I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it, networking is important! I know you hate it. It’s tedious, frustrating, and it takes practice if you want to get good at it. One of the most important things for struggling networkers is to educate themselves on the different mediums out there.

When someone says network, most people think of the obvious opportunities to gain an audience (blogging, facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc.), and not of the rare, unique opportunities like writers competitions. Today’s find is a monthly genre contest called Show Off Your Best at the Sandbox. It’s a short story contest that probably won’t gain you international recognition, but you will make connections. Even if you only come away from it with one reader, that is one reader that will buy and advertise your product.