05/21/2018
The End of an Era: Farewell from RT
Dear Loyal RT Family,
After 37 years of serving the book community with news and reviews, Romantic Times, aka RT Book Reviews, the RT VIP Salon and the RT Booklovers Convention will be retiring effective immediately.
We’ll keep the website live for about a year so that you can still access reviews, award nominees and winners, but there won’t be any new content on the website moving forward. After a year we will take down the website.
Many of you have been with us from the first issue and stood with us throughout the many transitions and transformations we’ve encountered, and we thank you all for your loyal support over the years.
I am very proud of what we have accomplished with RT’s magazine, website and the RT Booklovers Convention — and the great service we’ve provided for authors, publishers and readers. I’m proud of the contributions we’ve made within the book industry and proud of our place in the expansion and evolution of the romance genre.
It has truly taken a village to bring you the magazine and conventions over the years, and I want to thank all of our reviewers, the heart of RT — more than 200 over the years! — for your dedication and loyalty to RT and its readers. I especially want to thank our senior reviewers Kathe Robin and Jill Smith whose decades of service and love of books helped shape our industry. And thank you to Melinda Helfer, who passed away in 2000, for her love of romance novels, the authors and her incomparable contribution to RT.
I also want to thank the many editorial teams over the years whose dedication, talent, professionalism and love for the books and authors made it a pleasure (and fun) to work together.
Thank you to my current editorial and web staff Emily Walton, Kristin Stec and Alyssa Duspiva. I especially want to thank Elissa Petruzzi, YA senior editor, web editor and romance expert, who stuck with us through dating, engagement, marriage, two kids and a move out of New York. Now that’s dedication!
Thank you to Jo Carol Jones, and the entire convention team for your dedication to the RT Booklovers Convention — the booklover event of the year. I wish you all the very best in whatever you do. And thank you to our convention coordinator, Tere Michaels, for organizing great workshops, managing agent/editor appointments and more.
The reviewers may be heart of RT, but Nancy Collazo, our office manager, is the soul! She has been our “fixer” for many years. She kept the minutia of running the company on track with all of the non-sexy responsibilities no one else knew how to do. THANK YOU NANCY, I will miss you most of all. And thank you to Giselle Hirtenfeld/Goldfeder, our advertising guru and RT Review Source manager for your insight and loyalty to RT throughout the years. Her twins were eight months old when she started and now they are in college! And thank you to Kate Ryan for your friendship, love and dedication to the independent booksellers and librarians. You have made a huge difference in our community!
And a HUGE THANK YOU to our subscribers, followers — our fans — without whom none of this would have been possible.
And last but not least THANK YOU to founder and friend Kathryn Falk for shaping the romance genre with your creative vision, fearless leadership and boundless support of authors. We are all grateful for the memories and the many Romantic Times! It’s been quite a ride!