Presitigious British Romance Novelist Award Long List Nominees and Judging Panel Announced

4 Comments

1. SarahT
   Dec 18, 2008 @ 11:18:47

   Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I think that RWA used to have something like this whereby its members could nominate their favourite book of the year. Granted the members of RWA are all authors themselves but it gave the general membership a chance to vote, as opposed to the RITAs.

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2. Jane
   Dec 18, 2008 @ 12:18:49

   @SarahT They did have a book of the year award and it was deleted (wrong word for it but brain is dead right now).

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3. Tae
   Dec 19, 2008 @ 06:46:20

   hrm.. I’ve not read a single author on the list

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4. Susanna Kearsley
   Dec 19, 2008 @ 09:11:40

   @Jane: Discontinued? Is that the word you wanted?

   Anyhow, I agree with you, Jane — the thing that makes this award so special is that it’s driven by readers. Not only do the readers’ scores determine the longlist, but they’re also factored in to the choice of the shortlist, since it’s the combined high scores of both the public readers and the RNA panel that puts a book onto the shortlist, not the scores of the panel alone.

   The whole process is detailed here:
   http://www.rna-uk.org/index.php?page=rnoty_award

   I was incredibly thrilled and honoured to be told I’d made the longlist (especially because it means I now get to go to a champagne breakfast in London in January!) It’s a great Christmas present.

   And Tae, you probably know of some of the authors on the list, even if you haven’t read them…Cecelia Ahern wrote P.S. I Love You (as in the Gerard Butler movie), and Sophie Kinsella writes the Shopaholic books, among other things.

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