It's November 5, one day before the U.S. elections, day 5 of NaNoWriMo
2012, one week after Hurricane Sandy, forty-nine shopping days until Christmas
and yes, it's a Monday. In other words, there's a lot going on in the world. But take a few minutes to assess why entering
a writing competition like Great Expectations can be a great thing for you,
your writing, and your career.
Great Expectations encourages inspiration, learning, improvement,
discipline, experience, and publishing.
Inspiration
A writing competition with different categories can encourage you to
polish that story you've always wanted to write. Great Expectations offers you
a chance to enter the first twenty-five pages of your manuscript in the
following romance categories:
- · Contemporary Series
- · Erotic Romance
- · Historical
- · Inspirational Contemporary
- · Mainstream with Romantic Elements
- · Romantic Suspense
- · Single Title
- · Specialized (Futuristic/Fantasy/Time Travel/Paranormal)
- · Young Adult
Learning
Every entry will be evaluated by at least five first round judges and
scored. Feedback is often provided by those judges. Finalists will then be
reviewed by professional editors from a variety of publishing houses. Previous
entrants to Great Expectations have found the feedback invaluable to improving
their manuscripts.
Improvement
Writers who apply what they learn from the feedback have the chance to
polish their manuscripts for future competitions and submissions. Imagine the
chance to know what in your first twenty-five pages really resonated with the
judges and where they had questions. Too often, writers don't have access to
this kind of information. You have a chance to improve the quality of your
writing, your submissions, and your story just by entering.
Discipline
Like all competitions, Great
Expectations has some hard and fast deadlines. From early bird entries to the
very last day you can enter. To take advantage of the other benefits, you have
to meet those deadlines. Discipline helps writers become more focused not only
on their story, but also their method.
Experience
Experience is the best teacher.
Whether you are a first time pre-published author, a veteran of writing
competitions, or an author looking to experience a new genre, Great
Expectations can help you achieve experience in that area with valuable
feedback, contacts, and learning.
Publishing
Many finalists in the Great
Expectations contest (and even some who didn't final) used the experience, the
learning, and the feedback to turn their entries into polished full submissions
and publication. Final judges may request full manuscripts during the judging
process as well, so just by entering you have the chance to make it to the
short-list of authors an editor wants to see more from.
The only question you should have
left is, why aren't you entering Great Expectations?
