The HONOR of being JUDGED

Contests... more contests.... always contests....

I love the idea of contests, but when it is your writing that is being judged, it's tricky. It is both a blessing and a curse. In certain contests it the honor of being judged that is the reward - like last year when I entered a writing contest and had to pay $15 per entry just to find out that the first place winner gets a certificate and $10. If you look at it right, I'd be ten dollars in the whole, just to win. But that is how literary contests work. "Here, let me judge you for a fee and I will tell you your the winner, and you can blog it and everyone will think you are fantastic!" Doesn't that sound like a great idea? Hmmm.... I am going to have to think about that .... (devious plotting...)

Here's the contest I am most excited about and it didn't cost me a thing:

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Writing Contest.
http://www.amazon.com/b?node=332264011

A friend of mine, who loves my novel, told me about this in January and I looked into it. I submitted my novel around the beginning of February.

A little bit about the contest - in my own words -

• A whole ton of people enter, very few win. They take 5,000 entries in Young Adult and Adult and narrow it to 1,000 per genre. And they based this not on your novel, but on your plot and PITCH in less than 500 words.
  
• 500? Wow! So many? No problem, right? Wrong! I struggled with this more than my wedding vows. My story is so complex that I eventually had to tell the story inside out - start from the back and work frontwards. Do you think JK Rowling had to do the same thing? If everyone knew that Harry dies at the end would anyone read it? - Sorry if you didn't know, but the book has been out for a while. :)
• I got the news on Feb. 23rd that I made it to the next round. From this round they pick 250 novels total based on your previous stuff plus your first chapter.
• Then they narrow it down further by throwing darts at your manuscript and then they run it through a series of tests - like how absorbent it is and which one makes the best stabilizer for a wobbly chair.

Other Contest entered:

• I also entered my local League of Utah Writing Chapter's Annual Writing Contest. For this contest I submitted my newest chapter for my new novel - The Conjectrix.
• I entered some stupid poetry I wrote to the American Fork Council's Write In Depth Literary Collection. Yeah... we'll see if THAT goes anywhere. think I have to buy the bok to see if I won.
  
• I am also working on some writing for the LUW Round-up that will be in Logan this September. Doesn't that seem far away, but submission deadline is in June. And really, the more you write the better you write, and right now, I really feel like I need it.

Wish me luck! .....or not....