Optional Contest Feedback

October 12, 2021

Would you like to know how your contest entry lands with our screeners?

New service! For an additional $20 CAD, we will send you brief feedback about your entry's strengths and snags.

This will come in the form of an email with a few notes about what our screener thought, a score out of five, plus any relevent resources. Please note: this feedback will not be sent until after the contest closes and winners are announced.

Here's an example of what that might look like for an entry to our Clash of the Query Letters contest:

Dear Writer,

I am a big fan of speculative fiction, so I was immediately intrigued by the world-building hints you've slipped in. Also, I like that you've included a couple comp titles that are recent, which shows you are actively reading within your market.

My biggest snag is the word count. A debut novel is a hard sell, so anything that goes too far outside industry standards will raise eyebrows. At 42k words, I'm afraid many agents will conclude that the narrative isn't quite cooked.

Here's some more information on that topic:

https://darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/wordcount

If I was an agent and this landed on my desk, would I still flip to the sample pages? Yes, absolutely. Despite my concerns, I definitely see potential in this pitch.

Score: 3/5

Best,

Your friendly neighbourhood contest screener

What's the screener score all about?

This is how our screeners rank the submissions they review. You need 5/5 to make it onto the shortlist.

Here's the breakdown:

5—All engines are firing!

4—One small snag, but otherwise a solid entry

3—A more significant snag, but still lots of potential

2—Something significant isn't working here

1—A general lack of clarity and/or proofreading

(Keep in mind that for agents, a relative score of 1/5 is often down to technical or targeting oversights, like they don't represent the genre you're pitching, you've addressed your query to the wrong agent, or you haven't followed their submissions guidelines.)

All the best on your querying quest!

About the Darling Axe

We are professional editors as well as award-winning writers. We understand the intense effort and emotional investment you have poured into your work. It's our job to help you take your manuscript to the next level.