It’s just three weeks until
the RNA announces the books that have been shortlisted for the RoNAs – the
Romantic Novel of the Year Awards - and we are now unveiling the judges who
will decide on the Goldsboro Books
Romantic Novel of the Year 2017.
The RNA gives seven awards for
different types of romantic novels. The categories are: Contemporary, Epic,
Historical, Paranormal or Speculative Fiction, Romantic Comedy, the RoNA Rose
for a shorter romantic novel and Young Adult. In the first two rounds of the contest
the entries are judged by a panel of readers who choose the winner in each
category. These seven winners then go
forward into the overall Romantic Novel of the Year Award for excellence in
romantic fiction.
The four independent judges who
will read each of the category winners to decide the overall winner are:
Matt Bates, the Fiction Buyer for WH Smith
Travel, writer and journalist Fanny Blake, bookseller and publisher Ron
Johns and Caroline Sanderson, writer and books journalist.
Matt Bates is the Fiction Buyer for
WH Smith Travel. In 2013 he judged the HNS International Award and has
contributed to book-related articles in Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, The
Bookseller and Writers Forum magazine. In 2015 he was named Bookseller of
the Year by the RNA.
Fanny Blake was a publisher for
many years before becoming a freelance journalist and writer. She is books
editor of Woman & Home and has
written five novels including Women of a
Dangerous Age and House of Dreams.
Her new novel Our Summer Together
will be published in in July 2017.
Ron Johns opened his first
bookshop in 1974 aged 20. He now owns several bookshops and also created
Mabecron Publishing, which publishes books with a West Country flavour and to
date has published 23 titles. Ron has been a Costa Prize judge and is a council
member of the Booksellers Association and the Independent Booksellers Group.
Caroline Sanderson is a writer
and books journalist, and Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of
Worcester. She is Associate Editor for The Bookseller, and the editor of
ALCS News. Caroline is the author of five non-fiction books, and
co-hosts a monthly book club on BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
A total of 300 books were entered
for this year’s Romantic Novel of the Year Awards.
The shortlisted books will be
announced on the RNA website on February 7th and the RoNA Awards
will be presented in London on March 13th. For tickets
For more information about the
RoNA judges, visit our website news pages
To learn more about the awards,
go to http://www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org/awards
For more details on the RoNA Awards event, or to buy
tickets, visit our website activities pages.
http://www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org/activities
