Romance contest?

Joanne, I entered a lot of them, so to tell you the truth, I can't remember if that specific one is one I entered or not. (And I just tossed out a lot of my old contest entries when I moved into a new house.)

Do you have any specific questions? I might be able to help you find the answers.

I'm still a big contest slut. LOL. Just now I enter the pubbed contests with books instead of manuscripts.

Susan G.

jdkiggins said:

My co-author and I received e-mail notification this morning informing us that our entry made it to the finalists. I think my head is still spinning, maybe I should have added that to my original post with a different heading.
Joanne

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Yeaaayyy for you!!

Congratulations, that's wonderful news! What category did you enter? (I don't even know if that contest has categories. <G> ) Is there an editor who's reading the final round?

Contests like this can be an excellent way of getting your work in front of an editor. And even if they don't ask to buy *this work* from *this contest experience* believe me, the editors remember that they've seen your stuff before. So, exposure like this is always a good thing.

Fingers crossed for you in the final round!

Susan G. - PS if you have any other romance questions, I'm hanging around, so please feel free to ask.

Is the ms finished? Have you entered it in more contests? (Def. something you should consider!)

Susan G.

CONGRATS jdkiggins! Good luck!!

jdkiggins said:

Believe me, we're both still stunned that we made it to finalist on the first try. I don't think we'll be shy any longer.

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Awesome, Joanne. That says great things about your voice, and about your ability to craft a strong opening to a story. And you need that strong opening to pull in an agent/editor.

I'd highly recommend you submit it to more contests. You can get excellent feedback from some contests, too. Just remember to take the judges comments with some thoughtful reflection. First, look at who the judge was. Pubbed? Unpubbed? Believe it or not, some unpubs make much harsher judges than pubs do because they (unpub judges) learn certain things that they think are absolutes, and once you get your foot in the door, you start to learn that some things are not how you thought they had to be. <G>

Also, if they make story points, just ask if what they say/ask makes sense to you. Sometimes when I judge, I point out things like characters who aren't behaving consistantly with their prior behavior or with who they're "supposed" to be. That doesn't mean that it's wrong - it means it pulled me out of the story, and so the writer should think about why that happened.

Contests can be a real crap shoot, depending on who you pull as a judge. So don't start thinking bad things if you don't final in the next one.

I'd say you're off to a great start, and I wish you tons of luck in the future!

:Cheer:

Susan G.

jdkiggins said:

I keep reassurring her that even though I've published more than 2,500 articles, sending out book manuscripts, even parts for contests, is a new thing for me as well.

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WOW! 2,500...as in two THOUSAND five hundred! That's absolutely amazing! One more wow!

Okay, now I'll dispense with the exclamation points and switch to question marks.

How many years did it take to accomplish that? Is it mostly fiction or nonfiction? What are your top two pieces of advice for a newbie like me who wants to be able to say "I've published 2,500 articles" like you?

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to print in and post it above my monitor!

For what it's worth, your sucess is a HUGE inspiration to me.

Wow! I'm inspired, too.

Whenever I feel discouraged about writing... I'll just remember perseverance.

It helps.

Thank you!