[OPLINLIST] judging romance for the GDRWA

[welchly@oplin.org]

Hello colleagues,

The Greater Detroit Romance Writers of America hosts a competition every
year called the Booksellers' Best Award, and relies upon librarians and
booksellers across the country to volunteer as judges. The results are
announced at the RWA professional conference in July.

This is a "people's choice" award and is your chance to voice your opinion
in a highly-visible, very popular genre. All books are new (issued 2007)
and many are autographed; you will be sent a packet of them in February
2008 and asked to evaluate each book on its own merits rather than
compared to the others in your packet. Usually there are 5 books in your
chosen category, and you will have until the end of April to read them and
respond with your opinion on a form which they also send - it's a very
simple one "on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this book?" The
books are yours to keep.

If you would like to judge, please visit
http://www.gdrwa.org/bba_judges_form2008.doc to download and fill out your
entry form. You can print it out and mail it to the address on the form,
or email it to Patti Shenberger, this year's BBA Chair, at
pattishenberger at comcast.net. (I used the double-strike-out option in
Word's font formatting to indicate my choices and then emailed my form as
an attachment.)

I personally have participated in judging this contest for several years
and it's a great way to (1) be introduced to new-to-me authors who might
fit into my collection; (2) give back a little to all those romance
authors who have been so very generous in donating their work to our
library; and (3) snag new romances for our collection. Feel free to
contact me directly if I can answer questions.

Lynne

Lynne Welch
Herrick Memorial Library
Wellington OH USA
tel. 440-647-2120