INDUSTRY NEWS: Four Choc Lit titles on Romantic Novel of the Year shortlists

Women's fiction publisher Choc Lit is leading the nominations in the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year shortlist, it was recently announced.

According to The Bookseller, Choc Lit are leading with four novels, with The Gilded Fan by Christina Courtenay and Liz Harris's A Bargain Struck in the running for the Historical Romantic Novel category; Christina Courtenay's New England Rocks for Young Adult Romantic Novel, and The Wedding Diary by Margaret James up for The Romantic Comedy Novel award.

The Choc Lit novels will be up against titles from various other publishers such as Pan Macmillan, Piatkus and HarperCollins for the awards. The category winners will be announced in London on 17th March, as well as an overall winner who will scoop £5,000. Darcey Bussell will be presenting the awards.

Author Katie Fforde, president of the Romantic Novelists' Association, said: ""The RNA came into being to encourage good writing of romantic fiction in all of its many forms. This year we've seen a record number of books submitted for our Awards, and this clearly demonstrates that romantic fiction plays a big part in the UK book industry."

To read the full shortlist, head over to the RNA wesbite.