Confusing is right. :)

I was on the RITA overhaul committee last year; we did recommend a separate ER category, but as it was felt ER books would fit within already existing categories, our suggestion was overruled.

Thanks! The reason I asked the question was because I remember discovering a book I really loved years ago, Merely Married by Patricia Coughlin, when it was a finalist in the RITAs. IIRC, the book did not get reviewed that well at AAR, so I would probably never have read it if the list of RITA finalists hadn’t brought it to my attention. I was grateful to discover it, which goes to show that reviews aren’t the only way to find a good book.

That said, it’s never been a consideration for me whether the Rita final or win would garner more sales. I doubt it does, beyond a few people who may buy all the finalists in one category (for example, last year I bought all the RS finalists that I hadn’t already read; I’ll do the same this year but there’s only one or two books I haven’t read.) Finaling is fun. It makes the conference more exciting. It’s a perk. But it’s not the goal.

Personally, I didn’t know about it until DA brought it up last year and, to be honest, a book winning a contest/award doesn’t make me want to buy it, just like I don’t feel the urge to watch every movie that wins an Oscar.

I’m not sure I agree with this completely simply because the books are only read by five people. An author can get five fans, or five haters, or five judges who try to be neutral and judge w/o prejudice – even a judging pool combination. But it’s still only five people who’ve marked it high enough to be a finalist.

There happens to be one finalist book that I actually threw in the trash after getting halfway through because I felt manipulated beyond belief by the choices the author made. (This was last year when it came out, not during the contest.) If I had judged that book (which, to be clear, I did not; I chose to read it for pleasure), my score would most likely have knocked it out of the running. This wasn’t about it being my cuppa tea, because I was intrigued enough to pick it up to read. The execution, imo, was so poor – and subpar – that I was shocked to see it in the finals.

That does not mean she is a better writer than anyone else. It simply means on this day, at this time, she won a contest. Period.

Helen, I disagree. I’ve said it before, the cream does rise to the top. I believe every single finalist is a very good writer. Are all those books my personal cup of tea? No. But I don’t think that a subpar or even average writer could make it as far as the finals. I believe those authors deserve the kudos 100%.

However, that doesn’t mean that very good books DIDN’T make the finals, too.

I agree that most of us are pretty well read and most of us also write in several different subgenres, so we’re pretty familiar with the whole kit and kaboodle. If we’re not familiar, we can opt out of that category, which I and others have done.

It’s not a perfect process or a perfect contest, but I still believe that the cream rises to the top. I’ve discovered so many great books by judging!

Janine, I don’t think I can talk about the books I read this year (Can I? Does anyone know?) but I will tell you that I discovered Suzanne Brockmann years ago through the RITAs. Also, Elizabeth Thornton. I know there are others, but those two stick in my mind as authors I “met” through judging, who both made the finals and might, I believe, have won…and I’ve been a fan of both of them ever since.

I just used RS as an example because it’s what I’m currently writing :-)

I often put my foot in my mouth, and that goes for the keyboard as well :)

To me, making the finals should be lauded and celebrated…but NOT making the finals doesn't mean a thing. Don't know if that makes sense, but that's my opinion.

Makes sense to me, Julie, I agree 100% with all yr points. Judging in RITA has put some outstanding books in my hands, books I would not have picked up because they were outside my usual reading genre, some of which went on to final (and I get as excited as if they were my mates’ books) and some which didn’t (commensurate disappointment.) But I now have some new autobuy authors, so win-win.

Re judging apples against grapes against pineapples: not only in the Paranormal category. Most of my judging bundle this yr were in the Best Series (Category) Book, were you get to judge Medicals against Presents against Everlasting Love against Nascar against Blaze against Harlequin Romance against SuperRomance etc etc. A whole fruit basket right there. But you’re not judging one book against another. You might have 8 outstanding books and score them all 8 and 9. You might get 8 meh books and score them all 5. That’s the theory, anyway.

my question is whether it's a consensus somewhere in the high middle, because all those books that drew very high and very low grades (i.e. someone gave book A a 1 and another judge gives it a 9) get knocked out of competition.

I had this happen with one of my finalist books — 4 high scores, 1 very low. The low one was dropped and replaced with the average of the other 4. So, yeah, there’s a system in place to guard against that one out-of-the-box score.

Oh, I just read (the other) Bron’s comment. What she said, about the scoring and about judges’ possible motives. :-)

Bron

Re judging outside of one’s category – my understanding is the only bar is that you can’t judge a category you’re also an entrant in. So, one could be a published romantic suspense author, who hasn’t entered the contest that year, and still judge romsus. An entrant in the Regency historical category can judge in the other historical category.

As others have pointed out, authors read across multiple sub-genres, just as most readers do. Many authors also write in multiple sub-genres. So I don’t see that judging in a preferred category outside the one/s in which one may be an entrant in a particular year is problematic at all.

Helen wrote:

if you're active in RWA your chance is better to become a finalist. If you're interviewed, if you write a column, if you advertise often, I think it makes a difference.

I’m not going to argue that a high profile or popularity never has impact – however, I will argue that it’s NOT the driving force for the vast majority of the judges’ assessments. (As an example, there’s a least one book that has finalled this year that has not yet been published in the US, by an author who is at this stage not widely known in the US.)

No contest is perfect. Assessment of books is always subjective to a degree – there’s no magic formula, no one-size fits all, no way everyone will agree. The authors I know who are involved in judging the RITAs take their role very seriously and thoughtfully, and give up many, many hours of their own time to contribute to the industry in this way. For a book to final in the RITAs, it has to have highly impressed at least four of its judges – and, imperfect or not, that’s no mean feat.