Lulu Books, 2009 Available from Amazon.com

I confess, when I picked up this book, I didn't have terribly high hopes. It has a rather dismal cover -- a dreary scene of leafless shrubs bordering a gray lake that would seem to have nothing to do with the subject matter. (And, in fact, it doesn't; I suppose this is one of Lulu's "stock" covers.) So imagine my delight as I began to read -- and found that I honestly couldn't put the book down. It's written in a lively, engaging style by an author who knows about writing contests, not just because he enters (and wins) rather a lot of them but because he also judges one. John Reid is associated with the Winning Writers website, consistently voted one of Writer's Digest's Top 101 websites for writers, and always high on my list of "best writing contest information sites." Now, I've researched quite a number of writing contests myself in developing Writing to Win -- but I learned so much more from reading this book. Reid takes you behind the scenes, revealing not-so-obvious "secrets" of the contesting world that one might never guess just from reading a contest's submission guidelines. For example, one point that he makes repeatedly is that there is no such thing as an "open theme." The vast majority of the contests I list in Writing to Win state that any style or subject is acceptable -- whether these be contests for poetry, short fiction, or nonfiction. Not so, Reid points out. For starters, the majority of writing competitions plan to publish the winning entries. Therefore, by definition, the only entries that stand a chance of winning such competitions are entries that would, under ordinary circumstances, be considered for inclusion by the sponsoring publication. Nine times out of ten, that publication is a literary magazine, which means no genre writers need apply. Now, Reid and I share a rather similar view of the whole "literary" world (and I won't go into it here) -- but suffice it to say that it is not an "anything goes" universe. If you don't read literary writing (whether that be fiction, creative nonfiction or poetry), if you don't understand it, and most of all, if you don't like it, you have no hope of winning a literary competition. The "no such thing as an open theme" concept goes farther than that, however. Reid also points out that contests are judged by -- well, judges. And judges have highly individual tastes (and, as Reid puts it, eccentricities). Finding out more about the judges of a competition can be just as important as reading the guidelines. (And I can attest that the guidelines are often fairly useless, offering tips like "send us your best work" or simply "send three poems.") For example, if a contest claims to be open to all forms of poetry, but the judge despises humorous verse, and that's what you've submitted, you've just lost -- not because your submission was of poor quality, but because that's not what lights that particular judge's fire. (Reid relates an account of a judge whose preferred subject in poetry was, apparently, "Alzheimer's.") Frankly, I'd never have thought of researching a judge's background. However, in gathering information on this year's contest guide, I happened to notice that a judge of an intriguing-sounding competition had an interest in archaeology. Well, so do I, so... if I were to enter that competition, you can be sure that, thanks to Reid's advice, I'd be paying attention to that interest. Reid offers a host of tips on how to improve your chances of winning competitions. He discusses judges' reports and how to interpret them, and points out the importance of trying to locate previous years' winners before entering a competition. It's important to note that this is not a discouraging book; quite the contrary! Reid clearly enjoys contesting, and strongly encourages writers to get out there and submit, not just to one competition but to as many as possible. But submitting blindly is worse than not submitting at all. This is the book to read to ensure that, when you send in your entry, it will have the best possible chance of being a winner. -- Moira Allen, Writing-World.com Editor

MORE RESOURCES FROM WRITING-WORLD.COM:

Check out these books and more in the Writing-World.com Bookstore!

Subscribe to our Free Monthly Newsletter!