Behind the scenes: How book contest judging really works
Book Award Pro
Editor's Note: At Book Award Pro, we believe transparency builds trust in the literary awards industry. That's why we're excited to share this behind-the-scenes look at the North Street Book Prize judging process from assistant judge Annie Mydla. North Street exemplifies the ethical, author-focused practices we look for when vetting contests for our database.
Understanding how legitimate contests operate helps authors make informed decisions about where to invest their time and resources. We're proud to partner with Winning Writers as a North Street co-sponsor.
In this article, assistant judge Annie Mydla discusses the judging process, how judging decisions are made, and how North Street's guaranteed feedback policy influences the judging experience.
A transparent look behind the scenes
Authors have told me that literary contests can feel as random and impersonal as a lottery. Judges' priorities might seem opaque or arbitrary, and many authors still carry painful memories from the bad old days of predatory vanity presses. That could make it harder to trust submissions opportunities in recent years—even from long-established, reputable literary organizations.
Winning Writers founders Adam Cohen and Jendi Reiter are acutely aware of this dynamic and seek to combat it by running the most transparent and ethical literary contests possible. That's especially true for Winning Writers's flagship contest, the North Street Book Prize for self- and hybrid-published books, where we're so invested in our contest's ethics that we offer guaranteed judging feedback at no extra charge to directly demonstrate our engagement.
I'm grateful to Book Award Pro for this opportunity to outline our North Street administrative procedures and judging priorities. I hope the article will take some of the mystery and anxiety out of the submissions process and give authors more confidence about preparing for and entering literary contests generally.
The fundamental logistics of North Street Book Prize judging
The North Street Book Prize receives between 1,700-2,000 submissions each year. Physical books sent in the mail are read by assistant judge Sarah Halper. Digital submissions are read by assistant judges Annie Mydla, Ewa Stachyra, Paweł Zagawa, and Mateusz Naporowski. The five assistant judges assemble a shortlist of 40–60 books to be read by head judge and Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter. Jendi then makes the final decisions in each category. Names and bios for all contest administrators and judges can be found on our Staff Biographies page.
Personal judging feedback for all digital entries
Our experience as judges in the North Street Book Prize is possibly unique in the literary contest world because of a key dynamic: we give personal feedback to every author and poet who submits digitally. About 91% of entrants opt in for this service each year.
The responsibility to give feedback means that, as judges, our primary activity is actually critiquing the books, not just ranking them. As we read, we also know that authors will be able to respond to our feedback by email. Our judging doesn't happen in a vacuum. Exchanging emails with submitters makes us sensitive to the fact that there's a real human on the other end of our judgments.
Pre-screening entries for eligibility: February 15 to mid-July
Before we can begin our reading period, we need to know that all the books in our pool are ready to compete. Several hundred entries per year need tweaking. Maybe they're missing their book cover or have skipped something from our entry guidelines video, checklist, or FAQ.
We look at every single book to make sure it fits our requirements and write to authors to ask for help if needed. In this way, pre-screening process establishes a connection between the judges, the book, and the writer even before reading begins.
Refunding ineligible entries in full
Entries sometimes have problems that can't be resolved. For example, if the book was traditionally published rather than self- or hybrid-published, or if it belongs to a category we don't have in the contest, such as books for an academic audience, we withdraw the entry and issue a full refund to the writer. This is a great policy for us judges, because it means we can spend our energy on reading and appreciating eligible books rather than dragging around heavy consciences for accepting money for books that aren't eligible. Our refund policy is a key way in which Winning Writers provides us with a healthy judging environment.
This careful vetting process highlights why choosing the right contest matters from the start. Before investing in entry fees, authors can use Book Award Pro's curated database to identify awards where their books are actually eligible and likely to be a good fit, saving both time and money.
First round of judging: February 15 to mid-August
In our first round of judging, we look for the books that are the most accomplished in terms of craft and content complexity. Our primary values include strong structure, writing style, internal consistency, and, most of all, whether the book is making us forget about the outside world. We also sift out books with common red flags that prevent books from being competitive in literary contests.
Approximately four out of five books are eliminated in the first round of judging, so we're faced with some difficult choices right off the bat. We're thinking hard about our decisions and already making notes about the feedback we'll be giving the authors.
Not just any feedback will do. We need observations that will be helpful for conveying A) why we judged the book the way we did, and B) what craft concept the author could tackle in the future (if they wanted to) that could potentially strengthen their writing for other submissions opportunities. Our goal is to leave authors with evidence of our personal attention and support, even if the book doesn't place in our competitive contest.
Second round of judging: mid-August to mid-September
In our second round of judging, we look at a pool of craft-advanced books and identify which of them is the most "North Street". Approximately three out of four books are eliminated.
The question of what's "North Street" might sound subjective, but in fact, Winning Writers makes it a point to tell potential entrants what kinds of books we are looking for. We list all past winning entries, together with book excerpts and specific comments from judges in our archives. Not only that, but head judge and Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter has written a comprehensive article with advice for North Street entrants.
These resources are as useful for us judges as they are for entrants. We apply them as we work our way through the second round. Feedback to books at this level requires special care because the distinctions we're making are more specific and nuanced. We often find ourselves giving feedback on topics we've never addressed before, which is exciting.
Third round of judging: mid-September to mid-October
The third round of judging is the most difficult for us. We're eliminating half of the remaining books in order to create the shortlist for our head judge, Jendi, to read. We also prepare a longlist from which they might choose additional books if they find our evaluations promising.
How we write about the books is especially important at this stage. We need authors whose books have been eliminated to know exactly why, which can be challenging to express, given the subtle distinctions being made. We also have the honor of expressing our admiration for the strengths that brought their books to the top 5% of our competitive entry pool.
This round also has us writing evaluations for Jendi. The past several months have demanded a mindset oriented towards winnowing down our large list of submissions. Now we have the pleasure of advocating for the books we've come to feel most passionate about.
Advanced rounds with Jendi Reiter: mid-October to mid-January
At this point, we early-round judges join the authors in suspense. Our favorite books are in Jendi's hands now. Will they receive top honors? Winters are an exciting time as we wait for Jendi's decisions.
While Jendi is reading, we're writing our feedback on the books that didn't make the shortlist. The sheer volume of entries adds a challenge to the activity, but overall, it's wonderful to spend the darkest, coldest months of the year writing about submitters' books.
Delivering feedback: early January to early February
We begin sending our feedback to authors in early January, even though the official results won't be announced until February 15. Ideally, we'd send everyone feedback at the same time, but the volume of email we receive in reply is so great that we need to spread our communication out over more than a month so as not to be overwhelmed. We reply personally to as many emails as possible.
Judges learn the contest results about a month before the public. At that time, we can start writing our feedback on any shortlisted books that haven't placed. This feedback can be more detailed because we have Jendi's comments on the book in addition to our own. Feedback for Winners and Honorable Mentions is written by Jendi personally and published on the books' winner pages at winningwriters.com.
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Connecting Winners and Honorable Mentions with their prizes
Winners and Honorable Mentions learn about their victories in mid-to-late January. At that time, we award the financial prizes and start to put together winner pages and author bios on winningwriters.com. We also connect authors to the benefits provided by our co-sponsors, like Book Award Pro!
North Street winners and honorable mentions receive complimentary access to Book Award Pro's premium database and personalized award recommendations, helping them build on their success by identifying additional contests and opportunities that match their book's profile. On our contest page, you can see a description of North Street prizes, as well as co-sponsor gifts for all entrants.
Announcing the results: February 15
Contest results are announced on February 15 each year on winningwriters.com and in our newsletter. Entries for the new North Street Book Prize season open that same day, and the process begins again.
I hope this article has helped to clear away some of the mystery about contest operation and judging. If you have questions I haven't covered here, feel free to reach out to us.
About Book Award Pro
Book Award Pro maintains the world's largest database of vetted book awards and connects authors with legitimate recognition opportunities.
We partner with ethical contests like the North Street Book Prize to support independent and self-published authors. Use our services to find the perfect awards for your book, or learn more about strategic award entries on our blog.
Annie Mydla is the managing editor of Winning Writers. Annie has critiqued over 600 full-length books and manuscripts through her work with the Winning Writers critique service and the North Street Book Prize, and read over 8,000 self-published books as a North Street assistant judge.
She and her team deliver judging feedback to approximately 1,500 authors per year. Annie oversees a staff of five in Poland, coordinates contest administration and customer service, and helps maintain the Winning Writers website. She is a literary scholar and writer. Outside of work, Annie is the founder and facilitator of Autistic Women's Group (est. 2021) and the editor of its journal for literary, visual, and audio art, AWG Shares Magazine.