Yesterday the RWA Hot Sheet made the rounds and it includes some big changes for the RITA contest:
1. CONTESTS: WHAT’S CHANGING
Rules for the Golden Heart and RITA contests will be removed from the Policy and Procedures Manual, approved annually by the Board of Directors at the Board meeting preceding the RWA annual conference, and published in their entirety in the RWR and online to eliminate the possibility of discrepancies between policy and the published rules.
GOLDEN HEART
· Anyone who has accepted a publishing offer for a work of original fictional narrative prose of 20,000 words or more in any genre by November 16, 2009, is not eligible to enter the 2010 Golden Heart Contest.
· Entrants must retain all rights to the entry and must not have granted any of them to a publisher or any other party prior to or by November 16, 2009.
· The definition of a novel for the purposes of the Golden Heart Contest is “a work of fictional narrative prose in the romance genre of at least 40,000 words, as determined by computer word count.” Entries with word counts less than 40,000 will be disqualified.RITA
· Beginning with the 2010 RITA Contest year, books published by any non-Vanity/non-Subsidy publisher may be entered in the RITA.
· Books published by RWA-Eligible publishers may be entered in the RITA Contest beginning September 21, 2009.
· Books published by any non-Vanity/non-Subsidy publisher may be entered in the RITA Contest beginning October 12, 2009.
· Any publisher applying to be an RWA-Eligible publisher or an RWA non-Vanity/non-Subsidy publisher for the purposes of the RITA Contest must be approved by September 15, 2009, for its books to qualify for the upcoming contest.
· Beginning with the 2010 RITA Contest, entries must have an original copyright date of the year preceding the contest year. However, during the 2010 transitional contest year only, those books with BOTH a 2008 original copyright date AND a 2009 North American printing date OR a 2009 first printing date may be entered so that members who had waited to enter in this contest year are not penalized by the change in policy.
· All entries must be submitted in print book format, produced by the publisher, complete with copyright page, with perfect or case binding and printing on both sides of the page. Text and formatting must be identical to the published version. This includes those books commercially available in electronic format only.
Most of the reaction I’ve seen to the rule changes has been positive. Overall, I think I agree with the changes they’ve made. They’re at least a step in the right direction, showing the organization’s willingness to attempt a compromise.
I know there are epublished authors who will want more—exactly the same treatment as the traditionally published authors—but I’m not sure, given the sheer numbers of epublished authors/releases, that the system wouldn’t immediately be overwhelmed.
At least this way, if your publisher’s legit and your book is good enough, you might actually have a chance. You can at least enter…assuming your category isn’t full by the time you’re allowed to enter.
So what do you think of the contest changes? Agree? Disagree? Think it’s not enough?
Related posts:
I think it should be the best of the best. If they want to limit entries, then bump up the entry fee. That’s how the rest of the world deals with excess demand (and that would ensure that only the authors who truly, truly believe their books will win will enter)
But as an almost exclusively eBook reader, the RITA’s would mean more to me if ALL romance books were included. There are many eBook exclusive books that kick mass books butt. eBook is where many of the innovative plot lines and characters are happening.
This sounds like a step in the right direction, except:
a) Is RWA still defining all ePublishers as vanity or subsidized?
b) For the Golden Hearts, this still creates a sizable hole through which eBook only authors of works between 20K and 40K words can fall (as in be prevented from entering). A significant number of eBook romance writers are working at the Novella level (over 20K words, but not 40K words)
[to webmaster: tried to leave a trackback for you, but the trackback link for this post doesn’t seem to be operating, only comments.
You’ll find my mention of your post on my blog at: RWA Contest Changes May Aid eBook Authors, seen on Kindling Romance
So the print authors get to enter first, and if there are any places left (number of entries is always limited), ebook authors get to scramble for them. Unless they approve more epublishers, of course.
And the epublished authors have to send in 6 perfect bound copies of their books. A big expense for most, and since they aren’t called “epublished” for nothing, and doesn’t it say it has to be the publisher who does it?
There aren’t actually any significant changes, and it still won’t reflect what is actually happening in the marketplace. On the other hand, it’s nice to see that the committee is willing to change. I don’t generally enter contests, because I don’t like to compete against authors I like and whose work I respect, but for those who do, the best of luck in the RITAs. A shame everyone can’t win.
Interesting, Lynne, I hadn’t even thought about the issue of the perfect bound copies. Why shouldn’t they be able to send them in using the format in which they were published? It’s just so dinosaur age.
My publisher, Cobblestone-Press.com is not on the list:
http://www.romancewiki.com/RWA-Recognized_Publishers
They have sent royalty checks to me. They are a real publisher.
Actually, they left it open for the next board to change it. The new board takes office during that three week span. So, these rules mean nothing, and since they changed the rules in midstream last time, they could do it again.
I just want my forty freaking dollars back, not to mention the money for shipping the books. And I want my books back. I entered only after RWA told Angie we were eligible, then they changed it.
I won’t enter again, ever. It is now a popularity contest, and they don’t want the unwashed raining on their parade.
Aileen, e-published books have never been considered vanity or subsidy–the definition of vanity/subsidy always includes a requirement of author payment for publication. There are many, many e-publishers on the official non-vanity, non-subsidy list at RWA’s website.
And Eve, Cobblestone IS on that list.
Back to Aileen–re: the GH, there really isn’t a hole. If you publish romantic novellas, you can enter them in the Rita.
I’m still confused on the delay of entry for the Rita. I understand there are huge problems getting judges every year, and that this rule has to do with that, and a general member who was at the board meeting assured me all solutions were debated and this was the very best one, but I’m not convinced. I figured I’d give them time to recover from RWA and travel before attacking with my questions.
The other issue, that e-books can be entered if supplied in perfect-bound format by the publisher, is an old rule that’s been in place for years. My understanding is that it’s to preserve the integrity of the entries. Anyone with minimal technology can create an e-book and slap a publisher’s name on it; also, e-books can easily have the content changed, such as to address big issues pointed out in reviews.