Pam protested:
Hey! The Kerths are a very different sort of competition to this panel-judging idea, but they're definitely competitive!
Guess I wasn't clear, Pam.
The Kerth *voting* is competitive, but the nominations aren't! Noms are submitted in vast numbers, simply because FoLCs liked what they read. I contrast this with the idea of specifically submitting a story for the purpose of winning a contest -- that's competitive from Day 1.
And LOL at your comparison -- I don't read romance novels and have no info regarding any romance contests, which might be why I'm displaying my ignorance here.
That, by the way, is why I've always been more interested in the noms for the Kerths than the actual wins. The latter is a matter of competition with other fics, but the former is recognition that the story was *good*, on its own merits.
