I Didn’t Win or Get Picked … Why?

I love writing contests. They’re a wonderful way to sharpen skills, get your name out there, and possibly even add an award or two to your author resume. They can help with discipline (deadlines, anyone?), get creative juices flowing, and sometimes even open your eyes to a story you didn’t even know you needed to tell.

For the last several years, I’ve been more on the other side of contests as a judge or contest director. That’s been fun, too. I love reading anyway, so judging is just an excuse to read to my heart’s content while excusing it as “work.”

But there’s been a growing frustration as I’ve watched excellent submission after excellent submission never clear the first round of judging simply because the author didn’t follow submission guidelines. This is heartbreaking as it means a lot of incredible writers go unrecognized because of very easy fixes.

In some contests, judges will allow a piece to go forward to the second round even if the author skips or bungles directions, but it is almost always with a heavy, in-built penalty that all but eliminates them from winning. Other contests automatically disqualify an entry if any of the guidelines aren’t followed … before they are even read.

Inspire’s last writing contest, Summer Dreaming, is a solid example. From folks who had their names in the body or filename of the entry (so they had to be immediately eliminated because it’s a confidential judging process) to those who added graphics or colorful fonts or just didn’t use one-inch margins and double spacing, there were about a third of the entries that ended their chance simply by not carefully following submission guidelines.

Other organizations run contests for all sorts of reasons. For Inspire, it’s fun, gets people out of their comfort zones, inspires new stories, hones skills, AND replicates the real-world process of submitting to an agent, editor, or publisher.

When we submit the words we work so hard to perfect, we want to give our word-babies every chance at success. Following guidelines to the letter is the best way to do that.

So, the next time you submit … to a contest, in a query letter, to an agent or publisher, etc. … keep the following ten tips in mind. And, who knows, you might soon have a new accolade to add to your resume!

  1. Download the Instructions/Directions/Guidelines.
  2. Make sure every guideline is completely understood. Ask well before the contest deadline if you are unclear on any aspect of what is being required.
  3. Turn guidelines into a bullet-point/checklist if they aren’t already in that format and have a printed copy ready to go when you start checking your submission.
  4. After you have perfectly edited your piece, go through those bullet points and only check them off when you are 100% sure that you have met the stated requirement.
  5. If you have an obliging and detail-oriented spouse, relative, friend, or writing colleague, ask if they would check your piece for submission compliance. Not for story feedback, mind you … for submission compliance! And don’t forget to give them the guidelines!
  6. Let the piece rest at least a few days and then re-check every single step. Fresh eyes always catch mistakes better.
  7. Resist the urge to “stand out” using graphics, a funky font, or any text color other than black. You will stand out, all right. But not in the way you want. And before a word is read, your piece will likely be in the bin.
  8. In the same vein, don’t ignore rules because you feel your piece looks better on the page with no margins or with triple spacing. Assuming that a 1500-word limit doesn’t apply to you because the judges will obviously be enrapt with all 5,000 words of your story is a sure way to end your shot at winning in round one.
  9. Don’t try to edit AND check for guideline adherence at the same time. Edit first. Only when your piece is absolutely clean and edited should you then go on to addressing formatting and submission parameters. Our brains cannot do two things at once—at least not well—and editing and formatting are two very different things.
  10. Don’t wait until the last minute. In my years and years of being on judging panels, I would estimate that well over 50% of entries come in the last day of a contest window … many in the last ten minutes of the timeframe! Rushing to get something in will inevitably lead to mistakes. Give yourself plenty of unrushed time to get it right.
About Robynne Elizabeth Miller 9 Articles
Prior to becoming President of Inspire, Robynne has served on the board as Communications Director and Director of Leadership and as a critique group leader. She has written eight books, is a freelance editor and writing coach, and speaks and teaches at workshops, conferences, and events throughout the country . . . and is director of the Vision Christian Writers Conference at Mount Hermon. Robynne was awarded her MFA in Creative Nonfiction and Fiction in August 2018 and lives in northwest Oregon with her wonderful British husband and the youngest of their four children.

6 Comments

  1. Thank you for these great reminders. It can be very discouraging when a writer has worked diligently to polish an entry, but then it is dismissed. Having these ten steps could be the precise thing to help their submission along.

  2. This is an extremely helpful article. I can testify from personal experience that these guidelines (and learning to follow them) have made a huge difference in how my submissions have been received. Thank you, Robynne.

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