For the 2011 Naples Press Club’s Writers’ Conference, the organizers hosted a contest for writers who purchased a full conference registration. Those attendees were invited to send a 3,000-word portion of a completed manuscript by a February deadline for critique by a panel of judges. Those manuscripts were returned to each entrant with judges’ comments and with score sheets containing more of the judges’ comments during a brief ceremony Saturday of the conference.

The panel of judges included Jamieson Villenueve, publisher at Night Wolf Publications, Canada; Jeff Schlesinger, publisher at Barringer Publishing, Florida; Megan Records, editor at Kensington Publishing, New York; and Holly McClure, literary agent at Sullivan-Maxx Literary Agency, Ohio.

The judges awarded second-place to Craig S. Garrett for his MS titled The Sheriff and the Boy; first-place to Joyce McDonald for her MS titled The Benediction; and grand prize to Anthony Rao for his MS titled The Last Hour. For his prize, Rao receives a publishing contract from Night Wolf Publications.

Congratulations to all the winners who placed and congratulations to everyone who took advantage of this great opportunity to receive critique from industry professionals.

The 2012 Writers’ Conference Writers’ Contest (WC2) rules and deadline will be posted later this summer at this site and on multiple social media platforms.