Contest Season

February seems to be contest season for lots of different folks. We have the Super Bowl this weekend (where two teams will play each other in football. Don’t ask me who, I haven’t the foggiest idea. I also won’t be watching. But I might have chips and dip, you know, just because.) The movie awards are gearing up.

And my inbox is full of email reminders that deadlines for contests are looming, and I should submit my books today!

Last year, I made a commitment that I wasn’t going to enter any contests this year. Frankly, it boils down to costing a lot (when you add up entrance fees and paperback copies and all that sort of thing that goes into entering) and, realistically, the knowledge that while you, my lovely readers, enjoy my books, they’re not contest winners. (There are actually classes you can take as a writer to make your book more contest worthy. Judges look for things that readers don’t necessarily care about.)

And yet, it’s tempting. I’d love to be able to say I was an award winning author. (Not sure why — I hardly tell anyone I’m any kind of author, let alone award winning. But in my head, it sounds cool.) It’s…validation, I guess. Which is funny, because when I read that, I’d never say I cared, overly, about validation like that.

Anyway, I’ve so far managed to just keep hitting delete. But it’s made me curious, what’s the last award winning book you read (have you even paid attention to that sort of thing?)