A short story of mine recently placed as a finalist in a pretty decent literary contest, and I’m wondering what you all think of mentioning this in cover letters (for other short-story submissions; maybe eventually for submitting a novel to an agent but that’s a long way off yet). Unfortunately, this particular contest only publishes the winners, so the story is still unpublished.
I read one blog post, somewhere, that suggested you can’t really make use of placing as a finalist in cover letters, because all you’re saying is “such-and-such journal declined to publish my story.” This is obviously not something you want to say in a cover letter (how long and full of prestigious names all our cover letters might be!). But I wanted to collect some other opinions. I see two distinct scenarios here:
Submitting this same story. I can see why the contest result would be tacky to mention in this case. “Dear editor, enclosed please find a story that almost won another journal’s contest. Would you like to publish their sloppy seconds?” I’m not sure any amount of diplomatic language could pretty that one up. It’s frustrating because I am still trying to get the story published, and I want this contest result to count for something! But I suspect I’m out of luck.
Submitting other stories. This seems potentially less tacky. “Lakey’s stories have been published in journals such as Pompous Quarterly and The Navel-Gazer’s Review, and she was a finalist in Impenetrable Fiction’s annual short-story contest.” That might be worth something...?
I’m sure I’m just grasping at straws; perhaps it doesn’t matter at all and would have zero impact on my chances of getting another story published anyway. But - any thoughts out there?
(I am so ready to start a journal called The Navel-Gazer’s Review. Who’s with me?)
I read one blog post, somewhere, that suggested you can’t really make use of placing as a finalist in cover letters, because all you’re saying is “such-and-such journal declined to publish my story.” This is obviously not something you want to say in a cover letter (how long and full of prestigious names all our cover letters might be!). But I wanted to collect some other opinions. I see two distinct scenarios here:
Submitting this same story. I can see why the contest result would be tacky to mention in this case. “Dear editor, enclosed please find a story that almost won another journal’s contest. Would you like to publish their sloppy seconds?” I’m not sure any amount of diplomatic language could pretty that one up. It’s frustrating because I am still trying to get the story published, and I want this contest result to count for something! But I suspect I’m out of luck.
Submitting other stories. This seems potentially less tacky. “Lakey’s stories have been published in journals such as Pompous Quarterly and The Navel-Gazer’s Review, and she was a finalist in Impenetrable Fiction’s annual short-story contest.” That might be worth something...?
I’m sure I’m just grasping at straws; perhaps it doesn’t matter at all and would have zero impact on my chances of getting another story published anyway. But - any thoughts out there?
(I am so ready to start a journal called The Navel-Gazer’s Review. Who’s with me?)