The Verdict

I have professed my love of BookRiot on this blog more than once.

Imagine my joy when I saw that they were accepting applications for contributors: It was a Tigger-level of bouncing! The best part was that the process of throwing my hat into the ring was remarkably simple – two blog post submissions and a few question form.

I’ve been writing here for five years this July, and the only other time I’ve worked that hard on a  post was for my first one. These two entries didn’t write themselves, and then once I’d have a first draft, I revised and revised over and over again.

Each time I came back to look at them, I found ways to make it better, or at least to address a newly discovered issue. I wanted this opportunity to be part of their organization; these posts had to be an accurate representation of my abilities.

Finally I got to the point where I was satisfied and afraid any more tinkering would make them feel overworked. In true Tammy style, I hit “submit” a day early. Then the waiting began. Is it strange that I felt so much less stressed once I’d sent in my entry? I much prefer when things are out of my hands.

The process was so humane – right on the website it said that the people BookRiot was interested in would be notified two weeks after the submission window closed. That date was this past Tuesday, and the verdict is … not this round.

Last year they received 1200 apps and picked 20. That was roughly 1.5%. Now if there was a medicine with a side effect that only 2% suffered from, I’d say my odds were high to have that symptom. While I’ve beaten those odds for a job before, was not to the case this year.

Doing all the rework I did as part of the application opened up a part of my brain that hasn’t been exercised in quite a while. It was hard work, and the results were worth it.

And my application was not vain. I’ll be using my submissions as future blog posts here, and now I have a year to work on what I use as my entry next time instead of only a couple of weeks. I’m so glad I had this experience.

When was the last time you tested your comfort zone? or What have you had to say “good enough” about lately?