Drumroll....

The 2012 Royal Ascot is Complete
Please look for the 2013 Royal Ascot early next year.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

One more week until the Royal Ascot Contest opens

The Royal Ascot contest opens in just one more week! Your coordinators are working behind the scenes to make this year's contest as successful as it has been in prior years. Did you know that one year, an editor promised contracts to all three finalists in a particular category? Last year, our re-vamped contest resulted in requests for 12 manuscripts.

So, what else is there to love about the Royal Ascot?
1. Judges who love Historicals
2. Broad Exposure: All six finalists are read by all six editors and agents, giving each of our six finalists six chances at requests
3. No chance of being in 6th Place: There will be one winner and five finalists
4. Cash Prizes!

...and so much more.

Still on the fence? Check out these links to the 2012 Contest Rules and the 2012 Contest Score Sheet.

Not able to enter? How about helping us judge? We have a judge's loop for support and instruction.

Judges can choose their categories, and will receive their entries the week of 4/9.  Each judge will receive 4 entries.  Deadline for returns is May 18th.  The entries are a maximum of 7000 words (no synopsis this year).

Sign up here, via Google docs: Judge Sign Up Form

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Announcing the 2012 Royal Ascot!

Announcing the 2012 Royal Ascot!

Unpublished writers: Polish the first 7000 words of those manuscripts! The 2012 Royal Ascot will open for Entries on February 1st, 2012. In the next few weeks, details will be available on our webpage and through MyRWA, but, for now, here are highlights:

This year's contest will be open to unpublished authors and authors who have not been contracted in book length fiction by RWA PAN definition in the last 5 years. All entries must have at least partial Regency (Late Georgian) setting, broadly defined: within the United Kingdom between 1780 and 1840.  No synopsis is necessary!

Our categories will be used to assign first round judges to the manuscript types they prefer: Regency Historical (longer Regency or Mainstream Regency-set) Hot Regency (Very sensual to Erotic Regency, at author's discretion) Wild Regency (Paranormal, Time Travel, other similar Regency) Sweet & Mild Regency (Traditional, Inspirational, Young Adult or other without explicit sex). Each entry will be judged by three judges, including at least one published in Regency Romance. The lowest score will be dropped, and the top six entries will move to the final round.

Our Final Round Judges are:

Agents
Stephany Evans, Fine Print Literary
Louise Fury, L Perkins Agency
Pam Hopkins, Hopkins Literary Associates  

Editors
Lauren Plude, Hachette Book Group
Angela Polidoro, Random House
Deb Werksman, Sourcebooks  

Besides the February 1st opening, some additional important dates are:
• Friday April 6th, 2012, midnight PDT: Deadline for all parts of entry
• Finalists Announced May 25th, 2012
• Winner(s) will be announced at The Beau Monde Conference 

Further details will be announced on the blog and website soon!  If you have any questions, feel free to contact this year's co-coordinators, Sarah Tormey and Wendy La Capra, at royalascotcontest@gmail.com.  Thank you!

Followers