It’s time for the Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors or DA BWAHA. For newcomers, this is a tournament of books that mimics the March Madness tournament of basketball. We’ve picked a slate of 64 books in 8 different categories to compete against each other through the next few weeks. We welcome all participants regardless of whether you are an author, reader, reviewer or someone who doesn’t even have an interest in romance books. We encourage authors who have books in the tournament to fill out a bracket and pick yourself to win. There’s no hubris here. Only fun.
From today through Wednesday, March 18, 2009, you will be able to fill out your bracket. You can change your bracket selection at anytime prior to the end of March 18, 2009, 11:00 PM EST.
We will not be able to accept any late brackets because of the software limitations (i.e., we put in a deadline in the software program and that controls the entry of brackets). If you have already pre registered, you will be able to pick your name from the dropdown box.
There is always going to be a slight delay in the appearance of your bracket sheet because we download the results and then upload them.
The goal in picking up the bracket is to guess which book will beat the other in a head to head matchup. You never know who will win. Last year’s championship match was between Colleen Gleason’s The Rest Falls Away and Nora Roberts’ High Noon. Laura D won with a pick percentage of 68% correct and a total of 6 points separated Laura D from the runner up, Amy R. Nora, one of the few authors that participated last year, tied for 15 with a pick percentage of 63%.
On March 19, 2009, you’ll need to go to the voting site http://dabwaha.com/blog and vote for your winners and encourage others to vote for the books you’ve chosen.
There are going to be prizes for all rounds this year. The top scoring bracket sheet at each round will win a prize. These are listed in the sidebar at the voting site. The major prize is a Sony Reader which will be given to both the top scoring bracket sheet of the tournament and the winning author.
Harlequin has set up a special page for the series books. You can select individual books or just “add all” to the cart. You’ll get a cool 30% off whatever you put in the cart from this selection. Fictionwise is generously donating a $100 Gift Certificate and will be providing a special purchase page for all the DA BWAHA books that are in ebook format. Samhain is offering a $50 GC to any online bookstore to promote ebook reading.
But this contest is not really about the prizes. No, it’s about pride. If you’ve got a question, want to crack on our picks, do some trash talking, harangue us for the seedings, have at it in the comments.
Man this is hard. Especially without the author names. I simply don’t recognize enough of the actual titles.
Think I am going to have to write them down on paper and then try to fill out the brackets. LOL.
Do we fill out all the rounds, or just the 1st? (Sorry, I’m not familiar with brackets.)
Thanks for everything, and have a lovely day! 🙂
Woo! It’s DA BWAHA time again!
This was so much fun last year. Many thanks for the Janes and Bitches for bringing it back.
While we’re talking basketball—sort of—can we make an effort to get the pros back into those shorts they use to wear before droopy drawers came into fashion? Just sayin’.
The sad truth from my Visa card is that I’ve read almosts all the books except for those listed in the YA grouping and the GLBT.
The para selections are the hardest but for the others I’ll use my normal scientific process … close my eyes and flick a coffee drop onto the printed sheet… this is bound to keep me in my traditional bottom spot.
It’s all good and thanks so much for doing this again this year!
I really wish there was a way to do this by rounds, ie, everybody picks for round one and then round two ballot comes up, and you pick again, going until the finals. It could still be based on a cumulative point system but it would keep some people (like me!) in the voting longer. You’d get one point for each correct pick for each round so the people who were still really good would still win but the rest of us could play along.
I love playing but fail big time at choosing winners. Even in the “You Suck” bracket last year. LOL Just an idea for next year…
All rounds, all at once. Just like the NCAA bracket competitions, you have to pick all the rounds at once, and predict the winners all the way to the end.
Is there a way to see a list of books independent of the brackets? I see a link for nominees but it is empty. I know an amazon linked list would probably be a butt-load of time, but if I’m missing seeing one that is there. . . . I guess with the NCAA you end up picking a bunch of random schools you have never heard of w/o any background too 🙂 Still, it would be nice to learn more about the competitors 🙂 This looks like so much fun. Thank you for all your hard work!
Oy, I am silly. For anyone else using firefox, you need to scroll WAY DOWN on the nominees page to see any awesome, very nifty breakdown by genre. Props to my 17 month old for randomly clicking and moving mama’s scroll bar.
I didn’t play last year because I’d read so few of the titles in competition. This year I’ve read quite a few more than last year, but I still closed my eyes and guessed, or picked the one w/ the catchiest title, more often than not.
Oh well. As Twain would say, “even a broken watch is right twice a day,” so I live in hope! LOL
Thanks, ladies.
Diane :oP
I think I’m having a dingbat moment. I can’t figure out how to register an online ID. At DearAuthor, it says: To enter, go to the Tournament Entry page, and press “New”. A Popup box will appear. Enter an online ID. Enter your email address in the appropriate box. Fill out your entry. Press submit.
I follow the DA link to the page, but I can’t find the NEW button! I found NEWS, but that doesn’t create a popup.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Lucinda:
Looking into it now.
Lucinda: try again in a bit. Uploading glitch should be cleared up then.
Yay for the change in the YA category—Impossible is a lovely book, and I’m glad to see it on the list. Of course few people will have read it, and it is up against very stiff competition, but still….
Picking was HARD for me. Especially after the first round, when suddenly all my faves were up against each other! I tried to remember that I’m supposed to be predicting, not voting. I had read, or at least read about, a lot more of the books this year. The Bitches and Authors (smart and dear, respectively) have had quite an impact on my reading habits.
This is so much fun, and I know it’s a ton of work (perhaps even one of SB Sarah’s shit-tons), so thanks for doing it. As people start to find glitches, and you maybe get a few gripes, please know that we love you for making this happen!!!
Still, the only “new” I see is “news.” Sniff.