Tip on Choosing Contests

I'm on sabbatical this week so I'm running a few of my favorite tips selected from my SharingwithWriters newsletters. Subscribe so you never miss a single one at http://howtodoitfrugally.com. There's a subscription form in the upper right column of every page of the site including all the Writers' Resources pages, just as I suggest in my The Frugal Book Promoter.  You'll get a freebie e-booklet, Great Little Last Minute Edits, too.

 

Tip: One of the things I look for before I submit my work for an award I’m unfamiliar with is added value.

That value can be as ephemeral as name recognition (like a link on the contest site)  or as tangible as help with marketing (like the help Dan Poynter’s Global Ebook Awards gives their nominees).

I don't like it when awards don't at least give the winning authors a few stickers/labels for their books . It's not a make or break deal for me but that’s one of those things that indicates their caring (hospitality)--and maybe lack of greed. The contest can always offer additional labels for sale once the author has run out. And savvy authors will want to support the contest that supported their efforts. 

When choosing small literary contests for short stories or poetry, I look for a free subscription to the journal for a year which benefits everyone--journal and author. The journal benefits by getting wider distribution and perhaps a regular paid subscriber once the subscription expires which ups their distribution statistics. The author gets resource material that may inspire her, give her a better handle on how to win next time around (and maybe examples of new  techniques she can use).

Find an accessible contest list, articles, other ideas on the contests page at my HowToDoItFrugally Web site. While you're there browse the other Writers' Resources on that site.

PS: To read a few recent issues of SharingwithWriters newsletters in .pdf go to http://howtodoitfrugally.com/newsletter_copies.htm.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

How Would Winning a Contest Affect Getting a Publisher or Agent in the Future?

Many of you know that I am an Ann Landers fan. I came to understand how valuable the questions from her readers and her own pithy answers to those readers were to living a less dysfunctional life when I was responsible for writing headlines for her column and for editing them down to the space we had available for said column in the what we then called the society section of the Salt Lake Tribune.

Now, I love to run occasional columns "A la Ann Landers." For writers. From writers. About writers. I hope you find them as much fun as I do.


QUESTION:

Hi, Carolyn,

My team mate Sarah Moore and I have a question from a client (read below). I've never had this question before and I'm not sure how to answer. It seems to me that a book having won an award would be one that a house would want to publish. However, to be sure, I am checking with you to see what insight you might have.

Thanks so much,

Yvonne Perry
Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services
Author of More Than Meets the Eye
615-415-9861


THE LETTER FROM YVONNE’S CLIENT:

As you know I have entered my book for The Claymore Dagger Award. My question is if it is acceptable to continue to submit it to literary agents as well. I do not want to be unethical or anger the literary world before I even get my foot in the door. I have read the home page for the contest and all that is stated is that the manuscripts must be unpublished and not under contract. I need your professional opinion on what is acceptable. Thank you for your help.


ANSWER:

One can't be sure that any general statement applies to every agent and every publisher, but here goes: Generally speaking, an agent (and any publisher your client might contact) should be thrilled to have an author whose book has already won an award and who is a savvy enough promoter to have already garnered attention.

If I were consulting with her, I'd even advise her to put the Dagger win (once it becomes a win!) in her query letter. In other words, highlight it. Shout it out! If one publisher or one agent doesn't like that, perhaps he or she wouldn't be the right agent/publisher for this author in any case.

One question for an author to ask in a situation like this is:

Is the award given by an individual publishing company that includes publication of the winning submission?

If so--from an agent's point of view--it would only mean that it had been submitted to a publisher before they took it on. Ethically your client should be willing to let the agent with whom they sign a contract represent them for the book published by this publisher, should both publisher (the one who ran the contest) and author agree to a publishing contract. The agent may choose to advise the author during the negotiations, but even if they don't, the offer should be made. After all, the agent would have already invested time and effort into that author.

Sometimes we authors look to legalities, but it's lots better if we put ethics first. That means putting ourselves into the shoes of an agent and treating them with as much consideration as we would want to be treated.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Tony Eldridge Offers Ultimage Book Marketing Prize

Because of Twitter's hacking problem, Tony Eldridge, master marketer and author, has extended his Twitter contest. Lucky us!

And, yes, my Frugal Editor is one of the prizes. But the really big deal is this contest will introduce those of you who aren't tweeting yet to its magic. (-:

You can win a prize package valued at over $1300 from some of the top names in author book marketing. This is the "Winner-Takes-All Twitter" mega lottery prize for one lucky winner. The package consists of signed books, e-books, mailing lists, online memberships, web courses, Web site makeovers and consulting services. These prizes are from the top names in book marketing. Take a look at this fabulous prize package:

1. Angela Connor , Book: 18 Rules of Community Engagement: A Guide for Building Relationships and Connecting With Customers Online And a Two Hour Consultation from Angela.

2. Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Book: The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success

3. Cathy Stucker, E-Book: Selling Ebooks Online

4. Dana Smith, E-Book: The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Selling Your Book to Libraries5. Jennifer Mattern, E-Book: Launching a Successful Freelance Web Writing Career And E-Book: The Web Writer's Guide Marketing Workbook (When released)

6. Joanna Penn, Author 2.0 Program: it contains 8 marketing modules

7. John Kremer, Mail Order Catalogs database And his Specialty Retailers database

8. Kat Smith, Book: The Naked Author: Exposing the Myths of Publishing

9. Penny Sansevieri , Book: Red Hot Internet Publicity: An Insider's Guide to Promoting Your Book on the Internet! And a Mini Website Evaluation

10. Phyllis Miller, 1 Month Membership: Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program

11. Sarah Bolme, Book: Your Guide To Marketing Books In The Christian Marketplace, Second Edition

12. Steve Weber, Book: Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors, Book Publicity through Social Networking . And Book: ePublish: Self-Publish Fast and Profitably for Kindle, iPhone, CreateSpace and Print on Demand

To enter this contest visit http://marketingtipsforauthors.com/TwitterContest.html. Don't wait. I'm not sure about how long the extension for this contest will last.

In the meantime--because this is a Twitter contest--open your Twitter account and check out Twitter In Plain English (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o ) video to help you learn more about this simple service.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.