Congratulations to the following winners of the “Write that Book” contest:
In order to receive your free copy of “Telling the Tale”, please e-mail Angela your mailing address. Select HERE for Angela’s e-mail address.
The book will go in the mail this week and I’ll follow-up with details of the tele-seminar via e-mail next week.
Congratualations again!
For the upcoming week, our special guests are librarians and booksellers from around the country, maybe even the world.
Librarians and Booksellers, I’m sponoring a “Write that Book” contest to thank you for your support of the upcoming trade paperback release of my novel, The Amen Sisters (select link for excerpt and reviews). To enter, please add a comment to this post with the name of your library or bookstore. No need to register in order to comment.
Five lucky librarians and five lucky booksellers will win a “Write that Book” prize package that they can use themselves or share with their patrons. The package includes a seat in my writing tele-seminar (held on November 1, 2007) and a copy of my writing book, Telling the Tale: The African American Fiction Writers Guide.
Now, some of you may be thinking, “I’m not African American.” It doesn’t matter, as you know publishers use titles as marketing hooks, and this title is a good example. To assure you, here is a review of “Telling the Tale” from the Internet Writers Journal along with an Amazon.com reader comment.
Writers Writer - The Internet Writing Journal (visit the site for the full review)
[Angela Benson's] writing advice is constructive and sincere; writers would be well-advised to follow her advice and practice their craft by completing the exercises in the book. Benson knows her stuff, and her wonderful reference book for African-American fiction writers would be equally useful to writers of any ethnicity.
Amazon reader, 4 stars (see Amazon for other reader comments)
This was a great book to use as a writing guide for aspiring writers. It was an easy read with simple steps to accomplish the major goal of writing a novel. I am a true testament that completing the exercises are helpful. After following the guidelines in the book, I completed my first novel. I’m now a published author, and I credit my success to this book!
For you regular visitors to AngelaBenson.com who are not librarians or booksellers, you’re welcome to join in the fun (and the contest) by sharing stories about the library or bookstore in your life. Two winners will be selected from those entries and both will receive one seat in the seminar and one copy of the book. All you have to do is post a comment with your story. Registration is not required to comment.
All winners will be announced on Monday, September 24.
Writers have different feelings about contests. Some see them as invoking a competitive side of writers, themselves included, that they don’t like to see. Some see contests as a promotional opportunity that gets their books in the hands of new readers. I’m sure there are some who enter because of the thrill of winning. I fall into the second category. While I am always happy to win or final in a contest, I really do see them as a promotional vehicle that gets my books in hands of new readers.
Many contests require an entry fee and the submission of books. I’ve entered two of those this year: RWA’s RITA Award and FHL’s Inpirational Readers Choice Contest (IRCC) . The RITAs are judged by members of RWA while the IRCC Award is judged by readers. If you’re interested, you can nominate yourself to judge for in the IRCC. As a thanks for judging, you get to keep the books that you judge. Not bad, huh? The details can be found on FHL’s Inpirational Readers Choice Contest (IRCC) page. The RITA finalists will be announced on March 24 (my birthday); I’m not sure when the IRCC finalists will be announced.
Other contests require nomination by readers. RSJ’s Emma Award is such an award. The Amen Sisters was a finalist this year and I learned today that it won the Emma Award for Inspirational Romance. Thanks to all the readers who voted for the book. I appreciate your support.
Since I couldn’t attend RSJ this year and had to cancel at the last minute, I donated a book basket for a prize drawing. Yvonne from Springfield Gardens, NY was the lucky winner. She’ll receive hard cover versions of all three of my Christian fiction titles.
Some contests require your publisher to enter your book. The Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction is one such contest. Publishers nominate books and pay a $1000 fee that goes toward the promotion of the contest and the contest winners in addition to a standard entry fee per book entered. Those prices are a bit steep for the individual author so its up to the publisher to enter books. As I understand from Denise Stinson, Publisher at Walk Worthy Press (WWP), all WWP books are entered automatically each year. That means The Amen Sisters is entered. The finalists won’t be announced until May.
Contests aren’t only for published authors. Many unpublished authors enter contests to get feedback from the judges who are typically published authors or editors. I entered a few contests before I was published and the feedback that I received was well-worth the entry fee.
Bottom line: I don’t recommend entering contests if your sole purpose is to win OR if entering contests brings out an ugly side to your personality. If you value reaching new readers or if you want feedback on your work, contests can be one way of accomplishing those goals.
What do you think?
I’m not sponsoring these contests but I thought you’d like to know about them.
Valentine’s Day Book Giveaway at BlackLiterature.com
All you have to do is fill out the form and you’re entered. If you’re one of the three winners, you’ll get a copy of The Amen Sisters, Soul Matters by Yolonda Sanders and Boaz Brown by Michelle Stimpson. It doesn’t get much easier than that! Just enter.
True Heroes and Heroines at RomanceInColor.com
Romance in Color, in partnership with Warner Books, is hosting a contest to celebrate Black History Month and Valentine’s Day. The winners will get their choice of free books from select Warner authors, including The Amen Sisters,. Deadline is February 20. Check out the site for details.
American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and Warner Faith are sponsoring a contest for unpublished writers of inspirational fiction. Deadline is Feb. 14. Check out the site for details.
The mailing list contest ended on January 15, 2006, and the winners have been chosen. Drum roll, please.
Winner: Crystal Adams. Crystal will receive a gift basket that includes autographed book club edition copies (hardcover) of all three of my Christian titles–Awakening Mercy, Abiding Hope, and The Amen Sisters–and one of the Ndebele dolls that I purchased when I was in South Africa last summer.
Two runners-up will receive $25 gift certificates to the online bookstore of their choice.
First Runner-Up: Gloria Bean
Second Runner-Up: Elayne Jefferson
My hearty congratulations to the winners and my heart-felt thanks to all the contest participants. I plan to host at least one contest each month so there’s still hope for those of you who didn’t win this time. Keep visiting this site and don’t give up.
Thanks to all who’ve joined my Feedblitz mailing list. The drawing for the prizes will be held on January 15th so there’s still time to join. Many of you have joined from my yahoogroups list while some of you are new. For you yahoogroups people, will you let me know which you like best — yahoogroups or Feedblitz. There is a major difference in the two. Yahoogroups gives you the option of reading all the messages on the Web or getting them in a daily digest in your mailbox. Feedblitz is limited to a daily digest. Believe it or not, I’m thinking about keeping both lists. What do you think?
One more thing. If you have an anonymous subscription with Feedblitz, you need to change it to your email address by the date of the drawing. Of course, you can change it back to anonymous after the drawing.
Thanks to those of you who have joined my Feedblitz mailing list. In the first week, 25% of the subscribers to my YahooGroups list have joined the Feedblitz list. Not too bad for the first week, but I hope that more join us.
I also wanted to let you know that I now have a profile up at Amazon.com. You should be able to reach it at this link: See Angela Benson’s Profile
Today marks the start of my first contest for AngelaBenson.com and you’re invited to participate.
The winner will receive a gift basket that includes autographed book club edition copies (hardcover) of all three of my Christian titles–Awakening Mercy, Abiding Hope, and The Amen Sisters–and one of the Ndebele dolls that I purchased when I was in South Africa this summer. Two runners-up will receive $25 gift certificates to the online bookstore of their choice.
Just take a peek at the Mailing List CONTEST! page for details.
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