Thursday Review—A Writing Contest Could be Your Big Break!

A writing contest could be your big break!
A guest post by Marcia Moston

Blue Ridge Mountains Christian
Writers Conference

Three years ago I attended my first writers conference, Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. Today I received my first advance check from Thomas Nelson—think I’ll just stare at it awhile!

This quick journey to publication wasn’t because I walked away from the conference with an agent in my pocket or an editor on the line, or because I had written the Gone with the Wind of the twenty-first century. But it was, in part, because the confidence I gained by entering and placing in the Blue Ridge competition led me to enter the Women of Faith/WestBow Press competition—a contest with connections to the Big Guys.

This year could be your turn. Once again, Women of Faith and WestBow Press are offering a writing contest. Prizes include generous publishing packages. The Grand Prize winner not only has the possibility of being picked up by Thomas Nelson, WestBow’s parent company, but also of being promoted at Women of Faith Conferences around the country.

Imagine my surprise while at the Women of Faith conference this year, someone tweeted that I was in the program. I had actually thrown it away, but there I was in a full-page spread right after Lucy Swindoll and Sheila Walsh!

Photo courtesy of Mary Denman 

My book, Call of a Coward won the competition and was published by WestBow. But I had no idea Thomas Nelson was looking at it until a month after it came out, I received a simple email, sitting there in my inbox alongside the bill and blogs, offering me a contract. (And I didn’t even have to write a proposal!) So after a few months on the market, Call of a Coward will be pulled and re-released next summer by Thomas Nelson.

You just don’t know what God will do when you give Him something to work with.

This was my great opportunity; perhaps next year it will be yours.

For information about this year’s contest and a video of my story, go to WestBow Press.com