Last year, I made more money from my writing than I ever had before, and it came from one change: submitting to writing contests.

I don’t pretend contest winnings can replace a full-time income, and they haven’t for me. But contest money has helped in concrete ways, and it gave me a takeaway even more useful than a check: momentum.

I won $1,000 from The Saturday Evening Post’s Great American Fiction Contest. I also won $500 from Blue Earth Review’s Flash Fiction Contest over the summer. Those two wins did not solve everything, but they paid bills, funded entry fees, and proved to me that my work could earn.

If contests have always felt like a long shot, here’s what worked for me once I started treating them less like a lottery and more like a targeted submission strategy.

Step 1: Put finding contest leads on autopilot

I stopped relying on random scrolling and started subscribing to newsletters and databases that routinely post contest calls.

I use these often:
•    Chill Subs: https://www.chillsubs.com/
•    Authors Publish: https://authorspublish.com/
•    FundsforWriters: https://fundsforwriters.com/

The goal is simple: I want a steady flow of contest opportunities coming to me, so I’m not reinventing the wheel by searching from scratch every time I’m ready to submit something I deem worthy.

Step 2: Vet contests by size, visibility, and payout

When I see a contest opportunity, I do a quick reality check before I spend time, money, or emotional energy.

I look at:
•    Prize amount and how many prizes. One big prize can be great, but a contest with multiple awards, runner-up payouts, or publication can improve the odds of earning something.
•    Who’s running it. Is it tied to a journal, press, or organization people recognize? Does it list past winners? Does it look legitimate?
•    Entry fee versus upside. If the fee is $20 and the prize is $200, that’s different math than a $25 fee for a $2,000 prize and publication.

For broader research, the Poets & Writers Grants & Awards database is useful because it’s curated and searchable: https://www.pw.org/grants

Step 3: Theme matching is the advantage most writers ignore

Here’s the biggest reason contests started paying off for me: I stopped sending my “best story” everywhere and started sending the right story to the right theme.

Themed contests narrow the field. When the theme is specific, a lot of writers submit work that only sort of fits. If your piece truly matches, you stand out fast. Theme alignment does not guarantee a win, but it can move you ahead of a large chunk of the pile.

My approach:
•    I keep a small inventory of finished work and near-finished work in different moods, subjects, and settings.
•    When a themed contest appears, I ask, “Do I already have something that hits this cleanly?”
•    If I’m close, I revise toward the theme without forcing it.

This is where the money has been for me. Not because I write “for contests,” but because I aim finished work at opportunities where it belongs.

Step 4: Track your results so you can repeat what pays

Once I started winning and placing, I realized something: contest earnings reward consistency.

I track:
•    contest name
•    theme
•    fee
•    prize
•    deadline
•    what I submitted
•    outcome

That data teaches you what kinds of contests you place in, what themes your work excels at, and where your time pays you back.

If contests intimidate you, I get it. I waited too long because I assumed I didn’t belong in that arena. But submitting became a skill over time. I learned how to find contests, vet them, match themes, and send work out without turning every entry into a referendum on my talent.Even if contests can’t become your whole income, they can become a real piece of it. Plus, the courage you build from hitting submit is its own kind of payment.

Author Bio: Bethany Bruno is a Floridian author. She holds a BA in English from Flagler College and an MA from the University of North Florida. Her work has appeared in more than a hundred literary journals and magazines, including The Threepenny Review, The Sun, McSweeney’s, River Teeth’s Beautiful Things, and The Huffington Post. A Best of the Net nominee, she has won multiple writing contests, including the 2026 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest. Learn more at www.bethanybrunowriter.com.