WEbook Contest Update

Whew, what a week! I love it when weeks streak by, and that one certainly did. Let’s see, we bought a larger second-hand vehicle this week, I started a new job, did a hefty pile of good things for friends and acquaintances (working on my sainthood here), and we put my beloved Dodge Shadow up for sale. (sniff, sniff) I even almost destroyed my computer this week. And then I discovered, it wasn’t actually me or the computer, it was Windows and a bad update. Whew! I thought I had lost everything. That would have really sucked bo-bo. In a big way.

Speaking of updates, I remembered to check on my WEbook Page to Fame submissions today. I tell ya, I’ve gotten a lot of entertainment out of those $5 submissions.

Anyway, here’s a screen shot of how I’m doing at the moment:

I’m doing much better since they’ve removed all the ‘bad’ votes. It turns out some folks were going on there and lowballing submissions that weren’t theirs. I had kind of wondered why I had the almost exact same crappy marks for two very different projects–one that had been very much edited and one that hadn’t (at all, really). Now, there is a variety in marks which is relieving and expected. The edited project is doing 4% better (it’s the 2nd one in the above image). Interesting, isn’t it?

I may have already mentioned this, but I love the fact that this contest (which allows you to submit the first page–about 250 words if I recall correctly) has opened my eyes to things I need to improve. Looking at my first page and looking at the marks that were coming in, I quickly realized my story was not showing how it was different right up front. It was, well, kind of average in its topic, if you know what I mean? Thanks to this contest, combined with a few bits of agent feedback, I have since improved my opening with a few tweaks to let the reader see that this might not be your typical girl-getting-married-and-having-second-thoughts kind of story.

I sure do love it when feedback helps me see what I need to do to push my writing to the next level.

How about you? Have you gotten a tidbit somewhere lately that’s opened your eyes to what you need to do to make your work better or make it stand out?

P.S. I’ve blacked out the contest submission titles as I don’t want folks I know inflating my marks out of the kindness of their dear little hearts. Just in case they might be tempted….