Awards

The nine categories for the Romantic Novel Awards to be presented in May 2024 for books published in 2023 will be:

• The Fantasy Romantic Novel Award: For romantic novels with elements where the reader needs to suspend disbelief, including magical realism, fantasy, science fiction, the paranormal, timeslip (in which a character moves between time periods) time travel novels and books with ‘ghostly’ elements.
• The Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller Award: For stories featuring a substantial thriller, suspense, mystery or crime story, alongside or fully entwined with a romantic story. The romantic element should still be very strong throughout but the main storyline may be less of a traditional love story.  Novels set in any time period can be entered for this category.
• The Debut Romantic Novel Award: For the best romantic novel by a first-time author. Entries may represent any aspect of the romantic genre. This is an excellent category for new writers or unestablished to shine amongst their peers.
• The Christmas/Festive Holiday Romantic Novel Award: For the best romantic novel set in the winter festive season featuring Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Yule/New Year etc.
• The Shorter Romantic Novel Award: For shorter romantic novels, serials or novellas. These may range from magazine serials, short stories of no less than 30,000 words to shorter novels of no more than 70,000 words approximately. Entries may represent any aspect of the romantic genre and can be set in any time period.
• The Romantic Saga Award: For novels predominantly set in the past (pre 1970), usually featuring characters overcoming social pressures or hardships alongside or fully entwined with a romantic story thread. These may be part of a series but must be able to stand alone for readers who won’t have read the ones that went before.
• The Jane Wenham-Jones Award for Romantic Comedy: For romantic novels which are consistently funny. Can be set in any time period.
• The Historical Romantic Novel Award: For stories set in the past showing historic worlds, where romance forms a substantive and crucial part of the story. Romantic novels predominantly set pre-1980.
• The Contemporary Romantic Novel Award: For stories about the here and now, where romance forms a substantive part of the story; any novel set predominantly in the last 50 years. Please also consider the following categories to see if the book you are entering might fit into another more suitable one.

The winners and shortlists will be selected by our panel of volunteer readers.

Stories which feature sexual abuse, rape, or child abuse depicted in a romanticised fashion, or for the purposes of titillation, are not eligible for these awards.

Entries will be judged in the category for which they have been entered so please make sure to choose the right one! If you would like to discuss the suitability of a book for a particular category, please contact the Awards Organiser.

The awards open on 5th June 2023 and close at midnight on 30th September 2023, or when the 500 entry limit is reached, if that comes before the closing date.

We encourage entries from authors irrespective of class, race, nationality, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or background, and we welcome books with characters reflecting the full diversity of the real world.

Books can be entered in our reader-judged awards by authors or their publishers.

The books are assessed by members of the public – book-lovers who are not actively writing or members of the RNA. The short-lists for the reader-judged categories will be released prior to the awards ceremony in March, where the final winners of all the awards will be announced.

For further information, please contact our Romantic Novel Awards Organiser at rnaawards@romanticwriters.co.uk

The RNA Industry Awards

Launched in 2015, the annual RNA Industry Awards is one of the UK publishing industry’s highlights and is designed to acknowledge and recognise the many professionals whose work supports and promotes the genre of romantic fiction. The award nominations come from the entire RNA membership and is our way of saying not only thank you but shining a spotlight on those considered the best in the business, enabling us to acknowledge and recognise the wide range of professionals who support our work, the genre and the association at large.

Romantic fiction is a world-wide, multi-billion dollar business of which the life force is thousands of writers and their readers. The Romantic Novelists’ Association is the UK’s largest professional body for the industry and benefits from the support, through membership and friendship, of many people including publishers, editors, agents and other industry professionals. Everyone involved in the industry fully appreciates that a book is not just the work of the author but the work of many and once a work has been produced, many more people become involved in what is a truly collaborative process.

The RNA Industry Award winners are solely decided by the membership. All members are eligible to nominate in each and every category, and nominations can be made online or via the printed form which appears as an insert in Romance Matters, the RNA magazine. The awards ceremony takes place each year at the RNA Winter Party in November.

Awards for our Members

The RNA also celebrates the achievements and potential of our own members, through the Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers, the Katie Fforde Bursary, and the Elizabeth Goudge Prize.

The Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers

The New Writers’ Scheme aims to encourage fresh talent in the writing of romances and novels with romantic elements, in every genre from historical to futuristic, with characters and love stories that reflect the diversity of readers everywhere. Any NWS manuscript that is subsequently published as a debut novel is eligible for the Joan Hessayon Award, provided that the author has remained in membership of the RNA.

The Award is generously sponsored by Dr David Hessayon, in honour of his late wife, Joan, who was a longstanding member of the RNA and a great supporter of the New Writers’ Scheme, and is judged by a panel of experienced RNA members and industry professionals.

If you think you may be eligible to be considered for the award, please check the eligibility rules below, then contact our New Writers’ Scheme Organiser.

*An author can only enter the award once (even though they may have been in the Scheme for several years).