Everybody Loves a Winner:Contests as Valuable Promotion Aids

Everybody Loves a Winner:

Contests as Valuable Promotion Aids

(This is an excerpt from the award-winning FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T by Carolyn Howard-Johnson)

Published as an e-book and paperback

She whom I love is hard to catch and conquer,
Hard, but O the glory of the winning were she won.
George Meredith

Winning a contest may include one or more of several perks including a cash prize, an offer to publish your work, and prestige. Such an event is also an opportunity for publicity--exposure for you and your book.

Many pages have been written about contests in writers’ periodicals. The article in POETRY AND WRITERS’ Nov/Dec 2003 issue addresses some problems inherent in contests: For example, writers consider them rigged and resent the fees (usually from $10 to $25). Publishers and organizations become dependent on the fees they charge. Rarely does an unknown author win which is the whole point of many contests—to find delicious new voices that will keep the not-so-voracious appetite of publishers for new material well fed.

Many of the most reputable contests have fallen into one of these pitfalls or another and I believe you should not let that keep you from using this road to stardom. If you prefer, you can find no-fee contests. Some contests only accept nominations from publishers so yours may enter your book and pay the fee. You may need to prod your publisher a bit if you know of a contest for which you think your book would be suitable.

In terms of promotion, however, there is little that editors find more enticing than a winner—any winner. Here are some guidelines for using contests to gain exposure and expand your credentials:

Set a goal based on the kind of writing you do and the size of your pocketbook. No-fee contests work well until you refine your contest IQ. Some journals award prizes to the best work submitted for their pages in a given year. Pick contests that impose fees at least as carefully as you might select a tomato from the produce department at your market.

Find contests from a source that lists less popular contests as well as those that carry names like Hemingway and Faulkner.

Choose contests that match your needs. Most first-time authors should submit their work for some small awards as well as large ones.

Pay attention to the contest’s guidelines. Don’t enter a competition that seeks experimental fiction if your book is a mystery. It wastes your time and theirs even if no fee is involved.

To increase your chances and to keep you from worrying about each entry, submit work to several contests at a time. Other tips for contest entries include:

Track entries so that you don’t submit the same material to the same contest twice.
Ignore the insistence of some editors that you shouldn’t submit simultaneously. This is patently unfair to the author.
Notify those you may have submitted to if your piece wins elsewhere.
Don’t recycle copies from one contest to another. Editors complain about entries that look as if they have spent a night in the rain.

Find suitable contests on the Web, in books and through organizations. Here are a few:

EPIC is an organization for authors of e-books but print authors may join. Their Eppies Award is gaining more prestige each year. Learn more at http://www.epicauthors.org/joinepic.html

Use the "Deadlines" section of POETRY & WRITERS to find reputable contests. Most are very competitive and charge fees. Check them out at: www.pw.org

CRWROPPS is an announcement list for contests and calls for submissions. To subscribe send an e-mail to crwropps-subscribe@topica.com.

A fat volume called WRITER’S MARKETS publishes an updated edition each year. It is a valuable resource for more than contests. Because it costs about $40, you may want to borrow it from your library.

www.Writer2Writer.com includes a list of no-fee contests in most issues. To subscribe to their newsletter, go to the above link.

Check out both local and national contests. Possible resources for these are your local Press Women, the National Federation of Press Women (http://www.nfpw.org/) and other organizations.

Do a Google search on "writing contests" + your genre.

Once you’ve won a contest—finalist or first place—you are newsworthy:

Add this honor to the "Awards" page of your media kit. If it’s your first award, center it on a page of its own. Oh! And celebrate!

Write your media release announcing this coup (see chapters 16 of THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; it gives you all the information you need for composing a targeted media list and chapter three will help you write your release).

Post the release on press sites that allow you to post them yourself. Examples are www.zinos.com and www.prnews.com.

Notify your professional (writing and other) organizations.

Notify bookstores where you hope to have a signing and, later, those where you have had a signing.

Most colleges have press offices. If they do, put the administrator on your media list and make an effort to meet her. Ditto for the editors of your school/college periodicals.

Add this information to the signature feature (see chapter six) of your e-mail program.

Add this honor to the template you will use in future media releases—the part that gives an editor background on you.

Use this information when you pitch. TV or radio producers. It sets you apart from other others and defines you as an expert.

Hint: If your book wins a contest that doesn’t provide labels, have some made to apply to the cover of your book a la the famous Caldecott award. Don’t forget to notify your publisher.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s first two books, This is the Place, and Harkening, have won 11 awards between them. Her chapbook of poetry, Tracings, was named to the Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads for 2005. THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T, her practical and detailed how-to book on promotion from which this article was excerpted, is USA Book News’ Best Professional Book for 2004 and the Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award winner. Learn more at: http://carolynhoward-johnson.com

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