composer FAIL #42

I'm wondering if it's worth my time to submit my music to composer competitions. As most composers know, comp comps take lots of time—you have to prep your scores, print them out, purchase an envelope, burn a CD of a decent recording of your piece, and go to the post office to mail them because you can't possibly guess how much the entire package will cost to send.

If you're lucky, the non-Luddite comp comp sponsors allow you to submit everything online (via a compressed folder of your PDFs and MP3 recordings). Currently, I only apply to comp comps if they allow me to send a compressed folder of scores and recordings AND if they have no entrance fee.*

But maybe it's time to stop. I'm getting old and tired of the runaround, and these comp comps aren't paying off. I think it's time to focus all of my efforts on getting to know players and getting my pieces performed.

Or, in the words of Max Fischer, "Maybe I'm spending too much of my time starting up clubs and putting on plays. I should probably be trying harder to score chicks."

Anyway, the next rejection letter awaits.

One of these days I'm going to make it out to California; it's going to happen.

*Unless the comp comp is super-special, like if I think I have a good chance. Then I'll go to my local printing place (NOT Kinko's) and assemble my application. I still won't pay a fee.

"Rushmore Acadamy Bag" image by abragad on Flickr, Creative Commons License v. 2.0
Rejection image by me on my Flickr Stream