2022 Rose Gold Awards [CLOSED]

💖How it Works💖

The Rose Gold Awards function differently than most other awards, and it can be a bit complicated. If you're unsure or curious, here's where the process will be explained.

First, of course, we have our awards opened for participants and promote the awards. Then, as we gain participants, we accept participants, document those accepted in a spreadsheet, and update the genre availability.

We fill up as many genres as possible. If some do not get enough entries, we will remove the genre and add slots to other genres that are full. Then, once most slots are full or once participant applications slow down, we will close the form to begin judging.

Each genre only has one judge assigned to it. This is because all judges have different opinions and judging methods; some are harsher than others, and some are more lenient than others. To have fair results, we assign each story in a genre to a single judge. That is one of the reasons why we have so many genres: to lighten the workload on our judges. That's also why the judging process tends to take 1–2 months.

As judges submit their critiques for each genre, we publish results chapters for those particular genres. Once all genre results have been published, the overall winners will be chosen.

During this time, volunteer judges will judge the special categories, such as best cover, title, blurb, etc. Those chapters will be posted after the genre winners are announced.

The head judge, SamMariLu, takes the first place winners of each genre (and sometimes the second place winners if their scores are nearly tied) and reads all of them. She does not write any additional critiques, nor does she rate the stories. She just ranks her top 5 winning stories, based mainly on plot and writing. Once those results are posted, the awards are over!

From then, prizes will be distributed, announcements will be made, and the annual awards will officially be completed!

Any questions about the process? Ask here in the comments!