Just getting a little ahead of myself here, but planning ahead has its advantages.

How much does having a writing resume of competition successes improve your cover letter to agents?

Taking that question further, what competition results are deemed good, and what if any are deemed to be bad? Are there any competitions that should be avoided?

Grinder

I've only ever entered one writing competition, which was an Observer schools' essay contest in which I won £25 for saying that the problem with Britain was that not enough people wanted to get their hands dirty doing useful things like engineering; instead they wanted to be merchant bankers...

However, I didn't mention this in my agents' letter (having been a merchant banker and all). But in general, I definitely think you should mention competition successes. You want agents to associate your name with success, so why not give them a little help?

Adele.



<Added>

PS I was 17 at the time, honest!

Indeed. You want people to know that other people have judged your work to be of a high enough quality to stand out amongst a pack of others.

I agree,

But are there any competition accolades that would be particularly nice to have?, are there any competition successes that are not worth owning up to, that might actually do harm?

Thanks for the replies so far…

Grinder

A Nobel Laureate is pretty classy...

Well, winning the KKK Racist Writers Award, or the Global Neo-Nazi Anti-Semitism Prize isn't likely to put you in good stead.

Sensibly, I think it's more a case of the more prestigious an award, the better, but reams of lesser competitions (unless you're entering child writing comps as a 35 year old) shouldn't count against you.

Damnit!, my game is up. I knew my ‘Noddy reads aloud’ merit badge was pitching just a little too low…

Grinder