Writing Contests Scraper — Prizes, Entry Fees & Deadlines

Scrapes the largest public writing-contest directory on the web (Reedsy's, ~480 contests) into one clean dataset: top prize parsed to USD (currency-aware), entry fee, free-entry flag, prize-to-fee ratio, deadline + days left and a 0-100 value score for every contest. HTTP-only — no login, no browser, no proxies.

Who this is for

• Writers chasing prize money — the directory carries dozens of contests that pay cash with a $0 entry fee (5 open at the time of writing, more cycling in weekly). The isFreeEntry flag plus valueScore sort puts them at the top of every run.
• Newsletter and community operators (writing groups, MFA programs, Discord servers) who republish curated "contests closing this month" lists — daysLeft and urgency are your editorial calendar.
• Author-services and writing-tool builders who want a contests feed inside their product without maintaining a parser.
• AI agents / MCP pipelines — typed output schema, stable field names, one run returns the whole board.

Why the derived fields matter

The directory publishes prizes in whatever currency the organizer uses ($, £, €, AU$…) and mixes cash prizes with trophies and publication offers. This actor:

• parses cash prizes to topPrizeUsd with documented static FX rates (USD/GBP/EUR/CAD/AUD/NZD) — non-cash prizes are null, never a fake 0;
• computes prizeToFeeRatio — a $5,000 prize behind a $40 fee is a different bet than $1,000 behind $0;
• flags isFreeEntry (cash without paying to play) and urgency (ending-now < 7 days);
• scores every contest 0-100 (valueScore: prize 45, log-scaled + fee 25, free entry max + time window 20 + prize depth 10). Unknown values score neutral, never bonus. Expired = 0.

By default expired listings are dropped (the source keeps an archive; ~57 contests are open at any time). Set includeExpired: true to track annual contests that reopen.

Output fields

Field	Description
name, url, organizer	Contest, direct link to the organizer's entry page, who runs it
genres	Parsed list (Fiction, Poetry, Essay, …)
topPrizeRaw / topPrizeUsd / prizeCurrency / prizeKind	Prize as published + parsed USD (null for non-cash)
additionalPrizes	What 2nd place and shortlists get
entryFeeRaw / entryFeeUsd / isFreeEntry	Fee as published, parsed, and the $0 flag
prizeToFeeRatio	topPrizeUsd ÷ entryFeeUsd (fee > 0 only)
deadlineRaw / deadlineDate / daysLeft / isExpired / urgency	Deadline in both forms + countdown
valueScore	0-100 money-per-effort score (formula above)

Input

All optional: genre (e.g. poetry, short-story — 25 collections), freeEntryOnly, cashPrizeOnly, minTopPrizeUsd, maxEntryFeeUsd, includeExpired, sortBy (valueScore | topPrize | deadline | lowestFee), maxItems.

How to schedule this actor (recommended)

Contests open and close weekly — the value is in seeing new free-entry contests before everyone else. In Apify Console:

1. Open Schedules → Create new → cron 0 7 * * 1 (every Monday morning).
2. Add this actor with e.g. { "freeEntryOnly": true, "sortBy": "deadline" }.
3. Add an integration (email, Slack, Google Sheets) on the schedule to deliver new rows.

A weekly run of the whole board costs about $0.04 at this actor's pricing — less than a coffee per year for never missing a free $1,000 contest.

Fair use & data source

Public directory pages, fetched politely (throttled, ~14 requests/run, no login-walled content). Prize/fee/deadline facts are not copyrightable; descriptions are short excerpts linked back to source. If you operate the directory and have concerns, open an issue.

Was this Actor useful?

If it saved you time, please leave a review — it genuinely helps other writers find it. Found a bug or a mis-parsed contest? Open an Issue and I'll fix it fast (this actor is actively maintained).

More money-board actors by the same developer

• Class Action Settlements Scraper — no-proof cash claims with deadlines
• Whop Content Rewards Scraper — clipping campaigns that actually pay
• Superteam Earn Scraper — crypto bounties with EV per entry