Who's reading for the contests anyway?

[BlankPaige]

The Conflic of Interest Thread has brought out a point I have wondered about for some time.

How many contests actually have professional, or trained, or truly qualified readers?

It is true that Austin grabs readers from among their entrants. Does that change your idea of the validity of the process? It gives me pause, I must admit.

In a very real way, it means that somebody JUST LIKE ME is judging my work. By that I mean, someone unproduced, with no actual experience in the industry. Not necessarily a bad writer, but still...

I would find results of a contest to be more valid if the readers had been chosen from industry professionals, or had some kind of standing or training that validates them as judges.

And let me just admit, I myself have read for a small contest. It was just that easy to get asked and to do it. How does anybody who may have entered said contest feel about a situation like that? (Although having said all this, it was painfully clear among the scripts I read which deserved to advance and which did not.)

Sorry for any typos. My keyboard has a mind of its own these days.

[Queen Uhuru]

I have said critical things about peer-review but if the problems of peer-review can be addressed, I think there is something very exciting about a community selecting its own winners. I like some aspects of the whole peer-review thing.

Unfortunately, so far, I have yet to see a truly successful peer-review model in action. I know that PGL seems to believe the problems of the peer-review process are not something they are able or willing to address. Triggerstreet has bent over backwards to try to address concerns with the peer-review process and gets flak for it.

So it's damned if you do and damned if you don't.