It Takes a Village to Publish a Novel.
One of the many myths about writing and writers is that we work alone. We sit in our attic room, scratching away for weeks and months and years, and eventually produce a work of staggering genius that has the publishers beating a path to our door, each one waving a larger cheque (or check) than the one before.
If only.
Writing is a team effort. Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a team to write a novel. If you don’t believe me, check the acknowledgements page in the novel you’re currently reading and count how many people the author has thanked. For example:
- God
- Family
- Friends
- Critique partners
- Beta readers
- Specialists who’ve offered advice
- Agent
- Editors
- Cover designer
- Marketing team
- Prayer warriors
And those are only the people the author can name.
There are also dozens of unsung helpers who contributed to that novel—maybe hundreds. These might be:
- Fiction authors who’ve written helpful craft books.
- Non-fiction authors who’ve written useful technical books.
- Marketing experts who’ve written marketing books.
- Writers who’ve shared their knowledge for free on various blogs and websites.
- Speakers who’ve presented at national or local conferences.
- Reviewers who help spread the word about the author’s book.
- Contest judges who’ve provided useful feedback.
- Organisations which bring writers together to network and learn.
The list goes on.
Sure, some authors making writing all about them. But the best writers recognise the village who contributed to their success, and ensure they give back to the community which has given them so much.
But how can we give back … especially as unpublished writers?
One easy way to give back is by judging a writing contest.
I will admit: this isn’t entirely altruistic. I usually judge several contests each year, and I’ve learned a lot about writing and editing from judging writing contests. I covered some of these lessons in a recent blog post at Australasian Christian Writers.
And this post isn’t entirely altruistic either: I have a motive.
I am looking for volunteers to judge the 2022 CALEB Award from Omega Writers.
Omega Writers is a Christian writing organisation serving writers from across Australia and New Zealand. CALEB stands for Christian Authors Lifting Each other’s Books, and the award considers published books and unpublished manuscripts.
You don’t need to be a writer!
We’d love to have more readers volunteer to judge our published books. You can choose how many entries you’d like to judge, and in what categories and genres. The categories for the 2022 CALEB Award are:
- Adult Fiction (Published and Unpublished
- Young Adult Fiction (Published and Unpublished)
- Adult Nonfiction (Published and Unpublished)
If you’d like to find out more about why judging is a great idea, then check out this blog post: Introducing the CALEB Award.
And click here to volunteer as a judge.
The CALEB Award will open for entries next month, so if you’re an unpublished Christian writer from Australia or New Zealand, it’s time to polish your manuscript!
Click here to check out how to join Omega Writers.
Have you ever judged a writing contest? What did you learn from judging?