If you are considering entering a writing contest and wondering why it is charging an entry fee, consider the operating costs of the contest provider.

I was recently sent an email asking, “Do you think I should enter a writing contest? I, considering it, but I really don’t want to pay the fee. “I’ll sometimes find a contest that might work for me, but then the publication requests $10, $20, and sometimes more to enter. Most times I just pass. Why should I pay to present my work? I have paid a few, but generally, I balk at anything over $10.” What do you think?

My first reply is, “Would you fund a contest out of your own pocket and work for free?”

Contests can present remarkable opportunities for authors, particularly unpublished authors. They can expose your work to audiences and jumpstart your career – not to mention pay you for your writing. They are an oft under-appreciated chance to further a writer’s reach and reputation.

A tiny minority of writing contests out there do not charge a fee. Why? Perhaps they have a major sponsorship or the financial means to operate without having to ask for fees. Most contests simply do not have that luxury.
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I managed a contest for nearly a decade, and I can tell you it was not cheap to run. Still, we offered a category that required an entry fee, and another that didn’t. To make a point, the winner of the no-entry-fee category received a meager $50 first prize, while the winner of the entry-fee category earned a more generous $500 prize.

If you are considering entering a writing contest and wondering why it is charging an entry fee, consider the operating costs of the contest provider, including:

Prize money. No organization has bottomless pockets. The money for operations, including prize money, has to come from somewhere. Why not entry fees?

Judges. If the contest boasts the participation of a reputable judge or two (or more), they have to cough up the money to pay these judges. Just as no writer should be expected to work for free, no writer, publisher, or agent who serves as a contest judge should either.

Advertising. You’d never hear about a contest if it were not advertised. Advertising is not free. That money has to come from somewhere.

Publishing. Many writing contests include publication as part of the prize. Whether print or online – but particularly in print – there are expenses affiliated with publishing.

There’s also the qualifier of setting a barrier to entry. In my experience, contests that require an entry fee typically attract better work. The first contest we ran was a bit of an experiment, and the results confirmed what we expected: the quality of writing was higher in the entry-fee category. When there was no financial barrier to entry and writers had nothing to risk, the quality of the writing submitted was notably inferior. It wasn’t even close. That fact alone justifies the entry fee.

Back to the email I received, I look at things precisely the opposite way: if I see a contest that does not charge an entry fee, I’d advise you to investigate more to determine how they can afford to fund the competition. Even then, I wonder why an organization would choose to forgo the income stream provided by entry fees and avoid drawing funds away from other needs in its enterprise.

In short, if you find a contest that seems legitimate and suits your writing, pay the entry fee. A reputable contest provider has the right – and the need – to charge it. Plus, it might inspire you to submit a better-quality product.
 
Purpose Publishing will be hosting a book contest, Fall 2018. Stay tuned for details.

To Your Success,


MG

What’s in a name? There can be benefits to using a pen name, but I believe there are many more downsides to using a pseudonym than upsides.
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I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it here or if anyone ever asked. But I thought I’d take a little time to discuss a few notes on using pseudonyms as authors. I read about Nora Roberts, the author of more than 150 romance novels when asked why she writes romantic suspense novels under a pseudonym. Her answer: “It’s marketing.”

She says that writing quickly makes it difficult for her publisher to publish all of her work with an appropriate amount of time between each release, so she writes works which are “edgier” than her romance novels under the pseudonym J. D. Robb. She says, “Putting it under a pseudonym helps brand it for the reader.” Children’s writers often separate their real names or their “other” writing names from their children’s work to keep work intended for children untainted.

All these reasons are absolutely valid, and there are many more. But I believe there are many more downsides to using a pseudonym than upsides, especially from a marketing and organizational perspectives.

Now, this is just my take on it and of course, you’ll personally have to weigh the pros and cons for your title and your career, but keep in mind that Ms. Roberts has a powerhouse publisher and marketing department to help her navigate the difficulties inherent in using a pseudonym.

If you are considering using a pen name, here’s 6 things you should know:

1. It is difficult to keep a pen name secret. Everyone knows who Kristie Leigh Maguire is, for example, but most know that it is a pen name. Once they know, the author has lost the privacy value of using a pseudonym.
   
   
2. If people didn’t already know that “Robb” was Nora Roberts’ pen name, most of them do now since Time magazine let the cat out of the bag in a featured interview. The magazine also revealed (big time) that Nora Roberts is also a pen name! Suddenly, I don’t feel the same affinity for her as a person or an author. I don’t even know her name. In one fell swoop, her pen name lost some of its branding value.
   
   
3. It is very hard to promote a book in person when you use a pen name, especially if you choose an opposite-sex pen name. In fact, promotion of all kinds can become touchy. You may lose authenticity. That loss must be balanced against whatever reason you are using to convince yourself it’s a good idea.
   
   
4. Consider this, how hard it is to be a good liar? It requires having an amazing memory and as well as a deceptive nature. Most authors struggle enough learning to nurture the marketing, publicity, TV, radio, and speaking skills they had no idea they’d ever need when they started writing. Trying to remember all the little white lies (or big whoppers) you may find yourself telling may not be worth the effort. I mean, Nora Roberts finally gave up on the biggest fib of all: that she uses pen names. In the Time interview, she discarded pretense and became herself.
   
   
5. Then there’s the technical, time-consuming – and potentially expensive – mire of branding yourself over and over again for every pen name you have. Consider everywhere you publish your brand- websites, blog posts, email accounts, and social media exploits. And even worse, think how much less effective those efforts will be because they are diluted since you only have so much time to devote to branding each of those names. If you think you will never have to do that, that you never expect to change genres or run into a marketing misstep that forces you to return to your real name, you may be mistaken. Many multi-genre authors didn’t expect to do that when they wrote their first book. And, like the kid getting his driver’s license at sixteen, most of us don’t expect to have marketing accidents.
   
   
6. Using a pen name isn’t necessarily an effective barrier against lawsuits. But do ask your attorney.

Just a little food for thought. Of course, at the end of the day your book, your name. Whether you choose your birth name or a name you birth, you’ll still have the responsibility of doing everything you can to market, promote and sell your book.
 
To your Success,
MG

At the end of every year, there are many lists published with the “Top Everything” from movies to people. There is always a little good, bad and ugly included, but it’s the tops nonetheless. But this year for our industry a really nice infographic went out, produced by the team at Global English Editing. They took it a little deeper and gave us a view into the reading habits of Americans in 2017.
 
Just a little Bad News! It does not discourage me when I see only 13% of Americans say they didn’t read a book in 2017. It’s not an horrendously high number… though that additional 7% who say they’re “not sure” if they read a book are probably just too embarrassed to admit it, so we could round that number up to 20%. Well, even with that we could use a little work.

Here’s the Good News! Young people are reading more than anyone, which is good news; print books are more popular than eBooks, defying the predictions of the doomsday purveyors who predicted print would be dead by now; and six of the nine top-grossing authors of 2017 are American, for all of you keeping score at home.

Check it Out! The infographic also highlights the year’s top sellers, in both printed and eBook formats, the most popular books by state, and a listing of the most literate cities in the US. Is ours among them? Check out the infographic and find out.

Let’s work on it this year and maybe we can get our titles listed on 2019’s “Most Anticipated Books” list. Happy Reading!

To Your Success,
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MG