by Mel Hughes, Director, Editors’ Choice Awards Wow! From a record-breaking fifty-four entries this year, our courageous judges finally determined four finalists. From those four, we simply couldn’t narrow it down any further. Therefore, the Christian Editors Association is proud to announce the winners of the 2023 Editors’ Choice Award: Creation and the Flood: A DEEP Study of Genesis 1-11, …
Writing Contests
By Mel Hughes Many people write stories or journal entries that stay in a notebook or occasionally get read to a friend. But authors need to publish in order to get their words out to a wider audience. It’s easier to publish books now than ever before. But how do you get people to read what you wrote? There are …
How to win a writing contest
By Jill K Willis You’ve decided . . . gulp . . . to enter your book baby in a writing contest. You’ve agonized over the synopsis, formatted the manuscript, and completed the contact form. You’ve edited it a thousand times, along with your mother and your critique partner. You’ve caught typos, grammatical errors, and plot holes. What more could …
To Judge or Not to Judge
By Tammie Fickas It’s contest season at ACFW – First Impressions just finished up, while Genesis and the Carol Awards are open for submissions. Contests are a great way to hone our craft and get your work noticed. Across the nation, each year, organizations sponsor writing contests, and thousands of writers put their work to the test. Have you ever …
Four Ways to Heed Correction
By Terri Gillespie One who heeds discipline is on the path of life, but whoever ignores correction goes astray. Proverbs 10:17, TLV The deadline for the Genesis Contest looms. Pre-published writers are busy checking and double-checking their submissions to be sure they meet the “guidelines.” One way to prepare is to seek others to critique that precious manuscript. The local …
My Friend Writer’s Block
By Suzanne Bratcher WRITER’S BLOCK: Anything that stops our writing. My high school English teacher would hate that definition. I can almost hear her snap, “What do you mean by anything? For that matter, what do you mean by writing?” To appease her, let’s try a simile. Writer’s block is like a horse that stops dead in the road and …
To Enter or Not to Enter: The Author Life and Awards
by Kimberley Woodhouse Writers ask me all the time about the benefit of entering book award contests. This is a tough one to talk about, because a lot of the contests require the author to enter their own work. And that’s just a bit weird. (Although there are contests that the publishers enter on our behalf.) Let’s go back to …
Where Does Your Validation Come From?
By Tammie Fickas Early Tuesday morning my phone vibrated with an incoming text from a friend congratulating me on being a finalist in a flash fiction contest. A whoop of surprise burst out before I could stop it. I quickly found the email that congratulated me on being chosen and relished the excitement. Later in the day, while I was …
Pay It Forward
By Patricia Bradley In my writing journey I’ve met some of the most amazing people, writers who have taken the time to help me along my journey. Some have been critique partners, some have been teachers at different conferences or on-line classes I’ve attended, and some have been judges in the contests I’ve entered. This week I’ve been thinking about …
When You Don’t Final—Handling Feedback from Contests
By Rachel Dylan When I first started writing I entered numerous writing contests for unpublished authors. I was excited to enter and see what others thought about these crazy stories that had developed inside my head. These contests were a great way to get feedback and have someone who didn’t know me read my manuscript. I jumped in and started …