Would it be OK, having won a competition or an award but subsequently disqualified, to claim to be 'Winner of the X award (later disqualified)'? After all, the disqualification came after the success and the work submitted must have had some merit.
Would it be OK, having won a competition or an award but subsequently disqualified, to claim to be 'Winner of the X award (later disqualified)'? After all, the disqualification came after the success and the work submitted must have had some merit.
If the award was taken away for a dishonest reason then I think the consensus here is right. Leave it out, to mention it would do more harm than good.
I would also say that it would depend on the technicality. If it was for age group, word count, country of residence, or something similar I think being disqualified for those reasons would raise the point that maybe this author is not very conscientious in their work and struggles to keep to assigned limits
I’m still not convinced that it’s okay for a writer to mention or list an award in their author bio to which they are not entitled. I would think that such a move can only negatively influence the opinion an agent makes of a potential client while looking at their author package (novel submission). In addition to the sour grapes comment above, it makes the writer appear unprofessional. What agent wants to work through contracts and edits with an author who clings to whining excuses like “But I did actually win on the merit of the work”?
If the promoter of a competition finds that you are in the wrong, you will be disqualified accordingly. If you didn’t read (much less follow) the instructions (no page headings/numbers, wrong font/word count/paper type/border width, etc.) or weren’t eligible (work was already published, entering from a different country, too old, etc.) it is still your fault. Conversely, if a promoter finds that they are in the wrong (failed to provide sufficient instructions, etc.), you would likely retain your status as winner.
Ultimately, however, the agent is going to be looking at the commercial potential of the work in your author package (first three chapters/full manuscript) so I wouldn’t think that small competitions held in the past even really make that much difference other than show how long you’ve been seriously working on your writing.
I think this is a very difficult situation - I would hate to have been successful only to then be disqualified on an oversight. It does make me wonder about the competition judges and their ability to judge.
Surely if the story was worthy of winning but then someone noticed something like a word count error then (to me) it smacks of amateur judging abilities? Personally, I've been beaten by winning entires in the Writing magazine that I found to be riddled with cliches and rogue punctuation but they still won and due to the judges decision being final I accepted the decision. In fact, the winning story in a horror competition they ran was (to me) just an updated version of Poe's The Premature Burial but without the interesting ending!
Anyway, my point is do what your conscience considers correct but be aware of any repercussions. Besides, don't they always say even bad publicity is good publicity! :-)