Mary, thanks for adding your experience. And good for you for setting a budget. It was only when I came to write this piece that I faced how much money I'd put into entry fees. I'd of course love to see the curated list to get an understanding of how publishers/editors judge these contests...if you feel like sharing it, you can DM me at elizabeth.winthrop@gmail.com.
My experience echoes what you describe--and there are countless ways to spend money to get better publicity or validation, contests being one. I have a new novel coming out in the fall and I've begun submitting to a curated list of award contests put together by my editor (helpfully so) who has experience with what's worth it and what's not. But I agree that quite a few of these seem to be set up to promote their own side projects, like marketing or something to hang on the wall. I've also wondered, as you did, about the contest fees and how they support a small country somewhere. I set a budget for this part of my promotion. I'm glad I did, because it is tempting to send out more and more. Thank you for this very useful post.
Mary, thanks for adding your experience. And good for you for setting a budget. It was only when I came to write this piece that I faced how much money I'd put into entry fees. I'd of course love to see the curated list to get an understanding of how publishers/editors judge these contests...if you feel like sharing it, you can DM me at elizabeth.winthrop@gmail.com.
My experience echoes what you describe--and there are countless ways to spend money to get better publicity or validation, contests being one. I have a new novel coming out in the fall and I've begun submitting to a curated list of award contests put together by my editor (helpfully so) who has experience with what's worth it and what's not. But I agree that quite a few of these seem to be set up to promote their own side projects, like marketing or something to hang on the wall. I've also wondered, as you did, about the contest fees and how they support a small country somewhere. I set a budget for this part of my promotion. I'm glad I did, because it is tempting to send out more and more. Thank you for this very useful post.
Thank you for sharing your experience! More people like you need to speak up.
Excellent exposure of the underside of contests and awards.