*ponders like a pondery thing*

[agilebrit]

According to Joni Labaqui at WotF, I am now free to sub the BearFic elsewhere. She also says that I should mention in my cover letter that it got an Honorable Mention in the contest, and that will increase its chances of publication

Comments

[baron_waste]

It got an Honorable Mention. This is the equivalent of “getting mentioned in dispatches” - no, it's not a medal, not a battlefield commission, but your worth got noticed. Officially. You got in the door. Yes, say so! Don't discount it!

[appomattoxco]

I say mention it. It's the real world, this isn't the kind of award that everyone who didn't win gets at the end of field day.

[lonfiction]

Personally, I would not mention anything below Finalist in a cover letter, and then only if that was the story I was currently submitting.

My own experience has led me to the position that anything in a cover letter beyond one or two relevant sales does more to make the submitter appear amateurish than even the lack of any credits at all would. Of course, Your Mileage May Vary.

P.S. Make sure you keep submitting to Writers of the Future! That experience is worth suffering through any number of rejections for.

[lonfiction]

To clarify one thing though: Just because I wouldn't mention less than a Finalist on a cover letter, do not think for a second you should not be thrilled, elated, ecstatic and totally jazzed to see your story placing a cut above the rest of the entrants.

Every improvement, step closer to your dreams and bit of validation deserve to be celebrated. This is certainly one to share with family, friends and other writer types--it's just more of a personal success than one I would recommend putting on business correspondence (aka cover letter/query letter/cold sales letter.)

[agilebrit]

Oh, believe me, I'm totally thrilled (although not as thrilled as the first time...or the second time. Hee). And I've made a resolution that I will enter every quarter of WotF until I'm either no longer eligible or win that puppy.

Winning three HM's might be worth putting in a bio on another story that's been published. Cover letter? The consensus at LTUE seemed to be "not so much."

Now, I've got two sales on my resume to small markets (Renard's Menagerie and Afterburn). I've also heard that the A list markets aren't necessarily impressed by something like that. On the other hand, it tells them that someone else was willing to pay me actual money for my words. So I vacillate there, too.

*whines* It shouldn't be this complicated.

[lonfiction]

LTUE sounds like a fun con. I hope to make it out there some day. I would no sooner put the WotF HM on my cover letter than I would list off all the other markets that thought about it for a minute and then said no. Might as well hand deliver the sub while bellowing "I coulda been a contender!" :D

*whines* It shouldn't be this complicated.

Write the best story you can and submit it to the best markets that publish that sort of thing. Repeat as necessary. What's so complicated about that? ;)