Superbowls of Writing- Is Winning Everything?

Vince Lombardi famously said "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." Is that true when it comes to writing competitions? On this Superbow Sunday, let's take a minute for a booth review.
Should you tackle a writing contest, or should you just sit on the sidelines?

When a contest can cost upwards of a hundred dollars and you are competing against thousands of others, that is a real issue. Is the stress and expense really worth it? Especially when your goal posts seem so far away?

A good friend of mine hit the end zone, when he won the Southwest Writer's competition a few years back. He was able to parlay that into a book deal with not one, but two different publishers. Had he taken second place, he might not have been able to do that. Lord knows, what would have happened if he hadn't placed.

2012 was a relatively good year for me in writing contests. In the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year contest, my novel Lawyer Geisha Pink took third in the multicultural fiction category and was a finalist in the mystery category. I was a finalist in the National Indie Excellence awards and the New Mexico Book of the Year awards. A proposed collection of non-fiction pieces took second in the Southwest Writers.

In terms of online sales, the net effect of these awards was probably "no gain."

Still, I must admit that in bookstore sales, having a little sticker on the book has probably helped out a little. Saying that you are an award winning author does look good on the resume.

This year, I have already entered the Amazon breakthough novel contest and the Tucson Festival of the Book contest. When my new novel, Rattlesnake Wedding comes out, I will probably enter it into all the big contests. Do I expect to win? Not really.

Entering the contests has helped me take an instant replay of my writing in my mind, to see what works and what doesn't. I once did not place in a competition, where there were four entries for three spaces. Needless to say, I sent that story back to the locker room. Sometimes losing can be more helpful than winning.

So Vince, winning might not be everything.