Book Contest Workshop with William

This meeting is for writers who want to submit to our Annual Book Contest. It offers a space for fellow writers to get together to discuss challenges, flesh out ideas, and share work with peers. It is not a class, but a free meeting, held at 9:00 am Pacific on a Saturday once a month from April until August. You're welcome to come to one, a few, or all of the sessions. We hope to see you there and read your work!

If you would like to know more about the Stone Soup Annual Book Contest, go to our Book Contest page. The details can be found below, too.

Contest Details

This year we plan to accept two books for publication: one novel or short story collection and one book of poems. However, we do consider all submissions for potential publication.

Genre: Fiction (novel, novella, short story collection) or Poetry

Length: For fiction submissions, the minimum length is 20,000 words. For poetry submissions, the minimum length is 40 pages, with no more than one poem per page. There is no maximum word or page limit.

Age Limit: For this contest, we will accept manuscripts written by those age 14 or under.

Deadline: Sunday, August 21, 2022 11:59 pm (Pacific Time)

Entry fee: $15.00

Submissions of multiple manuscripts by the same author are accepted, but you must submit each as an individual entry and pay the fee each time.

Results and Prizes: We will select two winning manuscripts—one in fiction and one in poetry—to be published and distributed by Stone Soup in both print and ebook forms, available for sale on Amazon, in the Stone Soup store, via our distributors, and advertised along with the rest of our books to libraries and other vendors.

We will also name a handful of finalists.

Publication: We will consider all work submitted as part of the contest for potential publication in the magazine or as standalone volumes.

Previous Submissions: If you submitted to last year’s contest and have substantially revised your manuscript in the meantime, you are welcome to resubmit it this year.

Submission Fee: The submission fee is important to us; it helps us defray the costs of the contest and of producing and publishing the two winning books. However, if the submission fee represents a financial hardship to your family, please write to editor@stonesoup.com.

If you have questions, please review our FAQ page. If you can’t find the answer to your question there, please write to stonesoup@stonesoup.com.

We reserve the right to select no winners in a given year.

Dates:

Saturday, April 30th at 9:00 am Pacific time

Saturday, May 28th at 9:00 am Pacific time

RESCHEDULED, now Saturday, July 2nd at 9:00 am Pacific time

RESCHEDULED, now Saturday, August 6th at 9:00 am Pacific time

Teaching Staff

William Rubel founded Stone Soup in 1973. In addition to his 49 years working with young writers, William is an author in his own right. He has published two books, The Magic of Fire and Bread, a global history, as well as many articles for Grit and Mother Earth News magazines. He is now working on another book on the history of bread.