Let’s Talk | Goodreads Choice Awards — romance

Whether you’re a newer follower of me or not, I will always have my gripes with Goodreads and it comes out strong when award season rolls around. Goodreads NEVER get the romance section right, it could very much be the same for the other categories, but I solely read romance.

Last year, I was so frustrated with the amount of women’s fic that made it into the romance genre. I know this topic can spark a lot of debate, but I’m 100% on the fact that a romance book has to have an HEA/HFN (happily ever after or happy for now). There were even authors coming out saying their book wasn’t even a romance … like come on, Goodreads. Of course, I sent them an email and generally asked about the process and just shared a little bit of my displeasure (hah!).

And the response was very copy and paste, but I learned that it all came down to stats. And that’s where the readers come in, it’s no surprise that some women’s fic books are shelved/categorized as romance. That’s just where one of the problems lie. The nominations aren’t really handpicked or vetted for by Goodreads, they just leave it in the hands of us and what the data tells them.

So yeah, reasons why my expectations are sooooo low for these awards. Thankfully in the first round you can add a write-in, which I normally do, so I’m very interested to see what books will make it through. No way am I knocking off the books or authors that made it through that’s actually a romance, there’s definitely one I’d vote through in this round. But I have no doubt that it’ll make it through.

Here’s What I’d Love to See

  • Indie books — I would say about 80% of what I read are books written by indie authors.
  • Mass Market Paperback books — these are still romance and am always surprised to rarely see them in the first round. From historical romance to western romance, they tend to be in mass market form
  • Honestly, I would love to see more non-illustrated book covers make it through. I know they’re super popular right now, but there’s still amazing romance books that don’t have an illustrated book cover. Reiterating that I am in no way hating on illustrated book covers.
  • Overall, just a better representation.

Here’s the opening round and what made it through, I’ve read 4 of the 15 mentioned. If I didn’t do a write-in From Blood and Ash would definitely have my vote because of the 4 that I’ve read, I enjoyed this one the most.

What’s your opinions about the Goodreads Choice Awards, tell me everything.

Posted In: 2020, thoughts

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7 Comments

  1. It feels like every year GR gets further and further away from the type of books that should actually be in each category. I went through this year and ended up writing in titles for four of them.

      1. It’s so frustrating. Why not just start with everyone writing in one favorite like they have the option to do at the bottom and go from there? Make it truly a choice by the readers.

  2. I read 10 of them – lol, and I still need to read A Rogue of One’s Own. Don’t we usually get different books in the second round?

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