RITA Awards 2008 RITA Winners How to Enter Contest Rules Category Descriptions Contest Deadlines Past Winners Golden Heart Awards Lifetime Achievement RWA Emma Merritt Service Award RWA Service Award Bookseller of the Year Librarian of the Year Industry Award Media Award Academic Research Grant Centennial Award

RITA Awards

RITA Awards: Contest Rules

Purpose

The purpose of the RWA contests—RITA and Golden Heart—is to promote excellence in the romance genre by recognizing outstanding romance novels, novellas, and manuscripts.

Entry Qualifications and Rules for All Contestants

The contest is open to members of RWA and to non-members as well. Any lapse in membership during the course of the contest shall result in the entrant being required to pay the higher non-member entry fee.

Each contest (Golden Heart and RITA) shall be limited to the first 1,200 paid entries. If entries in excess of 1,200 are received by the entry deadline, excess entries shall first be returned to those who did not volunteer to judge, and second in reverse order of receipt.

If an entry is the result of a collaboration, all collaborators must be RWA members in good standing to pay the RWA member entry fee. If any of the collaborators is not a RWA member, the higher non-member entry fee shall prevail.

The entrant shall select the category for entering the work. Entrants may designate a second category for the work in the event the first-choice category does not receive the required number of entries to be judged.

No entry shall be entered in more than one category. For example: A historical novel that has a strong suspense element may be entered in Romantic Suspense or a historical category, but not both. (The exception to this rule is the Best First Book category of the RITA contest.)

There is no limit to the number of eligible books/manuscripts that may be entered for each author in each category. If any category has fewer than 25 entries (defined as all copies of required work to be judged, not just the entry form) received by the deadline, the category shall not be judged and the entry forms and fees shall be returned. At this time, an entrant will have one opportunity to select an alternate category for the entry in lieu of a refund. Once the author has designated the category, no entry shall be allowed to change categories except in the case of category cancellation.

All contest entry information and appropriate fees must be received at the RWA office no later than 5:00 p.m. Central Time, November 17, 2008 for Golden Heart and December 1, 2008 for RITA. All forms and fees received after the deadline shall be returned to the entrant.

If a check is returned or a credit card charge denied, the replacement money must be in the RWA Office by November 17, 2008, for the Golden Heart and December 1, 2008, for the RITA, or the entrant shall be disqualified.

The RWA staff shall send confirmations to all entrants and nominators.

Manuscripts/books must be received by RWA at 14615 Benfer Road, Houston, Texas 77069 no later than 5:00 p.m. Central Time, December 2, 2008, for the Golden Heart Contest and January 2, 2009, for the RITA Contest. Failure to meet the appropriate deadline shall result in disqualification, and the entry fee shall be forfeited. The person who submits the entry and pays the fee (nominator) shall be responsible for mailing the books to RWA.

Finalists shall be notified by an Official Letter of Notification sent by the RWA Office via 2-day registered, guaranteed delivery.

The complete list of finalists shall be made public no later than March 25, 2009.

Neither employees of RWA nor members of their immediate families shall be eligible to enter any RWA contest.

All deadlines are final.

All Golden Heart non-finalists shall receive their preliminary scores and percentile ratings after the end of the preliminary round.

Golden Heart finalists shall receive their preliminary-round scores after the Awards Ceremony.

RITA non-finalists who so mark their entry forms shall be sent their preliminary-round scores after the end of the preliminary round.

RITA finalists who so mark their entry forms shall be sent their preliminary-round scores after the Awards Ceremony.

Only preliminary-round scores are reported to the authors.

Scores will not be reported or returned to anyone other than the author(s) of each entry.

If any finalist is disqualified for any reason, no other entrant shall move up to fill a vacant spot.

Communication between judges and entrants shall not be forwarded by RWA.

Works entered shall not be returned, with the exceptions of hardcover books entered in the RITA and full manuscripts for the Golden Heart, which shall be returned if SASEs are provided by the entrants.

Contest Rules Specific to the RITA

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.

The author must not participate financially in the production and/or distribution of the work.

Five copies of the book are required for the preliminary round.

In the event that duplicate entries for the same book are received, the first nomination shall be the official entry and the subsequent entries and fees will be returned. However, if the author is one of the nominators, the author’s choice of category (and alternate if applicable) shall prevail.

If a novel/novella is published as part of a collection, it is not necessary for each work in the collection to be entered in the contest. Each work will be judged independently.

A collection of novels/novellas is not one entry; rather, each work must be entered separately and five copies of the book must be submitted for each entry. The appropriate fee shall be paid for each entry.

All RITA entrants are required to sign the RITA Contestant’s Agreement located on the entry form or check a box on the Web site indicating their acceptance of terms.

Five additional books are required for the final round. If someone other than the author nominates a book, only the author shall be contacted regarding the additional books. These books must be received at the RWA Office by 5:00 p.m. Central Time on April 9, 2009. Failure to meet this deadline shall result in disqualification, but entrants shall retain finalist status. No fees shall be returned to disqualified finalists.

If a finalist qualifies for the Best First Book category, an additional five books shall be required by the April 9th deadline.

Definitions of Subsidy Publisher and Vanity Publisher

“Subsidy Publisher” means any publisher that publishes books in which the author participates in the costs of production in any manner, including publisher assessment of a fee or other costs for editing and/or distribution. This definition includes publishers who withhold or seek full or partial payment or reimbursement of publication or distribution costs before paying royalties, including payment of paper, printing, binding, production, sales or marketing costs.

“Vanity Publisher” means any publisher whose authors exclusively promote and/or sell their own books and publishers whose business model and methods of publishing and distribution are primarily directed toward sales to the author, his/her relatives and/or associates.

Questions? E-mail contests@rwanational.org