Remember a while back when I mentioned that a friend of mine is in the American Title contest? Here she is. Allow me to introduce Helen Scott Taylor.
Here I am in the fifth and final round of American Title IV with the chance to win a publishing contract for my story The Magic Knot, and I have to admit, I nearly didn’t enter.As the contest is called ‘American Title’, I thought I wouldn’t be eligible because I live in England. A friend told me to send my entry anyway. ‘What’s the worst that can happen,’ she said. ‘You don’t hear anything, and then you’re no worse off than if you hadn’t bothered.’
I took the chance, mailed my three chapters and synopsis in to Dorchester Publishing just before the closing date and forgot about it.
A few months later, a friend of mine who’d also entered received a letter from Dorchester requesting her full manuscript for the contest. I cheered with her and assumed, for whatever reason, The Magic Knot hadn’t made it. I forgot to take account of the extra time it takes for mail to make the leap across the Atlantic. A few days later, my own letter requesting the full manuscript arrived. Obviously, I had been eligible to enter. J
To cut a long story short, a few weeks after I mailed my full I had an email from Romantic Times telling me I was one of the ten finalists and requesting my entries for all five voting rounds.
I tend to be laid back about success and rejection. I wasn’t prepared to be zoned out yet unable to sleep for excitement over the next few days. As I only had a week to return my entries, I pulled myself together and sent them in.
Promoting myself for American Title has been a promotional baptism of fire. There is no doubt it is stressful, two weeks of voting and manic promotion for each round, followed by a two or three week breather to regroup. I’ve coped by keeping busy with other things in my life in between voting. (And with two kids and a business to run, I have no shortage of work to keep me occupied.)
Having supportive friends and family has helped tremendously. I’m grateful to all the wonderful people who’ve taken the time to read my entries and vote for me.
Whatever the final result, I’m delighted to have met the other nine finalists and made a new group of friends. We have set up an American Title IV finalists’ blog together at www.titlemagic.blogspot.com.
To all writers out there, if you get the opportunity to enter American Title, I say go for it. You have to be in it to win it!
If you have time, I’d love you to check out my love scene in the fifth and final round of American Title. Voting runs from February 18th to March 2nd. The entries can be found at www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle3.php
If you like my entry, I’d love your vote.
For more information about my writing, please go to www.helenscotttaylor.com
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