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by Tammy Schubert
It’s time to submit your manuscript to a contest. Have you prepared yourself to receive anything less than the award? You know your work is terrific, and you are confident it will make the finals. You’ve selected the perfect dress to wear for the ceremony; all you need is the official word. On the day the finalist notification calls are made, you stare at the phone willing it to ring. At the office, you excuse yourself from meetings to check messages every thirty minutes. Nothing. By the time the sun goes down, it’s obvious your name didn’t make the list. (But you had your phone lines checked anyway.)
Okay, it stings but you shrug it off and go about your business. But when you open the returned manuscript, you are surprised to see a red pen has leaked all over your baby. Several typed pages of a critique are enclosed pointing out flaws with your heroine and expressing concerns about your missing hero who may have run off with the plot. On the last page, almost a footnote, “Please remember that spell check is only a first line of defense. The program is not set up to know the difference between a rogue knight and a rouge knight.” Shocked, the documents fall to the floor with a thud.
If you’ve ever experienced a moment like this, you know the sting can be brutal. What you do next is very important. Will you rant and rave about the judge who couldn’t see a good story if it hit her in the face? Will you throw your manuscript into a drawer and give up your dream? Or, are you going to accept the advice and grow from the experience?
Rant, rave and weep, if you must, but keep it private or among friends who’ll be discrete. Resist the urge to bash the reviewer in public, especially in forums on the web. For those of you not worried about your thighs, eat a gallon of chocolate peanut butter ice cream. Everybody else, go take out your frustration on a treadmill. Grieve, then put it behind you and get to work.
It is important to remember that writing is a business. It takes a lot of time and hard work to turn out a few books every year. Then there are the family obligations, self-care, hobbies and many other things requiring our attention. When a published author uses some of her precious time to judge a contest or do a free read for an aspiring author, accept it graciously and know it is given with good intentions. She wouldn’t have read it if she didn’t care about helping you. Always remember, the truth might help you get published.
So you don’t agree with everything she said; you are under no obligation to take the advice. But don’t cheat yourself out of the opportunity to hone your skills. Evaluate everything with an open mind and see what happens. You might be surprised.
Most of these published authors didn’t ask for money in exchange for their services. Although many would love to be showered with chocolate and jewelry, it isn’t the custom to give elaborate gifts. But a handwritten thank you note goes a long way. One day you will pick up the phone to find an editor who is offering you a contract. While you are celebrating, don’t forget the author who gave you the free advice. I’m sure they would love to hear about your success.
Readers:
Have you ever had a critique you believed to be awful come back to you? How did you handle it? How did you keep yourself from getting too discouraged to continue? Did you send the author/editor/agent who critiqued your work a thank you note? If not, why not?
For those of you who went on to publication after receiving harsh reviews, did you ever go back and send thank you notes to the authors/editors/agents who helped you get to this career milestone?
by Tammy Schubert
16 comments
Oh, the pain. It just happened to me with the Maggies. I haven’t received my feedback yet (I’m not even sure if I do), but I’ve already found one major problem with the premise and I’m amending that now. But I digress…
I’ve sent handwritten thank yous to the judges who have taken the time to read my pages. It’s the least I can do. And I find the harshest critique is often the one that spurs me to really look at the MS more closely to see if it needs to change. Yes, it hurts, but I’d rather get ways to improve than bland or glowing remarks…unless it’s an editor who wants to publish it. *grin*
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Good morning Tammy,
Timely post with the Maggies just out.
Yes, I’ve send thank yous…I know from a judges side of the table how appreciated the notes are.
I liked that you said no one is under the obligation to take suggestions given to them. I know we’ve all ran up against that one.
When I critique the work of others, I always tell them to take my (red) comments as a Grocery Story experience.
When you shop, you don’t buy everything. You take what you need…or want…and leave the rest on the shelves in the store…and no hard feelings. I’ve left suggestions “on the shelf” myself.
But value every tidbit of advice offered (and weigh it before you use it) because fresh eyes looking at your baby and heeding that advice just might be the key to getting “The Call”. It was for me.
Sandy
Excellent post, Tammy. I like the timing, too. No matter how “mature” I think I am, I always feel stung when I don’t place in a contest, and by the judge’s comments, too. But every time, EVERY time, after the sting dies down and I start thinking about what the judge said, I learn something valuable that makes my story better, stronger, more salable. It’s funny that as you grow as a writer, you know better which comments to keep and which to bypass.
So thanks to all you contest judges and critique partners and beta readers out there (that includes you, Pam
.
And if you haven’t done it, consider becoming a contest judge yourself.
Hi Tammy,
How true, how true! After the hurt subdues to a not-horribly-painful knife in the gut, I reread my manuscript and think, “How could I have missed that?” Of course I have also thought, “What? How did they totally miss what I was talking about?” (To reread it now, I’m sure I’d be back to how-did-I-miss-that.) But yes, I do send thank you notes. Once they were a couple of months late, but I did apologize for my lapse of time.
Yes, judges give their time and experience to help me and others and it is appreciated. Good post Tammy.
Judges including some whose name I recognized, trashed both my novels in the RWA sponsored contests I entered. I went on to sell one of these low scoring books to Avon.
The crits were not helpful and betrayed the writers’ unfamiliarity with my subgenre. I was blamed for not writing to the conventions of category, while none of the judges picked up on the real problem that I had to solve with that manuscript to sell it.
My personal feeling is that romance writers spend much too much time and energy on these contests. Only people who have solved the problems you are facing can help you solve them, and in my experience these are rarely the people who end up judging your work.
I always send thank you notes to my judges, even the ones who I believe are way off base. And, despite my double final in the Maggies, I have had a lot of red ink
Tammy, you have made some great points here. 12 years of entering contests, and I have to confess that you usually have to accept that criticism and to be willing to make changes to get anywhere in this business. When I swallowed my pride and started making changes, I won my first contest and finaled in the Maggies for the first time.
That said, choose your contests with care. I would recommend only entering contests that have published authors judge. In my experience, unpublished authors (and this includes myself!) are often far harsher than published authors.
I’m just saying, folks, getting positive results probably isn’t going to happen if you aren’t willing or able to scrap and entire manuscript and start from scratch. I learned that in grad school where I’m currently on the third rendition of a women’s fiction novel.
Oh, and I absolutely agree about thank you notes. Ironically, I hate to write them because I can never seem to get them creative and unique enough, but just send them out.
Tammy – I’m glad you have the right attitude about how to take contest feedback. You’re absolutely right that these judges (both pubbed and unpubbed) are donating precious time, but I think they are very likely taking away from themselves (for a little time off break) and family more so than writing since we have to get our pages done. We can more often justify using our “free time” to judge over our writing time. So it is a labor of love any time a writer reads/critiques for another one.
And, I want to note that some of the best feedback I got from contests I entered prior to selling came from unpublished writers – they are readers at heart, which is what we are targeting. But a writer who is a reader can say more than “I just didn’t like it.” You may get the occasional frustrated writer who is jealous of what they’re reading so they bleed ink all over your pages, but the more you write the quicker you’ll recognize that negative type of critiquer and know to just push that entry aside and take the constructive information others give you.
LIke the others have mentioned, I always sent a thank you to every judge. I can not tell you how many people have come up to me over the years to say they ‘still had the thank you note’ I’d written and bought my book when I sold.
Hey Tammy! Great advice. It is very hard to do, though. I know that for a fact. I’m one of those that sink very low when I get those red marks. I try not to and I work myself up to expect them, but I still let the rejection pull me down every time. With that said, I have gotten better at taking it and I think that comes with continually placing myself in the line of fire, so to say.
I also agree that thank you notes are a MUST! I remember hearing Karen White speak about this very thing. She talked about how much time it takes out of her writing schedule to try to share some of her experience. She also commented that out of one contest she judged she only received one thank you note. For her, that one thank you note was what brought her back to judge the next year. I’m saddened to think that so many new writers could have missed out on her wisdom because someone was too hurt or too (whatever) to say a simple ‘thank you for your time.’
If you wonder why saying thank you is so important, think of this like paying a plumber to come and unclog your toilet or an electrician to come and fix the wiring in your kitchen. If this is something you don’t know how to do or don’t have the skills to do, then you will gladly fork over the money to get these items fixed. This is pretty much what you are doing when you are entering a contest. Pay that ‘final bill’ with a simple thank you note. It’s the least you can do for the service you receive…grin…
Tami
My last contest entry scared me off contests for now. It was my own fault though; a last minute rush job to meet the deadline.
But being a category coordinator for the TRW Toronto Gold contest this year (and a judge for the last three years as well) has shown me how it can be done, without breaking someone’s heart!
Deb
I also think thank you notes are important.
This year I set a goal of entering a number of contests. I kept hearing back that I didn’t final or place. But I did get some very constructive feedback from some. I think it’s better to enter a contest where you get feedback (like the Maggie’s). It was helpful to improving my manuscript. Then, miraculously, the results from a contest I’d forgotten I’d even entered came back and I received first place in the suspense romance category. That was a real thrill because it gave me additional motivation to continue.
Marilyn
I have a love/hate relationship with contests. I do almost none one year and 7 the next. I’ve had some ugly experiences in the past, my fault and the judges. One critique was so poorly done that I kept it as an example of what not to do. If I’d been a new writer it would have crushed me so badly I’d have never written another word. Not what you should do as a judge. I always send a thank you note-always. Judging takes time and that is the least a judge should receive.
My writing tends to not fit neatly into one genre, so I have learned to distinguish when judges’ comments are genuinely meant and when the judge just “doesn’t get it”. Still, I always send a thank you note and always make an effort to mention a comment the judge made that resonated with me.
My pet peeve is when judges just put down a numerical score with no comments at all. I’ve had a few of those and they are very frustrating. If you didn’t like something, or felt it wasn’t up to par, at least tell me why so that I can fix it! I’d rather have too much commentary, even if I feel like some of it is off-base, than none at all.
EC – I agree with you. Anyone who puts less than the top score owes the writer an explanation why. If they had a thought that caused that score, then they should be able to communicate it. Those are the ones I would ignore b/c you can’t qualify the score without the feedback.