This is from LDS_Publisher's blog about how the Whitney Award Winners are chosen:
"As a Whitney judge, I look for a well-written story first. I'll accept some structural issues—typos, adverbs, cliches—but if there are too many, it loses points fast. If there are more than a few grammatical errors, it loses points regardless of how good the story is. If the story is hard to follow, changes POV incorrectly, or if I'm constantly being pulled out of the story due to other errors in writing, it loses points."
The Whitneys, if I'm not mistaken, are not granted to the best unpublished manuscript out there. They are for the best books. Published (or, apparently, self-published). If these errors are appearing enough in LDS fiction that it becomes criteria for being rejected for an award, then I'm really scared to associate myself with LDS fiction. And the fact that the judges are willing to look past a few cliches and typos--that's really scary, you know? What does that say about the quality of LDS fiction? Not much.
LDS_Publisher also says, "When it all shakes out, I think the winners tend to be a pretty good sampling of LDS fiction."
And THAT is why I swore I would never publish in the LDS Market.
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