Are Contests Worth the Price?

As writers, we’ve all either entered contests or been tempted to. Most contests have an entry fee, and it’s sometimes difficult to justify the expenditure. In addition to the fee, there are shipping expenses, and sometimes, if you final, you have additional expense. Most contests do not accept digital entries, which is understandable. Who wants to read from a monitor?
As an author, I’ve been on both sides of the table. I’ve judged the South Carolina Writers’ Workshop entries, and more recently, the Pikes Peak conference entries. I’ve also entered contests throughout my writing career. From the judge’s side, I’ll tell you I’d much rather sit down with a cup of tea and read through entries, than stare at the same monitor I’ve worked at all day. That said, I understand why contests ask for hard copies for an entry.
As a writer, yes, my early entries didn’t reach the mark. But after many workshops and classes on the craft of writing, I saw a sea-change in the scores.
Now on to the wisdom of entering contests. A writer, unless you’ve won the lottery, should be selective about contests.
First, do a little research to see if this is a legitimate contest or simply a scam. It’s pretty easy to find out. If the contest is sponsored by a legitimate writers’ group, like an RWA chapter or Historical Novel Society, or by a state association like Florida Writers, you know it’s legit.
Next, read the details to see who is judging. Don’t look at the prize money or the award. Except for the most prestigious awards, the prizes aren’t big. The real win, the biggest reward, is that you can use a nice win to catch the eye of an agent or editor. Most admit that contest wins get their attention.
Thirdly, look to see if the contest returns comments, or only scores. That’s one objection I have to entering the national RWA contest—no comments, just numbers, and from whom? Published? Unpublished? You have no way of knowing. On the other hand, if a contest offers feedback (which most every RWA chapter contest does), it’s like getting a mini-critique.
An aside, and one worth noting for published and unpublished writers: strangely, there are contests which do not take ARCs. Your professionally-edited book can/must be entered in unpublished, if the release date falls after the contest-entry deadline. This seems to me a bit unfair to an unpublished author who has to compete with your edited book. I don’t really understand the reasoning for not accepting an ARC.
Recently, I entered a small local contest. To my surprise, all three finalists’ entries were sent to places like HarperCollins, Medallion, etc. for final judging. Not only that, the contest offered a breakdown of genres, so that my historical wouldn’t be lost in the Mainstream category, or bunched in with SciFi.
To my delight, both my two entries finaled. One went to Medallion, the YA went to HarperCollins for final judging. After reading comments from both editors (one of whom gave me First Place for my historical, The Glass Partridge), I went to work and revised according to their suggestions. No, I didn’t get a contract, but now, in a query letter, I can say “an editor at Medallion gave this story First Place in the final round of judging”. How cool is that? Feedback from an editor, and bragging rights, all for forty-five dollars. If anyone’s interested, the contest, Do it! Write, was sponsored by the Pasco chapter of the Florida Writers Association. It was opened to non-members, too. So look at local and regional contests. I know, it’s like buying a lottery ticket, but you can’t win without trying.