We've got news! Thanks to the hardworking efforts of the designers at Najla Qamber Designs, we've been nominated (AGAIN) and made finalists in two categories (Fantasy/Science-Fiction and Young Adult) in the RONE 2020 Awards. WOOHOO!
What Are the RONE Awards?
Every year, InD’tale Magazine awards select books from the Indie and Small publishing industry with the one and only RONE award. Of course with any award ceremony, there's a whole process that the book undergoes with the team behind RONE awards. They focus on:
1. Reading and reviewing all submitted books (that are originally published and submitted in the year of qualification). Of these, only books given a 4.5-star rating or higher can be qualified as a nominee.
2. Voting takes place next by the public. The submitted books that have the highest number of votes go on to become finalists. If however, a competing nominee has more than one book submitted, once they're in the finalists' position, they're only allowed to bring in one book. This guarantees that the nominee chooses the best of their original work and hence increase their chances of success!
3. These groups of finalists will then be judged by a group of professionals including writers, editors, professors, and more. They decide whether to give the book a rating from 1 to 5 based on characterization, overall arc, editing, etc. After that's done, the scores are tallied by a third party company and they'll decide the winner of the RONE awards!
Feeling Immensely Grateful
We're so proud to have had the opportunity to show off one of our many accomplished authors, Amanda Marin, and her books North To Nara and Sky To Sea in this recent nomination.
But we're even more grateful for RONE Awards for giving us the chance to reach new literary heights!
Thanks to their generous considerations, we've not only been nominated for this year's awards but for prior years before 2020 too! Our past submissions were:
2015 - won the RONE Award for Crane by Stacey Rourke
(Naj got an actual crystal trophy!)
2016 - won "Second Runner" up for Fear University by Meg Collett
2019 - became a finalist for The Spellbinder's Sonata by Stephanie Keyes
Najla's Personal Note
"In the earlier years (until now, even), I've always been the type to keep to myself. Stuck in my endless loop of work through emails and just create create create. I loved it. I loved to be able to create for those who landed into my inbox every day (No idea how they found me). So, each time I hear about a nomination, I ask 'Omg! How?'. I'm always surprised and always super humbled by it. Though they probably don't know who I am.
To win it for the author, more than anything, was always a goal of mine. They're the reason why I am where I am today. They're the reason why I have the team as I do today. Without their support, loyalty, and all the fun we have together, these awards won't mean anything. Nomination or winner, it doesn't matter! I'm just thankful to have been on the list even in a tiny little footnote.
I'm so thankful for all the amazing people we get to work with every day and the journeys they take me on with each book they write. Win or lose, my everlasting gratitude is there. I can't wait to see where next year will take us."