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.
I don't have any personal experience but I imagine if I were to be in a similar situation and I was ready to pitch to an agent, I would let them know that I won a competition but also that I was later disqualified for whatever reasons.
Agents, from what I understand, have the attention span of little children and as Paul said, who knows, something like this could grab their attention and keep them reading for a little longer.
I agree with Shah, if it was a technicality and genuinely something overlooked by yourself then I think you should be able to say you won on merit, but I also think it would be good to come clean and actually spell out the reason, who knows it may make you more interesting to the next panel, judge or agent. Oh by the way I am sure you are interesting anyway...
It must have been a terrible disappointment.
It will be interesting to know how you deal with this and what happens later. This could be the basis for a book!
Regards and best wishes for your next effort, Paul
Thanks for this guidance. I think you are right Shah - it all depends on the type of disqualification. If you were passing off someone else's work as your own, then the answer is definitely 'no', but if you were disqualified on technical grounds (such as those you quote) or because someone checked & you were 5 or 10 words over the maximum word limit then I reckon you would be justified. To be on the safe side, however, it would be best to accept failure graciously. Thanks again. If there is anyone else out there - perhaps with personal experience - I'd be glad to hear more.