During a podcast interview last week, my guest remarked that, though she’d won two prestigious awards for her women’s fiction debut, she wasn’t sure she’d enter any competitions for her next book. Since most awards charge a fee of between $50-$150 per category, she questioned whether that was a wise use of money. And there’s…
Tag: contests
Unpublished? Colorado Gold Literary Awards Contest is for You!
I choose to believe Colorado Gold will happen, come September. I choose to believe that we’ll figure out a new something by then—new rules of gathering, let’s say. I choose to believe we’ll start to put this pandemic behind us. And when Colorado Gold rolls around, if you’re an unpublished writer, you don’t want to…
Yet another word on the importance of acting like your writing is a career, even if it isn’t…yet
As the Western Liaison for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, I schedule workshops about seven times per year on the Western Slope. It’s a long way from our side of the mountain to the Front Range, and the cost to attend events over there can be considerable. It’s a 500-mile round trip, about four hours each…
How Contests Can Take Your Writing to the Next Level
RMFW’s annual Colorado Gold contest is fast approaching—submissions open April 1st! Have you considered entering? As someone who’s entered several contests, won a couple, lost a lot more, and judged some as well, I highly recommend the experience. Here’s why. You’re forced to perfect your opening. For most of us, the opening is the hardest part of…
Your Fantasy, Or Mine
Some of my friends talked me into entering my latest book in the RITA, the Romance Writers of America’s annual contest. One of the requirements for entering is you have to judge seven books. And since they don’t want you to judge the category you’re entered in, the books they send are a random mix…