Want to become an award-winning author? I did. That was one of my dreams when I first started writing. It came right before becoming a best-selling author, although I’m not anywhere near that. My editor/publisher entered my first (or second) book in a Readers’ Choice award in which readers choose their favorite titles. In other words, a popularity contest. Needless to say, I didn’t win. I didn’t have a huge fan base or have a lot of friends that would vote. That discouraged me from entering any more contests except one through the Writers’ League of Texas (I’m still a member.) The great thing about this contest was I got feedback on my writing. It was eye-opening. I had no idea most of my sentences started with the word, ‘she.’ Obviously, my writing needed a lot more work. I found an editor online and she made me feel like I was pretty good, just needed a few tweaks. Then I found another editor who told me what I really needed to know. My writing needed a lot of work. I went to a lot of classes and I wrote a lot. Everyday. My writing improved and I’ve continued to work with the same editor. Sometimes, it’s painful, but my wounds healed and I got better. A few years ago, I was scrolling through Facebook and saw an ad for the Book Excellence Award. It wasn’t a popularity contest and had a panel of judges, so I figured what-the-heck and entered my book, “Spell Breaker.” When I finished the novel, I had been excited about how well it had turned out. It had a solid plot, lots of action, and characters that I loved. I self-edited it and read it out loud to myself before I sent it to my editor. She made a number of corrections and comments and I revised my manuscript. I printed it out and read it out loud again before I went for a second round with the editor. More corrections, sometimes things she didn’t see before and more comments. More self-editing, printing and reading out loud. I even printed it out using a two-column landscape format so it looked like a book. I read it again, out loud. My book was ready to be published until I sent it to a beta reader. She blasted the manuscript for having too many exclamation points and made all kinds of other comments. I was shocked. How did she know more than my editor? Turns out some of her comments were legit, so I went back to the drawing board. I signed up for more classes on writing and editing. While I could see some of what the beta reader had found, I didn’t agree with all of it. I revised my manuscript again and went through the correction cycle with my editor, two more times. Finally, I told my editor/publisher that it was ready to go and she published the book. The print version looked so good that when the contest wanted a copy of my book, I sent in a print copy, even though an eBook was acceptable. I filled out the entry form and followed the directions. Every contest has its own rules. Some want a synopsis, some don’t. I even found one that wants a chapter-by-chapter synopsis. And I paid the fee. Yes, all of these contests charge money. They pay for judges. The contest will state how much and how to pay. The cheapest one I’ve found so far was 50 bucks with a discount. The most expensive was 99 dollars with feedback. Also, since I sent in a print copy, I had to pay for postage. I used the media rate, which is cheaper, but it takes a week to get there.
Then I waited. I didn’t win the top prize but I was notified by email that I was one of two finalists. I immediately sent an email back to find out how many books were in the YA fantasy category. They assured me there were more than three books but wouldn’t tell me how many. Thus far, I’ve been a finalist for the Book Excellence Awards for three years with three different books, a finalist for the International Book Awards, and the winner of the John E. Weaver Excellent Reads Award. True, none of them were the Pulitzer Prize but that’s okay. I’ve read some Pulitzer Prize winning novels and couldn’t finish them. These awards haven’t resulted in any financial gain for me. At least not yet. All I got was some recognition and publicity. What it has given me is confidence in my ability to write and keeps me motivated, even if no one is buying my books.
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