One of the several contests into which I entered Mortal Touch, with disappointing results (or lack thereof), just surprised me. I won’t identify which contest this was, but it’s highly regarded and I paid a significant entry fee for it. I just received copies of three judges’ evaluation sheets for the contest, which I didn’t realize would be sent. As feedback, they’re most enlightening–and somewhat gratifying.
Two of the sheets are identical “editorial” evaluations, giving the book a general assessment–overall appearance, writing, story, production values–and the third was a “Design” evaluation specifically looking at the book’s physical design elements. Each item on the sheet is scored on a scale of 1 to 10.
Two of the sheets are just glowing. The first “editorial” evaluation is straight 9’s and 10’s, and the judge rated Mortal Touch Number 5 in his/her list of the top 10 books in that group (General Fiction). The “design” evaluation is also quite good, almost all 9’s and 10’s. The cover design printing–not the design itself, but the reproduction of it by LSI that I was not happy with–hurt my scores. I will definitely not “settle” on the cover printing again–I’ll keep tweaking it and ordering proofs until it’s up to par. I got minor points off for the small typeface, which is also not surprising. I’m not sure what to do about that, because it was an economic choice as well as a design decision. I knew the type was small, but I’ve got books on my shelves with smaller type, and I think narrow margins look much more amateurish than a small font. But it’s something to think about.
The second editorial judge didn’t like the book quite so much, and that’s probably what knocked me out of the finals. Oh, we’re not talking 1’s and 2’s, barfing-hairballs not liking, but some 6’s and 7’s “eh” not liking (also some 9’s). Comparing this “minority report” to the other two, and the things that were scored down, I suspect this judge just doesn’t like genre fiction. Well, that’s always a risk you run when you write genre fiction and then put it out in mainstream venues. I am puzzled, however, about this judge rating Mortal Touch a 6 on “consistency between the cover and the title page.” The other editorial judge gave that a 10, and I’m baffled as to what inconsistency Judge #3 found between the title information on the cover and title page!
In any event, all the evaluations and comments are extremely edifying, and I’ll consider them all carefully. It’s very gratifying, however, that except for LSI’s printing on the cover and the small typeface, the judges thought Mortal Touch was very well designed. -I- certainly thought so, but there have been people who hated the cover! For the most part, it’s gotten a positive reaction from readers in my target audience, which is the important thing.
Last week I was notified that I didn’t get the Older Writer’s Grant I applied for, either. 🙁 But the chairperson for that complimented my excerpt (from The Longer the Fall) and said he looked forward to my applying again next year.
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