Saturday, May 14, 2005

Contest nerves

I blame Amy. It's her fault I'm blogging so much. Okay, that and I'm bored.

FabFive announces tomorrow. This is the one where I got a perfect first-round score and the 'phenomenal' comment. Yeah, yeah, sounds great. But the judges who gave me those scores aren't the judges who count. The judge who counts is the senior editor for the line I'm aiming this one at. She's the one who ranks my entry with four others. And you know what?

I've done really well in first rounds before. I've got perfect scores before. I've waited with baited breath (actually, what is that? Sounds like you have a mousetrap in your mouth. Ew) for final results. And I've always got the lowest place in that final. I've never had an editor request anything from a contest either. Even in the contest that boasted an 80% request rate for finalists. I'm being marginalised!

What is it that makes a reader go, "Yeah, this is really great!" and an editor go, "Ih." I'll never know because I've never got any actual comments or scores from them. Hell, I've only ever had one detailed rejection.

Maybe I'm getting judges who don't actually know what the frig they're talking about. I increasingly think this is the case, especially as most contests seem to get their judges from contest entrants. The entrants, quite fairly really, aren't allowed to judge their own category (because even if you don't get your own entry, you might sabotage other people's to further yourself). But this does mean that they're judging categories they're not totally, 100% familiar with. And if they are 100% familiar with them, why aren't they writing and entering in them?

This does, of course, beg the question: Why do I keep bothering? Especially since it costs me a fortune in postage, is difficult to get money converted, and at the end of the day, confuses even the most well-meaning judge (yes, I've had one ask me what a 'car park' might be. Another was totally flummoxed by my use of the word 'um'). Maybe I'm just too British for these American contests.

Why don't we have them over here?

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