Minotaur and the Maze

It has been mentioned before that not all literary contests are legit. However , I got notification of the Minotaur First Crime Novel Unpublished Book Contest:

https://us.macmillan.com/minotaurbooks/writing-competitions

through a free contest listing website which I have found to be reputable; it is mentioned in a previous post. What I like about it , the e-mail coming in November/December , is that an extension date had been mentioned. The submission date was originally Jan.11, 2019 and the extension was to Jan. 19th.

This was useful information as I was able to time manage the edit of a manuscript (see previous post, Editing M.O.) I did the edit , and then spent 3 days cleaning up the set up, finding any other minor grammar or layout mistakes and including a glossary, which page references had all changed due to me adding a Prologue.

In any event, I could not find the reference to the extension date anywhere, so in the end I e-'d to the ' help' contact on the submissions web screen. They answered promptly and advised me to send/reply directly to that e-mail. After Pdf'ing and taking a deep breath, I did. Sending it to the e-mail also allowed me to very briefly describe , in 2 sentences, the content but also to specify a reading section (which you were allowed to do) but which I don't think actually WAS possible through the website submission link.

So; this particular contest , which I'm sure will have heavy competition so not expecting much,

did at least force me to complete a manuscript which had been hanging about for a while. Whatever happens, it is in floggable state so can be sent off elsewhere if necessary or end up on this website as a pay for view. (There are many ways to skin a cat :) ) The point is , if I hadn't subscribed to the free literary website , I wouldn't have had any idea or notification this contest was taking place. If you're a wanne be writer , take advantage of similar services.