Children’s Book Award Contests: The Importance of Entering by Donna McDine

Children’s Book Award Contests: The Importance of Entering

By Donna McDine

The importance of entering children’s book award contests goes well beyond a win. There are two sides you can capitalize on. The obvious, if your book achieves book award recognition you and your publisher can reap the benefits of promoting you as an award-winning author. Second, even if you don’t place in the contest your book does gain additional exposure through the judging process. For example, when I participated in the 2011 NYS Reading Association Conference and Author Fair, two different teachers who are judges for the 2014 NYS Reading Association Charlotte Award mentioned they read my book for the contest. This provided a great opportunity to talk about my school visit workshops and The Golden Pathway’s Educators Guide, which then led to two different school visits. What better way to get the conversation going about your book then by people in the educational trenches.

Not sure where to being your search for contests? Of course the Internet is your most viable option. Google “children’s book award contests” and you will receive over a million hits. I can feel your shoulders sag; please don’t be dismayed as to where to begin. To help you get started I recommend the following websites for comprehensive contest listings:

Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators – The Golden Kite Award, Sid Fleischman Humor Award, and Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award.

Story Monster Ink 

The Purple Crayon 

 
The Reading Tub – Directory of Children’s Literature and Book Awards 
 
U.S. National and Canadian Awards for Children's and YA Literature

Children’s Literacy Classic International Book Awards     

IRA Children’s and Young Adult’s Book Awards 

Writer’s Digest -Even though The Golden Pathway and Hockey Agony were originally submitted as short stories to the annual contest they both placed as Honorable Mentions hence providing interest by Guardian Angel Publishing in offering my first two children book contracts.

An additional effective way to help keep you up to date on children’s book awards is by setting up a Google Alert with “children’s book awards”

Don’t stop researching with just the above mentioned. Conduct a search by state, topic, etc. (i.e., historical fiction, bullying, music, etc., all depending on the topic of your book). Cynthia Leitich Smith’s website noted above is a great resource for state-by-state.

Since the majority of contests are copyright deadline based, even before your book is published you need to educate yourself as to what contest is the most reputable and the best fit for your particular book. Do your homework and double check the submission guidelines (they do change from time to time just as publisher submission guidelines). Don’t come across as an amateur, research and confirm submission guidelines before submitting. What to look for: topic, copyright year, state of residency, country, etc.

Create an Excel spreadsheet for tracking purposes:

·      Contest Name

·      Contact Info

·      Deadline Date

·      Date Submitted

·      Winners Announced By

·      Accepted

·      Rejected

·      Comments

Of course, adjust the form to your personal needs. I set deadline reminders 30 days prior to the actual deadline on my Outlook Task Reminder. Don’t feel as if you need to “reinvent the wheel” in creating your Excel spreadsheet, if you are interested I’d be delighted to email you my blank tracking form. Please feel free to email me at donna@donnamcdine.com. Please mention where you read my article and put “Children’s Book Contests Tracking Form” in the subject line.

Good luck in your quest in becoming an award-winning children’s author!

If you are an award-winning children's author, I'd enjoy hearing about your journey.

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Be safe and well! 

Write What Inspires You! Newsletter ~ Opt-in today and join parents, teachers, and colleagues who receive Donna’s newsletter and receive two FREE e-Books: “The Story Behind the Books” and “Marketing Tips” 

#childrensbookawardcontests

#SCBWI

#storymonsterink

#thepurplecrayon

#thereadingtub 

#clcinternationalbookawards

#writersidgest 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Multi Award-winning Children's Author
Ignite curiosity in your child through reading!


Angel's Forever Home ~ March 2019 ~ Mascot Books ~ 2019 Purple Dragonfly Honorable Mention Picture Books Six and Older

Dee and Deb Off They Go Kindergarten First Day Jitters ~ December 2015 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ 2016 Purple Dragonfly Honorable Mention Picture Books Five and Under and Story Monster Approved

A Sandy Grave ~ January 2014 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ 2014 Purple Dragonfly 1st Place Picture Books 6+, Story Monster Approved, Beach Book Festival Honorable Mention 2014 and Reader's Favorite Five Star Review

Powder Monkey ~ May 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ 2015 Purple Dragonfly Book Award Historical Fiction 1st Place, Story Monster Approved and Reader's Favorite Five Star Review

Hockey Agony ~ January 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ 2015 Purple Dragonfly Book Award Honorable Mention Picture Books 6+, New England Book Festival Honorable Mention 2014, Story Monster Approved and Reader's Favorite Five Star Review

The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ Literary Classics Silver Award and Seal of Approval, Readers Favorite 2012 International Book Awards Honorable Mention and Dan Poynter's Global e-Book Awards Finalist

Writer's Digest Best Websites of 2008

I am going to shamelessly request your assistance:

If you appreciate Write What Inspires You Newsletter please consider nominating it for the “Writer’s Digest Best Newsletters for Writers.” Send an email to: writersdig@fwpubs.com with your comments and nomination and be sure to note “Writer’s Digest Best Newsletters” in the subject line.

And

If you find the blog associated with Write What Inspires You http://www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com/ helpful please consider nominating it for the “101 Best Websites for Writers.” Send an email to writersdig@fwpubs.com with your comments and nomination and be sure to note “101 Websites” in the subject line.

Deadline: January 1, 2010.

Thank you in advance if you are so inclined.

Guest Author, Christina Katz - Get Known Before the Book Deal

An Interview with Christina Katz

Author of Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform & Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

I am delighted to have Christina Katz with me today as she discusses the importance of platform. Get Known Before the Book Deal is a must have book for every writer. I am sure your edition will become highlighted and earmarked to the hilt as mine has.

Enjoy the interview and don't forget Christina will check in perdiocally throughout the day to answer your questions.

Christina Katz is the author of Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform (Writer’s Digest Books). She started her platform “for fun” seven years ago and ended up on “Good Morning America.” Christina teaches e-courses on platform development and writing nonfiction for publication. Her students are published in national magazines and land agents and book deals. Christina has been encouraging reluctant platform builders via her e-zines for five years, has written hundreds of articles for national, regional, and online publications, and is a monthly columnist for the Willamette Writer. A popular speaker at writing conferences, writing programs, libraries, and bookstores, she hosts the Northwest Author Series in Wilsonville, Oregon. She is also the author of Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids (Writer’s Digest Books).

Q: What is a platform?

CK: Long story short: Your platform communicates your expertise to others, and it works all the time so you don’t have to. Your platform includes your Web presence, any public speaking you do, the classes you teach, the media contacts you’ve established, the articles you’ve published, and any other means you currently have for making your name and your future books known to a viable readership. If others already recognize your expertise on a given topic or for a specific audience or both, then that is your platform.

A platform-strong writer is a writer with influence. Get Known explains in plain English, without buzzwords, how any writer can stand out from the crowd of other writers and get the book deal. The book clears an easy-to-follow path through a formerly confusing forest of ideas so any writer can do the necessary platform development they need to do.

Q: Why is platform development important for writers today?

CK: Learning about and working on a solid platform plan gives writers an edge. Agents and editors have known this for years and have been looking for platform-strong writers and getting them book deals. But from the writer’s point-of-view, there has not been enough information on platform development to help unprepared writers put their best platform forward.

Now suddenly, there is a flood of information on platform, not all necessarily comprehensive, useful or well organized for folks who don’t have a platform yet. Writers can promote themselves in a gradual, grounded manner without feeling like they are selling out. I do it, I teach other writers to do it, I write about it on an ongoing basis, and I encourage all writers to heed the trend. And hopefully, I communicate how in a practical, step-by-step manner that can serve any writer. Because ultimately, before you actively begin promoting yourself, platform development is an inside job requiring concentration, thoughtfulness and a consideration of personal values.

Q: How did you come to write Get Known Before the Book Deal?

CK: I already had a lot of momentum going when I got the deal for a very specific audience. I wrote a column on the topic for the Willamette Writer’s newsletter. Then I started speaking on platform. When I gave my presentation, “Get Known Before the Book Deal,” at the Writer’s Digest/BEA Writer’s Conference in May 2007, Phil Sexton, one of my publisher’s sales guys, saw it and suggested making the concept into a book. Coincidentally, I was trying to come up with an idea for my second book at that time and had just struck out with what I thought were my three best ideas. My editor, Jane Friedman agreed with Phil. That was two votes from people sitting on the pub board. They converted the others with the help of my proposal, and Get Known got the green light.

Q: Why was a book on platform development needed?

CK: Writers often underestimate how important platform is and they often don’t leverage the platform they already have enough. At every conference I presented, I took polls and found that about 50 percent of attendees expressed a desire for a clearer understanding of platform. Some were completely in the dark about it, even though they were attending a conference in hopes of landing a book deal. Since book deals are granted based largely on the impressiveness of a writer’s platform, I noticed a communication gap that needed to be addressed.

My intention was that Get Known would be the book every writer would want to read before attending a writer’s conference, and that it would increase any writer’s chances of landing a book deal whether they pitched in-person or by query. As I wrote the book, I saw online how this type of information was being offered as “insider secrets” at outrageous prices. No one should have to pay thousands of dollars for the information they can find in my book for the price of a paperback! Seriously. You can even ask your library to order it and read it for free.

Q: What is the key idea behind Get Known Before the Book Deal?

CK: Getting known doesn’t take a lot of money, but it does take an in-depth understanding of platform, and then the investment of time, skills and consistent effort to build one. Marketing experience and technological expertise are also not necessary. I show how to avoid the biggest time and money-waster, which is not understanding who your platform is for and why – and hopefully save writers from the confusion and inertia that can result from either information overload or not taking the big picture into account before they jump into writing for traditional publication.

Often writers with weak platforms are over-confident that they can impress agents and editors, while others with decent platforms are under-confident or aren’t stressing their platform-strength enough. Writers have to wear so many hats these days, we can use all the help we can get. Platform development is a muscle, and the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Anyone can do it, but most don’t or won’t because they either don’t understand what is being asked for, or they haven’t overcome their own resistance to the idea. Get Known offers a concrete plan that can help any writer make gains in the rapidly changing and increasingly competitive publishing landscape.

Q: What is the structure of the book and why did you choose it?

CK: Writer Mama was written in small, easy-to-digest chunks so busy new moms could stick it in a diaper bag and read it in the nooks and crannies of the day. Get Known is a bit more prosaic, especially in the early chapters. Most of the platform books already out there were only for authors, not writers or aspiring authors. To make platform evolution easy to comprehend, I had to dial the concepts back to the beginning and talk about what it’s like to try and find your place in the world as an author way before you’ve signed a contract, even before you’ve written a book proposal. No one had done that before in a book for writers. I felt writers needed a context in which to chart a course towards platform development that would not be completely overwhelming.

Introducing platform concepts to writers gives them the key information they need to succeed at pitching an agent either via query or in-person, making this a good book for a writer to read before writing a book proposal. Get Known has three sections: section one is mostly stories and cautionary tales, section two has a lot of to-do lists any writer should be able to use, and section three is how to articulate your platform clearly and concisely so you won’t waste a single minute wondering if you are on the right track.

Q: At the front of Get Known, you discuss four phases of the authoring process. What are they?

CK: First comes the platform development and building phase. Second comes the book proposal development phase (or if you are writing fiction, the book-writing phase). Third, comes the actual writing of the book (for fiction writers this is likely the re-writing of the book). And finally, once the book is published, comes the book marketing and promoting phase.

Many first-time authors scramble once they get a book deal if they haven’t done a thorough job on the platform development phase. Writers who already have a platform have influence with a fan base, and they can leverage that influence no matter what kind of book they write. Writing a book is a lot easier if you are not struggling to find readers for the book at the same time. Again, agents and editors have known this for a long time.

Q: What are some common platform mistakes writers make?

CK: Here are a few:

• They don’t spend time clarifying who they are to others.
• They don’t zoom in specifically on what they offer.
• They confuse socializing with platform development.
• They think about themselves too much and their audience not enough.
• They don’t precisely articulate all they offer so others get it immediately.
• They don’t create a plan before they jump online.
• They undervalue the platform they already have.
• They are overconfident and think they have a solid platform when they have only made a beginning.
• They become exhausted from trying to figure out platform as they go.
• They pay for “insider secrets” instead of trusting their own instincts.
• They blog like crazy for six months and then look at their bank accounts and abandon the process as going nowhere.

I’ll stop there. Suffice it to say that many writers promise publishers they have the ability to make readers seek out and purchase their book. But when it comes time to demonstrate this ability, they can’t deliver.

My mission is to empower writers to be 100 percent responsible for their writing career success and stop looking to others to do their promotional work for them. Get Known shows writers of every stripe how to become the writer who can not only land a book deal, but also influence future readers to plunk down ten or twenty bucks to purchase their book. It all starts with a little preparation and planning. The rest unfolds from there.

Q: Couldn’t any author have written this book? Why you?

CK: I have built a career over the past decade empowering writers. I’ve developed and built my own platform as a writing-for-traditional-publication specialist, and I’ve worked with others as a writing and platform-development instructor. Many of the people I’ve been working with are landing book deals and while the other hundred-or-so writers I work with a year are developing their skills, I notice patterns of behavior—what leads to success, where writers get stuck, and how I can be helpful in these rapidly changing times in the industry.

I’ve witnessed too many writers, who were off to a great start, hopping online and quickly becoming very lost. I started to write about platform in Writer Mama, How To Raise A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, but I quickly noticed that more details on platform development were desperately needed. My platform is based on helping others. I have a vested interest in seeing the people I work with—and those who read my book—succeed. Writers are my tribe.

77th Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition - WINNER!

77TH Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition

I am thrilled to announce that I received notification today

that my entry entitled, "The Golden Pathway,"

has placed in the top 100 of the 77th Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition

in the category: Children's/Young Adult Fiction

The Benefits of Reading and Writing to Our Children

Reviews for Kids by Kids invites teachers and parents
to encourage their children to participate.

A new educational website, Musing Our Children, presented
by several writers, offers the opportunity for parents and teachers
to join them. Their mission: show children the benefits of reading
and writing via classroom visits and through their review site aimed for children eighteen and under.

Teachers are encouraged to have their students read a book and then
submit a short review to “Reviews by Kids For Kids”. For guidelines
on review submissions, click here:
http://musingourchildren.tripod.com/id27.html

Musing our Children also offers a FREE online PDF download,
“Pages and Pens-your tools to imagination” for teachers to use within
their classrooms. Within each PDF, you’ll find such topics as:

-suggested reading books
-interviews with children authors
-geography info on various cities in each issue
-reading and writing tips from writers
and more.

Musing Our Children is the brainchild of Lea Schizas, founder of the
MuseitUp Club, an online critique community and a Writer’s Digest
101 Best Writing Site since 2005.

For more information on Musing Our Children, link here:
http://musingourchildren.tripod.com/

For more information on Lea Schizas, link here:
http://leaschizaseditor.com/