Nancy J. Cohen
Writing Contests for Published Authors
Being a finalist in a writing contest can lift your mood, while not earning any kudos can depress you. So why enter them at all?
One reason to enter a contest for published authors is to expose new readers to your work. A judge might become a new fan. It’s another way to get your name out there. Plus, if you win, you’ll be able to call yourself an Award-Winning Author. That looks good on your book cover and in your professional biography. If you’re a finalist, you can get mileage out of that term as well. The ensuing publicity can broaden your readership.
On the other hand, low scores can totally strip you of confidence. In the mystery field, there aren’t a whole lot of contests to enter. If you write humorous cozies like I do, there’s no sense in entering the Edgars. You have to be nominated for most other awards like the Agatha, and that becomes a popularity contest as conference goers vote for the winners. There’s little judging with feedback or specific criteria like in the romance field.
Thus this past year I entered both my paranormal romance and my mystery into separate contests sponsored by RWA chapters. I did enter Shear Murder in the Florida Book Awards, even knowing a work of serious crime fiction would be more likely to win. My purpose was to gain the attention of whatever librarians might read my entry, although with the $50 entry fee, the cost of four print books (over $50), and the $15.41 postage, I might not bother again.
My romance didn’t garner a single nod in the myriad of contests I’d entered. I could understand this reaction because my mixed genre story might not appeal to the standard romance fan. My paranormal romance stories have a humorous touch and blend elements of science fiction and fantasy with mythology.
I’d had better hopes for my mystery, Shear Murder, but this title didn’t make the cut at the Daphne award sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death chapter. I’d entered it into the mainstream category because romantic suspense is more the cup of tea for this group. And then I got my scores back. Talk about demoralizing!
My heart sunk at the first score, 44 out of 88. Is my writing that bad? Does my series only appeal to a select group of fans? But as I read the comments, I realized that maybe this judge didn’t read a lot of cozies. Her final remark was, “A struggle to complete the reading.”
Oh, wait, there were two more scores. My spirits lifted. The next one was 72 and the last one was 87 out of 88! The last judge said, “This book is superb; masterfully written.”
So who am I to believe? Judge number one or Judge number three? Might I have finaled if not for that one judge who obviously didn’t get my work?
It doesn’t matter. The point here is that judging is subjective. One reader might love our book and another might say it should never have been published. I went for the goal and didn’t make it, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try again. I did, once in my lifetime, win the HOLT Medallion Award. If it happened once, it can happen again. You just have to grow a thick skin to keep trying and weigh the investment of time and money against the possible benefits.
Do you consider writing contests for published authors to be worthwhile?
Oy, Nancy, contests. I’m a recovering contest diva. When I was an aspiring author, I was a finalist or winner in 33 national contests. But I got seriously burned out and don’t enter them as a pubbed author. Before I sold, I had 7 full requests pending from contests. I can’t say contests helped me sell, but the judges feedback was worthwhile. One judge actually gave me tons of notes to improve my synopsis.
After I found out that with the Edgars, judges can get 200+ books and aren’t required to read all of them, that diminished the Edgars for me and cast doubts on how other contests are run. I also had author begging for my vote near conference time when I hadn’t read their book. And books that different or not fron big names don’t often get recognized at other contests. I thought it would be more effective if judges weren’t allowed to see the author name or book format–all they’d get are the words in digital–but that will never happen.
The RWA contests are run the best in my opinion. Judges are only given the number of books they can read and the author had the option of getting feedback by score or notes. The only reason I don’t enter an RWA contest for pubbed authors is that RWA has (too) strict criteria for what constitutes romance and individual judges enforce perceived “rules” too. The RWA writers loops are filled with debates each year around RITA contest time.
Jordan, I was an Edgar judge a few years ago for the Best Novel category. The total count delivered to my house was 492 novels, of which probably 45 arrived in the last three weeks of the year. Under that kind of burden, choices have to be made. I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about the specific strategy we used to select the nominees and winners, but I felt very comfortable that our judging team was very fair to all entrants. Just sayin’ . . .
Wow, 492 novels? Holy Eye Strain Batman!
I judged an ITW contest several years ago and felt overwhelmed with the twelve or thirteen novels I got.
Wow, John. That’s worse than what my judge friend told me. She was very overwhelmed. I’m sympathetic with anyone administering a contest. Thanks for your insight.
In RWA contests, they strong arm entrants into judging categories they are not entered into, by saying that if they have to make decisions on who won’t be allowed to participate, they would start by cutting all those who didn’t volunteer to judge. The max entries is 1000, I believe. So each judge gets 6-8 books with plenty of time to read each one. There are perceived flaws in every process, no matter which contest we’re talking about, but 492 books, John? Wow.
I believe the Edgars should ask for a lot more judges, as well as start a category for cozies. Who can possibly read even the first five pages of so many entries?
Exactly. If books aren’t being read in a tiered fashion with enough judges to define true winners, how can the results have real value?
Wow, 33 contests wins and finals! How impressive. Re the RWA contests, I only entered my mystery in the Daphne in the mainstream category. The opportunities for mystery contests that we can enter ourselves are limited. But here’s a short story contest you can enter via Sleuthfest: http://www.mwaflorida.org/sleuthfest2014shortstory.htm
I like the Daphne. I haven’t entered in ages, but I love that they really support authors who don’t have heavy romance elements in their work, by having a mainstream category. I think for aspiring authors, they have two final round judges, one who is an agent and another, an editor. Very cool.
Thanks for the link to the short story. I’ll check it out.
Nancy–I think I read that the sleuthfest short story contest is for aspiring authors. The story length was good for one I have, but this story is being published in a coffee table illustrated book that will be out shortly too.
Yes, I think you’re right. It is for unpubs and you also have to be registered for the conference.
I’ve entered four contests and was a finalist in two. I don’t quite know how to capitalize on this as I’m not exactly award winning. So for me, aside from some good feedback, winning contests hasn’t really done anything.
You could say “Finalist in the whatever contest”. The feedback is important, if it helps to improve your work.
I entered my unpublished novel in several RWA contests and some of the comments I got back were brutal. However, I paid attentions to the comments that reflected my thoughts back to me (I knew there some issues but I was too close to see them and I needed another set of eyes). I revised it and have re-submitted to another contest. The problem is that what I write doesn’t fall very neatly into the Regency Romance niche, so I’m going to market it as historical fiction with strong romantic elements. It was a learning experience for me.
That’s good, and it’s an important reason to enter unpublished contests. You may get helpful feedback and if you win, your manuscript gets read by editors and agents who are final judges.
I’ve never entered a contest. I write paranormal romance. Which would you recommend?
Are you a member of RWA? Nearly every chapter has a writing contest with paranormal category. Here’s one right now that you can enter: http://www.frwriters.org/contest/
For years, I competed in two different sports. It took me a good part of my life to realize that there would only be one winner, and the rest of us went home losers. So why did I and the rest of the losers keep doing it? Because in our culture, we divide everyone into winners and losers, and we all want to be winners.
Once I realized that I was putting control of my feelings in the hands of others, I stopped worrying about how I placed in competitive events and started measuring my skill and progress against my own past achievements. It sure made me a lot happier.
I do enter the Pacific Northwest Writers Assn. contest, and I’ve made the finals three times. I don’t enter to win or even to place. The judges provide excellent, professional critiques, and they’re always firm but kind. Since I don’t have a critique group or much in the way of beta readers, I value their feedback. I never, never let them make me feel like a loser.
Kathy
Kathy, that’s a great attitude especially if the critiques are valid.
Here’s a list of writers contests: http://www.stephiesmith.com/contests.html
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Thanks for that great list of writers’ contests, Nancy! At first I thought the URL didn’t work, but it must have been something I did, as it works fine!
For a published author, a writing contest might be fruitful if the writer is venturing into a new genre. Since, in a way, she would be a novice in this field, she might well receive some valuable–and perhaps unexpected–feedback. For the minimal cost of most contests, the experience would be worth the price.
Very true, that’s one reason why I entered my paranormal romance in so many contests. My main reason was to pick up new readers. None of these contests gave scores, though.
Thanks for this, Nancy. I’ve judged self-published novels for Writer’s Digest for the past three years. I’m only allowed to choose one out of 25 to go on to the next level, and we can request 15, 25, or more to review, as many as we feel we can handle, and we get about 4 months to complete it, so it’s pretty reasonable for judges. We have to give every author feedback, both strengths and weaknesses, at least 200 words.
I also entered this contest for the first time this year, so we’ll see how it goes. I think it cost $80 to $100 to enter.
The only other contest I’ve entered is the Florida Authors and Publishers Assoc. President’s Awards, and I won’t hear back from that until September. But they requested, for each category you submit your book in, four copies of each book submitted, plus their entry fee, so these contests aren’t cheap. And I don’t know any that accept digital copies – does anyone else?
Does anyone have a list of free book contests? Thanks again!
Jodie Renner
http://www.JodieRenner.com
None of these contests are free to my knowledge. These are money makers for the sponsoring chapters. The WD one is expensive as are the FL Book Awards. It gets too costly between the entry fees, cost of books, and postage.
Here is a contest link you might want to know about, Nancy. The National Readers Choice Awards is for pubbed authors as judged by actual readers across all 50 states. Talk about getting exposure to readers. Plus the NYC publishers have really placed importance in this contest and recognize it’s value, since it is voted on by readers. My old RWA org – the Oklahoma RWA Chapter, sponsors it and runs an excellent contest. Winners are announced at the RWA annual conference at a special evening function where agents and editors are invited. A nominal entry free of $30. Check deets here at this link:
http://okrwa.com/contests/nrca/
Thanks, I’d entered the Readers Choice with my paranormal romance. It’s on my own list of published author contests. I didn’t final. It is a good one for pubbed authors to enter, and so is Booksellers Best:http://www.gdrwa.org/contests.html Judges are booksellers and librarians.
Yes, Booksellers is another good one.
Wow! If you include Stephie’s list and the above two, there are a lot of contests for romance writers! Lucky aspiring and published romance writers! Makes sense though – romance novels are hugely popular.
RWA is a great organization, especially for aspiring authors. The annual conference is mind blowing with all the workshops and networking.
Yes, I’ve heard their annual conference is excellent, Jordan. Even though I don’t write, read or edit straight romance (just romantic suspense, etc.), I may just go to their next conference.
Yes, you should go, no matter what you write. The resources are invaluable and the networking critically important. Workshops include topics on self-pubbing, marketing, etc. and don’t only focus on romance.
I have to agree with Nancy that the #1 reason for entering these contests is to get your books into the hands of new readers. I, too, entered the Daphne with 2 books in 2 categories, and my scores were as divergent as Nancy’s — with comments saying “Pacing is too slow” and “Pacing is perfect.” When I saw my lowest score for my romantic suspense entry, I had to remind myself that this same book got a starred review from PW, and finaled in the Colorado Romance Writers contest, so it’s definitely a matter of which buttons a book pushes for the individual judges. I did final in the Daphne a few years back. As a judge of that contest this year, I will say the scoring system was difficult to deal with, and there’s a lot of subjectivity. For example, if the question says, “Is the POV clear” and the judge says “yes,” why don’t they all give a perfect score for that?
On the other hand, I really dislike the popularity contest system. I would get emails from people saying, “vote for my book.” I was sorely tempted to say, “send me a copy, and I’ll decide if it’s worth a vote.”
At least my publisher gave me the copies to send to the contests, so that was one less expense.
Some contests drop the lowest score. It makes me feel better to see that you got the same wide range with the Daphne.
I think I got scores ranging from the 50’s through the 80’s. Most published contests don’t give you scores back. Frankly, if the Daphne doesn’t update its score sheet, I doubt I’ll judge again. The categories we had to score, and the quality of the book often didn’t match.
Nancy–
Badges, contests, bogus “bestseller” designations, liking, etc., are all symptoms of the push to make social media matter more in book marketing than it should. What is solemnly intoned by all experts in online book marketing–“First, you must write a great book”–was never true, and is even less true now. The techno-wizard of self-promotion does not need to be an especially solid writer, just good at gaming the system. And, yes, as you might expect, I’m no good at it. Do I wish I were good at it? Absolutely.
I believe there’s nothing more important than a good book, because word of mouth may help it go viral. That said, discoverability is a huge issue today. Anything that helps in that regard, including the publicity with a contest win, gets your name in front of readers.
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I guess contests are like any other writing endeavor, and are subjective, as you say. I entered a Highlights contest, and while I didn’t win, the personal note from one of the judges asking to see more of my stories was encouraging.