I was a finalist in RWA’s Golden Heart contest in 1999. We formed an email loop for finalists and quickly became a fun, savvy, and warm sisterhood. One of the members made us all T-shirts that said “Golden Heart 1999." We each reimbursed her what they cost her to make; no one made a proft. Yet, as I understand it, RWA forbade us to wear them.

This reminds me of the universal law of academic politics: the lower the stakes, the uglier the turf wars. I, too, understand why a trademark holder would want to protect the potency of its brand, but with these examples it seems a little absurd. I mean, seriously, are people just lining up trying to co-opt, confuse, impugn, or otherwise infringe or dilute the RITA or the RWA? It seems to me that, frankly, most people just don’t care that much, and those who do aren’t the ones the about which the RWA should be worrying.

Controversy, however, is usually a good thing. Gets people thinking and talking. So in the end, however it all shakes out, I think you have done the RITAs a service. Raised the profile on them a little, which is great.

Re the Best Book of the Year. Sorry, though the books chosen were great ones–and bestsellers–that contest was taken down because it was something of a joke. Nobody voted. 10 votes or so once named a book Best of the Year.

And there are a number of Reader-judged awards. A big one is the Readers Choice Awards run by OKRWA and judged by readers only–readers from all over the country. Interestingly, the Readers Choice contest was one of the first to add a category for Erotic Romance.

Although it does really… REALLY suck that you were trying to do exactly what it seems some authors wanted, make readers more aware of the RITA. Uh, well, some of them are now… but I wouldn’t say they were looking at them in a fond light.

What I do appreciate are the bloggers like the Ja(y)nes (and others who have commented here) who put time, energy, passion and commitment into reading, commenting, analysing, …. I have read some great, some good and some DNF books because of your comments.

I hope that the authors who win enjoy the moment – it should be a time for celebration. But me – I’m lurking at DA waiting for a “joy” review, or an off-hand comment, or even a “didn’t-work-for-me” review that somehow says “this book, I have to read this book”.

So I thank you for your time, your creativity, your thoughtfulness, your organization. Because the books that you choose to review, whether the review be good or bad, are the winners – they have been placed face-out on the shelf and flagged: reviewed by DA.

I have to say that I think you guys tried to do something admirable. You tried to get readers involved in something that is clearly the RWA’s domain as far as they are concerned.

I understand now that Barbara Samuel was NOT speaking on behalf of the members of RWA or the Ritas but how was I as a reader to take what she was writing about. I did take some offense at being told that this should be important to me when ( and please correct me if I’m wrong ) 10 whole people have read and judged the book to be worthy. There are times when I look at the AAR awards where I know thousands of ballots have come in by very avid readers and think ‘meh’ I’m not going to read that one. So why would I take the view that 10 published authors would know what it is I would like to read.

Therefore, I think this is a writer’s award. It must have to do more with an authors way with words or how a scene was perfectly described. I mean, I really don’t know but when I look at the list, and having read romance for 18 year, I just have no clue who half the authors are!

Where I do think the a Rita award would have an effect on a romance buyer is, quite frankly, on the cover of a book or in the Author’s bio. Before the net I had no clue what a Rita was but I saw it refered to many times on author bios and my thought was, well, this author has won a few awards so maybe I should give her a try. Like many have said, there are some serious power house authors who have won this award so if you have read your favourite author’s bio or even the publisher’s blurb on the author then you would have seen the Ritas mentioned. Therefore, seeing ‘Winner of the prestigious Rita’ on an authors book may have an impact on readers who are not as picky as avid readers, who have screaming kids at their feet and dinner to cook and well, that one won an award.

On the issue of legality, well, my opinion is not worth a grain of salt. Do I think the RWA shot themselves in the foot? Sure. But us bloggers are only a blip in the world of romance book buyers so maybe we’re just like a bothersome little fruit fly to them.

Has Barbara Samuel given her opinion on this? I wonder if she would be willing to talk about this because I think I would have been thrilled to see readers getting excited and quite disillusioned to see this kind of result.

CindyS

I was a finalist in RWA’s Golden Heart contest in 1999. We formed an email loop for finalists and quickly became a fun, savvy, and warm sisterhood. One of the members made us all T-shirts that said “Golden Heart 1999.” We each reimbursed her what they cost her to make; no one made a proft. Yet, as I understand it, RWA forbade us to wear them.

I understand that it’s important to protect trademarks and service marks…but this seemed a fair use to me.

I’m afraid I’m with Sybil. Fuck ‘em.

Ingrates.

Nice thought though.[/quote]

I guess I missed the debate on this topic but I could care less about the RITA award. It’s more a) political and b) gives author a chance to pat other authors on the back for a job “well done.” Their idea of what consitutes a good book vs. my idea of what consitutes a good is different. I have been burned once for buying into the RITA award winner thing because it doesn’t always equate to a quality, memorable read. Very few, too few of my favorite authors like Kinsale and Judith Ivory ever win so I don’t care for the award myself.

Anyway, it sounded like a great idea but what Karen and Sybil said.

In an ideal world, they would have asked for more information, I’ll grant you, while also asking for the image to be taken down until it could be clarified.

And mine is not to reason why, but I think the RWA is — and always has been — suspicious of the Intenet community. We’re not RT. We don’t always like everything. And when we don’t like something they do, we speak up about it and I don’t think they like that very much.

They’re hurting themselves with this attitude, unquestionably, but they don’t seem ready to change anytime soon. JMO.

This makes a complete mockery of Barbara Samuel’s RTB post.

[/quote]

Except Barbara wasn’t speaking on behalf of RWA. She was speaking solely as herself.

As for the bad press, Robin, I think that RWA will survive yet another Internet kerfuffle. It’s certainly not the first nor will it be the last. And, for the record, I think they can be pretty oblivious most of the time — but not this time.

Clearly, my position is not the prevailng one here and I am most definitely not a lawyer, so I cede to you, Robin.

Actually, Jane’s the attorney; I’m merely a lowly third year law student and my legal understanding is not professionally sanctioned in any way. I understand the fear that the RWA would have of bad press, Sandy; I just think that acting on the offense sometimes creates more problems than hanging back for a while. Likelihood of bad press now v. possibility of good press later just reasons out differently for me, I guess.

And, Janine, the Oscar image is always copyrighted. Newspapers and magazines don’t muck around with that. If MPAA didn’t like something, you can bet they’d pursue every legal avenue available to them.

Your point about Oscar images being copyrighted is well-taken, Sandy.

But the point of my question was that the Academy clearly does not mind such contests, since it allows them. How is our contest different from the contest I described in my earlier post, except for being about the RITA awards rather than the Oscars? If the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences finds nothing objectionable in such contests, why should the RWA find this contest objectionable?

If, as a board member of RWA I became aware on a Saturday morning that there was an unauthorized use of a trademarked image on the web, I would have immediately done what they did. And, yes, I think it was a smart move.

And, Janine, the Oscar image is always copyrighted. Newspapers and magazines don’t muck around with that. If MPAA didn’t like something, you can bet they’d pursue every legal avenue available to them.

As for the bad press, Robin, I think that RWA will survive yet another Internet kerfuffle. It’s certainly not the first nor will it be the last. And, for the record, I think they can be pretty oblivious most of the time — but not this time.

Clearly, my position is not the prevailong one here and I am most definitely not a lawyer, so I cede to you, Robin.

I hope you run the contest because I think it would be fun, but I certainly don’t blame RWA for not wanting you to use their trademarked image for something that would be a total wildcard for them.[/quote]

I’ve seen a newspaper run a very similar contest around the Oscars, asking readers to guess the winners and also, who they think should win. Would you also advise the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which holds the Oscar copyright, to not allow a newspaper that runs such a contest the use of the image of the Oscar statuette?