This article originally appeared in the Galley

by Tanya Michna/Michaels

In today’s economy, we want to make sure we get the best “bang” for our buck. When I was unpublished and unagented, I used contests to help get editors’ attention; yet, how do you choose between the dozens of contests in each month’s RWR? My experience with the Maggie Award of Excellence is that it’s a solid career investment, worth every penny of the entry fee and postage.

New writing contests arise every year, and while they present new opportunities, the Maggies have been around for over two decades. The Maggie Award has built a prominent reputation and impressive track record. Many former finalists (such as Dorie Graham) and former winners (Jennifer St. Giles, Anna DeStefano, Karen Kendall, C.L. Wilson) are now multi-published authors. Editors and agents take notice when your business card or query letter states that you’re a Maggie finalist!

In 2007, Trish Milburn won an unpublished Maggie in the Short Contemporary category judged by Harlequin American Romance editor Kathleen Scheibling. In May 2009, that same manuscript (Her Very Own Family) will be released by Harlequin American. “I’ve long considered the Maggie one of the most prestigious contests on the romance writing circuit,” says Milburn. “Finaling in the Maggie was very near the equivalent of finaling in the Golden Heart.”

After you’ve sold, the Maggies continue to boost your name recognition with booksellers, librarians and readers.

RITA-winning author Catherine Mann (Defender, Berkley Sensation, 04/09) shares, “A few years after my first book hit the shelves, my sister was with me in a store and thumbed through one of mine to share in the moment. Apparently she hadn’t noticed my bio before because she suddenly gasped and said, ‘Wow, you’ve finaled in the Maggie? I always look for RITA, Golden Heart and Maggie finalists when I want to try a new author. You must be somebody!’ I had to grin hearing that my prior sales didn’t validate my work to my sister nearly as much as that Maggie final!”

But it’s not only finalists and winners who can benefit from the Maggies!

Mailing a contest entry—and braving criticism—is good conditioning for submitting to an agent or editor. Plus, the Maggies require a synopsis (not every contest does) which means that no matter how much you dread the chore of writing a synopsis, entering the Maggies will force you to do so. Honing this skill will benefit you later; every editor I’ve worked with has required a synopsis.

One reason the Maggie Awards stand out is the judges. The Maggies use only published authors to judge the first round. You’re assured that the person critiquing your work isn’t brand new to writing and has professional knowledge. A published judge is also in the position, if she really loves what she’s read, to possibly mention you to her agent or offer a cover quote once your book has sold.

These days, instead of entering unpublished contests, I judge them. And from a judge’s perspective, I love that the Maggie Awards don’t use a score sheet. I have sometimes felt that score sheets tie my hands, that when I add up the specified points, finalists are determined more by technical merit than artistic. Occasionally, the story I felt best demonstrated that elusive “voice” editors seek was beat mathematically by an entry that was less magical but had fewer comma errors. In the Maggie Awards, judges rank entries without a score sheet. Judges are also asked to write a summary critiquing an entry’s strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I find a paragraph on my story’s pros and cons far more useful than arbitrary point values. As an entrant in other contests, I encountered judges who would circle a number but not tell me why I received a 3 or 10.

Here’s some food for thought. Every year, roughly a thousand entrants spend fifty bucks to enter the Golden Heart (with no sense of who the judges are and no opportunity for constructive feedback). Now, the Golden Heart is a huge honor so if you can afford it, go for it! But for about twenty dollars less, you can also submit an entry to the nationally recognized Maggie Awards, where, statistically, you have a better shot of finaling. Even if you don’t final, you’re assured critiques by two published authors.

So what are you waiting for? Finish reading the newsletter, and get to work polishing that entry!

*****

Tanya Michna won an unpublished Maggie in 2001 and sold her first book a month later to the judging editor. To this day, Tanya still hasn’t sold her Maggie winner…but she’s sold 30 other stories (three of which were RITA finalists and one of which was a published Maggie winner). Tanya is published in a dozen languages worldwide and writes for NAL Accent (Baggage Claim, 05/09) and for Harlequin as Tanya Michaels (Mother To Be, Superromance, 03/09 and Mistletoe Cinderella, American, 04/09).