Susan Hill has said that there will be no further Long Barn Books First Novel competitions. This follows on from an announcement that she made saying that the deadline for this years comp was to be extended in order to try to find 5 - 6 of sufficient quality for the short-list. Apparently, disgruntled writers complained that having entered the competition they felt this statement was derogatory and unfair. Scott Pack is one of the judges and highlighted the issue on his blog, (well he has a big mouth y'know, ha ha.) This was A BAD THING apparently, and some people bitched and moaned, and now, well there is no competition for them/us to enter next year.
Although I didn't submit to this I do know how crushing it is to not be picked, to not win, to not have the world beat down ones door in awe at ones talent, but, it comes with the territory does it not? Trying to get published is not a great process, but Susan Hill doesn't seem to be the right person to be getting pissed at. What about all the faceless, blogless, nameless people who writers submit precious work to and never hear anything from? Or all the other competitions whose selection process remains a mystery to us, we just eventually learn we weren't successful when googling for the umpteenth time with that faint glimmer of hope still flickering inside. Seems unfair to me.
4 weeks ago
1 comments:
It's kind of like every band who sends a demo to a record company expecting to be told they're brilliant.
I think that reading is so subjective - even when a judge is an expert at the craft/market, there will still be plenty of other people who have just the opposite taste and will love work that has otherwise been rejected.
Of course, should you win a competition, I will completely take back the above statement and claim that judges are ALWAYS right.
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