Seal of Approval 3rd Quarter 2013 Notice
We will NOT be accepting Seal of Approval applications for 3rd Quarter 2013.
In the last six months, we have lost two volunteers on the Seal of Approval Committee. In addition, we’ve been experiencing an increase in submissions.
We’re working on restructuring the back end. We have put a few things in place, including a limit on the number of titles an author can submit each quarter as well as a limit to the total number of submissions we’ll accept. We’ll be employing a waiting list in the future.
If you’re interested in being an evaluator for the Seal of Approval process, we’d love to have you. Evaluating includes:
- Reading at least one book a quarter;
- Determining whether a book is appropriate to be sold in a Catholic bookstore;
- Determining whether a book has earned the Seal based on being true to the teachings of the Magisterium;
- Assessing whether a book needs further editing to bear the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval; and
- Completing the SOA Evaluation form and submitting it by the deadline stated to evaluators.
The purpose of the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval is to help Catholic bookstores and venues in their determination of the Catholicity of a work. This reassurance from a professional organization can assist authors in marketing and promoting their works to Catholic bookstores.
For more information, feel free to contact me directly. I’m going to be contacting a few people personally to try and flesh out the committee vacancies before 4th Quarter submissions begin in September. I will also be contacting the current evaluators to touch base and make sure we’re all on the same page with expectations.
Thanks for your support and prayers!
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I’d like to be considered. What sort of information do you need from me? Will be mostly out of pocket this weekend.
gakaiaraan {at} gmail {dot} com
B-)
Sent you an email, Ann. Thanks!
Gosh Sarah, if that’s all there is to it….hahaha.
I would love to read a couple of these and offer a recommendation. However, I wouldn’t want to have the final “say.” Could a part of the new structuring for this process be to include a second filter? Sort of like a peer editing session. Also, is it feasible to charge an application fee (to help fund website upgrades / program underwriting etc)? I know this is just armchair quarterbacking, but thought I’d throw it in.
Hi Kassie and thanks for chiming in!
What we DO need are people who can read with confidence and offer a final say (unless there are theological questions). Part of our process does keep the evaluators anonymous–from the author and from each other. The downfall of a peer editing session is that then we get the danger of groupthink (among other things).
I do invite the evaluators to email me and discuss concerns they’re not sure of. And sometimes, when I pose questions and considerations, they come to make a decision. I do respect that sometimes it’s helpful to discuss decisions, but I feel very strongly that the SOA process will not improve by making it a roundtable environment or any sort of discussion thing, besides the confidential discussions that happen sometimes.
And we do charge a fee for SOA to non-members. The only real fees the Guild incurs are sort of invisible. I send email from my own email (as do the other volunteers) and we read. So it’s a volunteer-run project (as most Guild things are).
Do you currently have a backlog you need cleared? As a SOA member I can take on one or two books. It’s very helpful that we can select the categories we are confident in and I hope that continues.
No, Barb, we don’t. We’re good for this quarter. We do appreciate you as a part of the evaluation team!
Hi Sarah,
Since the Seal of Approval is an important service of the CWG, the Guild’s prestige suffers if it can not meet expectations.
If the SoA is a measure of orthodoxy, would it not be possible to find volunteers with degrees such as Doctors of Divinity or a Sacred Theology Doctorate to fill in. I have no such degree, but would happily volunteer. If I had a question, on orthodoxy, there are many qualified priests that I could ask for clarification.
God Bless,
Don
Hi Don, thanks for your comment.
We are being up-front with the expectations for this: we have never paused operations and this gives us a chance to restructure and address the sudden growth in submissions we’ve experienced.
If you would like to be an evaluator, we’d love to have you. We do have a team of theology volunteers when and if there are questions.
We’ll be accepting submissions again in September for the 4th Quarter.
Sarah,
One book a quarter is very doable. What is it that I need to do?
You should have my email in the submission or in your contacts from previous things we’ve done.
Fr. Kyle
Sarah,
I know in the past I’ve tried to help out with things only to balk, but this is something I can certainly do, at least one book a month.
Sign me up.
You should have my email from previous correspondence.
Fr. Kyle