A contest? Might as well.
Especially considering there is nothing to lose.
So, Bethany pointed this contest out to me, and I’ve been waffling around debating doing it or not doing it, but I really can’t see any reason not to. I do happen to have a “completed” (depending on how you specifically define the word*, but I’m gonna just call it applicable for the time being) book sitting in the proverbial can that fits the criteria.
The next question of literary import for me is, I suppose, whether or not I should submit to these guys before trying to find an agent. It seems like it could go either way: having a deal will help you get an agent, and having an agent will help you get a deal. But – if that pub doesn’t take it, then the agent cannot resubmit, whereas maybe they could have submitted it to a more sympathetic party or something. Who knows.
I told myself the last pass was the last “last” pass but, seriously, right? Well, my wonderful beta reader #1 went through it with a pen capped with a bunch of dead angels (whether because they were worn out by all the frentic dancing or slain by the razor-wit of said pen-wielder I cannot say) and found lots more things that I should sharpen up. So I am. I’m hoping to be done by the end of the month. We shall see. I’ll probably put off entry into the contest above until close to the deadline, so I can be even closer to done with the pass. Just in case, you know? The relevant part for the competition – the 1st 20 pages you can potentially have an agent criticize – is “done” already, and then some.
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*By this I mean that I’m working through another editing pass – but when is that not the case?
Yay! Go for it baby! :)
Indeed. Vociferously!
Hmm…interesting. I say, “What’ve you got to lose?”
Is yours done? IIRC it was in a similar vein, I was thinking this might be useful info for you as well.
Nope, not done yet. But thanks :-). I’ve been thinking on this contest more and more (not in regards to my work, but in regards to whether, IF I was ready would I do it? If that makes one iota of sense…) And I’ve come up with, “No, I wouldn’t.” Mainly due to this:
“The first 150-200 words of your unpublished, book-length work of urban fantasy or paranormal romance (adult or YA – both accepted).”
150-200 words??? I have a super hard time thinking they’ll be able to judge the worthiness of any full-length story based upon that little tad of info. Able to judge writing quality–yes (to a limited degree). But that’s not even short short story length! It’s too trimmed down in my opinion and therefore not a worth it contest. Just my two cents. Though the prize would probably be helpful. However, a good editor could offer the same (as many good editors either freelance for, or have worked for/as publishing agents).
On a side note, I don’t know if your novel would fit into their parameters or not, but this agency just had a recent lull (rare for them) and is actively seeking new clients, especially male writers.
http://pubrants.blogspot.com/
I figure the words thing is just a great equalizer. You can weed out the weak stuff fast enough and there’s probably enough there for some decent rankings amongst the stronger.
Also, some of us don’t have access to editor friends or have money to spend on the freelance ones :P
Hmm. I haven’t been to pubrants in months, I always forget about it but people eventually wind up linking to her. I used to read it back when I first started writing, as I was going through Miss Snark’s blog. I’ll check it out. Interesting that they want “male” writers. What are we, meat for you to look at ! ;)
Yeah, weird on the male thing, huh? I found that funny.
Yeah, I didn’t tell you about it for my health. :P
Oh god, are you dying?!
Well, my 5yo just lost his first tooth. So yes. But that’s neither here nor there… it’s somewhere in the stables. (You see that? You see how talking to you makes me say weird and irrational things?!)
It’s only irrational if no one understands it. Otherwise it’s just otherrational!
[...] A contest? Might as well. [...]
I’d forgotten about this, then found a draft of the submission email in one of my email accounts. Evidently they haven’t picked a winner yet? Correction, yes they have it just wasn’t announced on that blog?
http://workflowwriting.com/21528/contest-winners-announced-urban-fantasy-and-paranormal-romance.php
I notice that all the winners were women. I wonder what the ratio of men to women entrants once? The genre definitely seems to be dominated by women currently – which is also why I don’t read much of it. Too much focus on the romance and relationship angles for me in every book I have picked up to check out (by a female writer in this genre) so far.
I’m going to try my best to drag the genre farther from Romance style plotting and closer to Fantasy style… we’ll see how that goes.