Does anyone have any views on general fiction competitions? Which ones are worthwhile and which are thinly-disguised vanity publishing. I guess the Bridport is pretty-much top notch (in the UK at least). What about others?

Best

Crispin.

Short story or novel? There's the Fish Unpublished Novel comp, The Asham Award- tho that might be just women maybe.. it is, I've just checked. Cadenza magazine...A and C Black Children's Writing...

Crispin, if you look through the jobs & opps section, you'll find a lot of comps. As yet, none have turned out to be duds.
Elspeth

There is the \scotsman/orange short story competition, but unfortunately the closing date is past,
Ther is the New writing competition, don't think either of these have an entry fee- which I think means they are credible.
Caroline

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The Scotsman one is free and has a first prize of £7,500. The closing date was 31st Jan, but they have one once a year.

Other the Fish competition, the only one I know of that I would actually enter is the Biscuit competition. They used to give a prize plus a contract for a 40,000 word novella. This year they seem to have dropped that, but the winner gets £1000.

The main difference this year is the idea that people can submit portfolios.

I'm not quite sure I follow this portfolio thing. I get the impression that a portfolio is one complete short story (around 3000 words) plus the first 250-350 words of three other short stories (which must be complete). It all seems a bit complicated. I think I'll email the organiser and find out if I've got it wrong.

Anyway, for anyone interested... Biscuit Publishing.

And if I remember right, there's an interview with the organiser on this site. Gimme a second...

aha! ... Brian Lister

Colin M.

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mean to say other than the fish competition...

duh!