CONTEST OR NOT TO CONTEST? PART ONE

If you read my last column, you’ll know we determined that most fictional stories contain some element of romance. That is very fundamental as I talk to you about contests. There is quite a bit of debate in the writing world as to whether entering a contest is worth the money, time, and possible rejection of your work. I will state right up front that I believe they are worth your time and effort, published or non-published.

NOTE: Coming from a purely romantic and fictional world, I can only speak on fictional contests. I don’t write non-fiction nor do I have a blog, both of which I believe do have contests available. I cannot help you with the logistics of them, though I hope the end results are the same.

This month I would like to share personal and positive experiences I myself have had with contests, solely to show you why I believe in them.

In 1995, I wrote my first book, a Regency, and though it was perfectly acceptable to me as I was writing it for my own entertainment, family and friends urged me to seek out publishing. (That is when you really seek out people who will read your work and tell you the absolute truth about it!) Quite by accident I discovered a very small writing contest by a very small group of writers in my genre. The only reason I entered was that the winning entry would be given the opportunity to send the full manuscript to a very iconic editor of a very large publishing company.

Do you think I am going to say I won it? I did not. But at that time in my “career” I got what I needed most – feedback. Each judge had used the same standards for every entry they received. I got their copies of the scoring sheets, with comments, encouragement, suggestions, and problems – galore! Oh, there were many more problems than encouragement but the suggestions made me look at the story a whole new way. And the negative comments made me look even harder.

(This lovely little contest is also where I got the best advice I have ever received in critique; shall I tell you? READ WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN OUT LOUD TO YOURSELF BEFORE YOU EVER SEND IT ANYWHERE! My dear friends, if you don’t do this, start. I’m talking cover to cover if it is ten pages or 300. You will “hear” when words sound out of order, when there is not enough or too much emotion, when the same word is used twice in the same sentence; I could go on and on, and this is really more for next week’s article. I just had to share to show you one of the advantages of contests!)

We left off with my poor little manuscript and me deciding whether to put it out of its misery or keep it. I kept it. Flash forward to 2004. My husband found my box of manuscripts (from 20 years ago) and I rewrote that sad little story using twenty years of life experience I did not have the first time and using several of the comments from that little contest. Then I went out into the publishing world to see if I fit.

That book, my debut, was not only published, but won the 2011 Romantic Times Reader’s Choice award and the Holt Medallion award for Best Book by a Virginia Author!

Was it all because of the contest so long ago? Of course, not. It was an answer to my prayer, wondering what in the world I was doing. It was being led by God to a wonderful, supportive agent (who BTW also sent it out to five random readers as a beta group who sent me an additional 5 sets of critiques!) And ultimately, it was God’s perfect timing with an editor who wanted the story.

Please, please do not think I am bragging. You have no idea how many “thanks, but no thanks” we heard or “can the author say it in 70,000 words as opposed to the 100,000 words submitted?” Or a million other walls we hit first. My point is that if I hadn’t submitted that original unpublished manuscript to that little contest, I would never have received all of the feedback, which I still use today. And if I hadn’t entered the published book into the ten or so contests I had learned about, I would have lost out on the opportunity to put “Award Winning Author” after my name – forever! (Can anyone say PERK?)

But you know what I also received, almost equally as valuable? The scoring sheets on the eight contests I didn’t win. And do you know what I’ve done with those? I used them in writing my second and third books, and, hopefully, in books to come.

I’d love to hear about your contest experience! Let me know below and we can talk about them. Be sure to tune in next month when I will go over the logistics, and costs, as well as where you can find contests that might be just the one for you.