What Do Contest Wins Really Mean?

I have talked about this in the past, but sometimes a quick refresher is always good.

We hear about writing contests all of the time. The hype is always the same thing. This is your chance to get your writing in front of an editor or an agent. This is your chance to be "one step closer to being published." This is your chance to add to that cover letter the amount of wins this story has gotten. All of this sounds really good, and yes, in some cases, this does indeed lead to that successful writing career you have been shooting for. 

And yet, there is more to this than many writers think.

Let's talk about the way contests are set up. 

1) You enter the contest and your story is put in a category with, theoretically other authors writing in the same genre/word count.

2) Your story is sent out to several volunteers who read your story and score it. This can range from anywhere from 3-10 random volunteers.

3) Your scores are tallied up and the highest scores (please note it does not mean amazingly high scores but simply the highest) get sent to a final judge or judging panel.

4) The final judges score it based on a similar rubric.

5) Highest scores win. 

All of this sounds really good, but let's look at potential downfalls in this plan.

VAGUE OR NO RUBRIC This is a big one. Remember in the publishing industry, this is all subjective. There are people on the NY Times Best Seller List that you might not necessarily like, while your friend does. The same thing happens here. IF the contest you have is not using a rubric, you are leaving it up to the reader to say they just like it or don't like it. Even if they have a rubric, if it is not clear you are leaving it up to subjectivity.

RUBRIC RANGES ARE SMALL If the contest is using a rubric and stories are scored between a 1 and 5, this is dangerous! If your story is not perfect, it goes straight to a 4 out of 5. If someone thinks your score is just average, they give it a 3. Translation? You have to be perfect. Even with scores of 1-10, when someone thinks your story is average, they give it a 7/10. While that might not sound bad, it is still a score of 70% or a C-

ONE BAD SCORE RUINS IT Even if you have a great batch of scores, if you have one person who tanks your score, it is over. Remember, you are dealing with averages here. 

PRELIM JUDGES ARE IDIOTS OK, this might seem harsh but think of it this way. Often, the people judging are people just eager to help out. In many cases, those prelim judges are still trying to figure out how to get their own first sale. What does this mean? You have someone who doesn't fully get it judging your score.

JUDGES PLAYING POLITICS I get that we are living in a world where we want to see things such as more diversity and inclusion in publishing. Nothing wrong with that. However, if you have a judge giving a higher score to someone who has "attempted something no other person has done with diversity" and not focusing on the quality of the writing, you have a score that might not be accurate. 

JUDGING PUBLISHED BOOKS AND BIAS This is something I have argued about with the RWA National competitions for published books. You're judging a category, get those books in the mail or in your email and suddenly say "Hey! I got [insert author name here]. That person is already scoring that person higher because they like that author. The reverse also happens. "Ewww, I got nothing but [insert style of writing you hate]. It doesn't matter now, that person just got a lower score. I have seen this a lot when you get single title bestselling authors going against category or self-published authors. 

I bring all of this up because I don't know how many times I have judged a final round and truly asked myself "Is this really the best writing?" No, it is just the stories that made it through the gauntlet of prelim judges. I would also add that, in many ways, this is just like people telling us the ranking they have on Amazon or the number of "likes" they have. Who were these people who "liked" your book? Were these friends and family?

I am not, in any way, saying contests are not worthy. But remember, selling to a publisher or getting an agent to sign your book is based on more objective things:

• Is the market even buying that type of book?
• Is this a book that can even be sold?
• Is this something the agent or editor is acquiring?