Category: Contests

Lovely RITA, Meter Maid

Or, should I say, contest.

I have a lot of reading to do over the next few weeks, because I received my RITA books yesterday. This is the first year I’ve volunteered to judge the RITA contest. Last year and previous years, I judged the Golden Heart. Considering this is the second year I’ve entered the RITA myself (last year as Cindy and Penny, this year just as Penny), I decided the time had come to volunteer to judge. As much as I yearned to continue judging the Golden Heart, I confess I don’t have it in me to judge two contests at one time, so I had to choose.

I received 8 or 9 books—yikes! All but one are in one category, and then there’s a lone baby from a second category. It’s interesting, when you receive all but one book from one category, to note the publishers within that category. However, I can’t go into my observations here, so as not to ID authors and publishers. I’ll have to discuss it with Elle Muse. She’s very discreet.

Before I get to the RITA entries, I’m still reading a wonderful book by Bronwyn Parry, an Australian writer who won the Golden Heart in 2007. Bronwyn’s romantic suspense with a mainstream feel, AS DARKNESS FALLS, was published by Hachette Australia this year. I’d love to include a link to Amazon for everyone, but unfortunately the book isn’t distributed in North America. So if you search on Amazon, I think it’s listed as out of print or something. But it IS in print—just in Australia.

How did I finagle a copy, you ask? Hachette had a contest for five people to win copies of Bronwyn’s book, I happened to enter (because I really wanted to read it), and I happened to get chosen as one of the lucky winners. Yay for me.

Oh, and before I forget, today is the last day you can comment to enter to win a copy of SECRETS, VOLUME 26: BOUND BY PASSION, including the novella, Exes & Ahhs, by Kate St. James, who is the author of the week at Candy Ready’s Red Hots. Excerpts from Exes & Ahhs went up yesterday and today—so hop over and check ’em out. Yes, you have to comment (there, not here) to enter for a chance to win, but the winner is getting chosen tomorrow, so if you want this last chance to enter, take advantage of it now. NOW, I tell ya!!

Win A Copy of Secrets 26!

exes_and_ahhs_lgMy buddy, my friend, my life-long pal, erotic romance author Kate St. James, is the Godiva of the week ALL WEEK at Candy Ready’s blog. That’s from now until Friday, folks. Visit today and tomorrow to read Candy’s two-part interview with Kate, and drop by again Wednesday and Thursday to read excerpts from Exes & Ahhs, Kate’s latest novella featured in Secrets 26: BOUND BY PASSION.

Every time you leave a comment, you’ll enter to win a free autographed copy of Secrets 26. And, what’s even more wonderful, you can enter up to 5 times. That’s five—count ’em—five, chances to win Secrets 26!

The winner will be announced Friday—not here, but on Candy Ready’s blog. So don’t leave a comment here to win Secrets 26—you have to leave the comments there. Well, you can leave a comment here if you want, telling Kate how wonderful she is, and I will make sure to pass it on to her (not difficult, sometimes I swear she’s living in my head). But comments posted here will not enter you in the contest for the free copy of Secrets 26. Only the comments entered at Candy’s Ready’s blog from Monday to Thursday, January 12th-15th will. Winner chosen Friday, January 16th.

Phew.

Sorry to clarify to the extreme, but after receiving several pitches in the comments section of my recent post about the BookEnds pitch critiques, I figured I’d better.

American Title V, Round 2

I’m going Christmas crazy trying to organize gifts and menus and getting my son home yesterday (which was a 10 hour disaster instead of the short 1 hour trip it was supposed to be, due to the huge snowfalls over the past few days), so thank you to Edie Ramer for alerting me that the voting for Round 2 of the American Title V contest just got underway. Visit the Romantic Times website to read the hero and heroine descriptions and then vote for your favorite through email. I just did, so I’m no American Title grinch. What about you?

Okay, I’m on hold with my credit card company (don’t ask) and my neck is aching from typing with the phone squished against my shoulder, so that’s it for today and maybe the rest of the week. I have a feeling I might declare a blogiday soon.

Winner, Auction, and News!

First up, Chelsea from the comment trail won my BOX ‘O BOOKS HOLIDAY GIVE-AWAY. This is the first time a Canadian has won one of my website contests, so that gave me a little thrill (I could tell by the .ca at the end of her email address WordPress sent me that she’s a fellow Canuck, and emailing her for her snail mail address confirmed it). I used a random number generator program to choose the winner out of the 31 comment trail and private email entries. Congratulations, Chelsea! I hope you enjoy your books and the free copy of BORROWING ALEX.

I received such a great response to this contest that I plan to do it again next year, but of course it depends on if I attend a conference in 2009 and if my TBR pile grows out of control. And, by all means, anyone who entered the contest and didn’t win is free to contribute toward the King Family Kraft Dinner Fund (a.k.a my teensy royalty checks) by purchasing copies of BORROWING ALEX or HEAD OVER HEELS from Amazon (please, someone, anyone, we’re starving!!). (Yes, I’m serious about the Kraft Dinner Fund).

Second, the For Jo Leigh—Gifts for Writers and Readers auction is on-going. That’s the link to the main website, and here’s a link to the ‘007 Golden Heart Alumni #1 item up for bid, which includes a critique from little ol’ me. Get on over there and bid! The bidding for a historical romance partial critique from 5 Golden Heart finalists ends December 8th, and bidding for a contemporary romance partial critique from 6 Golden Heart finalists ends December 10th. Now, if you’re wondering, is Cindy capable of critiquing a historical manuscript when she writes contemporary? Yes, indeedy, I am! In fact, my longest running critique partner is multi-published under two names in historical romance, and I’ve been reading and critiquing her stuff since long before she published (some might say I am in fact responsible for her success). 😉 My four ‘007 GH compatriots volunteering their time to read the same partial are all well versed in critiquing historicals as well, including Elaine Levine, who is published in historical romance with Kensington.

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, I had the happy news the other day that my work-in-progress, SEX, PIs & PACKING TAPE, finaled in the NOLA Stars Suzannah Contest. Yippee!! My entry and the entries of my five co-finalists will now be read by two agents, four editors, and the sponsor of the Suzannah. Almost as thrilling…my name is spelled right on the NOLA website! Way to go, NOLA. I now officially love you.

I entered this contest at the last minute (and I mean the last minute), so I am thrilled that my story finaled. Hmm, come to think of it, the year I finaled in the Golden Heart, I entered that contest at the last minute, as well. I think I’ve discovered a new trick to entering contests, LOL.

That’s my week so far. How’s yours?

More Worms

Remember when I said Monday that changes to the RITA contest this year might also affect the Golden Heart? Here’s how.

Last year, changes to RWA publisher recognition occurred so that an author’s ability to enter PAN (the Published Author Network of RWA) was no longer tied to whether or not an author’s publisher met RWA-set standards. Instead, now, an author can join PAN independently of her publisher’s ability to host official editor appointments and publisher Spotlights at National, yada, yada, and her requirements for joining PAN are instead based on achieving a set minimum dollar amount of advance/royalties combination on one novel or novella. This change enabled me, myself and Moi (all three, I assure you) to join PAN last spring. Yipsee-doodle.

Suddenly, I found myself unable to enter the Golden Heart (which didn’t bother me in the least). I was thrilled not to enter the Golden Heart. After all, the year I finaled, I had two books contracted, and one of those books, BORROWING ALEX, was published just a month before the National RWA conference in Dallas. I confess, it always felt a bit strange to me to enter my unpublished manuscripts in the Golden Heart when I had books available for sale, but that was the avenue open to me, so that was the avenue I took. Fine and dandy. I entered the GH with an unpublished manuscript in 2007, and I finaled (yay, me). Did I feel guilty about taking away the chance for a truly unpublished author to final? Um, not really. Because I think every RWA member should have a chance to enter either the Golden Heart or RITA contest if she so chooses. However, the RITA changes this year now prevent that.

Now, if you sell a work of over 20,000 words to a non-Subsidy, non-Vanity Publisher, you can no longer enter your unpublished works (ie. not the work you sold) in the Golden Heart. However, once that book you sold/contracted is in print, unless it’s mass-produced (ie. not POD, which are books printed as they are ordered) you can’t enter it in the RITA contest either.

You can’t enter your published work in the RITA.

You can’t enter your unpublished work in the Golden Heart.

I’m a bit bamboozled. This is the first year since I joined RWA that I can recall a member not having the ability to enter either contest. That bugs me. Even though it doesn’t apply to my situation.

I also find it ironic that an author can join PAN on the basis of her earnings, then find herself unable to enter the same book that qualified her to join PAN in the RITAs—because her publisher uses print on demand technology instead of Print Runs of a Mysterious Number Yet to be Announced.

What am I missing?

By the way, there’s an excellent discussion about the topics of today’s and Monday’s blog post occurring over on Absolute Write, if anyone wants to check it out. Last I checked, no one in that thread had received confirmation of what constitutes “mass-produced.”

RITA Changes

I’m mailing Penny’s entry to the RITA contest today. Wish Penny luck! Erotic romance novellas don’t usually final in the RITAs, but a Secrets novella has finaled before, so you never know. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Um, not always. Recently, I was rather disappointed to find out that entry qualifications for the RITAs have changed yet again. Last year, for the 2008 contest, for the first time ever that I can recall, micro-press books could be entered in the RITA if the entrant provided copies that were printed and bound by the publisher (IE. entrants could not print off and enter paper copies of their ebooks). Amber Quill Press prints trade paperbacks of all its novel-sized ebooks, so last year I was able to enter RITA for the first time with BORROWING ALEX. I was very excited, as the same opportunity wasn’t available to me with HEAD OVER HEELS. So I entered. That opened up another can of worms, because then I had to decide whether to enter a short novel in the Single Title category to compete against novels up to twice as long, or to enter BORROWING ALEX in the Series Contemporary category, the category descriptions for which included enough language loopholes enabling me to enter it regardless that BORROWING ALEX didn’t have a number (as in numeral) on the cover, like books published by Harlequin and Silhouette do.

I didn’t expect much. With judges not accustomed to reading micro-press books in the RITA, dared I hope I could compete? Well, BORROWING ALEX didn’t final, but it competed just fine, garnering one 9 (the top score in the contest for those not in the know) and an 8 out of the panel of five judges (IE. my peers). Yay, me. I’d hoped that by entering the RITA last year with a micro-press book I’d help pave the way for future entrants in similar circumstances. Alas, this year, anyway, it is not to be. Here is the information from the public pages of the RWA website:

Books entered in the 2009 RITA contest must:
  •  Have an original copyright date (printed on the copyright page) or a first printing date or a first North American printing date of 2008.
  • Not have been previously entered.
  • Be mass-produced by a non-Subsidy, non-Vanity Publisher in print book format.
  • Meet the requirements for the category in which it was entered.
  • Be a work of original fictional narrative prose.

It’s the “be mass-produced” phrase in the third bullet point that bothers me. Why? Because, either: (a) I’m so out of touch that I didn’t realize this pretty darn big change had occurred; or (b) it occurred without a big announcement or fanfare, like that which occurred last year.

Now I’m wondering, what qualifies as “mass-produced”? I know print on demand (POD) technology does not qualify as mass-produced, because publishers who use POD technology, like Amber Quill Press, print the books as they’re ordered. Mass market prints “print runs.” But the 2009 RITA rules do not specify a print run number.

Does this mean micro-press authors can order 10 copies of their book and then submit five copies of that book for entry to the RITA? Does 10 copies qualify as a print run (“mass-produced”)? I’m not trying to be ridiculous, I’m trying to figure it out. I’ve “heard” (IE. as in a rumor) that 500 is the minimum number required for mass-produced, but the 2009 RITA rules do not state the 500 minimum. They just state “mass-produced,” which, to a mind like mine, is open to interpretation.

I don’t know, how do you feel about these changes? Regardless of whether they affect you?

Oh, yeah, these changes also affect which authors can and can not enter the Golden Heart, but that’s another blog post.