This week’s writing prompt (My contest experiences) is timely since I just submitted my current WIP to the Virginia Romance Writer's Fool For Love contest.
After I finished my first manuscript, I thought entering contests was a good way to get the attention of editors, publishers, and maybe an agent. I wasn’t really looking for feedback, although that’s what I got. Some of it was really good, some of it wasn’t so good, but all of it was invaluable. My manuscript was selected as the winner in a couple of the smaller RWA chapter contests, for which I’m immensely grateful and proud, but I’ve never finaled in any of the bigger ones.
I entered the 2017 RITAs. The difference between my score and the top quarter of the entries (the finalists) was 0.03. I’m not really upset about that given the talent of the competition. The winner of the category I entered was New York Times bestseller Elisabeth Naughton so…yeah…
The comments back from the judges made me realize something else — even among authors, there is going to be a wide variance of opinions. In case you didn’t know, the RITAs are scored like the Olympics – the high score and the low score are thrown out and the other three scores are averaged. One judge scored me really high, three were fairly high but probably more average and close to the same score, and the low score was abysmal! I don’t even remember the feedback I received from that judge, I just remember thinking, “Whoa!” Authors can be some of the worst readers and my critique partners can be pretty harsh sometimes, but I actually wondered if the person judging was even a fan of romance. Also, everyone who enters has to judge as well.
Speaking of the RITAs — the 2018 RITA and Golden Heart finalists were announced on the Romance Writers of American blog this week. Congratulations to all the finalists! I look forward to congratulating all of you at the conference in Denver.