Top 10 reasons you should be entering writing contests

I love writing contests. I don't win very many of them, but I am a firm believer that entering contests is one of the best things you can do for your writing.

As a frame of reference, I've entered a moderate amount of contests. My lifestyle isn't such that I can be one of those people who constantly seeks them out and enters, enters, enters--though I have a friend who has done pretty much that and it's been successful for her. But neither do I turn my back when a contest presents itself. I won a statewide writing award: the Tassy Walden Award for New Voices in Children's Literature. But I entered it  lots of times. I was a finalist three times, an honorable mention once, and then there was that great year when they called me and said, "You won!" (Interestingly enough, they weren't in that order.) I enter my husband Mark in contests, too--or, at least, force him into it--because he's more humble about his writing than I am. :) He won the "Tassy" as well, the year before I did. He also won the online contest WRiTE CLUB, with which you may be familiar. Both of us had near misses in the PEN New England writing contest, in which the judges made a point of calling us and encouraging us to enter again. And.... we've also entered plenty of things which, on the face of it, were completely unsuccessful.

But the unsuccessful ones were just as worth entering.

Here's why I think you should be entering as many writing contests as you can fit comfortably into your lifestyle:

1. They force you to look at your writing objectively. This isn't showing off a manuscript to your mom or writing partner/friend. Someone is going to be judging you on this, and you know you're going to look at it differently.

2. They make you realize you didn't need those extra 2500 words, after all. Mark and I have worked harder to cut down the beginning of our books because of contest word count restrictions than for any other single reason. Oh, it hurts to cut that favorite joke or perfect description. But once it's gone, it's pretty clear that the story is better without it. Just the practice of cutting, cutting, cutting makes it easier to carry on with the rest of the book.

3. You will learn to meet a variety of publishing guidelines and standards. So one contest wants 1 inch margins, the other one wants a title page, the third one wants a .pdf entry. Contests are a great way to figure out how to do all those things before embarrassing yourself sending off a poorly-formatted manuscript to an agent or editor.

4. Connecting with other writers. Many regional contests have open-invitation awards ceremonies. Go to them. Even if you lost. Trust me, you'll meet other "losers," and you'll meet other winners and you'll realize how much you all have in common. Plus children's publishing people are the nicest people ever, so you'll end up having great conversations and meeting really interesting folks.

5. Did I mention deadlines? All contests have 'em. Some of us (pats self on back) wouldn't get anything done without deadlines.

So much for the general reasons. Here are 5 more that relate more to technical success within the contest world.

6. Finally, finally! Something to put on that bio section of your query letters.

7. A chance to be published, even in a small way. Not every contest offers publication--the one I won did not. But many will print at least sections of winnings manuscripts, which mean that many more people will have a chance to read your work.

8. Feedback from professionals. Even if you don't win, many judges are kind enough to offer feedback to entrants they deemed "close." In a contest Mark did NOT win, he still heard from a judge who offered him practical suggestions and the glorious news that, "Lois Lowry [another judge] absolutely loved this."

9. Many contests offer a small monetary award. This shouldn't be sniffed at. It buys babysitters.

10. Last, but far from least: small successes are every bit as important as the big ones. Winning, or placing in, a contest tells you that you're not wasting your time. You're on the right track. When you wake up at three in the morning wondering why you're bothering with all this, why you endure rejection after rejection, you'll be able to remember that someone out there thinks you can write, and that at least once you were praised and accepted. This means everything.

Here are a few contests worth looking into:
The Tassy Walden Award for New Voices in Children's Literature (for unpublished Connecticut writers and illustrators--Deadline: Feb 2)
The Susan P. Bloom Children's Book Discovery Award (through PEN New England) (for New England writers--Deadline: Feb 2)
Hunger Mountain Katherine Paterson Prize (any children's writer--Deadline: June)
SCBWI awards and grants (various grants are offered in different categories, various deadlines)

Please feel free to share any good contests in the comments, as well as to weigh in on how you feel about contests in general. I'd love to hear your thoughts.