The well-meaning and generous-minded colleagues in my writing group sometimes encourage me to submit my short fiction to writing contests. I am reluctant. And not merely because of the disappointment that would ensue should I not be successful. That disappointment is readily available elsewhere. Rather, my reluctance is due to an insufficient understanding of the efficacy of such contests.
To be clear, I do not doubt the legitimacy of (many) writing contests. Indeed, virtually all of the Canadian literary journals and magazines that I previously canvassed host at least one contest for either poetry or fiction and several host multiple contests. The entrance fee for submitting your fiction to these contests is always somewhat more than the cost of a one-year subscription to the journal or magazine. But in most cases your entrance fee entitles you to a one-year subscription. So even if your work does not win, at least you get something valuable. Indeed, if you wish, you could consider the entrance fee as merely a market research expense. Of course this is somewhat more expensive than subscribing directly. But you do have at least the chance of having your submitted story selected for publication. Think of that!
There are also writing contests unconnected to literary journals or magazines. The CBC Canada Writes competitions are a good example. This year there were more than 3000 entries for the short story competition alone. I have no idea how that number compares with journal competitions but I suspect it must be somewhat higher.
I was going to ask who enters such competitions. But with the numbers entering the CBC competition, it must be nearly everyone. Amongst the ten finalists, there are numerous published authors as well as some first-timers. The published authors tend to have had a few stories published, possibly a collection, but they do not appear to be well-established writers. I’m guessing that at some point in one’s career it becomes either unnecessary or unseemly to continue participating in such contests.
That brings me back to the question of efficacy.
What is the relative value of a competition-winning work? Winning the CBC Canada Writes competition will certainly raise awareness of your work, and to a lesser extent I imagine the same is true for winning one of the literary journal or magazine competitions. And of course there is the publication itself, which in most cases is accompanied by either prize money or the standard remuneration that the journal or magazine offers. No doubt there is some residual effect, as you may forever after be apotheosized as “the past winner of …”
But how does this compare with the value of getting a story published in a journal or magazine through the non-competition route? Is the competition story published in the same journal issue with three non-competition stories considered to be of lesser, equal, or greater value? That’s what I don’t know.
And it makes a difference. There is no entrance fee for the submission of one’s work to a journal or magazine, other than the normal cost of preparation time and the cost to one’s ego when the rejection follows later.
Disappointment, as noted earlier, is ubiquitous. But is the disappointment I would receive from the rejection letter following a non-competition submission different in kind or quantity from the disappointment I would receive in not winning a writing contest?