in the beginning
Debut Children’s Authors Helped by Contest
Wins
By Laura Aldir-Hernandez
The road to your first book contract can be filled with potholes and
detours. The same can be said for the path to a successful career as a
magazine freelancer. Doing well in a writing competition can be just the
encouragement a new writer needs. If nothing else, you know your
submission will not languish in a giant slush pile or get gobbled up by
a spam filter. Contest entries are read within a specified time period,
often by multiple judges. That alone should be incentive enough to
submit when you need a break from the open-ended—and seemingly
endless—waiting.
“I can’t say enough positive things about writing contests,” says Lori
Calabrese, an experienced freelance writer for children’s magazines and
author of The Bug That Plagued the Entire Third Grade, a new
picture book available later this year. Contests provide “huge
opportunities for a writer—especially those having troubling ‘breaking
in.’”
Calabrese, who is based in Tampa and serves as principal
blogger/reporter on children’s books for the national content site
Examiner.com, had already established herself in children’s magazines,
with writing credits that included Boy’s Life, Odyssey,
and Appleseeds. Winning two contests in 2009 took her kids’
writing career to the next level. Calabrese came in first place in
Dragonfly Publishing’s picture book contest, snagging herself a
publication contract for her upcoming Bug book. She also won second
place in a nonfiction sports contest sponsored by the Children’s
Writer monthly newsletter.
Children’s author and poet Laen Ghiloni writes everything from rhyming
picture books to young adult novels, and has placed in a number of
contests. Winning first place in a Writers’ Network of South Florida
contest last year for her picture book manuscript, Mortimer
Ramshackle—while coming in seventh place or losing other
contests—taught Ghiloni a valuable lesson. “[T]he judges almost never
agree on which pieces are the best,” she shares in a recent interview.
“So it doesn’t mean your piece wouldn’t win another contest or be
considered publishable by an editor.” Ghiloni, who recently sold a
rhyming picture book, Cecily Beasley, to Sterling Publishing (due
for release in the fall of 2011), points out that some contests even
give writers feedback, “which can help you be a better writer.”
Calabrese urges fellow writers to “be confident” and “follow the
guidelines carefully,” as “one of the first things editors do is go
through the entries and take out all that did not follow the contest
guidelines.” Just as important may be perseverance. Calabrese’s
Dragonfly win was especially sweet as she had entered and lost the same
contest the year before. So if at first you don’t succeed...well, you
know the drill.
Laura
Aldir-Hernandez, a freelancer with degrees from Georgetown and Penn,
is an active member of SCBWI and the moderator of Kids Stuff, a critique
group for children’s authors at the Peace River Center for Writers in
Florida. Her short story, “Gus the Magnet Man,” was named a Finalist in
the 2009 Royal Palm Literary Award.
This page last updated on 01 February 2010
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