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Hello Reader,

First of all, registration for the Storytelling for Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers course* ends this Sunday at midnight. I've organized the course with Claire Cronshaw of Cherry Edits. It's based on the topics we have encountered most often when editing novels written by new authors.

We plan to run the course again in the autumn, but we haven't confirmed the dates yet – when we do, we'll let you know.

Rejection and literary awards

Today I want to talk about rejection and literary awards prizes for short stories, novels, poetry, etc.

First, rejection can feel horrible. It’s bruising, even if you know the odds are not in your favor.

There's a little part of me that thinks my writing is really special and can win despite odds of, say, a 0.3% acceptance rate. Maybe you have that, too? It’s not so different to believing you are a lucky gambler – but if we zoom out and look at statistics, then it’s a similar kind of activity, although with gambling, you are guaranteed to lose out over the long-term, whereas with writing, your odds increase as you hone your craft and win some awards.

The first thing I want to say is that if you’ve not experienced rejection, then the award, competition, or magazine, etc., isn’t a significant achievement.

And this observation comes with a warning. Especially in the self-publishing space, there are some vanity awards out there that give you a very specific award in return for a substantial entry fee.

As with publishing scams, take a close look at any award you apply for!

I say this as I see quite a few authors and editors promoting awards they or their clients have won. It sounds impressive at first and can be a good marketing tool, but it's important to do due diligence on whether the award means something. (It's a bit like being top of the Amazon bestseller list for a reaalllly specific niche, like cozy cat mysteries, for one week only – it's still an achievement, but watch out for people misrepresenting how big an achievement it is in their advertising.)

ALLi are incredibly helpful in this department. They have rated many of the awards out there with this set of criteria:

I always refer authors to the ratings on the ALLi list for book awards and contest ratings.

Awards are also interesting because there seem to be many in "hustle culture" spaces, even though the idea of an award is about prestige, and so is closer to how the Literary Academy operates through distinction. (See my blog post for more on this distinction.)

Really, publishing in the top lit mags is similar to winning an award – the main difference is that your chance of being accepted for a given lit mag is probably higher than your chances of winning a prestigious award.

Award can still be a marketing tool. But one pitfall here is overemphasizing the award: readers usually choose books they connect with when they read the blurb. You may be rightly proud of an award, but I believe you’re best off mentioning it at the end of a description; it’s more likely to clinch readers deciding between two books they like the look of rather than anything else.

Finally, one thing to watch is how winning awards and publishing in lit mags relates to your self-confidence and self-esteem as an author.

That’s because, if you plan on participating in this game of prestige, it’s better to go in with your eyes wide open, thinking, “I could do with publications in mags X, Y, and Z to get my writing career where I want it to be,” instead of letting your self-confidence be dictated to you by your successes and failures. (This is where emotional baggage from public education systems with their ranking systems, etc. can create problems). I say this as someone who was quite naive about all this when I was younger!

In short, keeping an appropriate amount of emotional distance from your feelings about winning or losing an award is helpful.

Have you had any bad experiences of awards or prizes that you’d like me to share with others?

I’m happy to do this, because I believe it’s important for editors to keep talking about scams and the invisible side of how publishing operates, so fewer people will make mistakes in these areas.

That’s it for this week!

Take care,

Andrew Hodges from The Narrative Craft

*The eagle-eyed among you will notice that we have renamed the course Storytelling 101: Get Your Novel Editor-Ready, based on feedback we've received from our webinar audience. Any questions, let me know!

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