Daily Archives: March 18, 2011

Why Enter the Orange Rose Costest?

by Shannon Donnelly

This question could be asked—why enter any writing contest? What can it do for you—and what won’t it do. And should you even think about entering? Let’s start with some basics, as in what can any contest do for you.

Contests can:

• Get you seen by editors, faster than through the slush pile
• Get you feedback so you can better identify your weaknesses and strengths
• Help you cut and polish your pages
• If you final, get you enough notice to land an agent
• If you win, give you a marketing advantage—a way to have your book stand out from others because your book has already won praise

What it can’t do for you:

• Cannot guarantee a sale
• Cannot guarantee a successful writing career

That’s a lot going for what a contest can give to you. But how do you know if you’re ready? And why enter the Orange Rose contest specifically?

Things to think about before you enter:

• Do you have the opening couple of chapters finished
• Do you know the ending of your book (helps you write a synopsis)?
• Do you have an issue with the first pages that you don’t know how to fix?
• Do you have trouble figuring out how to market your book?
• Do you need feedback beyond your immediate family (who loves everything you do, or who has never seen anything you’ve written)?
• Do you wonder if you’ve started the book in the right place?
• Do you put off getting your pages finished?
• Do you have a synopsis that is over ten pages?
• Do you wonder if your core conflict is weak or on target?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, you might be ready for the Orange Rose contest. If you’ve answered yes to three or more of the questions, you should think about entering. If you’ve answered yes to more than seven of them, it’s definitely time to enter.

Contests aren’t just about winning—they are also a way to track your own progress as a writer. This actually used to be a lot more possible to do with submissions and rejections, but these days it’s too easy for good work to get rejections. Contests help fill that gap, give you better feedback, and they give you deadlines so you can start to see if you can actually make a writing career work.

But why the Orange Rose?

There are several excellent reasons. But let’s start with the best one—the feedback in the Orange Rose comes from published authors.

Now, all judging is subjective. That means some folks like oranges better than apples, and an opinion is an opinion. But a published author has learned what works—the hard way. There is an experience here that does help in that every published author knows one thing: flawed writing will sell. Every story has its strengths—and its weaknesses. But a published author has learned how to accent one and cover up the other. That’s knowledge those authors can pass along.

The next best reason is fifty-five pages—same as the Golden Heart. You may have a brilliant first couple of pages. Or your brilliance may shine at page thirty. But you won’t know which is which in the Golden Heart, which just gives you back a number. The Orange Rose is still one of the best contests around which can tell you if you’re ready for the Golden Heart, and gets you feedback in time to make revisions.

There’s also the excellent reason of money—cash awards! And while writing may not just be about the money for you, there’s nothing quite like stepping up into the category of a writer who is becoming a professional—you’re getting paid to write. That’s pretty heady stuff.

Finally, it’s your chapter contest. When I was still unpublished and struggling, the Orange Rose was a measure of my own success. It was also a contest I always wanted to win—I never managed a win, but I was a finalist several times, and I always got the best feedback. And recognition from my peers.

If you use it right, the Orange Rose can teach you how to set goals and reach them.

It can be another tool that you can use to help you become published—it’s not the only path there, but it is a path. More than 45 finalists—that’s finalists, not just winners—have gone on to become published authors. That’s quite a track record.

The Orange Rose can be a touchstone of progress. It can give you a big picture look at how you are doing in going up against lots of other writers–the same way that you have to go up against those writers in the slush pile.

And a vote of encouragement from other authors can be just the thing you need to hold onto and use in your darker days to light your path to writing your next book.

To enter the Orange Rose, visit occrwa.org  or http://www.occrwa.org/orangerosecontest/ and enter before April 9, 2011.

Published in the March 2011 issue of the Orange Country RWA Orange Blossom newsletter.