Debut Novel Awards

I’ve only got a short post this week, and it’s slightly off topic.

 I’m coming to the business end of my editing process, and have been busy priming my novel’s pitch package to be sent off to agents. Which consists of:

 A one page cover letter—essentially selling my book to them. Drawing them in, pitching why I’m the person to write this book, why they’re the agent for me and why I believe there’s a market for it etc.

A synopsis: a dry spoiler filled summary of my entire plot, reduced to five-hundred words. Soul crushing,

The first three chapters of the novel—a portion so small that it’s kept me up at night for months on end. Does this section make all the promises of the events to come, that I hope it does? Is there enough action to hook the reader? Does this section represent the voice that I want to be known for?

This hasn’t left me with a whole lot of extra writing time, but it has given me a quick topic to touch on.

Novel awards.

Not something I’ve put much thought into. Not something I can honestly say I’ve aspired to. But I’m entering a few.

See, while getting ready to pitch to literary agents, I’ve read everything I can get my hands on to give myself the best chance of being accepted as a client. It turns out April is a terrible time to pitch.

Why? There’s a big industry convention on this month. During this period, literary agents are focused elsewhere and aren’t likely to have a whole lot of free time to focus on new clients.

So, do I just have to sit on my carefully curated cover letter? Do I try to fight off the temptation to tinker with my synopsis until it’s something unrecognizable?

No, I’m going to enter some awards.

Why?

Well first of all, the entry criteria require essentially the same package that I’ve already put together for these agents. But also:

-Money…

-Having a prize attached to your work can’t hurt your case for publication.

-A lot of them offer manuscript assessments for runners up.

But more to the point. Why not?

For a lot of these prizes you are only eligible if you aren’t represented by an agent. Which means I won’t have an opportunity to do this in the future, but this also narrows the pool of entrants.

Sure, I’m probably not the demographic they’re looking to hand out awards to. Sure, my work might not hit the “literary” mark that usually win these prestigious prizes. But, I’m past the point of stumbling over those sorts of doubts.

If I win. I win. It’ll be good. If I don’t, I will have reassessed my pitch package with a renewed focus. Asking myself questions like. How would a judge view this? Is my choice of language honestly something I’d expect to be considered “prize worthy”

If nothing else, it will fast forward my editing process.

Sorry, this didn’t end up being that short in the end. But I just thought I’d offer a few thoughts on a topic I’d never focused on previously.