So, here are my WotF stats. 29th time is the charm!

[agilebrit]

Raw numbers:
29 entries
14 form Rs
11 Honorable Mentions
2 Semi-Finalists
2 Finalists
1 Win

I entered the contest with my first "original" story in December 2007. It garnered a plain form R. To be fair, it's an actual Firefly knockoff which I scraped the serial numbers from--as in, it was fanfic first before I rejiggered it. That being said, that story has spawned four others in the same series, three of which have found homes, two of which have found two homes. Publisher's Freaking Weekly even said something nice about one of them!

My next entry (March 2007) also garnered a form R. However it was also my first pro-rate sale, to Cosmos.

My next three entries all garnered Honorable Mentions, though they weren't calling them that yet for the very next one. I'm not going to go through them one by one. That would be ridiculous. However, for your elucidation:

2007: 4 entries (3 HMs)
2008: 4 entries (3 HMs)
2008: 2 entries (no placement)
2010: 4 entries (1 HM)
2011: 0 entries (The Year Roleplay Ate My Brain. Whoops.)
2012: 3 entries (1 HM)
2013: 4 entries (1 HM, 1 Finalist)
2014: 4 entries (1 HM, 2 SFs)
2015: 4 entries (1 HM, 1 WINNER)

The moral of the story? NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER.

Also, find your niche and play it to the hilt. My last six placements were all werewolf stories, except one, but it had werewolves in prominent secondary roles. Two of those were Finalists, and two were Semi-Finalists. Dave Farland (famously) hates werewolf stories--he said so in the blurb for my novel! You can make someone look at something they don't like twice if you just do it well enough.

Comments

Persistence literally does win!

[bradrtorgersen.livejournal.com]

Julie, this is a testament to not giving up. SO TOTALLY PROUD OF YOU! I am so bummed I couldn't be at Eric's book launch. I'd have hugged the life out of you.

Re: Persistence literally does win!

[werewolf-hacker.livejournal.com]

When Jim Butcher was asked at MisCon how to get published, his answer was "Psychotic persistence."

A saint is just a sinner who keeps getting up.

If I don't believe in my stories, then why should anyone else?

This business is infuriating and crazy and crazily infuriating at times... but then there are moments like these. I'm glad I can share them with you. Thank you for believing in me. <3

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Thanks, this is a nice insight on how WOTF works. Congrats again!

(If you like rejiggered Firefly stories, want a copy of my novel Torchship?)

[werewolf-hacker.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I would love a copy of your novel!

I think WotF "works" in that if you enter often enough, you will either pro out or win eventually. There are ways to get past Dave, if you read his Daily Kicks and realize what his sweet spots are--that's what I did with this... thing. And it worked, even though he famously "hates" werewolf fiction. Character immersion, sensory detail, worldbuilding without infodumping--I think I accomplished all that in the first few paragraphs and sucked him in, even though my protag is a (in some ways stereotypical) alpha wolf.

I think it just points up the fact that if you love something hard enough, you can make even people who don't like it very much sit up and take notice.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

I think I need to focus on the power of practice before the power of love will kick in.

What address should I send the novel to, and do you prefer mobi or epub?