Delecorte Press YA Novel Contest

Let me tell you guys my experience with this publisher which might help you decide whether you want to waste your time with them or not.

A number of years ago, I sent my young adult novel to them for the same contest. I was very excited about it and hoped for the best. I included a separate business-sized, self-addressed, stamped envelope in which they were supposed to send information about the results of the contest. I never received it!

I waited about 6 months to hear something. Nothing. Naturally, I was very curious.

I finally mailed off a letter to the editor, asking about the contest. She called me on the phone to tell me this: THEY DIDN'T PICK A WINNER FOR THE CONTEST BECAUSE NONE OF THE MANUSCRIPTS WERE GOOD ENOUGH TO PUBLISH!

How do you like that one? Isn't that a lovely thing to tell a writer? I will never waste my time with this publisher again!

rhymegirl said:

I finally mailed off a letter to the editor, asking about the contest. She called me on the phone to tell me this: THEY DIDN'T PICK A WINNER FOR THE CONTEST BECAUSE NONE OF THE MANUSCRIPTS WERE GOOD ENOUGH TO PUBLISH!

How do you like that one? Isn't that a lovely thing to tell a writer? I will never waste my time with this publisher again!

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You know, I looked at their guidelines where it lists previous winners, and it seems there were several years where no winner was selected. I really find it hard to beleive that out of the thousands of submissions they got for four years in a row, that not a single one was good enough to publish.

Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I doubt that every single submission sucked.

It's actually not that unusual for legitimate contests like this one to not pick a winner. It doesn't mean every manuscript submitted sucked; most likely there were none that were of publishable quality and that were also what the publisher was looking for. It's just like submitting to the publisher and having your manuscript in the slush pile, except that because it's a contest, you're guaranteed to have the manuscript read within a certain time period. But no one is guaranteed a contract.

PattiTheWicked said:

You know, I looked at their guidelines where it lists previous winners, and it seems there were several years where no winner was selected. I really find it hard to beleive that out of the thousands of submissions they got for four years in a row, that not a single one was good enough to publish.

Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I doubt that every single submission sucked.

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Exactly my point! And think about this: Even writers who send their manuscripts to an editor(publisher) the normal way STILL have to do revisions if their novel is accepted for publication. In other words, an editor can LOVE your story and want to publish it, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. So, out of all those thousands of submissions, you can't tell me that not one could possibly be edited, revised and made better!

One thing that bugged the hell out of me was not being notified of the results of the contest when I had done exactly what they said to do! I sent a SASE for them to send me the results. I did not send a SASE for my manuscript to be returned because I didn't want to pay that much postage. I had a copy of the novel on my computer so I didn't need it back.

I will add that the editor was very snippy with me on the phone. She had a horrible attitude and that is not something a writer likes to see.

CalicoBean said:

It's actually not that unusual for legitimate contests like this one to not pick a winner. It doesn't mean every manuscript submitted sucked; most likely there were none that were of publishable quality and that were also what the publisher was looking for. It's just like submitting to the publisher and having your manuscript in the slush pile, except that because it's a contest, you're guaranteed to have the manuscript read within a certain time period. But no one is guaranteed a contract.

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Sorry, but I don't think it's the same thing at all. When people enter a contest, they expect that there will be a winner. Look at the Absolute Write contest. How do you think all of us finalists would feel if Jenna had said: Ya know what, nobody wins because no one's writing was good enough. You don't think people would be pissed off?

When writers simply send their manuscripts off to a publisher willy-nilly, just hoping someone will bite, that's completely different. You know you're taking a chance in that case. But when you're competing, you put a lot of time, effort, and sweat into it and you fully expect that there will be a winner.

rhymegirl said:

But when you're competing, you put a lot of time, effort, and sweat into it and you fully expect that there will be a winner.

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I agree with you in principle, but Random House/Delacorte has run contests for several years now and has a history of not selecting a winner every year (look at the Marguerite de Angeli contest for middle grade novels), so it's not like they're hiding anything. The whole thing does function as a kind of call for manuscripts. OTOH, the word "contest" is used, so I see your point about it misleading entrants into thinking there will definitely be a winner. Perhaps they should make their guidelines more clear. That's pretty shoddy work too, you not getting the results after sending an SASE. I hope you have better luck with your next submission.

Out of all the thousands of manuscripts we were sent last year, not a single one failed to suck. So, I am not surprised in the least.

St Martin's best first mystery novel contest is set up the same way. Many years they have not selected a winner.

I agree with CalicoBean - the ms. they received may not have been what they were looking for.

Let's face it - we ALL spend a great of time, sweat and effort on our manuscripts, but that doesn't mean even though they may be well-written and polished to a degree, that a publisher has to choose it when it may not fit the style of that particular publishing house.

I also wonder how many of those entering took the time to carefully peruse the Delacorte Contest site. They plainly list the years they've had winners and the years they haven't as well as who the winners were. Thus it is up to the contest participant to investigate further to see if their ms. is a good fit with those previously published winners. As we all know, not every ms. is publishable quality, or even if it is, it doesn't mean the house we send it to will like it.

Torgo said:

Out of all the thousands of manuscripts we were sent last year, not a single one failed to suck. So, I am not surprised in the least.

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Ha! My new goal: to fail to suck.

I would like to note that it says right in the guidelines that the judges reserve the right to not award a prize.

Could it possibly be that they didn't find a writer good enough that they wanted to advance $7500 to? I wonder how many manuscripts they get in a contest like this...maybe it's not as many as you would think.

G

The contest gives you a chance to get your manuscript read by Delacourt without an agent. That's all it does. The other way to get your manuscript read by Delacourt is to get an agent -- and still no guarantee that they'll buy your book.

For what it's worth, I'm going out on a limb and announcing here that I have been intending, since last year, to submit a manuscript to the 2005 contest as soon as October 1 rolls around. (It'll be the manuscript whose first draft came about with my participation in NaNoWriMo 2002.)

Nothing I've seen on this thread has dissuaded me, mainly because I already knew that they don't guarantee a winner. I read the guidelines. Seems fair--if the prize is a publishing contract, they want to be sure that publishing the prize-winner won't be a losing proposition. (As much as any publisher can be sure of that, anyway, when they offer a contract!) And, of course, a single person's reports of bad attitude get taken with a grain of salt over here. We all have rotten days from time to time.

I'm submitting because A) as Uncle Jim said, it's a guaranteed chance to get read unagented within a set period of time, and B) having a deadline will get my butt in gear to finish editing the novel.

Should I not win the contest, I have two places lined up after that to send the manuscript/book proposal: A small press I'm fond of that seems a good fit, and an agent likewise. This novel will not "sleep over" on its rejection letters.

So, having a solid commercial plan for what to do if I don't win, but loving the chance, however slim, of rocketing out of the gate with a prize-winning first novel, C) I've nothing to lose and enough to gain on the venture to make it worth my time. And D) I can only publish a first YA novel once! Might as well give it a shot.

It's not like I won't be working on the next book while this one's in Delacorte's contest slush, after all.

My whole-hearted encouragement to anyone else who will also be entering. And to those who feel this isn't worth their time, I totally understand, and wish you the best along the roads you do choose to travel.

From the writer's perspective, it does seem very discouraging, but I don't think it makes me NOT want to deal with that publisher. It does make me think that they have VERY high standards and a specific need. I can't imagine they would put themselves through the work of running a contest and frustrating writers just for the fun of it. They don't benefit from not choosing a winner. Do they?

Hear, hear, Nicole! I, too, have thought about entering said contest; however, I'm not sure my ms. will be ready. I'm having surgery Tuesday, and it will be putting me out of commission for several months. Sigh. Hope I even remember that I wrote a book by the time I get back to it!

Hope your work places as nicely as it deserves!

rhymegirl said:

Let me tell you guys my experience with this publisher which might help you decide whether you want to waste your time with them or not.

A number of years ago, I sent my young adult novel to them for the same contest. I was very excited about it and hoped for the best. I included a separate business-sized, self-addressed, stamped envelope in which they were supposed to send information about the results of the contest. I never received it!

I waited about 6 months to hear something. Nothing. Naturally, I was very curious.

I finally mailed off a letter to the editor, asking about the contest. She called me on the phone to tell me this: THEY DIDN'T PICK A WINNER FOR THE CONTEST BECAUSE NONE OF THE MANUSCRIPTS WERE GOOD ENOUGH TO PUBLISH!

How do you like that one? Isn't that a lovely thing to tell a writer? I will never waste my time with this publisher again!

Click to expand...

I've been on the other end of this, and while it may sound awful to writers, quite often there simply are no submissions that are good enough. That's just how it is. When publishing is part of the contest, no good publisher will select a winner when none of the manuscripts are deemed good enough to go out in public with the imprint of that publisher.

This is the sign of a good publisher, not a bad one.

PattiTheWicked said:

You know, I looked at their guidelines where it lists previous winners, and it seems there were several years where no winner was selected. I really find it hard to beleive that out of the thousands of submissions they got for four years in a row, that not a single one was good enough to publish.

Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I doubt that every single submission sucked.

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Yep, you're overly optomistic. Sucking is the rule, not the exception. This isn't just a contest that says "Okay, this is the best of the bunch, so it gets the prize." This is a contest where the winner gets to dress up and go out in pubic with the publisher's imprint printed on the cover. It makes a huge difference in how good the winner has to be. It can't just be better than all the other novels that were submitted, it has to be good enough to justify not only the prize money, but being seen in public wearing the publisher's clothing.

Anyone who has gone through a slush pile knows this can be a pretty rare thing.

If you want a guaranteed winner, then submit to contests where publication by a large publisher isn't part of the package.

Julie Worth said:

Ha! My new goal: to fail to suck.

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I've added it to my To Do List, right between picking up my dry cleaning and taking my son to t-ball.

Jamesaritchie said:

Yep, you're overly optomistic. Sucking is the rule, not the exception. This isn't just a contest that says "Okay, this is the best of the bunch, so it gets the prize." This is a contest where the winner gets to dress up and go out in pubic with the publisher's imprint printed on the cover. It makes a huge difference in how good the winner has to be. It can't just be better than all the other novels that were submitted, it has to be good enough to justify not only the prize money, but being seen in public wearing the publisher's clothing.

Anyone who has gone through a slush pile knows this can be a pretty rare thing.

If you want a guaranteed winner, then submit to contests where publication by a large publisher isn't part of the package.

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It just suprises me, that's all. I mean, with all the countless GOOD children's books that come out every year, it's a bit disappointing -- for me, as a reader, not so much as a writer -- that it's so hard for a publisher to find one that's imprint-worthy. I'm not sure if that means writers suck as a group, or if it's just the sucky ones who are submitting.

Bottom line is that publishing is a business, and if it's a bad business move to publish any of the entrants, then it makes sense to have no winner. It just seems kind of a shame, that's all, because it means that there's a whole lot of crap out there instead of good manuscripts.

contest

At the risk of repeating myself, I think the best way to say it is this. If you submit a novel to such a conetst, and that novel is not one they would publish had it been submitted through a normal route with no contest involved, then it will not win the contest.

Because of this, "sucks" is not always the reason a novel doesn't win. Even a very good novel that is not the kind of novel this particular publisher thinks is right for their line, be it because of content, story, characters, etc, that novel will not win the contest.

This does not mean it might not sell quickly to another YA publisher that looks for different kinds of YA novels.

Most submissions do suck, but in any such contest there should be a handful, five or six, that are good enough to publish, just not right for the particular publisher holding a particular contest.

These contests are held not only to find good novels, but also to find writers who to write in a way that fits the publisher holding the contest.

Sometimes, if they find a novel or two that is marginal, a publisher will say, "None of the novels win," and then they will but one or two of these novels from contestents at a lower advance figure, and with less marketing. In other words, while they think none of the novels are good enough, or right enough, to be publicized as a major contest winner, they will take a chance on buying them.

Sometimes, in fact, they will announce one novel as winner, and buy two or three others through normal procedures. I've seen it happen.

But in addition to good, you also have to question whether or not your novel is right for this publisher, and the best way to do this is probably to read as many other YA novels they publish as is possible.

Once again, I'm going to recommend Slushkiller.

And I'll comment that sometimes "Does not suit our current needs" means "We just bought another book that's less excellent than this one, but has a very similar theme and characters, so we can't buy this one too."

I have every intention of submitting but it will be a mss that I have slaved over to get into the very best form that I can make it with the best story I can tell. If for no other reason that I can be assured it will at least get read and not just thrown away with the rest of the slush pile or unsolicited mss's. So...my priorities are going to change at least until after Dec.

mdmkay said:

...If for no other reason that I can be assured it will at least get read and not just thrown away with the rest of the slush pile or unsolicited mss's.

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Why would you think the rest of the slush pile gets thrown away?

Yes, I know how many manuscripts and 3-and-synopsis packages end up in the slush pile of a publisher who accepts unsolicited submissions. They number among the gazillions and bazillions. But, at the risk of sounding hopelessly naive, if that publisher has let it be known that they accept unsolicited submissions, why would you assume that they would then turn around and throw away those submissions without even reading them?

(And, just for clarification, are we talking about the Delacorte contest, or are we now talking about any publisher who accepts unsolicited submissions? Who is it you think will throw away submissions unread?)