Writer's Corner

And the Winner Is
By Catherine Mulvany

Bring up contests and the cynics come crawling out of the woodwork:

“The chapters don’t care about the writers. They’re only out to make money.”

“The Golden Heart is a rip-off. You don’t even get critiques anymore.”

“Everyone knows most judges are spiteful, illiterate morons who wouldn’t recognize a great romance if Don Juan himself read it to them on bended knee.”

And I know sour grapes when I hear them. Yes, chapters do sponsor contests to raise money, but they offer everything from in-depth feedback to cash to editorial contact in return. The Golden Heart is a competition designed to honor the best unpublished manuscripts of the year. It is not a critique service. And yes, there are a few lousy judges out there in contest land, but there are also a few—dare I say it?—lousy entries. I should know. I’ve written a couple myself.

Though it’s been almost fifteen years since I entered my first RWA contest, I remember the experience well. I chose this particular contest from the glossy pages of Romance Writer’s Report based on a single criterion: the paltry amount of the entry fee. Of course, I fully expected to win.     

News flash. I didn’t. The judges searched in vain for a hook, (It was an opening hook contest, after all.) but all they found were three pages of clever backstory, incorrectly formatted. So was it a waste of money? Not from my perspective. I learned enough from the judges’ feedback to earn two perfect scores on the same manuscript later that year in the Golden Heart. In fact, I learned more entering contests—nine of them altogether before finally selling—than in years of reading “how-to” books and taking writing classes.

I think the plethora of contests is one of the greatest opportunities RWA offers its unpublished members. But mine is just one opinion. I asked members of two RWA chapters, Coeur du Bois and Kiss of Death, to share their thoughts on the subject, both pro and con.

Historical writer Patricia Frances Rowell loves contests. “In fact,” she says, “I sold my first book as a result of finaling in the Suzannah.” According to Patti, contest feedback can be valuable. It can also be subjective or “just dead wrong.” The bright side to this is that it helps to prepare a writer for dealing with agents and editors. (And, I might add, critics.)

Unpublished-but-on-the-brink writer Lina Gardiner (She’s had six manuscripts requested by various publishers.) has entered many contests and for the most part finds the comments very helpful. But she has observed that her non-category entries don’t do as well with judges as her category manuscripts. She believes this is because her judges had a category mind-set.

Carolyn Williamson, author of the non-fiction book, There IS Life After Lettuce, enters four contests a year, among them the Golden Heart because so many of the finalists go on to sell. For her other choices, she picks contests where the “editor or agent judge is one I want to see my work.” She strongly recommends mentioning contest wins in query letters.

If you’ve ever gone through the normal submission process of the average unpublished writer, you know you can wait months for an answer to a query, then if you’re lucky enough to have a partial requested, you’ll wait more months—even years—to hear the editor’s verdict.

Many publishers don’t accept multiple submissions. But while your manuscript is gathering dust in slush-pile limbo, you can ethically enter a contest judged by an editor from a rival house, thus circumventing this “rule.”

J L Wilson only enters contests where she can get feedback, which means she bypasses the Golden Heart. Her reasoning? Her first GH entry earned scores that ranged from 5 to 9. That told her nothing. At least nothing useful. So she sticks with contests that offer feedback. Unlike some of the other writers who responded to my e-mail query, she doesn’t think being a contest winner will get a writer any closer to publication. She advises her fellow writers, especially those who have been writing for a while, to spend their time working on query letters and proposals instead of polishing contest entries.

Denise Hale suggests e-mailing the contest coordinator of your targeted contest to find out how detailed the results will be. If you’re looking for a critique, find out if the judges are encouraged to write comments. “The more you know going into a contest,” Denise says, “the less disappointed you’ll be when the results arrive in the mail.”

Valerie Robertson entered several contests last year looking for critiques. She wanted to get input from people other than her critique partners and reports “interesting” results. Her favorite was the sci-fi manuscript that went to the Golden Rose, where all the judges advised her to get rid of excess backstory. She then revised and sent it to the On the Far Side contest, where all the judges said there wasn’t enough backstory. Can we say…ARGH?

Val has also noticed that unpubbed writers tend to score more harshly than pubbed writers. (This was an observation I heard often from those who responded to my query.) Unpublished judges, in Val’s experience, tend to focus more on mechanics, things like formatting, word choice, and sentence length while published judges comment more often on characterization, pacing, and story organization.

Does this mean only published writers should be allowed to judge contests? Of course not. Training and objectivity seem to be the keys to being a good—and helpful—judge. Unpublished writer Shawn Wilhelm, who says she’s experienced “inane suggestions” and “detrimental” feedback in contests, is taking action to alleviate the problem. Her local RWA chapter has put her in charge of creating a training guide for contest judges.

So what are the principle disadvantages to entering contests? A contest slut can waste a lot of money on entry fees. Unqualified judges can steer you wrong. And conflicting feedback can confuse or even immobilize a writer.

The advantages? Contests can provide critiques, validation, recognition, and contact with editors and agents.

So. Contests. Yea or nay?

I say, do what feels right for you.

Personally, I love contests, but I think it’s crucial that you not get so caught up in entering them that you miss the bigger picture—writing and selling the complete book.

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