Recently, I’ve come to understand even more how valuable writing contests can be to a writer’s career. In Writing Contests: Should You Take the Plunge from the Review Review website, Becky Tuch lists several good reasons that writers should enter contests, including the pressure of the deadline, the ability to practice our craft, and the possibility of being published even when you don’t win. In fact, Grant Faulkner, the Executive Director National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) mentioned coming in second in a contest and requesting that they consider publishing his story anyway. That publication published his story, and the irony is that they had rejected the same story only a year previously!
I bring this up for a reason, even after my post on Writing Contests, I’ve still been busy entering my work in other contests. For one, the Fairfield Review, I submitted my story “Tattoo” in their “villianthology” contest to choose the feature story for that publication. “Tattoo” was named a semi-finalist, but didn’t make the cut to the top ten nor win. I did get some valuable feedback from the editors, however. I’ve been more successful in other contests. I announced not long ago that I had won the 2019 award for fiction from the Gulf Coast Writer’s Association. And yes, I am telling people that every time I have the chance to, which other authors tell me is what I am supposed to be doing.
Drum roll, please
Well, I have another announcement: I was named a national finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards for this year, in the category of First Novel, 70,000 to 90,000 words! Yes, I am proud of this, and I only wish I could have won, because that might have given me an even better platform for finding an agent.
Here’s the website that includes the award winners and finalists in that category:
FIRST NOVEL (70,000-90,000 words)
WINNER ($100 PRIZE):
Of Metal and Earth, by Jennifer M. Lane (CreateSpace) stories of restoration and redemption of seven people in relation to a Jeep’
FINALISTS:
Altitude, by Sandi Levy (Self-Published), a romance;
Just Like February, by Deborah Batterman (SparkPress), a memoir;
Katydids and Trains: Fading Sounds from the Cherokee Fringe, by B.L. Perryman (IRM Publishing), literary;
Take Hart, by F. J. Talley (Western Shore Books) mystery/ police procedural;
The Narrow Path, by Kris Laubscher (Wild Rose Publishing) romance.
The awards ceremony was held in Washington, DC for finalists and winners, and I’ve already been placing the finalists stickers on Take Hart. Of course, my next step is to continue capitalizing on this success. So far, I’ve changed my profile on both my website and on Amazon to reflect both recognitions, and I included the fiction award from the Gulf Coast Writer’s Association in my latest queries to writer’s agents.
And I will continue entering writing contests. Who knows? I may win again!
