My experience of judging a book award

Scale weighing books against each other. Image by Clker Free Vector Images on Pixabay

As a developmental editor, I’m always looking for new ways to exercise my skills, and new ways of understanding storytelling and storytellers. So, last summer, I took up the opportunity to judge a book award. I read three novels, all either self-published or published by a small press. These were entered into the categories of genre and literary fiction.

All three novels had great merit and were fun and interesting to read. But, as is often the case, they also had shortcomings. Using my knowledge and experience as a developmental editor to figure out exactly what these shortcomings were, and how (and why) they were occurring, was part of the fun of judging the competition. This required an in-depth analysis of each novel.

Now, my plan was to read one novel a month, then complete the detailed questionnaire, which would inform the scores and comments I gave the novel on the judging form. But because these novels had already been published, and most of my work involves helping authors strengthen their stories before they publish, it felt really hard at first. I struggled against giving critical feedback on an already published novel, and this led to my overthinking the process slightly. This meant that my already somewhat extensive comments grew to the point that I needed to set them aside before returning to edit them down.

While I set my comments aside on the first novel, I took some time out to reflect on my judging process. This helped me realise that I just really didn’t want to give what could be perceived as negative feedback on an already published book by an author whose sales were likely small (or small-ish). I feel strongly about supporting the small press and self-publishing community, and while I will happily provide authors I work with on developmental projects with supportive yet critical feedback, that’s different because they can use that feedback to help strengthen their stories. When a book has already been published, that’s no longer possible.

So, how did I get around this? I changed my perspective.

It wasn’t my fault that some of the authors may not have sought out or integrated developmental feedback earlier on in their writing processes. While nothing could be done about that now, I could provide thoughtful feedback on the published novel that took what I perceived to be the author’s intentions into account. As I evaluated each novel, I considered why the author may have made the artistic decisions they did. For example, an author who head hops is likely trying to show more of the scene and their characters, and they may not be aware that this (usually) makes the writing confusing to read. So, rather than simply slating the head hopping, I could weigh this against the strengths of the story and writing more broadly. Similarly, a writer providing too much setting detail may be concerned about worldbuilding, wanting to make sure their readers get a strong sense of the physical world their characters inhabit, without realising that this information is slowing the story down and boring their readers. In this case, taking the author’s aims into account and weighing them against the judging criteria for that category helped with perspective.

This helped me get back on track with my (self-imposed) reading deadlines and to better enjoy the experience. And, of course, the time and consideration I put into the process will benefit authors and the small press and self-publishing community more generally —winning a respected book award can help a book reach more readers. Also, one of the purposes of this particular book award is to help maintain professional standards for independent authors and small presses.

This wasn’t my first experience of judging a writing competition (back in 2015, I helped to judge a short story competition, and I’ve also been a reader for indieBRAG) but the quality of the writing submitted by this competition was some of the strongest I’d judged before. This meant I needed to give each novel extra thought and care in order to do it justice. I hope that the competition organisers feel that I’ve achieved this.

I look forward to hearing who the winners are at the awards ceremony!

Have you ever judged a book competition, or have you submitted your writing to a competition? If so, what was the experience like for you? I'd love to hear, so please leave a comment, or get in touch with me through the “contact” button below.