2019 Golden Heart Judging Information


The purpose of RWA’s Golden Heart contest is to promote excellence in the romance genre by recognizing outstanding manuscripts written by members who have not published a Novel or Novella.

Each preliminary-round entry will be scored individually on a scale of 1.0 to 10.0, with 1.0 being the lowest (poor) and 10.0 being the highest (excellent). Judges are allowed and encouraged to use decimal points (7.5, 8.8, etc.) when scoring. Judges do not provide feedback, critiques, or reviews.

PAN, PRO, and other interested RWA members are eligible to judge the preliminary round. The final round will be judged by three editors.

Preliminary-round judges will be required to answer the following three questions in addition to assigning one overall score:
  • Does the entry contain a central love story?
  • Is the resolution of the romance emotionally satisfying and optimistic?
  • Does the entry fall within the category description?

If there are three negative responses to any one question, the entry is disqualified.

Preliminary-round scores will be determined using a trimmed mean (the highest and lowest scores will be discarded and the remaining three scores will be averaged).

The top 10% of each category's entries (based on the number of qualified entries received) will advance to the final round. However, no entry receiving less than 80% of the total possible score will advance to the final round.

Final-round entries for the Golden Heart contest shall be ranked from first to last place (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) with the lowest score signifying the winner.

The identity of judges is confidential. RWA discourages any communication between judges and entrants, other than editors and/or agents who judge the final round.

Until the contest winners are announced, to protect the integrity of the contest, judges should not discuss the entries, post comments in e-mail, on social media, or review the entries they judge. All questions about entries should be directed to RWA staff.

Each author's preliminary-round scores will be made available to the author once the contest is concluded and winners have been announced.

Contact Carol Ritter at [email protected] or 832-717-5200, Ext. 127, with questions.

Judging Instructions


Emails will be sent to judges once entries have been sorted and assigned. The email will include instructions where and how to access the entries. Score will be entered online.

Click here to judge the contest

Click here for Golden Heart Judge FAQ

Sign-up Instructions

  • Click the link listed above.
  • Login with your email address and RWA Member ID as password.
  • Click Login button.
  • Click to indicate that you have read and agree to the rules and guidelines.
  • Click Continue.
  • Complete each field on the page.
  • Judges will automatically be opted out of any categories that they enter.
  • Hit the Submit as Final button.
  • Click the Logout link located at the top right-hand corner of the page.
  • To verify your judging selections, click the judging sign-up link above and click the Edit link to the right of the Last Update field on the Summary page. You'll be taken back to the judging sign-up page and can view your selections there.