Maximizing Your Efforts
By Jacqueline Floyd
The RWR is filled with pages of possible contests to enter. There are probably twice as many these days as there were when I started entering them. You click on the link, you check out the judges, you send in your entry.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But there’s no guarantee that we’ll make the final round, is there? No, there isn’t. Entering is easy; winning is hard. But there are ways to maximize the probability. What are they?
- Submit your best and most marketable work. This should be a no-brainer.
- Proof read until your eyes hurt. The fewer typos, misspellings, and punctuation errors you have, the more professional your work will appear.
- Follow the entry rules exactly, even if you don’t believe an editor will care how wide your margins are or what font you use. Entry rules vary from one contest to another. Be sure to read them and adjust your manuscript accordingly. A persnickety judge is very likely to mark you down if you don’t meet all of the criteria.
- If possible, get a copy of the contest score sheet before you enter. Some contests have a copy of the score sheet on the chapter website, others will supply them upon request. If they won’t, ask around. Someone you know might have entered the contest previously and will let you take a peek at their score sheet. How will this help? Mostly, you will know if you’ve covered all the areas that will be scored. If the meeting between hero and heroine is a scoring section that offers a lot of points, and your hero and heroine don’t meet in the material you’re entering, you can see how that will hurt your chances of finaling. If you haven’t introduced a conflict, that will be a problem. If there’s a scoring section about the opening hook, and your opening hook is a little flat, that’s an area you can address before you send your entry in.
Tip: I’ve been known to keep a copy of good score sheet handy and use it to critique my own work before I submit to an agent or editor.
- Utilize the contest feedback you receive wisely. Be aware that sometimes judges are wrong. There, I’ve said it. But sometimes, they’re right, even if you don’t like what they have to say. My advice is to put the packet away for a few days, weeks, or months, then look at it again later with when you have a little better chance at objectivity. In my experience, judges’ comments are more often right than my ego would like to admit.
Contests aren’t for the thin-skinned. Don’t pay the contest entry fee if you won’t be able to accept constructive comments in the spirit in which they’re intended. You’ll hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you only want to hear the good, stick with the reviews your mother gives you for free.
As I’ve mentioned previously, in the upcoming months, I’ll address many of these individual issues at more length. If you have a particular topic or question you’d like to have answered, please email me. I’ll be happy to include the topic in a column or answer you personally with an email.
And always remember that contests are a means to an end. They are not the Holy Grail. Publication is the goal. Contests are only one of the ways to go about achieving the goal. Attending conferences to meet agents and editors is another. Submitting solicited or unsolicited material to agents and editors might net positive results. Whatever method you choose, I wish you good luck and good writing.
Jacqueline Floyd has been a member of RWA and OVRWA since 1995. She’s been a contest finalist in more than a long list of RWA chapter contests as well as a three time finalist in the Golden Heart contest. Her manuscript Babe in the Woods won in the Single Title category in 2001, and Cursed by Love won in Long Contemporary in 2004. Her short contemporary entry, Meet Your Mate, was also a finalist in 2001.
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Columns
It's Great to Be Golden Again
Make Your
Best Pitch
Painless Synopsis
Three by Five
Life-Saver
Critique
Groups 101
Self-Editing
What Is It You Really Want
Maximizing
Your Efforts
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