For the emerging writer, especially those outside LA, contests most often get listed as the way to break-in. They don’t care about who you know or where you live. Readers review blind submissions and elevate the (in their opinion) worthy. Careers made. Lives changed. It could be you.
But a dark side exists to this golden dream. Every year more screenwriting contests pop up. Entrance fees keep creeping up. Fly-by-night operations prey on unsuspecting writers, raking in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Below we go through some basic steps to help protect your money, your time, and your work.
Do Your Research
First and foremost, check out the contest. See if others have heard of it. What people on screenwriting hubs like the Screenwriters Network and r/screenwriting say about it. Some diligent googling can tell you a lot about a contest.
Quite a few screenwriting websites break down the biggest contests, making it clear which are legitimate and worth entering. For the rest, you want to look for horror stories – not the usual run of the mill aggrieved submitter but stories of disappearing prizes and unanswered submissions. From this you can eliminate the bottom feeders from your list.
Sometimes you’ll find a contest in its infancy, without much of a track record to go off. That’s when the next step comes in handy.
What’s the Prize?
Next, look at what the contest has to offer. Plenty of legit competitions operate in good faith, read entries, and award prizes – but that doesn’t mean the prize or the title make entry worth it. First, look at their actual website and see what they have to offer. Next, go back to your research above and this time check out the successes. What have people gotten from winning? Did they get a plaque and a hand shake or did they make real connections and advance their career.
Sometimes a small prize is fine since the entry fee is so low. But you want to be full informed and make the best possible decision before submitting.
Read the Rules
After checking the prizes also follow up with the rules. No point submitting your 150-page sci-fi epic to a contest for rom-com short scripts. You laugh but it happens all the time. Same for the finer points of rules like removing your name from the title page. If you don’t want to just throw your money away, make sure your work is eligible and don’t disqualify yourself.
Look For Past Winners
One last tip for deciding what and where to submit – look up past winners. Some contests have a big enough profile winning scripts get shared, but plenty of others may eventually make it on to the Black List or have a big spec sale and circulate that way. And some winners are happy to share their winning script if you ask nicely.
Do what you can to read the winners and get a sense for the profile of a contest. While all the good ones do focus on finding great scripts, each contest will have its own bend and flavor that you can aim for and try to maximize your results with.
Track Your Entries
Once you’ve submitted, make a note. Keep the information in one place so you can see which projects have submitted where. Spreadsheets can make your life easy.
This way you don’t waste money throwing the same draft at the same contest year after year. As certain scripts start to advance you can track your progress – and which contests you’re a better fit for.
Don’t Focus Solely on Contests
In the end, contests are lotteries. They’re ones improved by your talent and ability as a writer, but it still comes down to a lot of factors beyond your control. They can absolutely make your career – but they’re not the only route.
Other things you can do – build your network, either online or, when things are safe, in person. Meet local filmmakers. Produce your own work. Query managers and agents. Circulate your best scripts with friends and family – you never know who has a cousin that works at an agency.
Contests make-up just a small portion of the avenues towards starting a career as a screenwriter. Don’t let yourself get caught in the trap of the Contest Grind and forget about the other ways forward.
And if you’ve got your own tips on what to look for when considering contests, share in the comments!