I’ve always been
ambivalent about writing contests (it’s one of the most common questions I get
as a result of writing the book, “Your Writing Coach”). So I was very
interested to read the opinion of literary agent Nathan Bransford on his blog.
Here are a few of his key observations:
Know what
you're entering. Know what happens to your work in the event you win (or
even/especially if you don't win). Make sure you're completely comfortable with
it.
Here's the
thing about that. Even the biggest writing competitions have... what, a few
thousand entries? Agents get 10,000+ queries a year and take on maybe a handful
of clients. Going strictly by the numbers, an agent's Inbox is far more
competitive than any writing contest. Accordingly, I take contest wins with a
grain of salt.”
He says that
when he gets a query letter mentioning that the author has been a finalist or
even a winner of a large contest, it can help but it’s not going to be a deal
maker. He added, specifically about the Amazon Breakthrough contest:
(for friendly guidance on how to write your book, from idea through to publication, get my book, "Your Writing Coach," available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers.)