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My children's story made the top thirty in the Britwriters Awards!
Okay, I'm a sucker for punishment, but I want to enter again, see if this time I can make in onto one of those hallowed tables I watched from the balcony! (Hopefully lessons will be learned and the next awards ceremony will be a better experience for everyone.) They say they're accepting entries but once you click on the details it comes up as 2010...hmmm, don't want to lose the chance to go through because my stuff gets lost in this years file... I wish they'd be more thorough with the updating of the site. I need to find out if I can submit the same novel for another try (with my New Improved, Washes Whiter And Kills All Known Germs, synopsis) Aaaaand.... if so, is there a new code from WN to enter on the form, or is the old one still valid?
Kateyanne! No Roger!!?? my condolences ;)
Hi sPam. I am entering again too and would like to know the same as you re code etc.
And I agree with you and think that self-published novels should not be included in the competition or there could be another category for them.
As far as I know there were two in the children's finalists. As I said earlier they are both available on Amazon and one in WH Smiths and one wonders if the judges had heard of them, a subliminal influence. I had seen one of them advertised for sale prior to the comp. According to the rules you had to send two copies of your self-published novel in to the competition which also means judges are looking at books next to emailed unpublished MS.
I'm afraid we don't yet know any arrangements about the comp for next year - the first we heard of it was the announcement in the programme! But we will be talking to Brit Writers soon to get things set up. I expect the code will be different.
As you say, although they have invited entries, the website is not yet set up to take it! What we do know at this stage is that they have limited entries to 20,000 (across the categories!) and the closing date is in February. I'm surprised at the combination of those factors, since they received 21,000 entries this year, and it is likely that many who entered this year will enter again, getting them to 20,000 very quickly, I would have thought.
However, the rush can't start until they let us know about the organisational code for free entry for subscribers, etc.
Hello sPam. This is my first chance to say welcome to Talkback. And to congratulate you on reaching the last 30. Wow.
About re-entering the same book. I'm astonished that the organisers will allow that, for the very reason Webbo has said, namely that 20,000 writers will do it (with 20,000 set as the limit for entries) defeating the purpose of opening a channel for this year's new writers. I know that the parallel Chicken House competition for YA and children's authors specifically states that previous entries cannot be re-submitted. So see the small print. Personally I would be miffed if I wanted to enter for the first time and knew that old hands (forgive me, but I mean those with experience in entering this comp) were entering again in numbers.
Then there's the other side to it. Personally I wouldn't dream of resubmitting the same book. It had already failed. Or rather, yes, I would submit it again but only after I had changed it so deeply that it had become another book. I would be conscious that I had a 'likely not to succeed' effort on my hands, even if it did come in the top 30 of its category, fantastic though that is. Another thread in TB - Tracy's blog with interviews of newly published debut authors - tells how it is typical for an agent to take on one or two new writers each year. Not thirty, nor even ten.
So the choices I would face myself with are either to seek help from friends, or through self help from my 'how to' books to reassess my plot, characters, etc. or (and this would be my number one) to ask a literary consultancy for professional guidance. You've got the book. That was the hard part: producing a completed MS. Now it needs improving. To resubmit it as it was is to stand still.
Cheer Dwight! :)
Though I respect what you're saying about submitting the same novel, I'm not the kind of writer to sit on their (albeit modest) laurels. While it was still my novel-in-progress the first 3 chapters (and frankly flippin' awful synopsis) made it to the finals of the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook novel comp' and the positive critique I received fromTLC gave me the confidence to devote more of my limited time to finishing it, and editing, and editing, and editing, *sigh* and I'm still at it...;) the synopsis I entered with the first chapters to the BW comp was better, but still not good enough - I was judged on that as well as the book. I've now researched method and style, re-written it and it's up to the mark. I've polished the chapters too.
I'm not flogging a dead horse, I'm training my thoroughbred, and if I'm allowed to enter it in the race again, I will.
If you have faith in it, why don't you submit to a real publisher sPam? Don't you have to hold back from doing that if it is entered in this competition?
Hi Liz. :) I'm submitting to agents and publishers as we speak - there wasn't anything in the rules about not not doing so. There are so few comps that have novel catagories that I jump at the chance if I find one, as a way to get professional feedback and (hopefully) a useful credential to add to my query letter.
Aah, that's good at least. But what if it gets accepted? The publisher may balk at the fact that it is up for a competition, and being read by people... are the 30 finalists' submissions going to be available to read, in part?
The year before someone got accepted by a publisher and their work had to be withdrawn, which was easy enough as it was in a small, separate book form. In the years before that, a whole chapter of an anthology had to be blacked out... I don't fully understand why, as it seems good publicity to me, but publishers are very fussy about this. It might be because it hasn't been through their editorial process and may not conform to their standards yet. Our year the same thing happened, but the uni refused to withdraw the chapter as the printing process had gone too far down the line.
If I ever find myself in that lovely quandry I'll happily withdraw from the comp! ;) Anyway, until the rules for BW 2011 are listed it's all just guesswork.
(I don't think the top 30 are available to read anywhere.)
That's good to hear, sPam, and didn't come through in your post higher up; that you've crafted your entry into a better prospect. I may be in the same position as you, then. I am working on a first novel and have been for years, determined to get it published because I know (says he ;) ) that it's good. The pupils in school whom I read it to for their comments think so anyway.
Yup - just popped an e-submission off to Scott Hoffman at Folio, seems cheery enough (from is profile) and interested in the kind of thing I write, so maybe... But if not, at least e-rejections are easy to get rid of with just the click of a delete button. HA! (I hate it when an A4 envelope lands with a dismal thump on my doormat. ugh. ruins my day.) ;)
Met my daughter's new teacher this evening - he must be all of twelve, but very sweet, concerned and rather promising.
Spent most of the evening creating hubby's new esoteric artwork blog. Very exciting. Hopefully launch it next week.
Didn't make daughter's pirate outfit for Thursday's party so will be doing that tomorrow night.
I am now going to bed to prepare for a horrid maelstrom of meetings tomorrow where I am expecting to get well and truly abused - and none of it's my fault! Ho hum. Goodnight all.
[quote=LilyC]I am now going to bed to prepare for a horrid maelstrom of meetings tomorrow where I am expecting to get well and truly abused [/quote]
[quote=Liz!]i think you're tireder than you think Lily![/quote]
Had to pick myself up off the floor - you people crack me up sometimes! Thank you!
the winners of each category were supposed to be getting a laptop each but i dont know if they did or not. There website did state this as one of the prizes, but so much went wrong, that they may have withdrawn that idea. Someone who went to the awards would have to clarify this. ;)
I think I'd like to see them do some kind of review of how they ran the thing this year, acknowledging the shortfalls and addressing entrants' concerns.
I have to confess I even question whether everything really was read. There was no evidence to suggest so.
If it is run better, managed properly with decent communication then I'd enter again.
I met one of the finalists for the poetry section today... she got two tickets for one of the 'big tables', but other than that - nothing! No trophy, no certificate, nothing! And apparently the food was okay, not great. No alcohol, just soft drinks. She was thrilled to get so far, but we were comparing it to the munchbunch comp prizegiving today, where we all got certificates and a professional photoshoot and they will be sending us photos etc. It's a shame. She was so thrilled to get that phone call to say she was a finalist. It's such a huge competition that as a finalist you want some record of your achievement.
Has the new WN entry code for submissions been released yet? If the BW doors are going to be shut as soon as they reach 20,000 entries, time is of the essence. ;)
Comments
Kateyanne! No Roger!!?? my condolences ;)
And I agree with you and think that self-published novels should not be included in the competition or there could be another category for them.
As far as I know there were two in the children's finalists. As I said earlier they are both available on Amazon and one in WH Smiths and one wonders if the judges had heard of them, a subliminal influence. I had seen one of them advertised for sale prior to the comp. According to the rules you had to send two copies of your self-published novel in to the competition which also means judges are looking at books next to emailed unpublished MS.
As you say, although they have invited entries, the website is not yet set up to take it! What we do know at this stage is that they have limited entries to 20,000 (across the categories!) and the closing date is in February. I'm surprised at the combination of those factors, since they received 21,000 entries this year, and it is likely that many who entered this year will enter again, getting them to 20,000 very quickly, I would have thought.
However, the rush can't start until they let us know about the organisational code for free entry for subscribers, etc.
About re-entering the same book. I'm astonished that the organisers will allow that, for the very reason Webbo has said, namely that 20,000 writers will do it (with 20,000 set as the limit for entries) defeating the purpose of opening a channel for this year's new writers. I know that the parallel Chicken House competition for YA and children's authors specifically states that previous entries cannot be re-submitted. So see the small print. Personally I would be miffed if I wanted to enter for the first time and knew that old hands (forgive me, but I mean those with experience in entering this comp) were entering again in numbers.
Then there's the other side to it. Personally I wouldn't dream of resubmitting the same book. It had already failed. Or rather, yes, I would submit it again but only after I had changed it so deeply that it had become another book. I would be conscious that I had a 'likely not to succeed' effort on my hands, even if it did come in the top 30 of its category, fantastic though that is. Another thread in TB - Tracy's blog with interviews of newly published debut authors - tells how it is typical for an agent to take on one or two new writers each year. Not thirty, nor even ten.
So the choices I would face myself with are either to seek help from friends, or through self help from my 'how to' books to reassess my plot, characters, etc. or (and this would be my number one) to ask a literary consultancy for professional guidance. You've got the book. That was the hard part: producing a completed MS. Now it needs improving. To resubmit it as it was is to stand still.
Though I respect what you're saying about submitting the same novel, I'm not the kind of writer to sit on their (albeit modest) laurels. While it was still my novel-in-progress the first 3 chapters (and frankly flippin' awful synopsis) made it to the finals of the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook novel comp' and the positive critique I received fromTLC gave me the confidence to devote more of my limited time to finishing it, and editing, and editing, and editing, *sigh* and I'm still at it...;) the synopsis I entered with the first chapters to the BW comp was better, but still not good enough - I was judged on that as well as the book. I've now researched method and style, re-written it and it's up to the mark. I've polished the chapters too.
I'm not flogging a dead horse, I'm training my thoroughbred, and if I'm allowed to enter it in the race again, I will.
The year before someone got accepted by a publisher and their work had to be withdrawn, which was easy enough as it was in a small, separate book form. In the years before that, a whole chapter of an anthology had to be blacked out... I don't fully understand why, as it seems good publicity to me, but publishers are very fussy about this. It might be because it hasn't been through their editorial process and may not conform to their standards yet. Our year the same thing happened, but the uni refused to withdraw the chapter as the printing process had gone too far down the line.
(I don't think the top 30 are available to read anywhere.)
Have you targeted your next agent yet?
Have you submitted your book yet?
Spent most of the evening creating hubby's new esoteric artwork blog. Very exciting. Hopefully launch it next week.
Didn't make daughter's pirate outfit for Thursday's party so will be doing that tomorrow night.
I am now going to bed to prepare for a horrid maelstrom of meetings tomorrow where I am expecting to get well and truly abused - and none of it's my fault! Ho hum. Goodnight all.
[quote=Liz!]i think you're tireder than you think Lily![/quote]
Had to pick myself up off the floor - you people crack me up sometimes! Thank you!
There seems to have been no mention of it anywhere.
I think I'd like to see them do some kind of review of how they ran the thing this year, acknowledging the shortfalls and addressing entrants' concerns.
I have to confess I even question whether everything really was read. There was no evidence to suggest so.
If it is run better, managed properly with decent communication then I'd enter again.
Perhaps Webbo can update us now.