The Emma Awards

Named after the co-founder of the Romance Slam Jam, the Emma Awards is the premier awards event for readers and authors of Black romance.

Congratulations 2007 Emma Awards Finalists

We need your assistance in choosing who the 2007 Emma Award honorees will be. This year as you are reading, if a particular heroine really grabs you, take note. Perhaps you’d like to nominate the heroine (and novel) for the Favorite Heroine category. Same goes for the other categories. Read for pleasure, but don’t forget to make your votes count. We suggest creating a “Read List” where you list your reads for the year and jot down a few notes for each novel.

Below is the list of the Black romance categories for the Emma Awards:

*Author of the Year

Favorite Anthology

*Favorite Book Cover

Favorite Book of the Year

Favorite Hero

Favorite Heroine

Favorite Inspirational Romance

*Favorite New Author

Favorite Novella

Favorite Romantic Suspense

Favorite Sequel in a Romance Series

Favorite Steamy Romance 

 

You must be registered for the 2008 RSJ to nominate an author to make nominations.

How the Emma Awards work 

During the month of January, nominations for the previous year’s novels will be accepted from people who are registered for the current Romance Slam Jam Conference.

The four highest vote getters for each category will be passed along to a panel of judges for that category

• The authors nominated in each category will be informed the first week of February.
  • Nominated authors will need to provide six copies of the nominated book for the judges and $20 for shipping cost by Feb. 25.
  • Categories with an asterisk
    • The four authors/cover designers with the most votes are notified
    • Winner of each category (whoever has the most votes) is announced at the Emma Awards Banquet.
• Each panel will be comprised of individuals (mostly readers) registered for the current Romance Slam Jam Conference. Nominated authors are not eligible to be judges in categories they were nominated in.
  • The judges will receive their category novels the first week of March.
  • Each judge on a particular panel will read each of the books in the category and give it a score between 1-10 based on that category.
  • Judges will turn in their scores by April 1.
• The winner of each category is announced at the Emma Awards Banquet.

Who is qualified to become a judge

            You are eligible to be a judge if you meet the below qualifications

1.      You are registered for the Romance Slam Jam 2008 Conference.

2.      You love to read Black romance novels.

3.      You commit to reading the four category nominated books in four weeks and will score fairly. 

How to become a judge

We need 45 judges and 5 alternate judges. If you are interested in being a judge, after you have registered, please email the following information to:

emmas@romanceslamjam.org.

1.      The name you are registered under

2.      If you are a reader, published author, editor, aspiring writer, agent (list all that apply)

3.      Who your two favorite authors of Black romance are

4.      If you want to be a judge or an alternate judge. Note: alternate judges may have less time to read all four novels.

In the subject line put Emma Awards Judge Candidate.