Authors in Canada, UK, and Australia: ENTER

Why not use the cold winter days (or the hot ones in Australia) 

to prepare for any of the many writing competitions? 

CBC Creative Nonfiction Competition
is open to all Canadian residents. The competition is for original, unpublished work of creative nonfiction between 1200 and 1800 words & carries a grand prize of CA$6.000
Entries close 28 February
https://cbcliteraryprizes.submittable.com/submit/129834/2019-cbc-nonfiction-prize

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Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing Fellowships 
$38,000 a year. 5-7 fellowships available each year for poets, fiction writers, and a playwright. Madison, WI,
Deadline March 1
https://creativewriting.wisc.edu/fellowships.html

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James Jones First Novel Fellowship
A prize of ***US$10,000*** is given annually for a novel-in-progress by a U.S. writer who has not published a novel
Entry Fee $33  Deadline March 1
https://wilkes.edu/academics/graduate-programs/masters-programs/creative-writing-ma-mfa/james-jones-fellowship-contest.aspx

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Craft Short Fiction Prize
Open for stories up to 5,000 words. The writers of the top three stories will receive: $2,000 award for first prize.
$20 Entry Fee
Opens March and closes April 30, 2019.
https://www.craftliterary.com/short-fiction-prize/

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Luck of the Irish: The IFM Bursaries & Writers Residency
In addition to the cost of air flights and accommodation, the Bursary entails an honorarium of €1,300.
The Ireland Funds Monaco Residential Bursaries have been established to enable literary and academic writers born or living in Ireland to pursue a current project during a one-month residency at The Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco.
Deadline March 30, 2019
https://irelandfunds.org/chapters/worldwide/monaco/bursaries/

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Ljubljana City of Literature
A writer in the Park International Residency Program
Offers two one-month residencies for writers at the newly restored Swisshouse Creative Centre. Applicants must have published at least one book.
Deadline March 30, 2019
https://www.facebook.com/events/1239114336253768/

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Alpine Fellowship

Open to all nationalities, the winner receives £10,000 cash prize and is presented with the award by the poet John Burnside. £3,000 go to the second place, £2,000 to the third place. Maximum of 2,500 words per entry.
Awarded for the best piece of writing on the topic of ‘Identity’. NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline March 30, 2019.
https://alpinefellowship.submittable.com/submit/133506/af-2019-writing-prize

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How to Improve Your Amazon Rankings?

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What About Contests to Improve Your Amazon Rankings?
Why are reviews and rankings at Amazon so important for authors?  Rankings get you noticed. It means Amazon can reach people with your book who would never have heard of it otherwise.
That’s why authors should organize friends, acquaintances and family to order all on the same day, resulting in better ratings. Let me give you two examples:

Mike Litman's advice
Have you ever heard about this world bestseller “Chicken Soup for the Soul“?   Sure, you have! Mike Litman the co-author and co-founder gives every author this valuable advice:
“Hitting #1 at Amazon as first-time self-published authors using no money, no PR, no public speaking and doing it all in 76 days seems like a powerful enough story to warrant a spot in the Self-Publishing Hall of Fame. We did it by leveraging the email lists of other people by first serving them and coming from a place of willingness to help them first.

How They Did it:
We asked 12 of them for their help, they gladly sent a notice to their email lists with an offer for the book on Amazon.com, all on the same day to help push us to the top. We made an irresistible offer of digital products as bonuses for anyone who purchased the book from Amazon.com by midnight that night. The digital products sent out by email didn’t cost us anything to give them, so it was a win-win offer and the people who sent the notice to their lists were viewed as heroes for making such a great offer to their lists!”

Another author, Guido Henkel, had lots of success via a contest he started through his website and blog, writing to friends and acquaintances:

“I want you to “Share” my books and tell the world about it. So, go to my books on Amazon and for every book in the list, click the “Like” button found on the product page. Next, a small pop-up box will appear and there, click on the “F” symbol to share your love with your Facebook friends so that they can see it, or click on the Twitter icon to share the love with your Tweets. A share takes no more than two mouse-clicks — not a whole lot, considering what you could win in the bargain. Count how many of the books you shared this way.
Next, please go to the list of my books on Barnes & Noble’s website. On the product page for each book, click on the “F” to share the love with your Facebook friends and also click on the “+1” symbol to share it with your Google+ circles. Again, two mouse-clicks are all that required. Once again, count how many of the books you shared this way.
Then simply send me an email to contest@guidohenkel.com and put “Shared: xxx” in the subject line. “xxx” would, naturally, stand for the number of your total shares.  As you can see, this is really easy and no purchase is necessary. You can share my books even if you’ve never even read one. In fact, I would love for you to share information about the books anyway, because even if they are not your bag, maybe some of your friends like Victorian era supernatural mysteries.
At the end of the give-away, on October 22, I will then randomly draw winners from the shares and get their great prices (my guess: maybe an iPad?) to them. So, with any luck you might find some of these goodies in your mailbox.”
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Want to check your Sales Rank?
http://www.salesrankexpress.com/


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