Many writers have lost hope of winning a literary contest. It is very likely that you have tried on more than one occasion without luck or that you have been left at the doorstep with a selection for an anthology but without a final prize. We want to help you with tips for a literary contest.
The great quantity and quality of works that are presented to the contests and the handicap that the jury is often overwhelmed and can only partially read the works presented sometimes makes literary contests lose some objectivity.
With persistence, method, and quality in your work, the prize may come to you. In addition, in many cases, these literary contests are a way to publish a novel or a book of any other genre. If you are not lucky enough to win, it does not mean that your work is not worth it. You can revise it, and try to improve it for another contest. You will always have the possibility of self-publishing the book. There are many authors whose novels, books of short stories, essays, theater scripts or poems have succeeded with a self-publishing publishing house.
Returning to the initial thread of this post, we want to take you to the literary prize, and to achieve this, you must follow these tips:
Choose the contest well, do not set the bar too high.
If it is your first novel, winning the Planeta Prize will be very difficult. You must be realistic about your chances. If you are starting in literature by writing short stories or poems, you can start with local contests with lower prize money to see how you get on and progress from there.
Read the rules carefully.
It seems silly, but it is not. You must consider the deadlines, the length of the work, the theme if you have to be physically present at the awards ceremony, and issues such as copyright.
Adapt to the genre and theme.
Ideally, you should write a literary work tailored to the contest you are submitting, adapt well to the genre and theme, and comply with the extension without putting straw.
The first impact is key.
Considering the work of so much reading to be done by the jury, generating a great first impression is fundamental so that your writing is not rejected in the first selection.
Tell a good story and focus on it, don’t beat around the bush.
We recommend this in any literary work, even if you want to publish a book, either through traditional or self-publishing. To be successful, a good and engaging story is key. You can also use paperhelp coupons and read some good story examples at Paperhelp website to expand your view.
Action and good structure.
Descriptive environments may be fine for some formats, but telling things fluently and well-structured will help the jury follow your story.
Every sentence matters.
In contests, you must remember that high-quality texts are presented, avoid fillers, and pamper every sentence. Everything matters, and you never know what part of your narrative the jury is going to look at specifically. A minimal difference can be success or failure.
Try to have someone with a reading habit read your work before submitting it.
It’s important to have a second opinion or a few more to know if your work is good, and if you need to improve or rectify something, feel free to do so.
Revise everything.
Check to correct, but also to improve, both the content, the form, and all the submission details, such as the escrow or the address to which you send the text.
Do not rush until the deadline.
In many cases, the jury’s work begins before the deadline to advance readings, so if you send your work at the end of the deadline, you can catch the jury with many hours of reading and tired, so if you go ahead, you will catch it fresher and with a better disposition.
Following these tips does not guarantee success, but it will bring you closer to it. Everything can be summarized in constancy and habit, desire to improve, and insistence, but remember that the world does not end with a literary contest. There are many more, and, of course, the self-publishing book window is increasingly followed by more and more writers for its possibilities of success and profitability.
