We’ve Four New Special Title Lists!
Today we open up four more Special Title Lists for new submissions. And now that summer’s here, we thought it would be fun to focus on what for many, are guilty pleasure reads. So starting today, we’re looking for submissions to the following four lists: (1) Pirates, Vikings & Sheiks; (2) Royalty in Romance; (3) Fairy Tale Romances; and (4) Perfect First Wives.
We look forward to seeing your submissions for these lists starting today, Wednesday, July 2, and going for the next two weeks ending Tuesday, July 15 at midnight. As a reminder, any additions to the list have to be: (1) the best of the best, (2) stand the test of time, and (3) actually fit the list for which they were submitted.
Pirates, Vikings & Sheiks: Instead of being separated into sections by genre, this list has three sections related to the title of the list: (1) Pirates and Privateers; (2) Sheiks and Sultans; and (3) Vikings.
Royalty in Romance: In the romances in this category, either the heroine, hero, or key secondary characters are royalty. When nominating titles for this list we would appreciate your listing the name of the member of royalty in the reason for your nomination and indicate whether this is a real person or a fictional one.
Fairy Tale Romances: The romances in this list resemble the plots of well-known fairy tales enough for the original tale to be recognizable. The sections in this list refer to the original fairy tales such as Beauty & the Beast, Cinderella, and The Princess & the Pea. We would very much appreciate if you could name the fairy tale in question in your nomination.
Perfect First Wives: This list contains romances with heroes or heroines who had “perfect” first relationships. However, those relationships may have been in actuality wonderful (as represented by the romances in the section Truly Wonderful First Spouses) or merely perceived as wonderful by the new love interest (as in the romances in the section Deceptively “Perfect” First Spouses). Again, please indicate to which part of the list the titles belong, as it is very often the case that the truth about such a first spouse is only revealed in the last pages of a book!
We’re once again using an external site – surveymonkey — for you to enter your submissions. The ballot is divided by the titles you submit. You will enter in separate spaces for each book the title, author, the list you are submitting it for (Fairy Tale Romances, Royalty in Romance, etc.) the section of the list, and reason for submitting the book. The ballot has space for you to recommend up to 20 new titles for the lists. Have more than 20 recommendations? Just fill out a second ballot. Please note that you do not have to recommend 20 titles. If you have only one recommendation, complete the information for it, and then scroll down to the bottom of the ballot and click on the “DONE” button. Once you have clicked on DONE you will be directed to a standard surveymonkey page. Be assured that if you end up on this page, your submission has reached us.
We hope you have a lot of great books that fit into these categories and look forward to seeing your submissions. You will find the criteria and submission ballot here.
Cindy, Rike, and LinnieGayl
I thought it was easier before when we had to select between contemporary, historical, etc and could put any other info under reason for submitting. The way the last box for each book was listed on the ballot now (“”section for book x””) made me confused. So I put which type of first spouse there as well as the type of book. But I also put the info in the why are you submitting.
The last set of titles we had open was really easy, because the sections in each were all by genre: contemporary, Regency, European historical, etc. This set of four lists is subdivided into sections in a variety of ways which made doing the checkbox thing harder. At least one has the traditional division by genre for its sections. But the Perfect First Spouses (see, finally got it) is subdivided into two sections: (1) Truly Wonderful First Spouses and (2) Deceptively “”Perfect”” First Spouses. And then the Fairy Tale Romances is divided into sections by fairy tales (such as Alice in Wonderland and Robin Hood).
Looking back I suppose I could have listed every possible section subdivision into a potential checkbox, but since we’ve already started collecting data I can’t make that change without destroying submissions we already have, so that won’t happen.
I also briefly thought about making a separate ballot for each list, so that it could be uniquely tailored for each list. That would be more work for me upfront in preparing the ballots. It would also be more work each day as I prep the lists to send to the other members of the Special Title team (and since I do it first thing in the morning it might mean I’d switch and do it at night instead). It would also mean readers would have to select the specific ballot for each list. What do you think about that in the future? Not making any promises, but it’s something to consider.
I just hope I provided all the info you needed.
Are you limited in the number of categories for each title? I just wonder if using the perfect spouses as an example, you could have list “”Perfect Spouses – Truly Lovely First Spouse”” and “”Perfect Spouses – Deceptively Perfect First Spouse”” as separate entries. I don’t know how the info shows up at your end though. Or how many entries you receive with the wrong checkbox ticked.
I do hope the survey monkey site is working better than the old submission form for you all. I really appreciate you updating/creating these lists. They are fun to have a walk down memory lane even though my memory isn’t what it used to be and I’m sure I’ve read other books that fit the various lists.
library addict: no, to the best of my knowledge we’re not limited by the number of categories. I started to do it that way and then worried that we might confuse people with too many options. But your suggestion of beginning each category with the list is a good one! I’m going to try and remember it for the next time we run into this issue.
Thanks! And so far it looks as if everyone has provided all the information we need, which we greatly appreciate.
Although not all of them were stellar, I included in my submission the following Royal romances, all of which are set in contemporary times:
Suddenly Royal by Nichole Chase
Recklessly Royal by Nichole Chase (Haven’t read myself but based on first book, I thought it was worth considering.)
Princess Ever After by Rachel Hauck
The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne
A Royal Pain by Megan Mulry (She’s published others, but I haven’t read those yet.)
Sorry, all. For some reason I keep thinking of the list as “”Perfect First Wives”” but it’s really “”Perfect First Spouses””. I’m correcting the ballot options but if you have a “”Perfect First Husband”” to nominate go ahead and just click on “”Perfect First Wives”” as the category.
My apologies….and Cindy told me about this and I thought I’d caught all my goofs. Guess I’m determined to turn it into “”Perfect First Wives”” :)
Okay, I think I’ve made every change in the ballot necessary. Let me know if you see “”wives”” anywhere in the ballot and I’ll make further changes tonight. And after all this I hope to see lots of nominations for “”Perfect First Husbands”” :)