Dear O'Abby: Competitions

 Here at Operation Awesome we've just finished the entry process for the latest Pass or Pages competition, so I thought it might be useful to share some observations I made while reading through the entries.

When you enter a contest, you really want to put your best foot forward and you're not doing that if you fail to follow directions.  If the contest is for a specific genre (in this case adult fantasy) don't enter if your book is not that genre.  We don't like disqualifying people, but the agents judging the contest are looking for something specific and entering something outside that genre is not going to get your book seen.

Word count matters.  If the contest asks you for a 250 word sample, send 250 words or less.  251 might not get you disqualified, but 346 definitely will.  Even 259 is kind of a stretch.

If the contest asks you to remove your bio and other personal information from the query, do it.  Contests are not always anonymous, but Pass or Pages is and if you personalize your query, or even just keep you email signature in it, it's not anonymous anymore.

But the biggest thing I noticed this time around was queries that weren't queries.  There is so much information and help out there online, there really isn't any excuse not to send an actual query letter.  Now, a query that isn't a query may not get you disqualified, but it's not going to win you the contest.  Do your research and follow guidelines.  There are reasons why queries tend to be structure the way they are and even if you don't like it, trying to force something unique onto an agent is a fast way to get rejected.

So there you are.  Some tips so next time you enter a contest you can be ahead of the crowd and enter something that will make you stand out from the crowd.

Happy writing, and if you entered Pass or Pages, good luck!

X O'Abby