Last week I talked about some of the awards for Christian fiction.
One of these is the INSPY Awards, which are judged by book bloggers and reviewers. I was privileged to be chosen as a judge for the General fiction category in 2015. It was a difficult job to pick a winner from five brilliant finalists, all of which were great books.
I’ve judged other writing contests as a first-round judge, including the Omega Writers CALEB Prize, and the Romance Writers of New Zealand Koru Award. I’ve also judged the Romance Writers of New Zealand short story competition, and the Genesis and First Impressions Awards from American Christian Fiction Writers.
Being a first-round judge in a contest for published books is a lot less pressure.
I read the book, complete my scoresheet, and send it off to the contest coordinator. They have the job of collating the feedback from the different judges and selecting the three or five highest-scoring books to make the final round, then coordinating the final round judges to pick the eventual winner.
Judging a short story contest is fun.
There is a strict word-count limit, so I know roughly how long each entry is going to take. It has to grab me quickly, and present a beginning, a middle, and an end all in that short word count (e.g. 1500 words—shorter than the average book chapter). It takes real skill to write a good short story!
I think the hardest is judging a contest for unpublished writers.
That’s because a good judge gives feedback on the entry. Good feedback—on what works, and what doesn’t. This can be difficult and time-consuming, but I think it’s important to do the best job I can because the entrant will be using the feedback to improve his or her novel.
Yes, it’s definitely easier to judge a published contest, where you only have to score!
I’m doing just that at the moment. I think the hard part is still to come. 🙂
What do you think the hard part is going to be? Giving feedback? Or something else?
Love the behind-the-scenes look at how different competitions are judged 🙂
Giving constructive feedback without crushing the writer is always hard – you never know when something you say might be misinterpreted. Thankfully I only have to give feedback on the three winning stories on Cracked Flash Fiction Competition every couple of weeks – it takes longer to choose my words than figuring out who the winners are.
Yes, the feedback is definitely the hardest part!
The other thing I find difficult is when the book I enjoyed the most doesn’t actually score the highest (e.g. because the contest is for genre fiction, and it doesn’t meet all the requirements of the genre).