RNA Industry Awards highlight publishing talent

Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Industry Awards

highlight publishing talent

16^th November 2016. The Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) in its second Industry Awards has recognised those people who have made a significant contribution in 2016 to the success and sales of romantic fiction. This year a further two awards were added, bringing the total to five, presented in front of an audience of romance writers, publishers and agents at a ceremony in London.

New award Agent of the Year recognised the late Carole Blake, of Blake Friedmann, whose sudden

Hattie Grunewald and Juliet Pickering

death in October stunned her many friends and colleagues in the publishing industry. Described as ‘a hard-working professional’, with ‘an immense sense of fun’, Carole was widely respected for her knowledge of the industry and loyalty to her clients, many who became close friends, and on whose behalf she worked tirelessly.

The RNA’s Deputy Chairman Nicola Cornick presented the trophy to Carole’s colleagues Hattie Grünewald and Juliet Pickering. Hattie Grünewald said “Carole was delighted to have been shortlisted for the Agent of the Year Award and would have been thrilled and honoured to have won. Carole was a keen supporter of the RNA over many years, and this award is a worthy acknowledgement for all she achieved for Romantic Fiction, and a lovely tribute to one of the best agents in the business.”

Lizzy Kremer, Director and Head of the Books Department for David Higham Associates, was runner-up for the prize.

Bookseller of the Year Award went to Goldsboro Books’ Managing Director, David Headley, whose Romance in the Court event earlier in the year provided a tremendous opportunity for authors, agents, publishers and readers to meet and celebrate their shared love of romantic fiction.

Runner-up for the award was Blackwell’s Bookshops, Lancaster University Branch.

The Media Star was presented to Kim Nash, Publicity and Social Media Manager at Bookouture, for her extensive and creative promotion of Bookouture titles.

Runner-up for the Media Star award was Jo Good, presenter on BBC Radio London.

Sheila Crowley

Best Adaptation of a Novel was awarded to Jojo Moyes for the film Me Before You, which she adapted from her own novel of the same name.

Runners-up were Diana Gabaldon and Ronald D. Moore for Outlander, a television series based on Diana Gabaldon’s enormously popular timeslip novels.

The final award of the evening, for Publisher of the Year, was won by Oliver Rhodes, Managing Director and Publisher, Bookouture, for his vision, drive and passion.

Kimberley Young, Publisher at HarperFiction, was runner up for the Publisher of the Year.

Commenting on the awards, Eileen Ramsay, Chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, said, “It's wonderful to see talent and hard work being recognised. The record number of nominations submitted this year shows how RNA members have truly

RNA Vice Chair Nicola Cornick (left) and Chairman Eileen Ramsay
(right) with award winners, Oliver Rhodes (Bookouture), Kim Nash (Bookouture),
Daniel Gedeon and Emily Glenister (Goldsboro Books)

embraced the Industry Awards, and how keen they are to acknowledge those who support romantic fiction at every stage.”

Photographs from the awards event can be found at:
http://www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org/news/media_centre

For further information please contact:

Pressofficer@romanticnovelistsassociation.org

About the Romantic Novelists' Association

The RNA was formed in 1960 to promote romantic fiction and encourage good writing and now represents more than 850 writers, agents, editors and other publishing professionals.

Agent of the Year (new award)

Winner: Carole Blake, agent and co-founder of Blake Friedmann Literary Agency 

Runner Up: Lizzy Kremer, Director and Head of the Books Department, David Higham Associates

Bookseller of the Year

Winner: Goldsboro Books, David Headley, Managing Director

Runner-up: Blackwell’s Bookshop, Lancaster University

Media Star of the Year

Winner: Kim Nash, Publicity and Social Media Manager, Bookouture

Runner-up: Jo Good, Presenter, BBC Radio London

Best Adaptation of a Romantic Novel

Winner: Jojo Moyes for Me Before You

Runner-up: Diana Gabaldon and Ronald D. Moore for Outlander

Publisher of the Year (new award)

Winner: Oliver Rhodes, Managing Director and Publisher, Bookouture

Runner-up: Kimberley Young, Publisher, HarperFiction

2016 RNA INDUSTRY AWARDS SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

The Romantic Novelists’ Association has announced the shortlist for its second annual Industry Awards, which recognises those people who have made a significant contribution in 2016 to the success and sales of romantic fiction. The awards will be presented on 16th November at a ceremony in London in front of an audience of romance writers, publishers and agents.

This year sees the addition of two new awards, Agent of the Year and Publisher of the Year. However, the awards were judged prior to the very sad and sudden death of legendary Literary Agent Carole Blake, who had been informed she was shortlisted and was delighted and determined to come along. In light of this, the committee has taken the decision to announce that Carole Blake had won The Agent of the Year Award, which will be awarded posthumously on the night. There will also be a tribute to her in recognition of her professional contribution and the high personal regard in which she was held by all.

The shortlist comprises:
Agent of the Year (new award)
Winner: Carole Blake, agent and co-founder of Blake Friedmann Literary Agency
Runner Up: Lizzy Kremer, Director and Head of the Books Department, David Higham Associates

Bookseller of the Year
Blackwells Bookshop, Lancaster University
Goldsboro Books, David Headley, Managing Director

Media Star of the Year
Jo Good, Presenter, BBC Radio London
Kim Nash, Publicity and Social Media Manager, Bookouture

Best Adaptation of a Romantic Novel
Diana Gabaldon and Ronald D. Moore for Outlander
Jojo Moyes for Me Before You

Publisher of the Year (new award)
Oliver Rhodes, Managing Director and Publisher, Bookouture
Kimberley Young, Publisher, HarperFiction

RNA Tribute to Carole Blake

Literary agent Caroline Sheldon writes:

Carole Blake is no longer with us.  None of us expected to read those words.  Carole was just always there and everyone one of us was so glad to see her.  Something about her exuberance and solidity, her enthusiastic welcoming of the challenges of the world of books lifted all our hearts.   Now she is gone and so many of us who have known her for so long and benefitted from her warmth, acuity and

sense of fun will feel a terrible gap.

Carole’s relationship with the Romantic Novelist’s Association summed up many of her qualities.  The organisation in a very practical and pragmatic way has as a top priority helping writers, including those on the stepladder to publication; make a success of their careers in their chosen field.

The New Writer’s Scheme is I believe a unique author-to-author mentoring scheme that has been running for years – long before the term mentoring was current parlance.  Carole applauded that practicality and pragmatism and was an enthusiastic member and supporter of the Society for many years. I remember her wearing hats to the grand lunches in The Dorchester or Hilton thirty years ago. She embraced the way the association helped authors as well as its collegiate fun.   She attended conferences, parties and sat on panels and   put her shoulder to the wheel on occasions too frequent to mention. 

In 2014 the Romantic Novelist’s Association recognised Carole's outstanding contribution by making her an Associate Vice-President. The RNA as an association has lost a true friend and tirelessly energetic supporter who was herself at the peak of success in the publishing industry. We will all feel her loss.

Below are tributes from just a few of the members.

I first met Carole at the Cheltenham conference in 2001. I remember being amazed that such a high profile agent should be such fun with us all.  We had serious conversations about men and shoes.  She felt the fact I’d only brought 4 pairs with me meant I wasn’t a serious shoe-lover.

Katie Fforde – President RNA

I met Carole about twenty years ago when I chaired her at the Edinburgh Book Festival. We became and remained friends. She has always been a staunch supporter of the RNA and its members, encouraging and inspirational to us all, and we will miss her terribly.

Eileen Ramsay – RNA Chairman

As with everything, Carole Blake joined in enthusiastically with the RNA Conference for many years and thoroughly enjoyed spending the full long weekend in the company of writers. She was always willing to impart her immense industry knowledge by leading and participating in panels, and she frequently

Carole chairing a panel discussion
at our 2015 conference.

delivered her own talks too. From ‘How to Pitch’ to ‘What Agents Want’ to ‘Working Together’ (with Elizabeth Chadwick), all were eye-opening, but the one I will always remember as being typically Carole was at Sheffield in 2013. The air conditioning had broken down, a heat wave was compressing everyone into limp rags, the bar wouldn’t be open for another couple of hours, so she efficiently assembled her audience and marched them outside to deliver her session (on ‘50 Years in Publishing’) on the steps. Formidable, energetic, irreplaceable.

Jan Jones – Conference Organiser

Carole always rocked up in fabulous jewelry and a killer pair of shoes. She had almost four hundred pairs, and was very organised about how she “filed” them.

Actually I don’t think I ever saw her arrive - she was always there already, in the middle of a smiling group, exuding joie de vivre and with a glass in her hand - she was the one to stick to if you wanted to make sure yours wasn’t empty - I’ve been to dozens of the same book launches, parties, award ceremonies with Carole and she was always adept at making sure our drinks kept coming. She was always kind and charming when would-be authors approached her with their pitches - which they did often - although she had a “look” I teased her about if anyone pushed too far beyond the boundaries of good manners. I put a clip of it, taken from a TV pilot we made together, up on YouTube when she was celebrating fifty years in publishing and she did laugh. 

Jane Wenham-Jones – Friend and presenter of many RNA events

Who is Number One?

To quote the well-known television series The Prisoner, ‘who is number one?’ Here at the Romantic Novelists’Association our first applicant for independent membership was Alison Morton. We welcome her to the RNA blog to tell the story of her writing career so far.

“Independent” could be defined as the freedom to act and to have control over your destiny, and the responsibility and power to make your own decisions.

“Independent author” has grown out of the self-publishing movement. Originally, self-publishers

Alison with Carole Blake

wrote their book and posted it on Amazon. Job done. Before then, and if you had the money, you could contract with a subsidy publisher to produce a garage full of hard or paperback print books. Now, self-publishing has matured, professional services such as editing, cover design and formatting have grown as have assisted publishing services offering full support packages.

Inevitably, there are a lot of substandard, and frankly rubbish, books out there for sale as a result of this democratic revolution. Some originators of content (I’m not calling them writers) don’t care or don’t know any better; they’ve produced words in a file, sometimes with great emotion on their part, and sent them off into the digiverse without any check.

However, serious self-publishers know better. Alongside other writers (however published or aspiring to be published) they will have joined writing groups, listened to other authors, read magazines, self-help books, had their work critiqued, attended conferences and gone on courses.

I’ve always been a ‘wordsmith’. Translating professionally for much of my career has made me nit-picky about words, grammar, punctuation, document cohesion, theme and structure. After selling my translation business in 2009, I started writing my first Roma Nova novel. Next, at the urging of my new critique partner, I joined the RNA New Writers’ Scheme in January 2010; this led to courses, parties, conferences, parties, meetings, parties, London & SE Chapter meetings, parties…

After that a six day writers’ boot camp, an Arvon Foundation course on commercial fiction (Mavis Cheek and the late, great Paul Sussman as tutors), the

Festival of Writing at York where I met mentor (and first endorser) Adrian Magson, multi-selling crime and thriller writer. Tumbling after that were memberships of the Historical Novel Society, the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), International Thriller Writers, Society of Authors and visits to the London Book Fair. The crucial thing is to interact continuously with all these associations and writing and reading colleagues within them.

And the books?

The first two were launched at Waterstones Tunbridge Wells in 2013 and the third in London in 2014 at the University Women’s Club when broadcaster Sue Cook interviewed me. The first two books were joint runners up in Writing Magazine’s Self-Published Book of the Year award, the third and fourth both Editor’s Choices of the Historical Novel Society (HNS). The first three have qualified as B.R.A.G. Medallion honorees and the third was an Editor’s Choice in The Bookseller’s inaugural indie preview ("this classy thriller"). And the latest AURELIA has just been shortlisted for the 2016 Historical Novel Society Indie Award.

More importantly than any of this, readers have been kind enough to say they enjoy diving into the world of Roma Nova and following Carina and Aurelia’s adventures and tangled love lives. Now I have sealed the deal with Blake Friedman Literary Agency to represent me for foreign and ancillary rights  – an indie/traditional partnership that’s first for them and pretty damned exciting for me!

This is not to boast. This is to illustrate that serious indies put in the time and effort to develop the skills of professional authors. But how to separate the dross from the diamonds? Several new quality organisations are appearing, such as IndieBRAG which rejects 90% of its applications and the HNS review system which analyses new historical fiction and runs an annual indie fiction prize. If your book is eligible, do go in for these! But books are about readers and many indies in this association have enjoyed best selling success because their well-written books are loved by their readers

What are the criteria for independent membership?

The RNA has studied, consulted and debated internally about the self-published/independent question. An author must have self published at least two works of romantic fiction over 30,000 words in length. At least one of those works must have achieved sales in excess of 1000 copies in a single 12 month period and/or generated income from sales over £500 in a single 12 month period.

As a proud member of the RNA, a place where I have found friends, colleagues, support and champions and where I am able to give back to newer writers with talks, panels and posts, I was delighted to transfer from the New Writers’ Scheme to became the first ever Independent Author Member.

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO and AURELIA. The fifth book, INSURRECTIO, will be launched on 12 April at the 2016 London Book Fair.

Links:

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Twitter: @alison-morton

Thank you, Alison and good luck with your latest book.

The RNA blog is brought to you by Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

If you would like to write for the blog please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com