100th Post!

Photo Credit: newblood.com

Wow. How in the world did I manage to reach 100 posts? When I started this blog all the way back at the beginning of June last year I did so because I wanted an outlet to discuss the ups and downs of writing my first book. I loved sharing that experience with every one of you who happened to follow along. And now it’s growing faster than I can churn out relevant posts. Before I continue, I would just like to say thank you for spending your precious time reading this thing. I write my posts for me, but I love knowing that there’s always someone out there who will read them.

So, let’s see what the heck I’ve dedicated these 100 posts to.

80 – the number of posts about my own book/writing! Holy crap! I honestly didn’t know it was quite that many. What the heck are y’all doing reading so much about that? Can’t be that great.

15 – the number of posts about reading, publishing, or books in general. These have pretty much all come in the last month or so. And a few of them are way up on my list of most popular posts ever.

5 – the number of posts about miscellaneous topics. I can actually think of all of these off the top of my head.

The most popular post by far, and I mean it’s gotten like five times the number of views as the next on the list was Print vs. E-Book: Which side are you on?

The longest post in terms of its word count was A Valentine’s Day Duel: Ron & Hermione vs. Katniss & Peeta at 966 words.

The second, third, fourth, and fifth most popular posts were:

2. My Book, Divided Within, Available N0w!

3. Amazon’s List of 100 Books Everyone Should Read

4. Self Publishing with CreateSpace: My Experience

5. Cover Art Revealed: Divided Within

I’m currently at 131 WordPress followers and I’ve had 254 Likes on this bad boy.

So that’s it! 100 posts down and oh so many more to come! Thanks for reading! It’s been a blast so far.

Ever Think of Entering a Writing Contest?

On this day in 2014 I published 100th Post!.

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I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d written about contests before on here. I had to do some searching of the archives just to make sure. I don’t think I have. So, let’s begin.

First off, writing contests differ greatly. We recently had the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award that offered ridiculous monetary prizes and publishing contracts. Then we have Macmillan with their handful of annual competitions, though I think they sometimes go calendar years without a winner. Then there are a million others that can be found online.

Ever think of entering one? Or maybe you’ve entered several. If someone told me that I absolutely had to enter a competition I’d go with Macmillan’s PI contest. It may not be as lucrative as some others, but I know there are not thousands of entrants every year. I know because I’ve been told by someone who won it. Steve Hamilton. I have all but two of his books. And when I met him a few years ago he told everyone in attendance that if we’re thinking of publishing a book, that we should try the comp. He’d judged the previous year and said there were a few hundred people entered. But I very highly doubt I’ll ever be winning any major contest. Which is fine by me.

But really, I don’t much see the point of entering any one of the many competitions that do not offer a publishing contract. So I’m going to send you my book for a prize of $50 and a critique by a “publishing expert”? Or I’m going to send you my book for chance to attend a writing conference that no one has ever heard of? Or I’m going to send you my book for a chance to be published by an indie press that publishes five books a year and makes its authors no money from their work? Uh no. And those are the kinds of competitions I’ve come across.

There are a few writing contests that are absolutely worth your time and effort, but there are so many more that simply aren’t. You just have to know which it is.