Happy Wednesday everyone. I hope your week is going well. Over the past several years, I’ve been a book judge for multiple contests and believe me, I’ve read some outstanding books, sadly I’ve also read some not so great novels. Based on this experience, let me share with you what I look for when I’m judging books for a contest (this is completely different from reading for pleasure or even research).
To start, each book competition will have their own criteria for judging book entries. So, my suggestions and comments will be more general, to help you win awards and ensure you are presenting your best possible work.
Categories. This seems simple, but honestly, putting your book in the wrong category is the biggest no-no I can give you. When you enter your novel in an award contest, make sure you submit your book to the correct category. For an example, if you write erotica. Enter your erotica book in an erotica category. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can enter the novel in Romance or, say, Sci-Fi, or Fantasy, or any other category (unless there is a sub-category for erotic stories like: Erotica-Fantasy). That is the quickest way for me, as a judge, to give you low marks. There are categories for a reason, so please do this for all your novels. If I’m planning on evaluating a fantasy story and you entered your Sci-Fi story in the fantasy section, I will not be a happy judge and you will end up with low marks.
My advice: check the category, recheck your story, ask a friend if they think your book belongs in the category you want to enter. If there are no categories that fit your book, then find another competition for your work. There are plenty or book competitions each year. Basically, don’t be lazy.
Editing. Okay, here’s the thing, we all make editing mistakes. If you have been a long-time reader of this blog, you know by now; spelling, grammar, and punctuation are a major hurdle in my writing. Believe it or not, each blog post has been edited and I use editing software to help catch mistakes. Still, there are major editing mistakes all over this blog (for me my blog is casual writing so I don’t sweat these mistakes too much). Errors happen and that’s fine, but if I’m reading your book for a competition and you didn’t take the time to have your manuscript edited (and this means professionally edited) then I’m going to nail you for that when I judge your book. If I can find mistakes in your work, then you clearly did not do any editing, and that is a big issue.
My advice: Self-publishing or traditional publishing or highbred… editing is key. Nothing will be 100% but do everything you can to ensure your product (yes, your book is a product and a piece of art) is as polished as possible. I may be more forgiving if you are self-published, but I will not give you a pass. And if your work is traditionally published, I’m really not going to give any slack. Basically, there is no excuse for sloppy work. Plus, you can find professional editors on line, always ask to see a sample of their work and ask them to provide you a sample edit of your work (one page or 500 words seems reasonable).
Novels, Novellas, and Short Stories. Know the difference. Pay attention to the length of your story. Novels are 50k words to 100k words, or 200 to 400 manuscript pages. Novellas range from 17,500 words to 40k words, or about 100 to 200 manuscript pages. Short Story length is always between 1,000 and 10,000 words, or roughly 3 to 30 manuscript pages. Why this is important is because as a judge I have certain expectation, if I’m reading Sci-Fi, mystery, fantasy, or urban fantasy stories I’m planning on something close to 100k words, if I’m reading romance I’m good with 50k – 70k words. I don’t want to read a Sci-Fi story that is only 10k words, unless I know ahead of time it’s a short story (which should be its own category). Submitting a short story or novella in a category that is clearly meant for longer books is a fast way to receive low marks.
There is nothing wrong with novellas and short stories. In fact, I love them, but they need to be entered in the correct categories and it’s up to the author to ensure that is the case.
My advice: Make sure you know what you are entering and what the expectations are. If you wrote a beautiful short story, enter your work in a short story contest, don’t enter the book in a category where you are up against full-length novels, chances are you won’t win. If the competition you want to enter doesn’t have a short story category, then look for another contest (there are plenty out there). You can also check in with the folks running the contest and see if they will add a short story category. They might not, but asking doesn’t hurt.
Write your story. There is nothing worse than reading a story that has been written solely for the mass market, but wants to be put up against other works that were created to tell a unique and different story. There is nothing wrong with mass market stories (again, I love them and I’ve judged several) and many of them are well worth an award. But if you’re writing a book for market, enter that novel in a contest designed for mass market books (there are several). Not all authors write the same thing, and many authors write stories reflecting their lives and their experiences. These works, in my opinion, are held to a different caliber in my mind, especially when I’m judging said works. We know the difference between a mass market book and something else, and I can assure you mass market books are judged differently and often much harder.
I don’t want to read about generic and interchangeable characters having generic and interchangeable stories. I want to read your story, something you created out of love. Mass market novels up against other works will get you nothing but low scores from me.
My advice: There are so many competitions out there why spam one contest with your work. If you write for market great, but maybe when looking for book award contests, find appropriate contests to enter. Personally, own voice stories rate and score so much better when I judge. Also, ask your friends, ask your publisher, ask your editor if they think your book would be a good entry for the competition you want to enter.
Know your audience: This is so important. If you write, as I do, LGBTQIA books, make sure you enter your queer fiction books in the correct contests. And conversely, if you write other types of stories, make sure you have entered your novel in the write category, don’t count on the contest organizers to sort this out. Many times, the organizers will kick back your book, or worse, enter the novel and let it fail. Yes, I’ve seen both. So, don’t risk putting your book in the wrong place.
My advice: Simple, pay attention to what you enter and don’t set yourself up to fail. Don’t rely on the contest organizers either, because they are busy and may miss something (it happens). As I’ve said, there are hundreds of book competitions out there. You can find the right fit for you and your masterpiece.
Here are a few lists of contests to look at (2021):
Reedsy. Click here.
The Novel Factory. Click here.
For LGBTQ books, do a Google search for: LGBTQ book competitions
Wrapping this up. Keep in mind there are no right or wrongs when you write your story, but there are a lot of do’s and don’ts when it comes to a book award competition. Everyone believes their book is an award winner, and that may be the case, but if you want to save yourself a world of hurt (and plenty of money in entry fees) pay attention to what contest you enter. The most important piece of advice I can give you, and I hope you will take it to heart, is the ‘editing’. Nothing will do your work more harm than sloppy editing. Yes, professional editing isn’t cheap, however, you and your book are worth the investment. Good luck with your writing and your next book contest. I hope this information is helpful.
Well, that is all for this week. I hope you have a wonderful day and see you next time.