Writing Contests: It is Not The Big Money I Am After So Much as The Ultimate Big Prize

This month I have entered more than a half dozen writing contests on various sites, and am thinking about entering a couple of more. My husband is thrilled, believing that winning even one or two of these contests could make a big difference in my writing income. He was therefore surprised to discover that the prize money was not the main reason I entered these contests.

Not that the prize money in some cases do not amount to a handsome amount. It does. I am all for winning the money as well, because after all if I want writing to be a full time career, then making money at it is a necessity.

However, the prize money is a one shot deal. While it would certainly shoot up my income for a single month it will not do much for me in the long run. Looking at the big picture however I decided that these contests could do a lot for my career.

By taking part in these contests, I am putting my articles out there to be viewed and weighed against other like articles on similar subjects. I am in essence telling the publishers of the site, the judges of the contests, and the reading public that I am confident that my writing can hold it’s own against the best writers on each of these sites.

I am not thinking so much of the short terms rewards, though I would be thrilled with them, as I am thinking about the promotion that entering these contests can bring to my writing in general.

While people like to read contest entries to see if they can guess who the winner will be, it is my hope, that win or lose some people will like my writing well enough to read more of my work, to become a follower of what I write, and perhaps to even pass my links on.

I see these contests as a way to gain long term income as well as perhaps, that short income boost from the prize itself. Contests to me are a promotional tool like social networking and other means we employee to gain a strong reader base.

The big win for me is not the monetary award, whether it is large or small, but the long term reward that could be won by this type of promotion. While in the end it all comes down to dollars and cents, I am looking for the steady income, these contests could help produce as opposed to the one shot income of the win itself.

That is what a writing career is all about. Keeping a steady flow of income so that I keep doing this thing I love with less encumbrances than I now have.