January 22nd, 2008 Winning the awards — Somebody tell me how it’s done
It’s awards time, everywhere from Hollywood to Trade Pressland. Seeing the Oscar nominees, in all their controversy, has me thinking — What does it take to win?
Movie critics, who do nothing but watch and rate movies all day, can’t even predict what will happen with Oscar nominations. How am I to know what kinds of articles trade press judges are going to like? Without knowing an industry, how can you judge how valuable new information is to an audience? And the comparison between industries seems a little apples to oranges to me.
What wins? Humor? Levity? Hard-hitting news? Analysis? I still haven’t figured it out. I have to win something sooner or later. Anyone have any advice for me? My ego is aching.
Posted by
tradepressed at 08:49 pm | Filed under: the writer's life
on January 23rd, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Something that might be helpful to you is a Tip Sheet I wrote on this topic for ASBPE using insights from some top award-winning B2B editors. You can find it on the home page at http://www.asbpe.org.
A couple quick things:
–Be a judge. Simply, judging is a great way to see what judges look for. It also makes it a lot easier to see what separates the good from the great.
–To address your question about how you judge another industry: This is why the intro essays are so important and should not be treated lightly. It is essential to clearly, and without a lot of technical jargon, describe your audience, what they do, what they need in a magazine, and how your magazine serves those needs. Same goes for the essay about the entry itself. Why is this article important to them? How does it help them do their jobs better?
on January 25th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
One thing I heard from a previous winner and a judge is that they tend to like narratives, especially for the “best feature” categories. Of course, having a really sexy, compelling story helps, too, they said, and something that’s both relevant to B2B readers and understandable to those outside that magazine’s specific readership. No problem, right?
BTW, I’ve been meaning to thank you for jumping in with this blog. I’m loving it so far.
on January 26th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Hmm…thanks for the tips. I’ve heard before that the intro is really important, but not what should be in it. Thanks, Katy! I’m gonna give it a shot. I’ll definitely read your essay.
Sue, it’s so funny how many time I’ve been told readers want sexy. In trade press! Makes me laugh every time. But we do our best. Thanks for reading!
on January 30th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
We tried to get the judges from the 2007 Tabbies to weigh in on this very topic earlier this year … a few of them did, you may find their comments helpful:
http://tabpi.evecommunity.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1501018971/m/1101069833
on February 6th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I’ve heard similar things. I think judges like to read articles they can understand and relate to. I’ve never been a judge in an awards competition, but work with people who have. Their advice: Pull people in with the first 100-150 words of the article. Sometimes, that’s all the judges read before they decide whether the article is worthy of moving on. If the intro is dry or hard to understand, I think it gets tossed out pretty quickly. And, even if it’s an editorial category vs. a design category, I think the design is important to grabbing (and holding) attention.
I’ve tried to look at all of our recent award-winning articles to find similarities between them, but I really can’t.