ARRC2013: Readers Challenge

Today we are starting our Readers Challenge. It is open to all ARRA members and ARRC2013 delegates. Round 1 starts today and ends on Sunday 25 November.

Each delegate is challenged to read book(s) by each author attending the convention. What could be easier than that? Here are the authors attending:

AB Gayle	Heather Boyd	Marion Lennox
Alison Stuart	Helene Young	MJ Scott
Amy Andrews	Hope Tarr	Nalini Singh
Angela Castle	Imogene Nix	Nicola E Sheridan
Ann B Harrison	Jan Graham	Nikki Logan
Anna Campbell	Jennifer Brassel	Noelle Clark
Anna Cleary	Jennifer Scoullar	Paula Roe
Anne Gracie	Jennifer St George	Rachael Johns
Annie Seaton	Jess Dee	Rachel Vincent
Annie West	Kaliana Cole	Rhian Cahill
Astrid Cooper	Kate Belle	Rowena Cory Daniells
Beverley Eikli/Oakley Bronwyn Jameson	Kelly Hunter	Sami Lee
Bronwyn Parry	Keri Arthur	Sandy Curtis
Cathryn Hein	Kristan Higgins	Shannon Curtis
Cathy Maxwell	Kristy Taylor	Shona Husk
Cheryse Durrant	Kylie Scott	Susanne Bellamy
Danielle Lisle	Lexxie Couper	Suzi Love
Denise Rossetti	Lisa Heidke	Victoria Black
Donna Gallagher	Louisa Mack	Vonnie Hughes
Eleni Konstantine	Maggi Andersen
Fiona McArthur	Maggie Nash

If other authors sign up to attend we will add them to the list.

This year to encourage readers to read more of the authors attending ARRC2013, we will be adding another feature to the Readers Challenge. The challenge will consist of Teasers and Reviews.

The Readers Challenge Teasers is solely about how many books you read during the challenge period (16 November 2012 to 21 February 2013). All we ask is that you provide a few details of the story, to prove that you have read it. (Please do not include books you have previously read, unless you re-read them during the challenge period.) Here’s what you need to provide:

Book title
Author
Genre/sub-genre
Hero’s name
Heroine’s name
Two sentences on the story. Just enough so that others might be able to tell if this is a story that will interest them.

We will upload a summary to the blog at the end of each round. Submit Teasers via this link.

The second part of the challenge will be our traditional review challenge, which we will be calling the Readers Challenge Reviews.

After you have read a book, write a review and then send it to Heather via this link. At the end of each round Heather will post all eligible reviews in the ARRC Lounge and on the ARRA Members loop and ask members to vote for their favourite (i.e. most enjoyable) review. (Voting will be blind, so please do not post your reviews directly to either of the loops, as this will mean it is ineligible for voting.)

Note that the forms to submit teasers and reviews are password protected. Email us to sign up for the challenge and get the password.

This year we will have three prizes for the Readers Challenge:

• most books read—the Teasers winner
• favourite review—the Reviews winner
• overall winner based on points scored.

So how do you score points? Everyone participating will score 1 point for each book read (provided they submit a summary via the form provided). For each review submitted you will score 3 points. The person with the most points at the end of the challenge will be the overall winner.

Voting for favourite reviews will be open for four days, after which the winner will be announced. The winning review will move on to the final round, which will take place in the weeks leading up to the convention. Voting in the final round will determine the winner for the favourite review.

All winners will be announced at the Saturday night awards dinner at ARRC2013.

The competition will start on 16 November, with six rounds open for 10 days each.

At the end of each round, voting will commence, with a voting link posted to both loops. All ARRA members and members of the ARRC Lounge are eligible to vote. The winning review from each round will be published in the newsletter. All those winners will go into the final round, with voting in this round to open on 11 February. The winner will be announced at the convention and posted on the blog after the convention.

As with any competition, we have rules. You can read them here.

For those who are new to reviewing, Heather has prepared a ‘How to review’ guide that is available from the members-only area of the ARRA website, and also from the Files section of both the ARRA Members loop and the ARRC Lounge.

The winner will be based on the best review as voted by ARRA members and ARRC2013 delegates. The winners from each round will also be posted to the blog the week before the convention so that readers can look through them to choose their favourites before the final vote.

We would also welcome involvement from our attending authors. If you would like to pick a favourite review out of all those submitted for your books just let us know and we will publicise it as part of the challenge. Of course, you are welcome to submit reviews of books by any of the attending authors as well, should your writing schedule permit.