Thursday, March 22, 2007

Taking A Break From Contests

In the past I've entered numerous contests for my Civil War time travel romance, Erin's Rebel. First it was for the feedback, then to get an editor or agent's attention.

And while I've won a few contests, I usually get one judge who just loves it and two or more who like it, but think it's just so-so, or outright hate it.

Before getting the request for a full from Medallion Press, I had entered three more contests as part of my New Year's Goals that I hadn't gotten the results of.

I just got one back and, as I said, one judge loved it, the other thought it was just so-so. And some of the comments I got were baffling. One said I had relied too much on spell and grammar check. Huh?

It's time to take a break from contests. For one thing, I'm now a member of an excellent critique group. They give me all the feedback I need. And I've gotten the attention of the editors at Medallion Press with my partial.

So, I'll save my time and energy for writing my next book.

1 comment:

Denise Eagan said...

Rely too much on spell check and grammar check? What on earth does that mean?

Glad to see you taking a break though. Contests, IMHO, are great for getting your name out there if you final. But the feedback can vary tremendously, and you never really know who you're hearing from. A good critique group is so much better!