IT DOES [...]]]> Ahoy! Is your DABWAHA bracket shot to smithereens? Did you bank on the romance novel equivalent of the University of Pittsburgh and are now in 1156th place? Fear not – Pitt’s going home (ouch) but you get a 2nd chance! It is 2nd Chance Tourney time in Dabwaha-land! Simple as pie (mmm. pie).

IT DOES NOT MATTER IF YOU DID NOT ENTER THE FIRST TIME.

What Do I Do?

Step one: Cut a hole in a box. Ha. Kidding!

Step one: Fill out your 2nd Chance tournament bracket - note, fewer choices, more agony!

Step two: hit submit!

How Does it Work?

Same as the regular DABWAHA tournament does: voting for the DABWAHA counts for both tournaments. (But you knew that!)

When is the Deadline?

Deadline to submit your 2nd Chance bracket is 8pm CDT, 23 March 2010.

What Do I Win?

Prizes? Of course there are prizes!

The winner of the 2nd Chance Tourney wins a Kobo reader in the winner’s choice of color, PLUS a $50 gift card to the Kobo ebookstore. Thank you to Kobo for the awesome prize donation!

But wait, there’s more! The absolute worst 2nd Chance bracket wins a iPod Touch, 3rd generation (i.e. the one without the camera).

Best of luck, and may the best bracket win!

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The White House has come out with a strong statement in support of stricter copyright laws primarily focused on combatting live streaming. I understand that sports organizations are having a very difficult time with this.   Because of the money behind this endeavor (primarily funded by movie studios, [...]]]> Don’t forget to vote. http://dabwaha.com/!!!

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The White House has come out with a strong statement in support of stricter copyright laws primarily focused on combatting live streaming. I understand that sports organizations are having a very difficult time with this.   Because of the money behind this endeavor (primarily funded by movie studios, record labels, the porn industry, and sports entities), this is a largely bi partisan issue.   I wouldn’t be surprised that we see stricter copyright laws including felony convictions of those involved in web streaming of sporting events or pornography.   Of course, the by product of these stricter copyright laws will likely result in a stifling of creativity but I’ve become sanguine about this.   I figure that the copyright laws have to become so strict as to foment revolt much like what is happening in the patent arena.   In the meantime, I await the opportunity to start copyrighting ideas so I can start my litigation business of suing copyright infringers for using my ideas. I plan to copyright angel books, demon books, marriages of convenience, bands of brothers (whether human or paranormal), second chance lovers, and any other trope I can think of. (These last two sentences are snark but it is what goes on currently in the patent world).

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Thanks to Laura V and Sarah T, comes this article in the Guardian UK about how publishers are losing a PR battle over ebooks, according to the author.   Sam Jordison states that the unpleasant whingeing of customers bleating about how prices are too high and that readers ignore the complications and costs of digitizing books. This is true. I don’t think readers pay much attention to the publishers’ costs or the rights’ issues when looking at whether they can actually buy a book or buy a book that the reader thinks is a fair price.   Jordison also points to the influx of $.99 self published books which drive a consumer’s perception about value and cost of a digital book.   Jordison is hopeful that Agency pricing will be deemed legal and publishers can return to the net book agreement of limiting discounts and establishing a price floor.

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Globe & Mail wonders whether   mid list authors are endangered by digital books.

An e-book market cluttered with the self-published but unedited, and a beleaguered professional publishing arena where only a few bestselling writers can make a living is a particularly unfriendly scenario for Canada, a nation that has produced few bestselling genre writers but many mid-list literary writers.

 

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Rich Adin over at The Digital Reader posts about the appalling lack of quality amongst self published books. Rich finds that the reviews out there on indie published books are sparse and unhelpful and that he has been burned too many times by poor quality work from Smashwords.   (Excerpts! use the Excerpt feature) Overall, though, I agree and I wondered as I read about 5 $.99 self published books whether existing traditionally published authors were actually hurting their brands by putting out shoddy work in order to take advantage of the self publishing bandwagon.

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This year, we had 8 books (1 in each category) nominated by readers and the top nominations in each category [...]]]> This is the last day to fill out your bracket.   Voting will begin at midnight tonight (CST) and will run in 12 hour blocks.    Voting takes place at the dabwaha.com blog.

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This year, we had 8 books (1 in each category) nominated by readers and the top nominations in each category filled out the 64 books in the tournament.   We have had requests for what other books were nominated.   Here are the top ten books, with the finalist and the nine runners up as nominated by readers in each category. An asterisk denotes a tie.

YA
1. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Finalist)
2. Matched by Ally Condie
3. Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
4. The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
5. The Duff by Kody Keplinger
6. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
7. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
8. The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa
9. Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George
10*. Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
10*. Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Series

1. Her Best Friend by Sarah Mayberry (Finalist)
2. A Little Consequence by Amy Knupp
3. Marrying the Royal Marine by Carla Kelly
4. LA Cinderella by Amanda Berry
5. The Admiral's Penniless Bride by Carla Kelly
7. The Vampire's Kiss by Vivi Anna
7*. America's Star-Crossed Sweethearts by Jackie Braun
7*. His Virgin Acquisition by Maisey Yates
7*. Poisoned Kisses by Stephanie Draven
7*. A Bride for Jericho Bravo by Christine Rimmer

PNR/SF

1. Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews (Finalist)
2. The Last Queen by Christine McKay
3. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
4. Touched By An Alien by Gini Koch
5. Lover Mine by JR Ward
6. Warrior by Zoe Archer
7. Scoundrel by Zoe Archer
8. Play of Passion by Nalini Singh
9. Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie
10. Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole

Novella

1. Storming the Castle by Eloisa James (Finalist)
2. The Ice Princess by Elizabeth Hoyt
3. Deep Freeze by Merline Lovelace
5. Midnight Assignment by Victoria Dahl
6. Unwrapped by Jaci Burton
7. Honeybone by AJ Llewellyn
8. Friendly Fire by Megan Hart
9. Little to Hex Her by Janet Mullany
10. Midnight Confessions by Robyn Carr

Crossover

1. Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Cready (Finalist)
2. Embers by Laura Bickle
3. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
4. City of Ghosts by Stacia Kane
5. All Clear by Connie Willis
6. The Native Star by MK Hobson
7. 32 Candles by Ernessa T. Carter
8. Stay by Allie Larkin
9. Changeless by Gail Carriger
10. Truly, Madly by Heather Webber

Contemporary

1. All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins (Finalist)
2. The Search by Nora Roberts
3. Happy Ever After by Nora Roberts
4. Slow Heat by Jill Shalvis
5. The Darkest Hour by Maya Banks
6. Backstage Pass: Sinners On Tour by Olivia Cunning
7. Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas
8. Just One Taste by Louisa Edwards
9. The Next Best Thing by Kristan Higgins
10. Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts

Historical

1. The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne (Finalist)
2. Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean
3. The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig
4. Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas
5. Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas
6. Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
7. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig
8. Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn
9. The Heir by Grace Burrowes
10. A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James

GLBT

1. Double Blind by Heidi Cullinan (Finalist)
2. Keeping Promise Rock by Amy Lane (Finalist)
3. Duck! by Kim Dare
4. Life After Joe by Harper Fox
5. Starting from Scratch by Georgia Beers
6. The Angel of 13th Street by Eden Winters
7. Somebody Killed His Editor by Josh Lanyon
8. The Pearl by Geoffrey Knight
9. The Gentleman and the Rogue by Bonnie Dee and Summer Devon
10. ePistols at Dawn by Z.A. Maxfield

To recap. DA BWAHA is a tournament of romance books. Sarah and the DA reviewers put together a list [...]]]> Sarah and I actually got an earlier start on the DABWAHA tournament and thus our brackets are ready for you to fill out now. Woot!   Deadline for picking your bracket is March 15, 11:59 pm CST.

To recap. DA BWAHA is a tournament of romance books. Sarah and the DA reviewers put together a list of 64 books that we think were great reads in 2010. These 64 books are broken down into categories:

• Historical
• PNR/Science Fiction Fantasy Romance
• Crossover (books that have a romance plot but romance isn’t the focus)
• Series (these are category length.   We may have to rethink this category for 2012)
• Novella/Short story (this is a new category to give a nod to the emerging digital shorts)
• YA
• Contemporary
• GLBT

Last year we had two categories devoted to paranormal romance and UF.   We had PNR/SFF Romance and a UF category.   This year, we discontinued UF category and put any UF books into the Crossover category.   By deleting the UF category, we were able to make room for Novellas and Short stories (anything under a category length book).

A new feature this year was allowing the 8th book in each category to be voted in by readers.   When you look at the individual posts over at the dabwaha.com blog, you can see which books have been nominated by readers. You may want to remember these books as they already have supporters.

Want to know how much each book costs? Datadiva put together this spreadsheet.

How to pick your bracket:

1.   Click on the tournament entry link.

2.   Fill in your name and email address. You can use whatever name you like, so long as you remember what it is.

3.   Make your picks.   New this year are drop down boxes.   Each dropdown box will give you two choices. Pick the book you think is going to win in the polls that we will start on Wednesday:

4.   Keep picking until you have a champion.   Pay no attention to my picks. These were chosen for illustrative purposes only.

VERY IMPORTANT:   Your picks will not show up right away because these brackets have to be uploaded by Jane manually.   This is done approximately 3-4 times per day.   If your bracket hasn’t shown up in 24 hours, definitely email jane at dearauthor.com.   Also, print out a copy of your bracket and keep it in a safe place. Just in case.

Some interesting factoids about last year’s tourney.

• Angel’s Blood by Nalini Singh was picked to be the champion by the most brackets (43 times) but it was Ectasy Unveiled by Larissa Ione that ended up winning the day.
• Zero at the Bone by Jane Seville, the other book in the championship round, was picked by only one person.

Sadly last year’s tournament file has been lost but you can view the results from 2009 tourney here.

Good luck! Sarah and I will be around today but specifically for a couple of hours beginning at 8 pm CST to help you fill out your bracket.

Congratulations to Larissa Ione, whose book Ecstasy Unveiled won the 2010 DABWAHA! Larissa will receive a $200 gift certificate from Jane and Sarah for a spa near her home – all the better to relax after all that vote mania!

And big congratulations to the bracket winners!

To bracket champion Pamela [...]]]> Penned by SB Sarah:

Congratulations to Larissa Ione, whose book Ecstasy Unveiled won the 2010 DABWAHA! Larissa will receive a $200 gift certificate from Jane and Sarah for a spa near her home – all the better to relax after all that vote mania!

And big congratulations to the bracket winners!

To bracket champion Pamela Sinclair: an Apple iPad and a $100 GC for ebooks to fill up the new ebook reader from AllRomance eBooks and OmniLit. WOO HOO!

And to the worst bracket: TT Thomas wins for finishing in 845th place, and will receive a selection of books from the Oddshots bloggers, Meljean Brook, Patrice Michelle, Jill Myles, Ilona Andrews and Nalini Singh.

In the Second Chance Tourney, we have prizes to award as well!

Manda Collins wins an Amazon Kindle courtesy of Samhain Publishing.

Tegan Schwartz wins a prize package for being a randomly chosen non-winning bracketologst, and will receive from author Jennifer Estep a $50 Amazon gift card, a copy of Spider's Bite and an e-ARC of Web of Lies – and bookmarks!

And finally, Larissa Ione offered a prize to one of the non-winning brackets who chose her book to final – because she didn’t pick her own book to win the whole show. And so Robyn Bachar will receive a tote bag, a mug, and the first four books in the Demonica series, signed by the author.

Congrats to all the winners, and mad huge heaping props to chief bracketologist and all around badass Jane, who stayed up late and managed the data (and didn’t march to Jersey and kick my ass when I announced the wrong winners). Mad thanks also to Gesina, our Awesome Intern, who helped organize and collect a TON of data, and made this year’s tourney a lot easier – and more fun!

Winners: PLEASE email me at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom with your mailing address information so we can get your prizes out to you as soon as possible.

Thank you to all of you who entered, to OmniLit and AllRomance eBooks, Samhain Publishing, Jennifer Estep, the Oddshots, Larissa Ione for the prizes, and to all the nominated authors for writing some kickass books.

See you next year for the DABWAHA in 2011!

This year’s DABWAHA Championship round is a verrrry interesting match! Zero at the Bone by Jane Seville is up against Ecstasy Unveiled by Larissa Ione. Gay mob romance [...]]]> We are down to the FINAL TWO. It’s the Championship Round tonight at 10pm EDT/9pm CDT. GET READY to vote and scream to everyone you know.

This year’s DABWAHA Championship round is a verrrry interesting match! Zero at the Bone by Jane Seville is up against Ecstasy Unveiled by Larissa Ione. Gay mob romance vs. demon paranormal? WORD to the UP, Yo!

Before we get down to vote pandering action, let’s crown the winner for Round 5 – and yes, this time I double checked! The winner for Round 5, who will take home a selection of books from Berkeley/Jove, is J Levy – so email me, J Levy, with your mailing address at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom.

For the championship, there is some awesome prize booty on the line. The winner of the 2010 DABWAHA will win an iPad from AllRomanceeBooks. And the winner of the second chance tourney wins a Kindle courtesy of Samhain Publishing. Plus, there’s the Wooden Spoon prize: a selection of books for the worst DABWAHA bracket from the Oddshots Bloggers. And and AND Jennifer Estep has provided a prize pack for a RANDOM non winning bracketologist. There’s a lot on the line, so get ready to get your vote on.

Congrats – and GAME ON!

Final Four voting will begin at 10:00 pm EDT/9:00 pm CDT on 3 April 2010, and run for 24 hours.

Then, the Championship voting will be held on 5 April 2010, beginning [...]]]> So now: IT IS ON. It’s the Final Four, and then the championship, where the clicking gets crazy and the tension goes nuts.

Final Four voting will begin at 10:00 pm EDT/9:00 pm CDT on 3 April 2010, and run for 24 hours.

Then, the Championship voting will be held on 5 April 2010, beginning at 10:00 pm EDT/9:00 pm CDT. That voting round will also run for 24 hours.

So get ready to pimp your favorite, and keep your Tweetin’ Facebookin’ emailin’ pleadin’ beggin’ votin’ hand strong!

The prize? Oh yeah – it’s hot awesome.

The Round 2 prize is being provided by author Maya Banks (thanks Maya!) [...]]]> Round two of the 2010 DABWAHA is over – and our winner is Mary Kennedy. Congratulations, Mary! EMAIL ** Email me with your mailing address, please, and we’ll hook you up with your prize.

The prize? Oh yeah – it’s hot awesome.

The Round 2 prize is being provided by author Maya Banks (thanks Maya!) and includes a $50 GC to Amazon or BN (reader’s choice) and a book package that includes signed copies of Sweet Surrender, Sweet Persuasion and Sweet Seduction and an ARC of The Darkest Hour.

And don’t forget – if your bracket is shot to hell by all those pesky upsets and those Briggs vs. Briggs or Singh vs. Singh matchups, you can still compete for fun and awesome prizes in the Second Chance Tournament. The winning bracketeer is going to get a brand new Kindle from the fine folks at Samhain.

Jennifer Estep, author of the new Elemental Assassin series, is contributing a $50 Amazon gift card, a copy of Spider’s Bite and an e-ARC of Web of Lies? And matching bookmarks, of course. Because you can never have too many bookmarks. This prize will go to a RANDOM non-winning Second Chance bracketologist. Hopefully someone tied for 500th place.

So you can head on over and pick new brackets and be hopeful once again.

The voting schedule is in 12 hour blocks to accommodate people in all timezones.   My instructions were apparently hard to read last time so I’ll try to make it a little [...]]]> We are already into round 2.   The voting link is here. EVEN IF YOU DID NOT FILL OUT A BRACKET, you can still vote.

The voting schedule is in 12 hour blocks to accommodate people in all timezones.   My instructions were apparently hard to read last time so I’ll try to make it a little simpler.   The polls open at midnight and noon each day and run for 12 hours.   Today, the round 2 polls opened at midnight, March 19, 2010 EST.   The first set closes at noon on March 20, 2009 EST and the next set starts again until midnight.

Keep checking about every 10-12 hours and you should catch each round of voting.   After the voting for Round 2 is over, we will unveil the second chance bracket.   Huzzah for second chances!

So heads up: bracket pick time ends tonight at 8pm EST – OR when we hit 999 entries, whichever comes first! As [...]]]> What could be better or worse than 666? 999 – the total number of entries allowed by the tournament software. And we’re getting close to that number, much to our surprise and delight!

So heads up: bracket pick time ends tonight at 8pm EST – OR when we hit 999 entries, whichever comes first! As of 12:30 pm EST we had over 780 entries, so, in the words of philosopher and sage Larry the Cable Guy, “Arrange the completion of your tasks post haste!”

If you want to check and see if your entry is showing up, here is the place to do it. (Use Ctrl/Command + F to search and find your name). Remember to only enter once for fairness to everyone. If you have entered more than one time and would be willing to delete an entry, please email me jane at dearauthor dot com.

Voting will begin tonight – YES TONIGHT – at midnight EST at the DABWAHA Blog, and there will be sets of multiple polls running for twelve hours so as to make all the time zones happy. We’re sluts for your time zones like that.

Any questions – let’s hear ‘em.

So I use a software program called Turbo Tourney to run this [...]]]> UPDATE: Site is working now. “ENTER YOUR PICKS” link is right next to the “Contact” but in case something goes screwy, the direct link is below or if you go to “http://dabwaha.com“, the “PICK YOUR BRACKET” button goes directly to the bracket page.

So I use a software program called Turbo Tourney to run this tournament but in order for it to work, I have to upload a new set of files each time I have new entries so that you can see your entry and the rankings are calculated, etc. For some reason, the site isn’t allowing me a rebuild right now and the ENTER YOUR PICKS link is missing.

I’ve got a customer support request in but in the meantime, the ENTER YOUR PICKS link is working and it’s here but it can’t be accessed via the mainsite. Keep entering your picks in the meantime.

And now- it’s time to pick your brackets! And read a truly informative and utterly important FAQ.

How do I enter my picks?

Later today we will announce the finalists and allow you to start filling out your brackets. [...]]]> There is no ebook post today because today is Selection Sunday for the Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hella Authors or something like that. We started this tournament three years ago with Sarah from the Smart Bitches.

Later today we will announce the finalists and allow you to start filling out your brackets. For a look at the tentative finalists head on over to DABWAHA.

The books nominated must be published in 2008, regardless of epublication or print publication. Reprints, [...]]]> Remember the DA BWAHA, our March Madness tourney of books? It’s back, and we need your help for the slate of books. The categories are as follows:

• YA
• Paranormal
• Novel with Strong Romantic Elements
• Historical
• Erotic Romance
• GLBT
• Category
• Contemporary

The books nominated must be published in 2008, regardless of epublication or print publication. Reprints, whether it is reprint of a print book or a print release of an ebook, are not eligible. Self published books are not eligible. Please tell us what books should make the slate of 64 by emailing us at dabwaha@gmail.com. We already have some ideas of what books will land a coveted spot, but we want to hear from you.

For Colleen Gleason, who won the tournament for her book The Rest Falls Away, a fancy shnazzy graphic proclaming you teh winnah:

For Laura D, whose pointacular bracket allowed her to gain the [...]]]> The disbursal of prize booty may take a bit longer, but graphics? We got yer graphics right here!

For Colleen Gleason, who won the tournament for her book The Rest Falls Away, a fancy shnazzy graphic proclaming you teh winnah:

For Laura D, whose pointacular bracket allowed her to gain the people’s ovation and fame forever, we have:

For Joyce D, whose equally pointactular bracket in the 2nd Chance Tourney has allowed her a sizeable portion of that ovation and fame referenced above, we have:

AND!!! I got my own Duchess Title:

I never thought I would ever EVER get a Duchess title because I totally suck at the Friday quizzes. I’m speechless.