show permission to display the work on its Web site or sites and to have an audio recording of the work made and distributed.”