Last year, Jane from DearAuthor and I formed The TBR, where we aim to build your To-Be-Read list one good book at a time. The TBR administers the Save the Contemporary campaign, an iPhone app, as well as the DABWABA, our tournament with an improbable name, better known as the March Madness Tournament of Romance Novels. Now, we’re joining to write a newsletter that will contain book news, mini reviews, alerts about upcoming contests (such as that fabulous DABWAHA, which we’re putting together now), and information that would be of interest to you as a romance reader.
Want to sign up? Well, hello, here’s a handy-dandy form!
Please note that we consider it a privilege to be in your inbox, and will not abuse your subscription. We aim to publish our newsletter twice a month, and we welcome suggestions and ideas for content. Moreover, unsubscribing will be easy, though we hope you enjoy our newsletter enough that you won’t do so!
Our aim is to reach as many romance readers as possible, so please spread the word, and help us build better TBR piles around the world.
Hi – I’m a bit confused about the I-phone app mentioned. Is it already available? Thanks
Yup! It’s a free app, with free romance fiction, and feeds from both this site and DA. You can get it in the App store, and there’s more info here. I don’t want to link to the App store and make iTunes have a complete monkeydance on your computer.
Sweet! I’ve been running a community romance blog on Tumblr, and people ask me for good new romance recs all the time. I think they’re getting a little tired of Eloisa James, Loretta Chase, and Kresley Cole, so I will point them in this direction.
Also I CANNOT BELIEVE THERE WAS A ROMANCE NOVEL IPHONE APP AND I DIDN’T KNOW. DOWNLOADING NOW.
Any chance of a Droid (or other platform app) for us non-iPhoners?
Hey ReadinginAK – I’m with you. I’m a Droid user, too, and we are indeed working on it.
Please explain DABWABA. I’m new to your great site. There’s not much info on the Save the Contemporary page either. (Does it get updated much?) I’m a big fan of Smart Bitches (both the site, and bitches in general), so I’m trying to follow along with all of your info, but a whole lot of of it is acronyms, which I haven’t been able to translate yet.
Also along those lines, I’m trying to understand the bracketing/voting thingy. How does it work and how do I sign up? If there’s an FAQ somewhere that would answer all my Qs, a simple link would be fine. (I know you’re busy writing.) Thanks hons.
Oh, I lied. One more question. Any chance you will review SEP’s new book? I wanna know if it’s worth the price of purchase. I’ve been buying so many books lately that I’ve had to slow down and remind myself that e-books still cost actual money. (Hello, my name is Tracy, and I’m a nook addict!!!) Thanks!
Now why did my friend Jen tell me that the TBR app wasn’t available anymore? I must direct her to your link!
Not to be demandy or anything, but I’m wondering if there’s any chance you’re planning enhancements to the TBR app that will allow us to actually make a TBR list on it?
I am SO glad I found you Bitches; you steer me right every time.
OK, I just checked the iTunes app store, searched on ‘TBR”, “The TBR”, “To be Read”, “Smart Bitches”, and “Dear Author” and came up with nada for the TBR app. THAT’s why my friend Jen couldn’t find it.
Confirmation word: picture24 – the app store icon is a picture 24×24 pixels?
Quick question-
I go to both DA and SBTB daily, so what’s in the newsletter that won’t be on the websites?
Whoa – sorry I missed these questions yesterday.
@Tracy: DABWAHA stands for Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors. It started out as an award, then morphed into a bracket tournament for romance novels. It’s also the reason I shouldn’t be permitted to name anything, ever.
The Save the Contemporary campaign is intermittent, because we only feature books we both adore and want to promote as much as possible. So there’s not a huge selection, but those books that are featured are books we thought were incredibly good.
@Wendy: WTF? I will look into that and figure out the problem. I’m sorry about that!
@JenD: the newsletter will be news about joint projects (like the DABWAHA, Save the Contemporary, The TBR, etc), special reader features, micro-reviews, and news we think that is of interest to romance readers. The link to the URL for the newsletter will be posted at Facebook and Twitter, and you can read it online there. It’s one more way for us to reach readers with romance news, since not everyone checks websites every day, but many do read email and newsletters.
We’re aiming for twice a month with the newsletter issues, so I hope you’ll try one.
Oh – forgot one—building an actual TBR. YES. We would LOVE to have that feature, too, and we’re working on developing a new version that would allow it. The problem is yet another game of “Where’s Our Venture Capitalist?”
I couldn’t find the TBR app in either the app store or iTunes.
Customer service thought I was joking.
How do you find it?
Of course! It’s so obvious. Why didn’t I think of that? ; )
Thanks for answering my questions. Again, I really love the site(s). Keep up the good work.
OK – I found the link. I’m not sure why it wasn’t appearing but you can Access the iTunes link for the TBR app right here
Sorry for the delay!