LOS ANGELES, April 17 /PRNewswire/ — A former winner of the annual L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest for beginning writers worldwide has earned a spot on the New York Times’ Extended List of paperback mass-market fiction sellers for his first novel, “The Name of the Wind.”
Patrick Rothfuss of Central Wisconsin is currently listed as number 24 on the overall New York Times list — the sixth time a winner of the contest has achieved such recognition, according to Writers of the Future Contest officials.
“When an excerpt from one of my novels won the contest back in 2000, it gave me hope that some day the entire story might be published,” Rothfuss said. “But I never dreamed of success on this scale.”
In addition to Rothfuss, other Contest winners who have had New York Times bestsellers include Jo Beverley, an early “published finalist” (Volume IV), Sean Williams (Volume IX), Nancy Farmer (Volume IV), Dave Wolverton (Volume III), and Karen Joy Fowler (Volume I). Other past winners of the contest have gone on to publish over 630 novels and have published over 1,182 short stories.
The Writers of the Future contest has become the top merit-based competition of its kind for new or little-published writers worldwide. Entries are received throughout the year and are judged by leading literary professionals. The L. Ron Hubbard Presents Illustrators of the Future, begun in 1988, similarly honors artists who illustrate the winning short stories. Since inception, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contests have produced 23 anthology volumes and awarded a cumulative $500,000+ in cash prizes.
“L. Ron Hubbard started the contest in the early 80s to help new writers because he knew what it takes to enter the field and succeed. It takes not only talent, but mentors, encouragement and a lot of people noticing. The contest accepts all entrants as long as the author has not published a book by a major publishing label or have more than 5,000 copies of a previous work printed,” said the contest administrator.
For more information regarding the contests visit http://www.writersofthefuture.com/.
