Cornerstones competition

[mamaslatts]

Not sure if this is worth entering or not. The fee is £10 and you can win a brainstorming session with a literary agent so no guarantee of publication/representation. Agents are sitting on the panel and if one picks you up, Cornerstones also take the usual 10% of any advance in royalty. It seems heavily stacked against the author although you could at least improve your manuscript and maybe get representation. Any thoughts?

[LadyMaryQuiteContrary]

10% and a £10 fee? Shocking! The agent will take around 15% of the advance as well, so would leave the writer with very little. There are loads of other opportunities, you can submit to any agent without them and keep the £10 and the 10%.

[mamaslatts]

I did think for the prize they were offering, it seemed a bit much. They are only offering to look at your manuscript and suggest revisions if you win. They are a respected literary agency though so I wondered if I was being a bit unrealistic. I've never seen a fee of £10 for a competition tho, seems steep for admin costs. They are offering 2 prizes (adult and children's authors) which they say are worth £400 each. I'm sure quite a few people will still enter meaning they will make a profit.

[LadyMaryQuiteContrary]

There's a lot of people who would love to see their work published out there. I wouldn't enter this, any good agent would help as part of their fee if they thought your ms was a good one.

[TunipTheVegedude]

I agree with LadyMary. I've seen similar entry fees for poetry and short story competitions run by small presses or literary magazines - ok, fair enough, they're never going to make any money otherwise - but I don't really see where the benefit is in entering this rather than just submitting in the normal way.

Though I did take it to mean just that if they take you on you will pay them the usual 10%, not that you will pay 10% plus another 15%.

[mamaslatts]

Tunip they take 10% of any advance from publishers/agents and then agents will also take their cut. Apparently, this is standard practice for this literary agent if they manage to get a ms a publisher. They offer a consultancy service so pre agent if that makes sense?

[TunipTheVegedude]

Oh right! That's pretty awful!

[Punkatheart]

Poor.

Avoid.

[abster76]

I've seen this comp advertised too, and though the £10 is steep, it depends if you want the prize, which is a free critique of your work. If you are thinking of paying for a critique anyway, then it's worth having a go to see if you can win it - £10 for a prize worth £400+ isn't bad if you compare to comps for short stories which are £4 or £5 for a £150 prize. :)