Borders is the primary sponsor of the 2010 RomCon, a conference aimed primarily at romance readers and scheduled to take place July 9-11 in Denver.
Published authors may want to take note of their Reader’s Crown contest. The books will be judged by selected romance readers, and the winner receives special display space in Borders stores and coverage on Borders’ True Romance blog. Then again, it also costs $75 to enter. Worth it if you win, but at almost twice the cost of entering the Ritas, it’s hard to give a wholehearted endorsement.
Readers can get five free books and $10 off conference fees if they’d like to apply to be a judge.
November 11, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Sounds exciting, but with an entry fee like that and limited funds for marketing and such I don’t know if it would be on my agenda.
November 13, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Thanks for posting about RomCon, Leah!
The RITA is a significant contest for authors in that it’s a peer-judged competition. That’s important within the small community of the romance industry. The Readers’ Crown is a different beast altogether. It has true market impact and gets authors’ books in front of a large audience of readers–we all know readers read differently than authors do.
As a winner of The Readers’ Crown, the benefits are great–but winners aren’t the only ones who benefit from this contest. All entrants get five of their books in front of readers! Finalists receive listing on both RomCon and Borders’ True Romance sites as well as the opportunity to blog with RomCon and participate in a group blog at Borders’ True Romance. Winners will be interviewed by the Borders’ True Romance team at RomCon; they get end-cap space at all Borders for a month; AND they are sponsored guests at RomCon 2011!
Times are tough, but we’ve worked hard to provide true market impact with The Readers’ Crown!
We’d love to hear from any of your readers who have questions! Feel free to contact us through our contact page on our website:
http://www.romconinc.com/index.php/contact.
The RomCon Team