The GloriousHistory of the RONEAwards

TJ Mackay

As the RONE (Reward Of Novel Excellence) awards have grown to become one of the most prestigious awards in all Indie publishing, I am often asked what the name actually means, and how they came to be. So considering we have just announced another year’s winners of this coveted prize, I thought I’d take a minute and fill y’all in!

The idea of an award for the best in Indie and Small Publishing took root in 2012 at a dinner while at a national book convention. InD’tale Magazine had just launched for the first time to incredible enthusiasm in the Indie publishing world, and I found myself inundated with excited Indie authors who were finally given a voice in the heretofore juggernaut of traditional publishing. For those of you “young-uns”, Indie and Small Publishing has not always enjoyed the acceptance you find today. Only a little over a decade ago, there was absolutely no outlets whatsoever for authors who were not traditionally published to promote and be recognized in the publishing world – even when their books were amazing and selling like hot-cakes!

I was attending the convention to introduce InD’tale to the larger publishing world, and quickly found that the huge number of Indie and Small Published authors were extremely frustrated because not only were they never allowed to be included for consideration in any publishing awards, they were pretty much excluded from all the book signings as well by being placed in a small back room to sign books, away from the larger venues reserved for traditionally published authors! Now, you may think that might have been just the convention I was at, but it wasn’t. It was every single large scale conference out there at the time! So you can understand why the talented Indie and Small Published authors were incredibly irked. It was very much a second-class citizen world for them.

Thus, when meeting with a group of Indie authors for dinner and asking them what InD’tale Magazine could do to help them, the number one suggestion was, “Give us a chance to showcase the amazing talent of Indie authors by having an award that is strictly for us!” They needed the world to see just how good their books were, and that there are Indie and Small Published authors that can stand against any traditionally published author out there (and we are talking amazing authors like Colleen Hoover, Jennifer Armentrout, Marie Force, and SO many other greats that were Indie publishing at the time). I agreed.

For the next two hours, the table of talent brainstormed what and how an award for Indie publishing should look. We took the three main areas that are required for any book to succeed: A book must get great reviews, readers have to love it, and it must attain a high standard of technical writing. And at the end of the evening, we had come up with an award that would require a book to pass those three distinct stages. Ultimately, this competition would not only be on par with all the well-known traditional awards, but exceed them in its comprehensiveness. Thus, the RONE award competition was born!

As with all worthy endeavors, however, the idea is great… it’s the execution of the idea where the rubber meets the road, so to speak! Just like writer can say, “I’m going to write a book!” then discovering just how hard that can be, I soon found talking about an award and actually creating and developing the real life thing are worlds apart! Yes, there are many polls and awards out there to see what books readers love best each year that give prizes and have fun, but creating a competition that can withstand the industry’s most cynical critics? The pressure was on!

Now, you must remember that InD’tale Magazine itself was a baby at the time. We had only published a couple of issues when we took on the job of also developing the RONE Awards competition. Quite frankly, I have often wondered “What was I thinking?!” – even as I was working to build it! But, if you could have seen the sincere and honest excitement and enthusiasm in every single author’s eyes, and feel their love and support like I did at that time, you would absolutely understand the importance – as well as the immensity of the project. That love and support from the Indie and Small Published community has continued until this very day.

So how did it go? Well, we have had our challenges. And, although the basis and foundation we originally set up are still running strong, we have and will continue to tweak and improve as we see the need. As with any highly competitive awards competition, the greatest challenge has been to assure that it is completely honest and fair. That has been a rule that myself and our staff have been absolute sticklers about. No competition can attain the high quality that is required for worldwide acceptance and respectability without the confidence that each award was truly earned in a completely above-board and honest way. But, because of the high competitiveness, every single aspect is always under the microscope. For instance, after the first awards were held, and one of our staff members won an award, (many up-and-coming authors have worked as reviewers for InD’tale, as it is an excellent way to hone one’s writing skills), there was the rumor that we favored our own. I was outraged! How dare anyone even think that! We had been SO careful not to have anything at all to do with the results of any of the rounds, BUT… after some (actually, a lot) of deep breaths and a good night’s sleep, I realized how it could look like that, even if it wasn’t true. So we stepped completely out of all phases and hired an outside accountant to deal with the numbers and tallying. We didn’t even see the finalists, and then the winners, until everything was already completed. That created more work, and is much more expensive, but it’s important to assure there is absolutely no question these awards continue at the highest level of honor. There are so many more examples of ways we have ensured everything is at a peak quality level. And yes, no matter how perfectly we feel we have attained that goal, we will always strive for better. If you have been with us since the beginning, however, I’m sure you will agree that the level of writing, the excellence of the books, and the overall quality is better than it has ever been!

Now, Indie and Small Published books can hold just as much honor and prestige as any traditional book out there! That is in large part because the authors who choose this uniquely creative avenue have learned right along with InD’tale how to improve, how to innovate, and how to succeed in a world that at first was not welcoming – to become the hottest sellers in publishing, all while we have created a community and an award to be proud of!