The only thing better than a contest is a free contest! Who needs to pay $30 bucks for a contest? Your big break can be just a blog away. I think this is the blogosphere version of reality shows.

Lately I’ve been following several writing contests with pretty substantial prizes. Usually an editor or agent read.

Rachelle Chase’s Chase the Dream contest:
Enter the first 1000 words of your romance manuscript. If you don’t win the first week, then enter again. Two finalists have been crowned so far, but this goes on until March 20,2009 with a finalist and a mini-critique winner each week. An impressive panel of agents are lined up to read through the finalists.

Casablanca Authors – Ready, Set, PITCH! (I don’t know if that’s the official name)
Contest date is January 29. Enter a 50 word pitch. To winner receives a full manuscript reading from Deb Werksmen, editor at Sourcebooks. Rules will be posted on January 24.

Karin Tabke’s First Line contest:
You can’t enter anymore, but it’s fun to check out the variety. I got cut in the very first round. 🙁 But I like to check in every week to see which ones made it to the next round.

Miss Snark’s First Victim Secret Agent Contest
New Edition: I have to add this because this is so cool and a wonderful blog all around! Miss Snark’s First Victim Secret Agent contests apparently run every month. Wow! Thanks Amanda for the info and for commenting.

Good luck all who enter. Know of any other contests? Has anyone ever gotten their break through these blog contests?

I started writing romance seriously three years ago and when I was introduced to the caring, intelligent and driven authors in this genre, I never looked back.

One example of such an author is Gemma Halliday, who writes wildly inventive chick-lit mysteries, has all sorts of irons in the fire and deadlines up the wazoo — yet she takes the time to organize an online auction for a reader in need. And to top it all off, Gemma’s as cute as a button. There’s information at Killer Fiction and the auction is being held at Romantic Inks, a site run by another author with a heart of gold, Haven Rich.

I’ll definitely be stopping by for the online auction which goes on from January 19-26. Part of it is self serving — I’d love to bid on a manuscript critique from a published author or an editor pitch! But also because romance writing is a community that I’m proud to be a part of, a community that constantly gives back to its writers and its readers. No wonder it’s consistently the bestselling genre.