This morning I got a new comment on an old post, which is always interesting. When I saw which post, I totally got it. Last year I put up an article on my blog: The RITA® Award – Is It Worth Entering? Right away I knew why that post, because we all got our scores from the 2018 RITA® Award contest.
That’s me above, by the way, at this year’s RITA ceremony, with my fantastic agent, Sarah Younger, and one of her newest clients and Golden Heart finalist, Alexia Chantel.
I won’t reiterate everything I said last year about the contest, except to say that I still believe in everything I said then, 100%. Even though I didn’t final with either of the books I entered this year. And I’m going to share my scores again, because so many people said they appreciated that I did so last year.
I entered two books, The Shift of the Tide in Paranormal Romance, and With a Prince in Short Contemporary Romance.
My scores?
The Shift of the Tide: 9.6, 9.5, 8.9, 7.9, 5.9 – Final Score: 8.7666666667
With a Prince: 9.5, 8.6, 8.3, 7.9, 7.2 – Final Score: 8.2666666667
The Final Score is figured by dropping the highest and lowest scores, then averaging the other three. Finalists in each category are the top 4% of scores, unless there are fewer than four or more than ten, in which case it’s adjusted.
I’m super pleased with these scores! The average for The Shift of the Tide is second only to that for The Pages of the Mind, which finaled and won last year, so score! And I’m pleasantly surprised by the consistent scores on With a Prince.
One interesting trend, the score for the Top 25% in the Paranormal Romance Category has been going up. (25% of all entries had final scores equal to or above that score.) In 2015, it was 8. In 2017, 8.23. And in 2018, 8.3. That indicates to me that overall scoring is higher, and the field even more competitive. I don’t have the 2016 data when I entered The Talon of the Hawk. Maybe I didn’t get my scores that year? Or maybe I deleted the email in a fit of pique because I’d been so hoping it would final. (It won best Fantasy Romance from RT that year after all!) I seem to recall a judge marked it “Not a Romance,” which also happened with The Mark of the Tala. Happens to all of us.
I also haven’t really tracked the trend in averages for Contemporary Romance, as it’s not my primary genre, but I can tell you the Top 25% score was 8.36, even higher than for Paranormal. Very competitive!
So, onward and upward. You bet I’m entering again for 2019. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this info! I was thinking about posting my scores but not sure if I was supposed to keep it private. They don’t really tell me much, but I suppose they’re more interesting in the broader context.
RWA won’t make them public, but it’s our info to share. I felt like I was taking a risk doing it last year, but so many people responded with gratitude that I think it’s really helpful.
I posted mine on my reader group, and I’ve heard back that it’s interesting data, especially in the SFR sub-sub genre. I’m still learning all these things. 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing all your wisdom. (Not to mention your stories!)
My wisdom… such as it is! But glad that your people found it interesting. 🙂 We do so much in isolation that it’s good to share information where we can, IMO