Wisdom from a Contest Guru (not me)

I just finished contest submissions for the Daphne du Maurier Award sponsored by Kiss of Death (the RWA Romantic Suspense Online Group) and the Touch of Magic Contest, sponsored by CFRWA.

Talk about intense. Having moved recently, I didn’t get to work ahead of time on the submission. Well, I guess I could have, but my story has been undergoing an overhaul and I just got around to the contest stuff late.

However, the pressure to get it done really had me flying along with ideas and words and rewrites. I have always worked better under tight pressure and deadlines. I hate that, but the ideas really flow when the clock is ticking down to a deadline.

I think contests are important for a lot of reasons. Local CFRWA author and contest guru, Catherine Kean, talked to me about contests at our last CFRWA meeting. She believes that contests, more than anything, got her published. She said that having a list of wins and finals to include in her queries finally made editors sit up and take notice.

I happened to come by a copy of the handout she shared in a presentation last year. In it she listed several reasons to enter contests:
Learn the writing craft.
Learn correct manuscript formatting.
“Test” your manuscript before sending it to an editor or agent.
Get fresh opinions from writers that have never before read your work.
Learn to handle rejection.
If you final, you may be read by an agent or editor.
ü Build your writing resume.

I happen to agree with most of those. I hope I’ve learned a lot about the writing craft from my crit group and writing classes prior to entering. However, most of those other skills are best learned via the process of submitting work for review. I think contests are a nice warm up to the real process of subbing a manuscript for consideration.

Catherine told me that her publisher didn’t really deal with medievals, but that she’d won and finaled in enough contests (30) that they gave her a read anyway. The offered her a multi-book contract and she was the first book in a new line they started. Wow.

Not that I want to be a contest junkie, but it’s a place to start. Most contests want your first 15 to 25 pages. I’m looking for contests now that want other things – a love scene, a 750 word meeting, etc. I want some little snippets to put on my query letters. I want to bypass the slush pile. I want to get first choice for pitches at conferences. Most published writers say this is the way to start.

Wish me luck.

Macy