Sooner or later, every writer gets tempted by contests. There are so many of them out there: postcard story contest, poetry, fiction for emerging writers, and on and on.

But beware, most of the contests come with a price tag; the ubiquitous ‘admin fee’, often as much as $30, but wait—the entry fee includes a ‘free’ subscription. Most periodicals run these contests in the hopes of turning their ever-growing slush-piles into tangible revenue. Government funding depends on the number of subscriptions a magazine has.

On February 21, Descant threw a grand shindig to announce the winner for the 2009 Winston Collins Prize for Best Canadian Poem. The guests, including many writers and contest virgins, went through 80 bottles of wine in anticipation of the winner, which was announced in reverse order, beauty pageant style. Marilyn Gear Pilling was crowned the winner(pictured below with Descant Publisher Karen Mulhallen). “It’s great to finally be the bride,” she said on stage. Marilyn is a contest veteran and as such has developed a thick skin. She has placed among the finalists for numerous short prose and poetry contests, but this was her first win. She has learned that contest judging is highly subjective. “I have a rejection file at home 800 thick,” she said to me. “As soon as one comes back, I send it out again somewhere else without changing it.”

After all, most contests employ a crew of “screeners” who filter down the hundreds of entries into a manageable dozen or so for the celebrity judges to look at. So in effect, those respected writers (whom you hoped to impress with your allusions, nuances, subtexts) may not even get to see your work because some “reader” was too distracted or too young to pick up on the subtleties.

There is truth in that. The very same day that the Descant poetry winner was announced, I heard from the Writer’s Union of Canada that a story I had submitted to their contest for ‘developing writers’ was among the finalists. This same story, “The Rich Beggar Boy,” was submitted to at least three publications who had turned it down with a form rejection letter. The Writer’s Union declined to tell me whether or not I had won. “Just keep an eye out for our press release next week,” they said. All weekend long, I practiced my best Meryl Streep: It’s an honor just to be nominated. And in the writing world it really is. Mainstream publishing houses do take note of the validation being a finalist brings, particularly a prestigious one such as the Writer’s Union or Descant.

Don’t let Marilyn’s thick rejection file fool you into thinking she is not accomplished. She began writing seriously eighteen years ago and has since then clocked up two short story collections and three poetry collections. Publishing houses do take notice of contest finalists.

Then there are some contests (The Toronto Star) that have a temptingly low entry fee ($5.00) and an unbelievable prize (over $8000.00). But be careful to read the fine print of the contest rules. You are required to submit personal contact information which, “we may use this information to send you offers or information from us, our affiliates and from selected sponsors or advertisers (“Marketing Offers”).” In other words, by entering, you will win yourself spam emails, junk mail and telemarketing phone calls. The Toronto Star uses the low fee and high pay-off gimmick to collect mailing lists that they further make money off by selling to marketing companies. Naturally, such contests attract thousands of applications. The logistics of determining which entry is the best are astounding. So much so that I can’t help feeling that ultimately the winner is decided by someone wearing a blindfold, sitting amid the entries, singing, “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe”.