(I wrote this article for my RWA chapter newsletter, but thought some of you might find it interesting as well.)
There are lots of contests for published authors, so many that it would be easy to spend a good bit of money on entering them all each year. And if you didn’t win, you might think that your money had been wasted. I don’t agree with that. Although winning contests is obviously the ideal, there’s a promotional benefit even to entering. You can make the most of that benefit by being strategic with your entries. This article is about my strategy for making the most of writing contests – it’s only one plan, but it might give you some ideas how to maximize the potential of your own contest entries.
First, let’s talk about how contests work.
In the rest of the publishing world, contest nominations are an honor for the author. They happen without the author’s influence – that is, the books are nominated by booksellers or readers or reviewers, depending upon the award. The nominations might be made online, or determined on the basis of sales, or the books selected for consideration on the basis of reviews. The criteria will vary from contest to contest but ultimately, a list of finalist titles is prepared and a jury is selected. That jury – typically comprised of people influential in the book world or in that specific genre – will read all of the books that are finalists, convene and decide which book(s) should win. Some juries vote. Some juries have to all agree. The rules vary but the winning book(s) is often announced at a gala or conference.
In the romance genre, things work a little differently. Typically, a contest is run as a fundraiser for a chapter or writing organization. This means that whoever enters the book in the contest must pay an entry fee and supply a certain number of books for the judging. Although it’s theoretically possible that anyone could nominate any book, this fee means that the author often nominates his or her own work. Sometimes publishers enter work into contests, but given the sizes of their lists and the number of contests, this is by no means a sure bet.
My point is that, in contrast to other literary awards, the romance author plays an active role in putting his or her own titles into the nominating process. Entering contests, then, is a form of self-promotion and one that you can manage.
It’s easy to justify the value of entering one’s own books into competitions like this, but also easy to spend a lot of money on entering contests. Any author with more than one release in one year can be looking at some serious change, even if the author uses up with his or her complementary copies of the book instead of buying more. On the other hand, contest wins can be really good marketing opportunities, as well as welcome strokes for the ego. The key, as is usually the case, is in the balance.
Whenever there’s a marketing issue, I like to have a plan. Here’s how I decide what to do about contests each year:
1. Set an annual contest budget
Every marketing plan needs a budget. A budget forces you to pick and choose, to get the most from your money. I set a budget each year for contest entries – it could be $200 or $300. It varies, depending upon what else is in my marketing plan for the year, what my total marketing budget is for the year, and how many releases I have that year. It’s never $500, though.
Each entry costs me $25 on average for the entry fee (some are $30 or even $40, but $25 is pretty typical) plus $15 in postage to send the books to the conference coordinator. (Postage is high for me, because I live in Canada.) So, if I plan to spend $200 on contests for the year, that allows me to make roughly five contest entries.
Note that this doesn’t include the copies of the book that need to be sent along with the entry. Each contest requires three to five copies of the book in question to be submitted for judging, although some require more. Because I use my complementary copies for these entries as well as other promotion, I also have a copy budget. I won’t use more than 20 of the comps of any given title for contest entries, and prefer to keep it closer to 15. Again, the other promotion that I have planned for the year can push this copy budget higher or lower.
These two budgets work together – if I have more than one release in a year (as is usually the case) then I have to make some choices.
2. Decide on a target audience
Every marketing plan also needs a target audience. Who do I intend to reach with these contest entries? What’s the point of spending money on entering contests? What do I want to get out of this element of my marketing plan?
My own thinking is that booksellers and readers are the tastemakers in the romance genre. These are the people who drive the popularity of a series or of a specific author. These are the people who can build your brand. Booksellers also provide information to readers and are readers I actively pursue. As a result, I enter contests to promote visibility among those tastemakers.
One way for me to do that is to look for contests that are judged by readers or booksellers. When my target audience is the judge, every book that I send – whether I final or not – is being put to work. That’s pretty good value.
There are other audiences, of course. You might want to target librarians, or build your market in a specific geographic area, or introduce yourself to a specific subgenre niche. Contest entries can be part of a broader plan to better establish your brand in the marketplace.
You might also enter contests strictly for the bling and the affirmation – in that case, your ego is the target audience. Enter the contests with the prettiest and sparkliest awards, or the ones that host the best award galas, maybe the ones that will allow you to meet people who are established fans of your work.
What you want to achieve will help you to make your choices.
3. Assess the prizes
A contest can reach the target audience in other ways than having them judge the contest.
For example, because my target audience is readers and booksellers, I also look for contests that actively promote the winners and/or finalists to readers and booksellers. Some contests print a poster of the winning titles and distribute it to a list of bookstores. Some contests put the covers of the winners and/or finalists on their website, with a hotlink to an online bookstore. Some contests have an editor or bookseller present the award at a ceremony – if that was a ceremony held at an industry event attended by other booksellers, that would be even better.
You might be interested in gaining visibility with a specific agent or editor. Many contests are hosted by chapters who award the prizes at their regional conference – if an editor or agent you’d like to meet is going to attend that conference, their contest might be a strategic one to enter. Guest editors and agents often meet the finalists – or you might get asked to the same reception. (You’ll need to plan for the expense of attending the conference, too, of course.) Editors and agents also often work in specific subgenre niches – if your dream editor or agent has many authors in a particular subgenre and you want to be one of them, entering a contest that caters to that subgenre might be smart. Your dream editor or dream agent might very well become more aware of you and your work, especially if you make the finals or win.
There are many ways that a contest can promote the winners, and some will do it in a way that dovetails better with your marketing or career goals. The promotion done for winning titles, or the networking opportunities created for finalists, might be more important to you than any trophy.
4. Submit strategically
Even given all of these ways to narrow the field, there are inevitably choices to be made. When I have a number of titles released in a given year, I have to choose between my babies as well as choosing between contests. It’s just not possible – or reasonable – to enter every book I publish in every contest. It’s probably not effective to focus all of my efforts in this one area of promotion.
So I choose.
We’ll all make decisions in different ways, but here are some of the variables that I consider in addition to those listed above:
• Local Resources
Think about your own RWA chapter’s contest(s) and/or the contests of other writing organizations in your vicinity. The home town team always has an advantage in any kind of contest. Most marketing plans begin locally, because supporting those we know is just human nature. Enter contests where people know you. Have a look for other alternatives beyond RWA, as well – if you write romantic suspense, your local mystery writers’ chapter or mystery bookstore might provide some good contest options or networking connections for you.
• Market Niches
Some contests are geared to certain market niches – a good example of this is the FF&P PRISM which celebrates paranormal romance. If you’re building your career within that subgenre, it makes sense to try to build your visibility in that niche by entering such a targeted contest. For example, I usually enter the PRISM because pararnormal and fantasy romance is pretty much my favorite subgenre to write, and I like to maintain some visibility among people who read and write it. (I also think the award bling is pretty fab.)
• Other Obligations
You may have to consider the expectations of the contest, and the timing of your delivery to those expectations. The Ritas, for example, require those authors who enter the contest to also judge the contest, albeit in another category than the one(s) that author entered. Because I find that I am always up to my eyes in the winter and not really in a position to read six or eight books in a hurry, I often pass on entering the Rita. I can’t be sure that I’ll have the time to do the judging on time, and that’s not fair to other entrants. C’est la vie.
• Linked Titles
Another consideration is what to do with linked books. As a reader, I’m not one for starting in the middle of a group of linked books – I always start with the first book. That’s because the first book is the one that needs to hook readers and build awareness of the series – it’s also the one that will introduce the reader more gradually to the worldbuilding of that linked series. As a result, when I have to choose, I’m more likely to enter my first book in a new series in contests than subsequent titles in that same series. (And no, I haven’t yet decided what to do next year, when both of my series will be in full swing. Everything in its own time!)
• Competing Against Yourself
Similarly, when confronted with two choices – two books in the same subgenre, for example – I try to choose the book that is a stronger reflection of that niche’s expectations. That’s not an easy call, and when I’m really stuck, I’ll alternate the books, entering each in a different contest than the other. I try to avoid entering my books to compete against each other – of course, when one is by Claire and one is by Deborah, that’s fine!
• Repositioning Your Brand
Perhaps the most strategic use of contest entries is to use them to flag a rebranding. When an author changes course or alters the focus of her work, a contest placement or win can help increase awareness of that transition – even entering can get a few people talking. Contest entries help with increasing the author’s visibility in that new niche – this is especially true if the judges are booksellers, as they are the ones who often spread the word. When recharting a career path or trying a new subgenre, look to enter that new book in contests judged by booksellers or contests that actively market the winners to booksellers. It’s also common for editors and agents to glance over a list of finalists, especially when one of their own authors reaches the finals, and that can increase industry awareness of your new course. I’m more likely to enter the first title in a new project in contests than the last title in a concluded project – I want to look to the future.
5. The Plan in Action
Here’s an example to illustrate. In 2008, I had three titles released. First was KISS OF FIRE, the first title in my Deborah Cooke Dragonfire series for NAL Eclipse, a series which features dragon shape shifter heroes in a contemporary setting. KISS OF FURY, the second title in that series, also was published in 2008. As Claire Delacroix, I also launched a future-set series with FALLEN from Tor, a series which features fallen angel heroes in a post-nuclear pre-Apocalyptic setting. They’re all fantasy romances, but very different from each other – and the two series have very different tones. I decided to enter KISS OF FIRE and FALLEN in contests, but not KISS OF FURY. Even though I love that book just as much as the others, I chose to keep the focus on the launch of each series.
The books have done pretty well – KISS OF FIRE was a was a nominee for Romantic Times’ Best Shapeshifter Romance (I didn’t enter that one) and won the Colorado RWA’s Award of Excellence for Best Time Travel, Futuristic or Fantasy Romance. It is also a finalist for the Orange County Book Buyers’ Best Award in the Paranormal Romance category. FALLEN took third place in the Wisconsin RWA’s Write Touch Award for Best Paranormal Romance and is a finalist for the FF&P PRISM Award for Best Futuristic Romance. I have my fingers crossed for both of those remaining contests.
No matter how it shakes out, I’m quite pleased with the results of this bit of my marketing plan. I have a new piece of bling on my shelf from the Colorado RWA for KISS OF FIRE. Also the FF&P chapter puts the covers of all three finalists in each category on their website for the better part of a year, so FALLEN’s gorgeous cover will be displayed there until next summer, no matter what place it takes. I’m convinced that I got some good visibility for my books and maybe found a few new readers as well.
That’s not bad for a couple of hundred bucks and a few trips to the post office.
Deborah Cooke: Author 