Story Writing Competition Prize Money, Explained Plainly
Quick answer: Story writing competition prize money at Writory is a fixed $100 top prize, set before the round opens and published beside the $8 entry fee. International winners are paid in dollars by PayPal after results on 30 November 2026, winners' names appear on a dated page, and every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100.
Entry is $8 a story, the top prize is $100, and entries close on 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. Every entrant, placed or not, receives a certificate and a score out of 100 on 30 November 2026, and winners also take free entry to the next round.
How the prize is set
The top prize is $100, fixed before entries open and printed on the entry page next to the fee. It does not scale with the number of entrants, so there is no pool that shrinks in a quiet month and no headline figure that depends on a crowd turning up. What a writer reads when they pay $8 is what a winner receives. Winners also take free entry to the following round, which is the only route to free entry the contest offers.
Winners are the top of one blind-judged list, scored against the published rubric: Storytelling & Structure 25, Character & Emotional Impact 25, Language & Craft 20, Originality & Voice 20, Impact & Resonance 10. There is no separate prize track by genre, language or country. A 300-word piece in Portuguese and a 2,800-word piece in English compete for the same $100, each read in its own language and marked on the same five dimensions.
How and when the money is paid
International winners are paid in US dollars through PayPal, so a winner needs a PayPal account able to receive funds in their country. Payment follows the results, which are published on 30 November 2026 after entries close on 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. IST is Indian Standard Time, five and a half hours ahead of UTC, which puts that deadline in the early afternoon in New York and the early evening in London on the same day.
Writory has paid contest winners in India, the United States, Ireland, Kenya and Slovenia in earlier rounds, so the payment route is not new; the story contest uses the same one. Results and certificates go out on 30 November 2026, and the prize follows once the winner's PayPal details are confirmed. The story contest has not yet named a winner, and this page will not pretend otherwise. The first list appears on 30 November 2026.
Prize money and the fee, side by side
A $8 fee against a $100 prize is a ratio worth stating plainly. Most entrants will not win, in this contest or any other, so the fee has to buy something on its own. Here it buys a blind reading against the published rubric, a certificate carrying the writer's name and the contest month, and a score out of 100 broken into five marks. Two stories cost $14 and five cost $25, each judged and scored separately.
Taxes on prize money are the winner's affair. Writory pays the stated amount and does not withhold tax or prepare tax paperwork on a winner's behalf; what is owed, if anything, depends on the winner's country and circumstances. Writers keep all rights to their story whether it wins or not, so a prize is never payment for the work. It is a prize, and the story remains the writer's to publish or sell.
Reading a prize page before you enter
Any competition's prize money should be read next to four other facts: the fee, the judging method, whether results carry dates, and what non-winners receive. Writory's answers are $8, blind judging against a rubric published at /short-story-judging-criteria, results on a dated page every round, and a certificate with a score for everyone. A contest that publishes a large prize and none of those four is asking for trust it has not earned.
The first contest runs from 1 September to 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, with results and certificates on 30 November 2026. From December the contest is monthly: entries close on the 25th, results on the 30th, and the next round opens the moment they land. Each round carries its own $100 top prize, so a story that misses in one month can be revised against its scorecard and entered in the next, where it is read fresh and blind.
The published rubric, 100 points
- Storytelling & Structure (25 points): Does every scene cause the next, and does the ending pay off the opening?
- Character & Emotional Impact (25 points): Do we want something with your character, and does the story make us feel it?
- Language & Craft (20 points): Clean, deliberate prose: rhythm, precision, and nothing wasted.
- Originality & Voice (20 points): The angle only you could write, told in a voice that sounds like nobody else.
- Impact & Resonance (10 points): What the story leaves behind after the last line.
How it works
Submit an original story of 100 to 3,000 words by 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. Every story is judged blind against the rubric above, and results arrive on 30 November 2026: every entrant receives a certificate with their name and a score out of 100. Writers keep all rights. Monthly winners earn free entry to the next round. Enter at https://writoryofficial.com/submit-story.
Common questions
How much is the prize money?
The top prize is $100 for international winners, fixed before the round opens and shown on the entry page beside the $8 fee. It does not rise or fall with the number of entries. Winners also receive free entry to the next round and a certificate recording the placement.
How is the prize money paid to a winner outside India?
In US dollars through PayPal, after results on 30 November 2026. A winner needs a PayPal account that can receive funds in their country; once the details are confirmed the prize is sent. Writory has paid winners in the United States, Ireland, Kenya and Slovenia by this route in earlier rounds.
When does the winner get paid?
After results are published on 30 November 2026 and the winner has confirmed where the money should go. The winners' names appear on a dated results page on the same day the certificates go out, so the record of the win exists before the payment lands and remains checkable long after.
Do I pay tax on the prize?
That is the winner's affair. Writory pays the stated $100 and does not withhold tax or prepare tax paperwork for the winner. Whether any tax is owed depends on the winner's country and personal circumstances, and a winner unsure of their position should ask a local adviser.
Does a longer story have a better chance at the prize?
No. Every story from 100 to 3,000 words is scored on the same five dimensions, and length earns nothing by itself. Language & Craft penalises wasted words, so a padded 3,000-word story usually scores below a tight 1,200-word one. Winners are simply the top of the single blind-judged list.
Is the prize the same every round?
The prize is fixed and published before each round opens, and the figure shown on the entry page at /submit-story is the one that applies to that round. Check it there before you pay rather than relying on a third-party listing, which can go stale.
More story contest pages
About Writory
Writory (writoryofficial.com) is an international monthly poetry contest founded in 2025 by Shivay Mehra. Poets from 31 countries have entered, readers come from over 150 countries, and every submitted poem is judged and scored out of 100 across five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and impact and resonance. Every entrant receives a certificate; winners receive cash prizes and are published by name. Entries close on the 25th of each month and results are announced on the 30th. Writory is listed by Duotrope, Poetry Kit, Christopher Fielden's competition list and Creative Writing NZ, among other organisations. Past results are public at past winners and the leaderboard.