The Harlequin Presents Competition 2009 Update – First Round Judging!
24 Comments November 10th, 2009 in editor, writing contest Posted by Amy
by editor Joanne Grant
Well, things have certainly been super busy in the UK offices ever since the competition closed last week. Whilst that meant that the entrants could happily sit back (or nervously start to worry) and think ‘job done!’ we had to leap into action, logging and organising the many, MANY entries. As predicted, the majority of the entries arrived in the final couple of days, so although we’d been logging entries as and when they hit our in-box, the submissions literally came flooding in over the weekend and resulted in the mammoth task of sifting through the emails and organising a total of 544 entries!
The entries were split evenly between the entire editorial team and Monday morning saw a huge group effort as we started to read – aided by a LOT of sugar. Biscuits, muffins, chocolates, sweets and some token grapes, you name it; we ate it, washed down with plenty of caffeine! In previous years, we have printed out all of the entries, but in an attempt to be greener; those who wanted to read them on-screen at their desks, or on their ereaders, and only a few were printed out, hence the lack of piles of paper in the picture of happy editors!
The first round of judging it still going on, even as I type! The editorial team is enthusiastic and relentless in the pursuit of new talent and our aim is to announce the winner in early December. I will be sure to tell you of the exact date nearer the time. Every entrant will receive an email informing them of our decision; however we will be unable to offer individual feedback on the majority of the submissions. I will also let you know what date you can expect to receive your email by, and fingers crossed it runs smoothly this year!
Amy also let me know that a number of you are already asking when the next competition will be – yikes, you are all very keen! 
All I can say at this point is that we have no firm plans to run another one, but who knows what 2010 may hold, and it may not be just Presents and Modern Heat who are looking for new talent…
In the meantime you can submit a partial in the regular way! Writing and submission guidelines can be found at www.eharlequin.com
OK, back to judging! 
24 Responses to “The Harlequin Presents Competition 2009 Update – First Round Judging!”
- 1 Pingback on Nov 10th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
- 2 Pingback on Nov 10th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Great to see so many familiar faces!
Shaking with nerves to see so many entries. I thought my nerves woud settle after the closing date was reached, but this post has me biting my nails and fighting stomach butterflies again!
Yikes. Hope you like my one!
Thanks for the update! And kudos to you all for going green!
Amy
~waves~ So nice to see your smiling faces!
Have fun reading the entries. I know the entrants are biting their nails…
“it may not be just Presents and Modern Heat who are looking for new talent…”
oooh, oooh, oooh! Fingers crossed for a Romance or Medicals competition. Can’t wait to find out who the lucky winners are for this one!Brook
Thanks for telling us how things are going.
Wow! That’s a lot of reading to do. One thing that might help your eyes, could be having the computer read the stories for you. In Windows there is a feature call Narrator. In Vista and Windows 7, the voice is nicer than Windows XP. It would also require to copy the text into a Notepad. In Windows 7, I usually save the doc file as rtf and have the Narrator read it directly from it.
In my case, it helps to listen to my own writing, while revising.
Wow, 544 entries! That’s exciting.
Thanks for the update and happy reading! 
Weren’t there over 600 entries last time? Wow, my chances are already better…
Thanks for the update.
xo xo xo…
Karen
The Update is here. It’s so exciting. Thank you for organising it Amy.
I thought there would be around 600 entries, but still, there is plenty for the editors to choose from.
I too thought my nerves would settle once I hit sent, but instead they have escalated into a fibrous mess. lol
Thank you for the update once again. Okay, I should get back to my NaNo.
Suzanne
Oppss sorry for not acknowledging Joanne. Just proves my nerves are a mess.
Thank you for the update.
The first Presents competition did result in around 600 entries but that was before we introduced the rule of one submission per person – many entrants sent two or three first chapters, or more! However what we really want is for each and every chapter to be the best that particular author can write – we are looking for quality not quantity! So what is really exciting this time is that we have had entries from 544 different aspiring authors!!
Wow, Joanne!
544 entries! That’s an awful lot of reading and sorting. The process of elimination is not one I envy. Happy reading to all the editors involved. Thank you for taking the time to encourage us ‘newbies.’
Thank you editors for giving us aspiring writers the chance to hope and dream (isn’t that what Harlequin’s all about after all?). Can’t wait to read the winning entry!
Wow, how cool to see everyone! And how exciting for the entrants. My advice to the writers is to go do something else, though, and try to forget about it. That’s what I did.
Plus I’d convinced myself I wouldn’t win. It was quite a pleasant (okay, earth-shattering) surprise.
Amy,
thank you for arranging the update, even though the numbers are terrifying.
I understand you won’t be able to give feedback on entries, but will we know which round our entry made it through to? Not that any of us want to hear it was our baby that was dropped at round one, but it might at least give us some guidance as to whether our writing is getting closer to the mark.
Thanks for all your input on the website/ blog!
Thank you for the update, Joanne (although knowing the number of entries has not helped the jitters at all!)
I’d like to second what Tobie said – any indication as to the level of our work will be much appreciated.
Thank you to all the editors for the effort you are putting into this competition. Happy reading.
Hi,
As Tobie and Meghan said, it would be great to know at which level our entry got eliminated. Has any entry been eliminated till now for not adhering to the basic guidelines? [wrong format,non adhering word limits etc]
Hi!
Just wondering how often the editors post updates. Does anyone know?
Are we notified when we’re eliminated or if we’re being considered as finalists?
Curious minds want to know…LOL
I’m so excited! Come on December!!
I don’t think the “rounds” are exactly formal — from my experience, “first round” is likely weeding out submissions that are completely wrong (think 100,000-word fantasy novels…). As with regular submissions, the editors may give feedback where they can but it’s not always possible due to the volume of entries and workload.
The editors are planning a post of some common mistakes, things they like, etc. Probably after that the winner & runners up will be announced. Remember it’s only a few weeks until the winners are picked so you won’t be tenter hooks for ages!
~Amy
Thanks, Amy!
This is my first contest that puts an actual chapter of my writing in front of an editor.
Just curious as to how it’s done. Thanks for taking the time to answer us newbies. LOL
I would like to see Intrigue have a competition or the Steeple Hill Historial and Suspense lines.