Young writers soon learn of the contest racket. First, we approach with hope and excitement, only to become annoyed by the onslaught of $15 submission “opportunities.” But we gratefully play the game to build up the shiny stuff for our query letter because, “I won this or that” looks better than saying, I don’t waste time on subjective contests. I’m too busy mastering my craft.
Besides, contests serve a true purpose in a writer’s career.
1) They test moxie and build skin. Less risky then sending unready work out to editors and agents, contests let writers practice submission and rejection without embarrassing themselves in front of industry folk.
2) They offer deadlines and practice with submission procedure. Writers benefit from a goal with some concrete motivation to meet a deadline. It seems every editor and agent has their own set of rules for submissions and so do contests. We young writers benefit from learning and practicing the not-so-pleasant requirements for submissions.
3) They offer feedback or other teaching opportunities. Take my latest contest submission for the Columbus Creative Cooperative. This contest starts out with a voting process (think cutest baby) and only the top 7 will be judged. While this seems mostly an effort to drive traffic to their site (clever them), it has value for us writers because it tests our marketing platforms.
While some might gripe that it’s a popularity contest and the quality work might not make it to the judging phase, it is an accurate reflection of the industry itself, where a new writer must make enough noise to be noticed before ever getting their work (good or bad) seen by those that have publishing power. Even in the world of self-publishing or blogs leading to book contracts, writers still need the kind of loyal following that can vote them the “cutest baby” and prove they have pull among readers.
So, while it’s popular for young writers to commiserate about all the entry fees wasted on contests, I think it’s best to consider them an investment and be grateful for the (no quotes this time) opportunities.
A positive spin on something that sounds a lot like auditioning is in the music world. For every 10 auditions you do, you can maybe hope for one gig. And so it goes.