[Anthony-Baldasare Posts: 93 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Hello all-

These two awards have deadlines coming up in early April & May.  My research shows that placements or wins in these awards don't generate much in the way of sales.  Some recognition, perhaps?  Have members here who have submitted to them (perhaps won?) benefited from the experience? 
Thanks

[Vijaya Posts: 7,161 Status: Offline Encourage WWW]

Pricey entrance fee.  Not for me. The vast majority of awards do not translate into sales. If you're looking for recognition, write for magazines--there's name recognition and you get paid too. Sometimes you also get a 25-50 word about the author bit at the end to highlight a book.

[Anthony-Baldasare Posts: 93 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Nice idea- thanks Vijaya.  A magazine article would certainly generate more 'publicity'.  I bet parents don't shop for books on contest websites looking for previous winners.  You've just made me wonder what agents think when they see contest wins/placements in query letter bios.  Do they think less of writers if they've won some "dubious" awards?

[christripp Posts: 1,211 Status: Offline WWW]

Anthony, I don't think any Agent would think LESS of a writer who lists an award from a contest mill. They would just know he/she, was very new and that's not something they would hold against the writer.
There are a few decent contests that can be a real ego boost for a writer, Illustrator and don't we all need this once in a while. That can be enough award in itself, if it encourages us to keep working. But they will have very limited categories to enter the work in and will list the judges, who you could actually google and recognize as worthy of judging lit or art.

Then there are the many, many, MANY others, that exist only to make a profit from new creatives. Writer Beware has many great blogs on how to judge the difference. https://accrispin.blogspot.com/search?q=contests

[Anthony-Baldasare Posts: 93 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Chris- thanks for the link.  Very informative.