A Recipe for Golden Heart Success

I just finished reading a blog on A Recipe for Golden Heart Success by Darynda Jones.  I wish she would have written this when I was wondering about entering the Golden Heart.  She gives great advice so I really don’t want to butcher it by trying to summarize it here (see http://tinyurl.com/yledn7p).  

Jones is the Winner of the 2009 Golden Heart® for Best Paranormal Romance for her manuscript FIRST GRAVE ON THE RIGHT so she knows a few things about trying to place in this pretentious contest.  

The Golden Heart contest judges approximately 1,200 romance manuscripts each year by writers who have not accepted a publishing offer for original fictional narrative prose of 20,000+ words.  Writers enter their romance novel manuscript in one of 10 contest categories. In the preliminary round, the manuscripts are read and judged by General RWA members, who narrow the field down to approximately 100 finalists.

The final round of the contest is judged by romance publishing houses editors. Many Golden Heart finalists are able to sell their manuscripts to publishers as a result of the exposure from the contest. Romance Writers of America (RWA) announces the Golden Heart winners at the Awards Ceremony at the Annual RWA Conference.

Please take a moment to read Mrs. Jones’ blog and learn more about what it takes final in the Golden Heart contest.  You can learn more about Darynda Jones and her works at http://www.daryndajones.com/.

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