It’s that time of year again! The RITA® Reader Challenge.
We did something new last year with including a sign-up sheet, and we’re keeping that same format with just a few minor changes. You can also see the official announcement for RITA finalists here!
Basics:
There are 9 different reading deadlines, spanning every ten days. We started with books that are a little shorter to give those who wish to read longer titles more time to read.
We’re asking readers/reviewers to fill out a short contact form. This is purely to send out deadline reminders. We will not use this information for anything else, and we won’t sell it to or share it with anyone – not even if they promise unlimited book budgets and a lifetime supply of dark chocolate.
We’re limiting the reviews to 2 per book to help keep from overflooding the site. These reviews will be posted throughout the week, leading up to the next deadline.
You can sign up for more than one book, though of course, sharing is caring!
Rules:
The contact form can be accessed here! Once you’ve entered your name and email address, the link to the sign up spreadsheet will be on the confirmation page.
Or, if you missed it, (but please make sure to give us your name and email in the form above before registering to review books!).
In the sign-up column, simply list the name you want to be known as when posting the review. Please be respectful of those who’ve signed up before you.
Remember, 2 reviewers per book!
The deadline is when readers should submit their reviews. Send them to: amanda@smartbitchestrashybooks.com
Reviews will be proofread before posting. If there are any serious changes or clarifications, we’ll let you know!
Thank you for signing up to review books for the RITA® Reader Challenge. This is a community project that we really enjoy because it makes the RITA® ceremony each year more fun, as we know a little bit about all the books that are nominated. (And yes, as usual, Sarah will live-blog the RITA® ceremony as fast as her fingers can type.)
We can’t provide copies of all the books to those who sign up to review – wish we could! However, if you’d like to support the site and the RITA® Reader Challenge project with your fine and excellently selected purchases, these retailer links are affiliate coded to provide a 6-8% commission. If you use them, that is most terrific, and if not, that’s perfectly good, too.
There are always new books to discover in the nominees, too, and I know some readers love to review in genres they don’t normally read. However you do it, thank you for joining us this year.
Any questions, feel free to email Sarah or Amanda!
I was just looking up some of the titles on the Schedule to choose what to review and noticed that the Tiffany Reisz entry (The Headmaster) shows up on amazon as not being released until April 15, 2015. Is this a mistake?
JacquiC: I believe it was originally part of a larger work like an anthology (Harlequin e-Shiver set). Either it was this week or the week before that the publisher announced they’d be publishing the story on its own.
I’m sure you know this, but I also that the RITAs will be live streamed this year. I assume that will be hosted on rwa.org 🙂 Looking forward to reading the reviews!
I noticed that some books show up twice – once in Best First Book and again in a second category. Are you ladies looking for four reviews for those books?
For Such a Time and Purely Professional were the ones I noticed on the list twice.
@Jacob: Good catch! They always get past me.
For those books, we only want two total (one for each category it’s in) and the review (hopefully) should address how it works in that category. For example, Purely Professional is in both Best First Book and Erotica, so for the BFB review, we’d love to know have the book functions as a debut, and for the Erotica category, we’d like to know how the reader thought it operated as part of the erotic romance genre.
Does that make sense? And thanks again for the catch!
@JacquiC The Headmaster was part of an eShivers box set that came out in I think fall of 2014. I read it then! (It was pretty good, albeit not really my personal fave type of story.)
I’m disappointed again this year. None of the really bad books I’ve read are on the list. I’m picking one I’ve never read and hoping for another When Harry Met Molly (or is that When Molly Met Harry?…). I know, small of me to want to pick on a book, but I’m better at that than saying why I like a book. I have high standards for erotica, maybe I’ll it pay dirt there since they all seem to stink of BDSM. I am sooooooo done with that.
Clara Kensie’s novel RUN TO YOU is nominated for both Best First Book and Best YA Romance. RUN TO YOU was originally released in 3 serial installments, which might be confusing to someone considering reviewing it. But the awesome news is that HarlequinTEEN is releasing all three installments as one beautiful e-book on May 1. The book will be called “Deception So Deadly” but it is still Run To You – still the same book nominated for 2 RITAs. I’d totally volunteer to review the book myself (because I love it), but full disclosure: Clara is a dear friend and my squee factor over how excited I am for her double RITA nom may prevent me from being as objective as I should…just a tad. 😉
I’ve been breathlessly waiting for the RITA Reviews! Yay!!
@ Stephanie Scott: Live-streamed? Cool.
Hope I filled out the form correctly. The lack of having to click on save always confuses me.
@library addict:
If you want me to double check that you’ve registered for the books you want, please feel free to email me, k?
And hey, if the RITAs will be live streamed, no one needs me and I can eat all the desserts on the table? WOO! 😀
Is it possible to sign up to do the challenge without actually picking a specific book? I just want to review something– doesn’t matter what! And I figure it might be helpful, since I’m sure there will be a gap here or there that needs to be filled after people have picked what they want to review.
@Katie: sure! Just wait a week or so and see what doesn’t have anyone signed up? Or, alternately, you could email Amanda and let her know you’re available as a pinch hitter? Thank you!!