Writers often ask, “Do awards really matter? Are some writing awards more valuable than others? Let me address those questions today.
Awards do matter for a number of reasons. Let me count some of the ways in a quick list of sorts:
- Awards can bring attention to the awardee in a crowded arena. I found the wonderful writer Lori Benton, who’s now my client, when she won a contest we were judging.
- A smart writer can leverage an award with press releases to get additional media attention. I’ve seen a number of writers do this successfully, especially with their hometown newspapers , who tend to love a story about one of their own.
- Sometimes an award is just the attaboy a writer needs to pull himself out of that all-too-regular state of self-doubt. I’ll bet I could get a decent show of hands from those who look at their writing with disdain halfway through the process. I longed to be a writer but at my first conference I was cowed by the real writers around me. I could hardly bring myself to come to meals I felt so out of place. The very next year, at the same conference, I won the Mount Hermon 1999 Writer of the Year award. Had I earned it? Probably not, but it was just the encouragement I needed to keep writing and, later, move into literary management.
- Awards are often judged by publishing professionals who will contact an award winner with interest in the manuscript. I know one of my early clients won a Tyndale House writing contest that included an offer of publication.
- Once in a while an award will shine light on who you are and confirm your passions or head you in a different direction. My very first ever award was at a doll show when I was ten years old. Yes, every child won an award that day, but who would have guessed that the first 30 years of my working life would be as a sculptor and designer of dolls. Had that award helped? Maybe. I recently told my boss and friend, Janet, that in the 8th grade I won the Crisco Homemaker of the Year award. When she stopped laughing, we talked about what awards can sometimes tell us about ourselves. Years later, my college majors were art and home economics– which I’ve used all my life. I studied textiles, cooking and home management, organization, child development and interior design. I still study those things to this day.
How about the relative value of awards? Let’s consider some of these.
There are always “top” awards– in film and television, we know it’s the Oscars and the Emmys. In the Christian writing field, it may be the CT Book of the Year, the Christy’s and the Carol for fiction. There are many more. But what about book awards given at a conference for instance? Those can be valuable in another way– the editors and agents at the conference have spent time with you, perhaps judged your work, and then they see you walk across the stage. How’s that for visibility?
So, all in all, do awards really matter? Yes. For many different reasons. In the comments below share with us some of the awards you received in writing and in other areas of your life.
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Oh Wendy, I have learned so much from entering contests. I learned how to use conflicting critique from contests. How to evaluate and decide what was best for my story and my voice. I found my writing community through a contest. A conference one state down from us runs a contest and I was so thrilled to be able to enter something where I could attend the awards banquet if I finaled. Well, for 2 years I just went to the awards banquet and finally the third year I saved up all year so that I could go to the whole conference and I loved it! Then last March after 22 years of near-daily writing, revising, and submitting I was feeling quite discouraged about the progress that I had made. But circumstances and scholarships came to together just right so that I was able to attend the Vision Writers Conferece at Mount Hermon and receive such encouragement. I prayed for direction. Should I stop, should I press on with this writing thing? Then I won their essay award and it was just what my tired heart needed to press into my love of writing even if the contracts didn’t come. Awards have brough about such important things in my journey.
I love that you have learned evaluate the critiques that come with entering contests. This would make a useful workshop for a writing conference.
So true!
No awards and no high plaudits,
no loud praises just for me,
but then there have been no tax audits
so as far as I can see
things have worked out pretty even,
and there’s no need to complain,
’cause I spend my days believin’
that the sunshine and the rain
fall the same on everybody,
rich or poor or crazy cool,
and I see no need to study
the best frog in each little pool,
just let them have their blessed day
while I go merry on my way.
True, that, Andrew. But maybe your happy little frog needs the challenge of a contest entry to dial up his skills and hop to a new tune.
I’ve entered multiple contests since beginning my journey toward Christian Fiction publication five years ago. Each time my submission received recognition as a finalist or winner, I gained the encouragement needed to set aside my negative self-talk and doubts and continue writing. Yes, sometimes the feedback hurts, but learning to look for patterns in judges’ comments helps me figure out what advice to keep and what to dismiss. As of now, I’ll continue to enter contests with the hope each one will mold me into a better writer.
Wise words, Deena. We do need to learn to sift through critiques to find the valuable stuff. Some contests are judged by new writers who are still in that stage of sticking slavishly to the “rules.” But we usually gain insight by having other eyes on our work.
I’ve often wondered about if awards really make a difference. Thanks for writing about this.
A couple of my nonfiction books have won Book of the Year in a category at the Christian Small Publisher’s Association (now CIPA).
But the stunner came when I tried screenwriting and then tripped over myself and landing in film producing. My very screenplay, a short, was a finalist in the 168 Film Project’s “Write of Passage” back in 2012, I think. That film was based on a true story in my nonfiction book.
Then in 2013 my first feature length screenplay (adapted from my first novel which is yet unpublished) was one of 10 finalists in Ted Baehr’s The Kairos Prize for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays! That was huge for me. That’s the one that spurred me on to keep writing novels and screenplays.
Then I tripped myself up and tried something really crazy: making short films for the 168 Film Project, my first in 2012 — a different true story from the same nonfiction book. Then my second short film for that contest in 2017 WON two awards! Best Documentary and The Evangelista Award for the clearest presentation of the Gospel among all the films in the festival. Oh boy howdy that spurred me on. My 2018 film won the Evangelista Award for the second year in a row.
These placings in contests and awards have kept me going and given me confidence in my writing, especially when little was happening on the publishing front. I keep trying…
Wow, Dianne! You are the poster child for awards pointing you in a whole new direction.
Thank you for this unique post, Wendy, and for your touching transparency.
The writing awards I’ve received in the past have all come at a time when I questioned my call to write. The Lord used those awards to confirm His call and to keep me pressing onward.
One of the most significant in encouraging me was the finalist award in Romantic Suspense for my novel Miracle in Milan in the 2022 Faith, Hope, and Love Christian Writers Reader’s Choice Award. Somehow, knowing that my story was being judged by avid readers of fiction encouraged me to become a better servant of those who would read my stories.
And that’s a very important award I failed to mention. Along with the Rita, it has always been one of the pinnacles of awards for the novelist.
Oh, your post has made me remember I won a writing award as a child with Cadbury! I still have the tin I received. I can’t remember what was inside. Chocolate most likely, consumed long ago.
I love this! I hope you mention this honor on every proposal.
Wendy: I enjoy reading these blogs. And what a good idea. I thought I was the only one who felt good about the awards I won (even if I didn’t always feel like I deserved them.
I have won several writing awards:
***Celebrate Ordinary Days – made it into the Top 100 in the Inspirational Category of 2011 Writer’s Digest Contest. (19th out the 100)
*** I Won a place (one of only 15 places with over 5,000 entries) in Guideposts Magazine’s Writer’s Workshop in October 2008.
***I won 7th place in Catharsis
Anne, those are heady awards. Especially the Guideposts because of how many entries they receive. The week in New York at the Guideposts workshop must have taken your writing career to a whole new level.
Thanks for this article, Wendy.
As coordinator of ACFW’s Genesis Contest, I’ve had several opportunities to tell an author that an agent or editor was interesting in contacting them after judging their entry. What a joy!
Sometimes people are discouraged by the feedback that they receive. If they can accept constructive criticism, they may gain some valuable insight into areas that need improvement.
The 2024 Genesis Contest is accepting entries until March 1 at 4:00 PM Central time.
Hopefully many fiction writers will see your comment and enter the Genesis. https://acfw.com/acfw-contests/genesis-contest/ If you final in the Genesis it will give you a good excuse to attend the conference and the glittering Award ceremony in New Orleans. Yep, New Orleans!
Contest reviews are the reason my writing has improved immensely. Feedback makes all the difference.
It has been so interesting to read this, including the comments. My faith-based YA novel Topping the Willow was recently named a finalist for the Independent Author Network’s Book of the Year Awards, its fourth contest recognition. My screenplay of the same story has been recognized three times, including semi-finalist and finalist for the Kairos Prize (mentioned below) two years consecutively. But neither format has ever won first place or resulted in a producer’s interest, though it’s nice to put in a query letter/pitch and helps shore up my confidence. And yes, I’ve recognized the fallibility of judges, and even lost points for wrong factual criticisms (plural!) that would not have happened in a closer read. Sometimes I wonder if the funds might have been better spent elsewhere…. but yes, I’m once again awaiting results for a screenplay competition, and … drum roll … have a producer wanting to read mine. A friend of a friend of a friend … which, along with conferences, is how I’m finally thinking it really happens. But contests do help keep us going, and through it all, I know God’s in control and his timing is perfect.:) Thank-you.