As you can see by the stats below, it doesn’t mean that you will sell. But it says a couple of things about you. It says that you can finish a manuscript. It says that you can write a great first 50 pages and a synopsis. It gets the attention of agents and publishers. No doubt about it. I think any finalist would say the same.

So, for those of you wanting to be published in Romance and wondering if the RWA Golden Heart@ contest for unpublished authors is worth the entry fee, my answer is YES! Not only will your finaling ms be read by an editor, but when you attend RWA Nationals you will get tons of attention, meet important people, and get first pick at editor and agent appointments. Below I’ve copied the current stats put together by Keli Gwyn, a finalist in the inspy category. I actually have heard finalists from other years saying that our numbers are low. I don’t know if this is true but we did hit the scene right when the economy was crashing so this may account for some discrepancy. In any case, many (maybe most) of the finalists who have not yet published have had at least one or two requests for a partial or a full. And of those winners now published almost every story received a 4 or 4 1/2 star rating from RT.

Stats Summary

# of Authors Who Sold Full-length Novels – 22 of 64 (34%)

# of 2008 GH Winning Manuscripts Sold – 7 of 10 (70%)

# of 2008 GH Finaling (Includes Winning) Manuscripts Sold – 18 of 70
(26%)

# of Full-length Novels Sold – 48

# of Shorts/Novellas Sold – 7

# of 2008 Category Finalists Sold

(Double finalists in the same category counted as one, team writers as
two.

Double finalists in different categories show in each of their
categories.)

2 of 8 (25%) in Contemporary Series

3 of 4 (75%) in Contemporary Series: Suspense/Adventure

1 of 7 (14%) in Contemporary Single Title

4 of 8 (50%) in Historical

1 of 4 (25%) in Inspirational

3 of 10 (30%) in Novel with Strong Romantic Elements

5 of 8 (63%) in Paranormal

2 of 6 (33%) in Regency Historical

2 of 8 (25%) in Romantic Suspense

2 of 4 (50%) in Young Adult

Keli Gwyn Buying a GH MS turned Novel (Thanks, Keli!!)