Wow, what a rush yesterday, watching all those announcements come in. If you haven’t had a gander at the listing of RITA and Golden Heart finalists for 2009 yet, please see yesterday’s post. I linked to as many websites as I could find. Some of these authors have fantastic sites. Check ’em out!
The official list of RITA and Golden Heart finalists is now up at the RWA website.
If you’re a Golden Heart finalist and haven’t yet heard that double finalist Elizabeth Bemis has started up a Yahoo group that you definitely want to join, here’s the info:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/2009-GH-Finalists/
Do join the loop! It’s not only great to celebrate with your fellow finalists, but the groups are great for discussing promotion, how to do your picture for the ceremony, what you’re wearing, who you’re getting an appointment with at National now that you have a fantastic reason to attend—all that good stuff.
Now, for those of you who didn’t final…take heart! I’m especially talking about the Golden Heart contest. This was the second year I entered the RITA as Penny. I didn’t final, and so I can tell you from my own experience that not finaling in the RITA doesn’t feel anywhere near as earth-shattering as not finaling in the Golden Heart. Of course, when you enter the RITA, you’re already published. The RITA is icing on the cake, can be a great carrot to dangle to editors and agents (sometimes your own editor and even your current publishing house, let’s say, if you’re not getting the, um, attention there that you deserve). And, let’s face it, finaling is a heckuva lot of fun. However, when you enter the Golden Heart, often you can feel like it’s THE way to get published. If you don’t final, you’ve lost your chance.
I’m here to tell you that you haven’t lost your chance. Far from it. While many Golden Heart finalists go on to sell either their GH manuscript or another manuscript, I’m pretty sure just as many don’t. Okay, I don’t have stats, but several finalists final for several years before they sell. Finaling isn’t a sure-thing ticket to a contract. That said, it’s a heckuva lot of fun, too. I do believe it does open doors in query letters to editors and agents. It might not get your book sold, but it might get it a closer look, or even a request that otherwise might not come your way.
If you didn’t final this year, keep working on your writing and enter again next year! Believe in yourself and don’t give up. I entered the Golden Heart for several years before finaling. In fact, I finaled the last year I was eligible to enter (oddly, due to an unforeseen series of circumstances, I’m still waiting to hear if that manuscript sells—two years later). Two years before I finaled, I wrote an article for the Q&A page of my website called Why Keep Entering the Golden Heart. Wanna check it out? Here’s the handy link.
Oh, before I forget, someone asked me in private email why there are 8 or 9 finalists in some categories and only 3 in others. Don’t quote me, I don’t have the official word, but, as far as I know, the way it works is that each category needs a minimum of 25 entries to go ahead. If the category receives less than 25 entries, it’s cancelled for that year. So, if you see only 3 finalists in a category, that means the category had over 25 entries, but fewer than 40. The finalists are supposed to represent, I do believe, the top 10% of entrants in each category. If a category winds up with 9 finalists, guess what? That’s the most competitive category of either RITA or Golden Heart, because 9 finalists means 90 or more writers entered that category alone! Phew!
Again, congratulations to all the finalists. If I’ve screwed up the 10% thingie (and you know for sure that I have; you’re not just saying it to make me look bad, LOL), please let me know. And, if anyone has other questions about the contests, if I feel I can answer them, I will surely attempt to do so.
The way I understand it, it’s the top 10% with a cap at 9. There are never more than 9 finalists.
Last year, there were 60-something finalists and 1100 entries, and the year before that worked out similarly. That means that the finalists are nowhere near 10% of the entries. Logically, that tells me that a 9-finalist category could have had two or three hundred entries, simply because there’s no other way to get to that 1100-entry total. (And therefore, since my category had 9 finalists last year, I conclude that my series gals and I must rock. LOL)
I don’t know why they don’t release the number of entries in each category. It’s pretty clear from the number of finalists which categories had the most, so why don’t they just tell us? We’re big girls. We can take it. 🙂
I thought it was the top ten percent of EACH category, not the total number of entries. Stats confuse me!
I agree, I’d like to know. That is, if I’d entered GH, for example. I don’t know why it doesn’t seem as important to me to know about the RITA, but it doesn’t. But for the GH finalists, I agree, what can it hurt for them to know a bit more about where they stood? I would have loved to know stats like that in ’07. I’m sure there’s a reason for it, but I can’t think of what it might be.
I was reading the PPM on this just today! So I DO know for sure!
It’s approximately 10%, no less than 3 and no more than 8. So a category of 33 entries would have 3 finalists, and a category of 78 would probably have 8.
BUT, in the event of a tie, there can be one more finalist than would otherwise have been in that category. Which is why some categories end up with 9 finalists. If a category would have 3 finalists based on the 10%, but there is a tie in the top scores, then it could have 4 finalists.
ALSO, the total score must be 80% of the total possible score in order to final, so if a category has 80 entries but only 6 entries have scores over 80% of the total possible score (which is an average of the 5 scores, or a formula accounting for deviations), then that category would only have 6 finalists no matter how many entries it had.
EXCEPT in Best First Book, in which category the 80% doesn’t apply.
Clear? 🙂
I, of course, ended up in the only category that has nine finalists. So, rather than look at it as more competition, I look at it as “OMG! How many did I have to beat to get here?” LOL The stiff competition is one reason the GH is such a prestigious award for those of us as yet unpubbed. That said, I hope I’m not eligible to enter again next year.
Natalie, I knew I could count on you! That makes perfect sense, and thanks for taking the time to outline it so clearly.
Pat, pat yourself on the back for finaling in the most competitive category this year (sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun). I was super surprised to see so little finalists in the Series Adventure/Suspense for GH when the RITA has a ton of finalists. Are the writers selling all their A/S series books before they can enter the contest? I remember, back when the Series cats were Long and Short C., Short C always seemed to me to be the most competitive category. With that in mind and these new categories, if I were entering a book in GH that had any kind of suspense thread in it, I’d enter the Suspense/Adventure category. You can write a book aimed at Super or Desire or Blaze that still has a suspense thread. It might not be as strong a thread as in HI or SRS, but the entries don’t HAVE to be only books aimed at Intrigue or Sil Rom. Suspense. That’s the way I would look at it. Aim for the less competitive category. 🙂
Of course, adding on to my comment is what Natalie explained – the writing has to be good enough to nab an overall 80% or higher from your panel. That could explain the meagre 3 finalists in GH Susp/Adventure Series. But I personally can’t imagine that only 3 entries scored over 80%. I’d love to know how many writers entered this category. I think those stats, for all the RITA and GH categories, would make an excellent article for the RWR. I know I would find it interesting, anyway. How many entered in each category? For the GH, how many of those entries received greater than 80%? (Natalie, do the RITA books also need to get an overall 80% before they can final?)
Right now, when we get our RITA or GH scores, we learn if our entry was in the top 25%, the bottom 25% or the big part in the middle. But I want more stats! I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess.
I don’t normally read the stats articles in the RWA. Pies and graph charts give me headaches. But this article I would read. 🙂
It’s weird to read this thread as one of the three finalists in the Contemporary Series: Suspense/Adventure category.
I have no idea why there are so few of us. Perhaps only three scored over 80%, or perhaps we represent the true statistical top 10% of entries, in which case relatively few people entered our category compared to others.
Either way, I hope no one suggests that we three are any less deserving than any other GH nominee. Percentiles are uniform across a group, regardless of how large that group is. If you graduated in the top 10% of your high school class, that has a consistent meaning regardless of how large your school was. Go to a school with 1,000 kids, you’ve got to be one of the 100 top-scoring kids. Go to one with 10, and now you’ve got to be the best in the class. It isn’t any easier to earn that “Top 10%” honor just because the school is smaller — or because it’s larger. It’s exactly the same.
Now, the competitiveness of schools obviously differs, but that really doesn’t have anything to do with the size of the school. Some of the most challenging schools are very small indeed. Then again, some large ones are tough, too! You can’t judge the quality of a group by the number of people in it.
Of course, since there is a cap at eight finalists (nine in a tie), some categories might feature finalists who represent a smaller, more elite percentile of their group.
Then again, they might not. There’s absolutely no way of knowing.
Hi Jamie,
I’m not suggesting at all that the finalists in your group aren’t deserving. What I’m suggesting is that if I, anyway, were still eligible for the GH and my manuscript could conceivably fit into Series Contemporary OR Series: Suspense/Adventure, I would enter it in the latter. It looks like there are fewer writers entering that category–maybe even because writers are selling their manuscripts to the S/A lines before they can enter the GH. That’s a good thing!
You are totally right that there is an 80% cut-off before you can even final. I spoke about that, too, in an above comment.
I finaled in GH in Long Contemporary in 2007. I personally felt that category was LESS COMPETITIVE than Short Contemporary at the time. I have felt for many years that Short Contemporary (I know that designation no longer exists, but it did until and inclusive of 2007) was the most competitive of the categories. Did that mean I didn’t enter it? No, of course I entered if I had a manu. However, one year my short C entry (the book that is now BORROWING ALEX) received three 9s – the top score – out of five in my panel – yet it did not final. That’s a very competitive category, IMO. 🙂
I personally felt, for me, it was “easier’ to final in Long C. compared to Short C – because the category didn’t have as many entries. In my mind, that has nothing to do with the finalists either being or not being worthy of their finals.
I would encourage writers who have manus that could conceivably enter R/A *to* enter that category over Series Contemp, because, let’s face it, if not enough entries are received over the next few years, that category will cease to exist? Do we want that to happen?
It’s a new category, and, I don’t know, maybe the feeling out there is that you can only enter it if you have an Intrigue or SRS targeted manuscript. However, like I said, if you have a Blaze with a suspense plot, you can enter it, too. I’m not saying writers with Blazes with suspense plots DIDN’T enter it. I just find it interesting that there were only three finalists – for whatever reason.
You totally deserve your final! I would stand up for that viewpoint any day. MY experience, totally mine, is that it’s easier to final in a category with fewer entrants. Do I consider my 2007 GH final any less worthy as a result? Not on your life. 🙂
BTW, I did receive your and another writers updates for the websites listings, but I’ve had a very busy weekend – big family party and kid responsibilities – so haven’t gotten them up yet. But if you drop by Monday or Tuesday, hopefully those entries will be corrected.