Guest Post & Giveaway - Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme by Georgina Troy - RNA Awards Week

I’m often asked by new writers what I think is the best way towards becoming a published author. There are, of course, many ways towards reaching your publishing goal, the route I took however was joining the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme. You can find out more about it on their website here: http://www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org/join/new_writers_scheme 

This scheme is open to 250 unpublished members each year and as part of your membership you can submit a full or partial manuscript – by 31 August each year – for a critique. The readers who write the reports are anonymous published authors. If a book goes through the scheme and is subsequently published the author is entitled to enter the Joan Hessayon New Writers’ Scheme Award - I was lucky enough to be shortlisted for the award in 2015. 

A Jersey Kiss – originally entitled Bea Stings – was submitted for the New Writers’ Scheme (NWS) twice. Both times I received lengthy reports telling me what was good about my book – characters, plot, sub-plots, etc – as well as suggestions for areas of the manuscript that could be improved upon. For example, one of my readers mentioned that I should consider making more of the beautiful island where I lived rather than setting my novel in an imaginary place somewhere along the south coast. It then dawned on me that there were no other romantic novels set in Jersey and that this was the one place where I knew all, or at least a fair sum of, the exquisite coves and corners in the island where scenes could be set. 

So I re-wrote the book, again, and this time made much more of the place where I lived. It also made my book become more alive for me. After that I wrote A Jersey Affair, which had also gone through the NWS as Reading Paige, and set that book in Jersey and also in Sorrento, a place I loved. It was where my husband and I had spent our honeymoon, so already had romantic connotations for me.

Once I signed a publishing contract with Accent Press for my Jersey Scene series, I was no longer eligible to be a member of the NWS and couldn’t submit a manuscript for the excellent critiques I’d received in the past, although now I’m lucky enough to have an editor to work with. When you’re a new writer and finding your way along the writing process it’s incredibly difficult to know if you’re on the right track. I used to wonder how I was supposed to know if what I was writing was complete rubbish, or if there was some of it that was worth keeping and improving upon. With the NWS you have someone who’ll read every word of your manuscript and point out where you’re going wrong, or at least what’s wrong with your novel. They’ll also help you discover what’s good about the book, so that you can improve it and hopefully one day realise your dream and see your novel in print. 

Giveaway to win a paperback copy of A Jersey Dreamboat (Open Internationally)

Georgina Troy is offering one lucky winner a chance to win the newest book in the Jersey Scene series, A Jersey Dreamboat. All the books can be read as stand alones so don't worry if you haven't read the first two. 

Giveaway open everyone, all options are voluntary, but please do what they ask, as I will be verifying the winner. Giveaway closes 23:59 12/3/2016. Winner will be announced on twitter and emailed, and they will need to reply within 7 days, or forfeit the prize, and I will re-draw for a new winner.  Good luck everyone.

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

About Georgina Troy

Georgina Troy lives in Jersey, an island fifteen miles off the coast of France. She's a hopeless romantic and when Georgina realised that no one else wrote romances set in her island home with its beautiful wind-swept beaches and intriguing inhabitants, she decided she had to provide some. Her books are published by Accent Press.

Georgina also writes historical romance under the name D M Carr and her book Broken Faces was recently published.

Georgina Troy on Amazon UK

Contact Georgina:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GeorginaTroy 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GeorginaTroyAuthor 

Website: http://www.georginatroy.co.uk/

Blog: http://georginatroy.blogspot.com/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/georginatroy/

Thank you to Georgina for this very informative post, I'm sure that it will help a lot of people, and thank you for the giveaway too.

Congratulations to Georgina Troy on her nomination for the RoNA Contemporary Romantic Novel Award. Which of these books did you love? Which do you think should win the award?