Teen Writer Beware: How to Spot a Scam

by Gina Catanzarite

Thanks to the Internet, young writers have more access than ever before to find exciting writing competitions and scholarship opportunities. Now that school is back in sessions, you can be sure that many of them will be heavily promoted to teens seeking scholarships, prizes, and chances to be published.

Unfortunately, many disreputable organizations prey on eager teen writers-- promoting sham competitions with high entry fees and meaningless "publishing credits" as prizes.

Before entering any teen writing competition, follow these words of advice.  And, see our list below with links to competitions run by reputable organizations.  

Sources for Reputable Teen Writing Competitions

• ALWAYS review contest guidelines and promised prizes very carefully. Have a parent, guardian, or school guidance counselor review the competition rules with you if you are unsure if the contest is reputable.
• Reputable writing competitions rarely charge large entry fees.
  NEVER enter competitions that charge substantial fees.
• Beware of “anthology schemes.”
  In short, these schemes ask you to submit your work for a “competition” and “winners” will be “published” in an anthology. Sometimes they charge entry fees for each piece of writing you submit. If your work is “chosen” as a "winner," it will be “published” -- and then, of course, you can buy a copy of the anthology. This is a money-making scheme! Everyone who submits writing gets “chosen” to be in the anthology. The organizations that run these schemes make their money from submission fees and sale of the "winners" anthology.  These schemes are very common, and no industry professional sees them as credible samples of “published” work. Do not waste your money or your time on these anthology schemes.

Here is a partial list of reputable organizations:

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS

http://www.principals.org/Content/158/2010_Natl_Ad_List_101210.pdf

Continually updated list of approved contests and scholarship opportunities for young people. Almost all require an essay of some kind.

SCHOLASTIC, INC. ALLIANCE FOR YOUNG ARTISTS AND WRITERS AWARD

http://www.scholastic.com/artandwritingawards/enter.htm

This is the SuperBowl of student writing competitions – and you can choose your preferred format, from poetry to fiction to short story. It also has categories for visual arts awards. This is an excellent and respected competition to enter.

SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS HIGH SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST    http://www.spj.org/a-hs.asp

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF PRESS WOMEN

http://www.nfpw.org/competitions.htm#highschoolcommunicationscompetition

NATIONAL SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION

http://www.studentpress.org/nspa/contests.html

National Pacemaker Awards are awards for excellence in American student journalism, given annually since 1927. The awards are generally considered to be the highest national honors in their field, and are unofficially known as the “Pulitzer Prizes” of student journalism.

Poetry Out Loud competition – National student recitation competition

http://www.poetryoutloud.org/

RTNDF -- High School Broadcast Journalism Project

http://www.hsbj.org/Announcements/5freedoms/

Journalism Education Association -- Aspiring Young Journalist Award

http://www.jea.org/awards/aspiring.html

Voice of Democracy essay contest

http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=cmty.leveld&did=150