BookTrib is honored to partner with Reedsy to present this week’s Reedsy Prompts contest! For those who are not already familiar, Reedsy.com is a super-useful platform for authors to find professional editors, designers and marketers who can take their books to the next level. Reedsy also provides a wide variety of support right on its site, from writing tools to publishing courses and insightful articles that address the needs of writers at every stage.
Reedsy Prompts are a great way to get your creative juices flowing. And if you want a “right now” writing challenge, Reedsy publishes a new contest every week using a handful of prompts centered on a theme. Submissions must be between 1,000 and 3,000 words, and the winner gets $250. We partnered on a Reedsy Prompts contest last year, and the winning story was published on our site. It was truly gratifying to see the diverse range of stories our prompts inspired, as well as the many talented writers who participated. We couldn’t wait to have another go! So without further ado, here’s this year’s offering.
Indie-credible: Celebrating Indie Everything
At BookTrib, we love indie bookstores, indie presses, indie authors, indie readers. So what better way to celebrate Independence Day than with a story contest that’s all about the indie spirit? Where else in the world of books would you find such unfettered freedom of expression, do-it-yourself gumption and bootstrap success? So, we set about writing up some prompts that capture this spirit, while not being overly restrictive in terms of genre, setting and style.
Here’s a preview of our story prompts:
- Write about someone who makes a deal for viral fame — but their rising popularity comes with dangerous (or unexpected) side effects.
- An indie bookshop owner realizes that a customer has stolen a book connected to an unsolved local mystery. What happens next?
- Your protagonist joins a mysterious group of readers and/or writers, and nothing is what it seems.
- Write about someone who self-publishes a story that was never meant to be read.
- Center your story around a struggling author who discovers they can control reality through their writing — but there’s a catch.
Ready to join the fun? Learn how to enter here. But hurry, the contest ends on July 11, 2025!
