Permission to forward granted:
Call out from EPIC, the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition™:
EPIC eBook Award Competition™ is looking for industry professional judges:
Published authors, publishers, and/or editors. If you are interested, please go to: http://bitly.com/eBookJudging and complete the form.
If you are an author and enter the competition, you will not be assigned to judge in any categories you enter. You will be contacted during the last two weeks of May to confirm your continued judging availability.
EPIC thanks you in advance for your willingness to participate.
EPIC's eBook Award Competition™ opens June 1 and closes July 15. The time frames for judging are:
Preliminary Round judging, June 5 through July 22
First Round judging, July 27 through September 7.
Final Round of judging, September 17 through October 12.
Thank you for your interest,
Debi Sullivan
EPIC's Competitions Chair
competitions@epicorg.com
Showing posts with label judging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label judging. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Hanging Up The Robes
Contest judging is officially finished for this year. It turned out to be a much different experience than expected. Don’t they always?
Let’s compare excuses and see if yours are the same as mine, and maybe dispel a few myths along the way.
I never volunteered to judge a contest because...
Myth Number 1
Free time is in short supply. I mean really, how could I possibly judge a contest when I have so many other ‘important’ things to do? Sometimes, this one is true. You just can’t work it in, and do a good job on the entries. I did a little switch up, which worked for me. When we’re not writing, we’re reading, right? I used my free reading time to read contest entries. And it was great. I discovered some really outstanding authors whom I really hope get published. Their stories shined so brightly, I want to know The End!
Myth Number 2
I don’t know enough. Maybe there are some who’d agree with this. lol. But seriously, I’ve learned a great deal over the past several years. From my publishers, editors, and mostly from my CP’s who are editors, authors, and professionals in their own right. Brilliant women, I consider myself lucky to know. I realize I still have so much to learn about this business, but at the same time, I’ve learned enough, that I can start giving back to the writing community which has been so generous to me.
Myth Number 3
Contests don’t matter. Getting published does. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on this one. But, I admit to a change of heart after reading the entries. There are many different routes to publication. Who am I to say not to follow the one that works best for you? If you can draw the attention of an editor or agent with your entry, good for you! If you don’t, but you still learned something from entering, it’s still money well spent. If even that doesn’t work, try another route.
All in all, it proved to be a really good experience. I’m glad I did it. There wasn’t anything that got on my nerves about any of the entries. While not all spectacular, the work that each entrant put into their work was very evident. Judging will have a place on the calendar for next year. Can’t wait to see what’s new.
Let’s compare excuses and see if yours are the same as mine, and maybe dispel a few myths along the way.
I never volunteered to judge a contest because...
Myth Number 1
Free time is in short supply. I mean really, how could I possibly judge a contest when I have so many other ‘important’ things to do? Sometimes, this one is true. You just can’t work it in, and do a good job on the entries. I did a little switch up, which worked for me. When we’re not writing, we’re reading, right? I used my free reading time to read contest entries. And it was great. I discovered some really outstanding authors whom I really hope get published. Their stories shined so brightly, I want to know The End!
Myth Number 2
I don’t know enough. Maybe there are some who’d agree with this. lol. But seriously, I’ve learned a great deal over the past several years. From my publishers, editors, and mostly from my CP’s who are editors, authors, and professionals in their own right. Brilliant women, I consider myself lucky to know. I realize I still have so much to learn about this business, but at the same time, I’ve learned enough, that I can start giving back to the writing community which has been so generous to me.
Myth Number 3
Contests don’t matter. Getting published does. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on this one. But, I admit to a change of heart after reading the entries. There are many different routes to publication. Who am I to say not to follow the one that works best for you? If you can draw the attention of an editor or agent with your entry, good for you! If you don’t, but you still learned something from entering, it’s still money well spent. If even that doesn’t work, try another route.
All in all, it proved to be a really good experience. I’m glad I did it. There wasn’t anything that got on my nerves about any of the entries. While not all spectacular, the work that each entrant put into their work was very evident. Judging will have a place on the calendar for next year. Can’t wait to see what’s new.
Monday, September 20, 2010
The Honorable Ms. Fox
Finally, after all these years, I’ve volunteered to judge a writing contest or two. Waiting to receive the entries is a little like waiting for Christmas morning. Sometimes you’re not quite sure what you’re going to get, but will be interested none the less.
I’ve had some good experiences in contests and some bad ones. The bad ones left me not wanting to enter anything. Ever. After giving it much consideration, I thought one way to remove the blight of the not so good experience would be to pay it forward, and try to be a better judge myself. So I particularly looked for a contest in which the judge would be allowed to make comments on the entries.
In my bad experience some of the comments I received were, ‘this isn’t a romance’ and ‘no one uses language like that’. Uh, excuse me, it is, and they do. But the point is, to me, those were not constructive comments. Especially in light of the fact that one of the judges proceeded to comment about the thousands of romances she had read, and not found one like mine. Therefore, it wasn’t fit to be published. Thank goodness I received a contract for that story the same day. Otherwise I would have been crushed. And just for the record, it’s a bestseller.
Now I usually put on my big girl panties in the morning, so things like this shouldn’t get to me. If you want to think my writing is crap, you are totally allowed to think that. I promise, I won’t lose one minute of sleep over it. The big ‘but’ is, tell me why. If my characters are TSTL, tell me what I could improve, just don’t tell me they are. How does that help me make them better characters? As a contest judge, a response like that is not only condescending, it’s in poor taste, and totally unprofessional. And if you cannot tell me how I need to improve, even though you don’t like something, then you are not fit to be a contest judge.
*looks around* Crimeny, where did that soapbox come from? *climbs down*
So here’s hoping I can truly help someone, and inspire them to be a better writer. Or, congratulate them because they are totally awesome right out of the box.
I’ve had some good experiences in contests and some bad ones. The bad ones left me not wanting to enter anything. Ever. After giving it much consideration, I thought one way to remove the blight of the not so good experience would be to pay it forward, and try to be a better judge myself. So I particularly looked for a contest in which the judge would be allowed to make comments on the entries.
In my bad experience some of the comments I received were, ‘this isn’t a romance’ and ‘no one uses language like that’. Uh, excuse me, it is, and they do. But the point is, to me, those were not constructive comments. Especially in light of the fact that one of the judges proceeded to comment about the thousands of romances she had read, and not found one like mine. Therefore, it wasn’t fit to be published. Thank goodness I received a contract for that story the same day. Otherwise I would have been crushed. And just for the record, it’s a bestseller.
Now I usually put on my big girl panties in the morning, so things like this shouldn’t get to me. If you want to think my writing is crap, you are totally allowed to think that. I promise, I won’t lose one minute of sleep over it. The big ‘but’ is, tell me why. If my characters are TSTL, tell me what I could improve, just don’t tell me they are. How does that help me make them better characters? As a contest judge, a response like that is not only condescending, it’s in poor taste, and totally unprofessional. And if you cannot tell me how I need to improve, even though you don’t like something, then you are not fit to be a contest judge.
*looks around* Crimeny, where did that soapbox come from? *climbs down*
So here’s hoping I can truly help someone, and inspire them to be a better writer. Or, congratulate them because they are totally awesome right out of the box.
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