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-- Sue Wicks
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The top books from this review are then submitted to the public for voting and two winners are selected. The grand prize for each is a publishing contract with a Penguin subsidiary with an advance payment of $15,000.
The contest is free, and the steps are clearly outlined. Message boards were set up for discussion and coaching (among the members). I submitted my pitch for A Killing Among the Dead.
The first round winners were announced, and along with 8,000 other writers, I did not make the cut. Mathematically speaking, the likelihood of advancing is pretty slight. Writing a pitch is hard, and once I'd submitted mine, I immediately saw ways to improve it. But nothing ventured...
I benefited from the competition in a number of ways:
So, what did I get?
- Well, coaching in writing a pitch, for one thing. You do have to use your own sense of style, but the guidelines are very good, and I have an excellent working pitch and guidelines for formulating others.I congratulated the winners and sat back to see what would happen.
- Some really good criticism from people who knew how to refrain from pulling punches and yet gave some straightforward, sometimes harsh criticism. Very very very much appreciated.
- Autocrit - automated program that will help highlight usages and words that you tend not to notice. You can review and change or confirm that it's OK
- Query Shark - excellent feedback on submission letters by someone who really needs to be thanked.
- Authonomy - yes I know it is not a shortcut to publishing. But it's a place to get feedback.
- You Write-on - same as above
- Writing.com - same as above
- Wattpad - not sure how I feel about this, but a good way to get feedback. Seems geared to YA, though...
- Weebly - been wanting to set up a website; worth looking into
We had those who advanced exclaiming over their good fortune, those who had not congratulating them.
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I should be disappointed, but I know how these "contests" are really decided, so I'm not.
Wow. Not even a kiss-off letter...
The contest rules and procedures were clearly stated. It was a free contest. The odds of advancing were very low. And - have they no sense of personal pride that they behaved in this way?
Well, I may enter next year. Meanwhile, I'm still working on Mourningtide and polishing my other works.
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