Copyright protection/Prose contest

Writer’s Thought for the Week: Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. ~ Henry Ward Beecher 

The U.S. Copyright Act isn’t just about copyrights. The law includes other issues writers with book contracts should be aware of, such as a termination clause that may help some authors escape onerous contracts. For details, read “Will the CopyrightAct Open a Floodgate of Contract Rewrites for Authors?” 

LIBARTS LONDON PRIZE
Deadline: February 28, 2013

First prize: £200. Second prize: £100.

Word limit: 1500
No entry fee

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be? Use text, video, audio, photographs, or a combination of these to tell your story. Your story can be about anything: Freedom, Politics, Parents, Religion, Sex, Nature, Race, Education, Beauty…anything. Open internationally but text should be in English.

Legal Matters/Short Short Fiction Contest

Thought for the Day: Accepting the unacceptable is the hardest lesson to learn and the most important to achieve inner peace. ~  Char Wilson, artist

Legal Matters

Legal Write Publications has a Twitter account @LegalWritePub on articles and blogs that deal with the legal side of writing, as well as a blog covering copyright and related issues: http://legalwritepublications.com/blog/.  Their web site offers free e-reports on the benefit of copyright and what it does NOT protect: http://legalwritepublications.com/freebies/

Esquire/Aspen Writers’ Foundation Short Short Fiction Contest

http://www.esquire.com/fiction/short-short-fiction-contest-2011

Deadline: October 7, 2011

Win a trip to New York to study with Colum McCann, and a scholarship to the Aspen Summer Words Fiction Workshop if you can beat Colum McCann (in 78 words). Entries must be 78 words, in honor of Esquire's 78th birthday, and will be judged on plot, characterization, theme, and originality.

Ten winners will receive reimbursement up to $500 for round trip economy plane fare to New York for a fiction workshop, taught by Colum McCann, and a literary party. Winners also receive reimbursement for up to $500 for two nights lodging in New York City.  One of the ten finalists will be selected as the Grand Prize winner of a full scholarship for the advanced fiction workshop at Aspen Summer Words (June 17 to 22, 2012).

The contest is sponsored by Hearst Communications.

Free Copyright Webinar and Main Street Rag Call for Submissions

Writer's thought for the week: "Some say writing inspiration comes from sunny days, cuddly kittens and children romping through fields of daisies. Those people have somebody else paying the bills." ~ Karuna Eberl

Questions about copyright? The Arts Council of New Orleans web site has a free on demand 25 minute presentation on copyright. It covers the importance of registration, registering using the online eCo system, the need for work for hire agreements, derivative works, and public domain. You can listen to it here:
http://artscouncilofneworleans.adobeconnect.com/copyright_webinar_final_webinar_2011

MAIN STREET RAG is open for submissions for three themed anthologies and a novella series.
http://www.mainstreetrag.com/MSR_Short%20Fiction%20Anthology.html
http://www.mainstreetrag.com/MSRNovella.html

The reading period for all four runs through 9/15/11, but will end for the anthologies as soon as they have accepted enough to fill a book.

The anthologies are:

The List: We’re looking for stories with lists in them—any kind of list, serving any purpose. We want fiction that explores how lists can help to structure or lend meaning to a story. We want to see work that examines what our habit of list-making reveals about our lives. Send us your fiction with odd, funny, heartbreaking, mundane, or mind-blowing lists.

Just Tattoos: How do tattoos haunt, hurt or give meaning to the character's story? Who wears or inks these tattoos? What defines the human body and art?

Secrets: Tell us how someone is changed by the secrets they keep; or how secrets from the past haunt the present. Pass along a secret that startles and intrigues, or show us what happens when a secret is held too tightly.

Novellas should be between 30,000 and 50,000 words.