3K for an erotic story?

by Violet Blue on October 16, 2008


Image by Cafe Couple.

Wow, it’s for real — I blinked the disbelief from my weary erotica editing eyes and checked it out. The Sinclair Institute’s Better Sex Erotic Fiction Contest is really truly offering a $3000 grand prize for the erotic story they think is the best submission for their next collection. They’re not being stingy with the runner-up prizes, either: 13 weekly winners will get $100 (or two Euros, heh) and one “hot new voice” will get $200 (that’s what I pay each selection for Best Women’s Erotica; it’s the high end of the erotica pay scale). The word count for submissions is 3,000, making the finalist get a dollar a word, their deadline is November 1st, and other than their submission rules I’m really not sure what their selection criteria for content is (other than unpublished work). I mean I’m guessing that reading former winners will give you an idea, but when I put out a call for submissions I usually give writers a good idea what I want… Still, it’s great to see money going to erotica writers, and I *love* anything that encourages new voices. I’ve published dozens of first-time writers over the past 7 years and it brings me a lot of happiness — especially when a handful of them have gone on to be well-known and very accomplished writers. I’m looking forward to February already.

Violet Blue

The London Times named Violet Blue "One of the 40 bloggers who really count" and Self Magazine named TinyNibbles one of the “Best Sex Resources for Women.” Blue is an autodidact and pundit on sex and technology, hacking and security, porn for women, privacy and bleeding-edge tech culture. She is a journalist for ZDNet, CBS News, CNET; she's an educator, speaker, crisis counselor, volunteer NGO trainer, and the author and editor of over 40 award-winning books.

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{ 2 comments }

1 libby October 17, 2008 at 2:17 pm

clever marketing, those sinclair folks.

2 Caracala October 17, 2008 at 11:49 am

Wow, that’s an insane amount of money. Good luck to everyone who enters!

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