New Voice Competition

As writers we have all been tempted to enter certain writing competitions. Then we wait nervously and...well nothing. I must admit that I had been somewhat sceptical about the whole entering of a competition when the prize was a publishing deal after what was a bad experience a few years back.



The deal back then was to submit a poem of any length on any subject and imagine my delight when it was announced that I had been selected to go into that years book of competition finalists. It turned out, of course, that the whole thing was a scam and that most likely everyone who had entered were sent a similar letter in the hopes that they would buy a book with their poem in. I mean who wouldn't? As a writer you always want to see your creations in print.

Anyway to cut a long story short this company has been running this contest under numerous guises for a number of years and have been taken to court several times. I did not take them to court and I did not buy the book and that first introduction into a writing competition did leave me somewhat reluctant to enter more.

I continued to write and a few months ago a new competition was brought to my attention. The publishing company was called 'Sleepytown Press' and they were looking for a 'New Voice' in the world of Children's picture books. There was no entry fee and although the winner was to get a publishing deal I thought there would be no harm in entering, and so I did.

A few days ago I received and email from 'Sleepytown Press' to say that I had placed second in the competition and that all the judges enjoyed my book. Again my defenses instantly went up. These guys were self publishers and maybe the reason why I was placed second was so that I would be tempted to commit to  one of their self publishing packages?

Then yesterday I decided to check their website and there for all to see were the results of the competition, in black and white. '2nd place, 'Beware Of The Teacher' by Jason Bardwell. It seems that I had been more concerned with whether the competition was fake and a ploy to separate me and my money that I had lost focus on the real issue, did I think my entry was good enough to get second place? Did I have belief in my own ability and the standard of my work?

This is certainly something we all have to look within ourselves for and this competition validated my thoughts  when I was entering the contest. I knew my work was good, I knew people would enjoy it and I knew it was different. In order to become successful at anything you not only have to be good at it but you have to have the confidence to push it on other people because if you are not 100% convinced and invested in your work, then why should others?