Editors Note

In the words of Gandalf the White, and so it begins… and no, we don’t mean yet another year, which we wish all of you the best for, of course. We mean so begins another RONE season here at InD’tale. And because our own Katy Nielsen oversees this HUGE job, I’ll let her explain!

hit them in the feels and made them laugh and cry and smile. And authors, we want that for you! We want your readers to vote for your books, for the stories they loved, to get your work recognized for the wonderfulness that it is. Here is where you can help us because this is where we hit a snag. Many of you wonderful authors get your work submitted through your publisher or a PA, and here’s where we seem to hit a bit of a problem at times. Sometimes, due to technical difSiculties, life, and delightful cyber glitches (gotta love technology, right?), and even busy publishing houses, the emails and communications about this busy season – including very important dates for you – are often delayed in reaching you, through no one person’s fault.

If you are an author whose work is usually submitted through someone other than your wonderful self, and you know you have a book that is eligible for RONE voting this year, please consider emailing our Executive Editor/Review Coordinator, Katy, at katyn@indtale.com, with your direct email address so we can keep you more connected with this process. (Don’t worry, your publisher or PA will still get the emails as well, but being able to reach you directly can oftentimes make things for us here at InD’tale much easier.) The more informed you are, and the more you’re able to involve your readers personally, the more successful your book will be.

“Though the highly anticipated Reader Voting season doesn’t begin for all of you until April/May, the season for us at the magazine starts at the beginning of the year! At this moment in time, all of the titles we reviewed last year that received the coveted Crowned Heart/Elite Review from our reviewers are being collected and tabulated in a massive spreadsheet so we can start the nitty-gritty date checking, to determine eligibility. This is a long and involved process that gets checked and double checked before the Sinal spreadsheet is put together. Then comes the migraine-inducing fun part… sorting into categories! This is not as easy as it may seem, as some of our categories have monstrous numbers, hence the need to divide, and divide again, until we have more manageable sub-genres. Then we create a voting schedule with which categories will be voted on during which weeks – and this is where you – both readers and authors –can really get involved. During this "voting season” (April through June) the new memberships to our website absolutely skyrockets; (it’s a great time to advertise with us, just FYI) we’re talking hundreds of new subscribers per day, because authors, it’s your readers signing up to make sure they can vote for your books, the stories you slaved and stressed and cried over, and that they loved so much. Those stories that made an impact. Those stories that

Welcome to the 2023 RONE season, folks! Let’s make it a good one!”

Kevin G. Chapman

Kevin G. Chapman is an attorney specializing in labor and employment law, and an independently published author. His Mike Stoneman Thriller series includes Lethal Voyage, Winner of the Kindle Book Award, and Fatal Infraction, the #1 Police Procedural of the year (Chanticleer Book Review CLUE Award). Kevin just released a new standalone romantic thriller called Dead Winner, which Kirkus reviews calls “An entertaining and gripping crime drama” and “a surprising and tantalizing murder mystery.” www.KevinGChapman.com.