*Not* A Golden Heart Finalist. Again.

BySarra Cannon

This morning, I was so full of excitement and hope. I begged my phone to ring. But unfortunately, it never did. This afternoon, I’m full of sadness, to be honest.

On one hand, I know it’s ridiculous to be upset about it. After all, I’ve already sold over 5,000 books this month alone! Since I entered the GH in November, I’ve sold well over 10,000 copies of my three books. There’s no way I could have done that if I was spending my time looking for an agent or a traditional publishing deal. And after all, isn’t that what the Golden Heart is all about? Finding an agent or a publisher?

On the other hand, I feel completely broken-hearted. I really felt that I had 2 good entries this year. To find out that there are only 7 finalists is pretty upsetting as well. That means there were only 70 entries in the YA category. 2 of which were mine. The odds were even better than I thought they would be and I still didn’t get a call. I’ll have to wait at least a month to get my scores back and see just how close / far away I was from the top.

I don’t regret self-publishing. Quite the opposite. I think it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. It just seems there’s no place right now in RWA for self-published / Indie authors. I’m not exactly feeling like I fit into a contest for “unpublished” authors. I am published. Maybe not by their standards, but RWA sets their qualifying bar at a mere $1000/year on a single book. I’ve blown that out of the water by now. And I STILL don’t qualify simply because there’s no publisher who has put their stamp of approval on my product. Their published author category, the RITA award, isn’t for me either. Even if I sell a million books, I still won’t be allowed to be called published by the RWA the way their current guidelines read. Right now, I simply don’t fit in with the RWA idea of what it means to be an author.

But there was still a part of me that wanted this recognition. I wish there was an Indie Authors of America with a big conference and an award for self-published authors. Maybe someday I’ll be up for one of those kind of awards.

4 Comments

  1. I feel your pain. The phone didn't ring here either. Or at my CP's house. But seriously, you've had some major success on your own! We can take a day to wallow, but tomorrow we have to get back to writing.

  2. Thanks for the encouragement Jilliebeans! Sorry you didn't get a call either. It's not always about the *best* manuscripts. It's so subjective and there's got to be some level of luck involved. I'm trying to just stay positive and keep my eye on my new Indie career.

    Best of luck to you in your career!

  3. Be proud of your accomplishments. They are way more impressive than five individuals agreeing that your books deserve a nomination. 🙂
    And things are changing so fast. Who knows what RWA will look like in a year?
    Lori

  4. You sold 10,000 books. I wonder how many books those 68 other entrants have sold.

    Here's another thing to think about. Stephanie Meyer wasn't a GH finalist. Neither was JK Rowling. There are TONS of authors out there who don't know or care that GH/RITA exist and look where they are. They're hitting the lists and growing their careers without RWA.

    So, as far as I'm concerned the RITA and GH are nothing more than nice-to-haves and nowhere near career makers. Readers only care about the story, and your 10,000 books sold is proof of that.

    Oh, and I second your thoughts about an Indie Authors of America. Let me know when you want to start it. I'll join. 😉

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