Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair

cobsie

http://www.writerscentre.ie/novelfair.html


Anyone entering this? I'm going to submit the first story of my collection, disguised as an opening chapter and see how far I get. My concern is that they want the opening three chapters, but a max of 10,000 words, which does not tally at all with what I have, but I'm guessing the important thing is the word count, not the chapter count....does that seem like a reasonable assumption?

Anyway, it's been a really valuable exercise for me to work up the opening story and start the process of putting my stuff out there. I'm going to post the draft to Write Club later today for feedback.

Anyone else?

pickarooney

You could always artificially break the chapters up for the purposes of the competition.

Danpad

Yep, have entered this one. It's an exceptional prize! Gave me a nice little target to work to throughout the year as well. I had to juggle a few chapters around to fit their criteria of 1st 3 chapters and 10k words which meant proofing, rewriting etc as I went along but it kept me disciplined each day!
The 'Fish' comp deadline is the end of Nov for a nice little 5k target too.

By the way, given the prize that's on offer from the Irish Writers Centre(A day of exposure to agents, publishers) I'm surprised there's not more of a buzz on this forum about it.

Best of luck to all who are entering.

EileenG

The industry standard is 3000 words per chapter. Of course, there are variations, but that's why it's worded like that. The word count is what they'll look at, not the chapter headings.

The thing about the day of exposure is that you have to have something finished that they are likely to be interested in. At the Dun Laoghaire Mountain to Sea festival, I got to meet one of the top agents in England, and I had nothing ready that he might be interested in. He doesn't do YA science fiction, and my historical novel wasn't much past first draft.

iguana

EileenG wrote: »

The thing about the day of exposure is that you have to have something finished that they are likely to be interested in. At the Dun Laoghaire Mountain to Sea festival, I got to meet one of the top agents in England, and I had nothing ready that he might be interested in. He doesn't do YA science fiction, and my historical novel wasn't much past first draft.

For this competition you have to have a complete novel ready for mid-January or you are disqualified.

I have to say that I'm a bit wary of a competition with a €35 entry fee. Especially one which has never happened before. I'm not saying that this isn't completely on the level but with no history behind it, it is a bit of a risk with your money.

Danpad

Yes, perhaps only the foolhardy or very brave will submit 3 chapters without having anything ready for January (luckily I have!). As for the price, well I reckon it's worth a shot, a day of pitching to several agents and publishers is quite an opportunity.

FewFew

Usually I'm very negative on competitions you have to pay to enter, but for some reason this sits ok in my head.

I may enter this, once they confirm that e-publishing doesn't reeeeally count as publishing.

Coffeeapple

I'm thinking of entering this too. My chapters tend to be on the short side but I'm guessing the requirement of 10,000 words precedes the chapters, so I might just rearrange my chapters like Pickarooney suggested.

FewFew

Ok, as a heads up - once you've had an ISBN attached to any of your books you don't qualify. So, anybody uploading to Smashwords or Amazon is a big ol' no no.

blue.jester

I actually mailed the Centre before entering and it is, as others have said, more the word count than having three chapters. I was advised to submit my first 10K words with a natural break point in the story rather than my first three chapters since that went over the limit.

It does seem like a great chance though. Some face time rather than the usual "Sorry, it isn't for us" letter/email

Best of luck to everyone entering.

Ruthie-Roux

I entered this and have to say I found having a 300 word limit on the synopisis a bit of a challenge. Ifs fine if your only giving a "teaser" synopsis, such as the kind you might find on the back of a book. But I assumed this was more the sort of synopsis an editor would want, ie a summarized version of the major events in the novel and for this, I found 300 words far too little.

Also I was just wondering how long before evryone else got the email confirming reciept of entry?

Danpad

Yep, the 300 word synopsis was challenging but it forced me to cut to the chase and keep it simple. I received the receipt email within 24 hrs for the paypal transaction and within 48 hrs of posting the application and chapters. The deadline was 11th November.

Good luck.

Ruthie-Roux

Yeah , I submitted it yesterday just in the nick of time, so probably it will be Monday before I get the email.

It doesn`t seem like many people entered from boards at least. Im surprised because it`s not the sort of opportunity that comes along regularly.
Anyhow, roll on January.

iguana

Probably 2 reasons for the not great take up.

1. You have to have a more or less completed novel ready to go or else be extremely confident in your ability to have one ready in 8 weeks, over Christmas.

and
2. It's a €35 fee for a competition with no history. If this competition had already been running for a year or two with a solid history of prize winners feeling the presence at the Writing Fair was truly as good as it sounds, then I suspect there would be a lot more entries regardless of the cost. But as this is the first year there is no guarantee that the prize will actually be anything like that described.

I'm in camp 1 but if I wasn't I'd still think long and hard about entering this year. Though on the other hand, this could be the best year to enter as there will be less competition. If this year's winners end up with fabulous book deals as a result of the contacts they make at the Fair, the world and his mother will be entering next year.

pops

Does anyone know if Irish language entries be accepted?

EileenG

Entries are now closed, so if you don't know, it's too late.

cobsie

Ruthie-Roux wrote: »

I entered this and have to say I found having a 300 word limit on the synopisis a bit of a challenge. Ifs fine if your only giving a "teaser" synopsis, such as the kind you might find on the back of a book. But I assumed this was more the sort of synopsis an editor would want, ie a summarized version of the major events in the novel and for this, I found 300 words far too little.

Also I was just wondering how long before evryone else got the email confirming reciept of entry?

That's funny - I had the opposite reaction. I ended up writing a succinct 67 word summary and left it at that! I decided that either they like the writing or they don't and there's not much I can really do to influence them, besides submit the best possible opening chapter. Also, I submitted the first short story in the collection as is, about 6,000 words, without putting in any kind of artificial chapter break. I guess I took a love-it or leave-it approach, in the most positive sense - I concentrated all my efforts on polishing the submitted story and that was the very valuable process I got out of entering. It seemed easier to be true to form than try to second-guess what might appeal to the panel. Better to be myself!

I have no delusions about being selected but it really made me work hard to finesse my writing, so I consider it totally worthwhile on that level.

good luck!!

Miranda7

Hi,

I entered this. I got an email today saying that there are 570 entries. I did email them first to ask how important the three chapters/10,000 words was and they said 10,000 words was what was important. This suited me as my first 2 chapters come to 9, 700 and something. It will be really interesting to seehow it goes. I am hoping to re write some of my later chapters over the Christmas hols in case I am one of the lucky twenty. Best of luck to everybody who entered.

Miranda7

I think I got the email by return but I submitted it about a month early because I was going on hols.