Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott
An American writer

Friday, October 14, 2011

Contests--what's in them for you?

I used to be a contest junkie, but haven't entered any writing contest in years.  Now I'm considering the Golden Heart because, well, because I have a completed manuscript that I'm working on.  I think it would give me another reason to keep forging ahead with these edits.  But I'm wondering if it's worth the effort and cost.  It's a non-traditional book, and I'm not sure how much contests have changed over the past several years.  It used to be that non-traditional books not entered in the Fantasy category rarely did well.  However, the rise of e-publishing and a wider variety of stories could bode well--or not. 

Should I throw my $50 into the fray? What do you look to get out of a contest entry?  Fame?  Glory?  An editor's eye?

1 comment:

Meg said...

If you can afford $50 for just a number score, if you're confident your mss is polished to the max and able to gain a finalist berth, then yes. But so many RWA chapter contests give fabulous feedback - for a cheaper price. If your book is "between the cracks" of RWA's 'guidelines' for a specific genre, IMO you may want to test those waters first.