Hera Books, Beaumont and O’Donoghue shortlisted for RNA awards

Hera Books founders Keshini Naidoo and Lindsay Mooney, agent Diana Beaumont and Promising Young Women author Caroline O’Donoghue are some of the professionals who have made the shortlists for the Romantic Novelists’ Association's annual Industry Awards for 2019.

The RNA Industry Awards are voted on by its membership to recognise and to celebrate the variety of professionals whose work goes into supporting and promoting the genre of romantic fiction.

This year a new category has been added, Inclusion, recognising an individual or organisation that has championed inclusivity in romantic authorship and publishing. It joins five other awards, celebrating the best Bookseller, Agent, Publisher, Library and Media Star of the year.

On the four-strong shortlist for the Inclusion award are: indie publisher Hera Books; Julie Cohen, author and RNA v.p., who founded the RNA’s Rainbow Chapter; online magazine The Pink Heart Society (PHS); and United Agents' Laura Macdougall for her championing of "under-represented voices and stories".

Up for Romantic Bookseller of the Year are Goldsboro Books, Waterstones Birmingham, St Ives Bookseller and W H Smith Salisbury.

Two independent and two mainstream publishers are represented in the shortlist for Publisher of the Year. They are: Hera Books founders Keshini Naidoo and Lindsay Mooney; Aria Fiction; HarperCollins editorial director Charlotte Ledger; and Simon & Schuster.

The literary agents shortlisted for their work in supporting the genre at large are: Kate Nash, who entered publishing via the RNA's own New Writers Scheme and "works with authors who can make her fall in love with their characters"; Diana Beaumont, whose clients include the likes of Daisy Buchanan, Lucy Vine and Eva Woods; Hattie Grunewald, an agent at The Blair Partnership, whose RNA clients include Catherine Miller, Sue Fortin, Roxane Dhand and Drew Davies; and Lina Langlee, who joined the Kate Nash Agency in 2018 after working in publishing for several years and represents RNA authors such as Christina Courtenay, Rachel Dove, Natalie Normann and Sandy Barker.

In contention for Library of the Year are Harrogate Library in North Yorkshire, recently crowned The Bookseller’s ‘Library of the Year’, Jersey Library on the island of Jersey, Kingswinford Library, and Redditch Library. 

And vying for Media Star of the Year are book blogger and reviewer Anne Williams (of beinganne.com); blogger Rachel Gilbey; live Twitter chat #UKRomChat, run by Jeanna Skinner, Lucy Flatman and Lucy Keeling; and Caroline O’Donoghue, the author of Promising Young Women who also hosts "Sentimental Garbage", a podcast where guests are invited to talk about "the chick-lit that made us who we are". 

The winners of the six awards will be announced during the RNA’s Winter Party on 21st November 2019, held at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City.