Prizes ♦ Entry Fee ♦ Eligibility ♦ Deadline ♦ Categories ♦ Final Judges
Hearts Through History Romance Writers is proud to announce the 21st Annual Romance through the Ages.
Open for entries: April 1st – June 30th, 2024
Prizes
1st place winners in each category + Legends award: $50
1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in each category: social media badge
All winners will be announced in RWA’s digital Romance Writers Report.
Entry fee
$20 for HHRW members / $25 for non-members
Submissions must be uploaded through the entry form below APRIL 1 – JUNE 30, not before.
Entry FormBoth entry form, manuscript file, and payment must be received by midnight June 30th, 2024.
Contest Timeline:
- April 1 – June 30, 2024 – Open for submissions.
- July 1 – August 23 – First Round Judging
- August 24 – Finalists announced in each category
- September 1 – October 30 – Finalists judged by Industry Professionals
- October 31 – Winners Announced
Two Divisions: Pre-Published & Published
Pre-Published Eligibility
Agents & Editors will judge contest Finalists. Don’t miss this chance to get your manuscript in the hands of industry professionals!
- Entry must be a PDF of the first 25 pages of your MS. Part of those 25 pages, may be a 2 page synopsis, if you choose. It is highly recommended that your couple meet within that chapter.
- Standard manuscript format — double-spaced, 1 inch margins all around with each chapter begun on a new page, one-third of the way down from the top; the font should be 12-point Times New Roman.
- The header on each page of your file shall contain only the title, category code, and page number separated by forward slashes and shall be right-aligned. Please remove your name from the file before you submit.
- Entries judged to be offensive to any marginalized community (BIPOC, LGBTQ+, Gender, Ethnicity, Weight, Size, Age, Ability, etc.) for any reason will be disqualified.
- Open to RWA and non-RWA members. HHRW membership is not required.
- Entries that have previously won 1st place in any RTTA category or that have won the Legends Award are not eligible. All other previous finalist entries are eligible.
- All entries must be the author’s original work.
- Use of AI technology, in any form, is not allowed in the contest.
- Any work of historical romance that has not been contracted for publication by June 30th, 2024, may be entered.
- The top 3 finalists in each category will be judged by an Industry Professional.
2024 Pre-Published Romance through the Ages Final Judges
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- Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance: Kathryn Le Veque, Dragonblade Publishing
- Colonial/Western/Civil War: Melanie Billings, The Wild Rose Press
- Georgian/Victorian: Erin Molta, Entangled Publishing
- Regency: Alethea Spiridon, Entangled Publishing
- Post-Victorian/World Wars/Modern: Erin Niumata, Folio Literary Management
- Time-Travel/Historical Paranormal: Sandy Lu, Book Wyrm Literary Agency
- YA Historical: Letty Mundt, Sourcebooks/Bloom
- Legends Award: Carrie Feron, Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books
Published Eligibility
Agents, Editors, Librarians, Podcasters, Romance Bookstores, Best-Selling Authors, and Book Reviewers/Bloggers will judge contest Finalists. Don’t miss this chance to get your manuscript reviewed by industry professionals!
- Entry must be eBook/PDF of entire MS of Historical Romance.
- Entries judged to be offensive to any marginalized community (BIPOC, LGBTQ+, Gender, Ethnicity, Weight, Size, Age, Ability, etc.) for any reason will be disqualified.
- Open to all novel length works of historical romance over 50,000 words,as well as published Novellas 20,000 – 50,000 words.
- All books must be originally copyrighted between January 2023 and December 2023 and must not have been previously published before 2023.
- Use of AI technology, in any form, is not allowed in the contest.
- All entries must be the author’s original work.
- Any work of historical romance that has been published traditionally or independently may be entered.
- Top 2 finalists in each category will be judged by 2 Industry Professionals.
2024 Published Romance through the Ages Final Judges
- Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance: PJ Ausdenmore, The Romance Dish & Yelena Casale, Executive Editor, City Owl Press
- Colonial/Western/Civil War: Anita Colliere, Turn the Page Bookstore & Deborah Schneider, author, Public Programmer for King County Library System, 2009 Cathie Linz Librarian of the Year, RWA
- Georgian/Victorian: Frannie Strober, Reviewer/2018 Cathie Linz Librarian of the Year, RWA & Caitlin O’Neil/Lauren Richards, Tropes & Trifles: A Romance Bookstore
- Regency: Katie Streit, The Ripped Bodice Bookstore & Jane Porter, Author & Founder, Tule Publishing
- Post-Victorian/World Wars/Modern:Jennifer Udden, Laura Dail Literary Agency & John Charles, The Poisoned Pen Bookstore
- Time-Travel/Historical Paranormal: Erica Horton, A Novel Romance Bookstore & Sinclair Sawhney, Editorial Director, Tule Publishing
- YA Historical: Ren Rice, The Romance Era Bookshop & Izzy Pilares-Schweinfest, YA Specialist II, New York Public Library
- Legends Award: Mary Wallace Moore, MLS, Smyrna Public Library/2012 Cathie Linz Librarian of the Year, RWA & Katie Garaby, Parnassus Books
Click for complete rules
Deadline is at midnight CDT on June 30th, 2024.
Categories
The 2024 Romance Through The Ages contest offers the following categories:
- Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance
Time period: prehistory through the 17th century - Colonial/Western/Civil War (set in North America)
Time period: 17th through 19th centuries - Georgian/Victorian
Time period: late 18th through 19th centuries - Regency
Time period:1800 through 1830 - Post-Victorian/World Wars/Modern
Time period:1901 through 1980s - Time Travel/Historical Paranormal
Time period: prehistory through 1980
Note: more than 50% of the entry must take place in the historical period - YA Historical
Time period: Ancient through 1980s. - Legends Award
All entries are automatically entered in this special cross-category award. The Legend Award celebrates the most memorable lead character out of all entries. For more information, read the About the Judging section of the contest rules.
Want to help judge our First Round?
Contact
If you have questions, please e-mail RTTA@heartsthroughhistory.com to contact Claudine Gandolfi, the contest chair.