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.
I’d like to thank our sponsors and everyone who’s had a hand in bringing the tournament to life for a second year. It’s bigger, it’s better, it’s badder and it’s going to be a whole lot of fun.
For those who don’t know what we’re talking about when we say “March Madness,” here’s a rundown on the NCAA Men’s Division I basketball tournament that we’re basing our tournament on.
I’m feeling competitive already…..
[...] ♥DA BWAHA Tournet has STARTED! Don’t know what DA BWAHA is? Best place to find out is to click the link to Dear Author! Or this one at SmartBitches! But here’s the basics copied/pasted from SmartBitches: 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. [...]
Okay, I filled out a bracket, first time in my life I’ve ever done such a thing.
The beginning of the first round I was still thinking, but at the lower end of the first round I just started clicking, and just clicked and clicked and clicked after that.
It’s a fairly worthless entry, is what I’m saying. :-)
Ack! I picked my initial brackets from the categories based on this: We're pitting book against book within the categories, and then, as the tournament advances, books will face off against one another across genre and subgenre until we reach the Book of the Year.. But when I went to fill in the chart, the subgenres are already mixed up (Demon Bound vs Blame it on Paris, Flat Out Sexy vs Mine to Possess) so now I have to restrategize.
Husband: Whaddya wanna do today?
Me: Leave me alone. I gotta get my brackets done.
Husband: I hope you’re not betting money, cause you don’t know s–t about college basketball.
Me: Oh crap, I screwed it all up.
Husband: There’s a surprise.
Back to the bracket drawing board. (This is fun, btw. You guys must put a buttload of work into this.)
[...] Today is the start of the “Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors or DA BWAHA” and it’s a tournament that mimics the “March Madness tournament of basketball.” I played last year and it was a lot of fun. There are 64 books nominated that were culled from the readership and from the bloggers who are sponsoring the tournament. Read more of the details at Dear Author. [...]
okay.
I was shying away from it, feeling incompetent.
Now I see that is no obstacle. I am off to do my brackets!!
[edit] OOPS — looks like I missed the deadline, sigh. Next year!
Ah…. I know this is going to sound woefully ignorant, but where in the DABWAHA site do I enter my username and email?
You have until the end of March 18th to fill in (or redo) your brackets. Tally-ho!
I can’t recall if we mention this anywhere else but the contest IS open to non-US contestants.
How do you redo your brackets if you want to make changes? I can’t find the magic fixit button.
Jaci…one of the woefully incompetent.
Okay, my picks are officially made. I declared a #dabwaha hashtag on Twitter for the duration of the tourney. Let the trash talking commence!
Okay. I made my choices — twice, because I’m a nitwit!
Ended up with the same winner, but I think my internals are inconsistent.
This was a little nerve-wracking!
@Jaci Burton: You just pick your name from the drop down box and reenter the entire bracket sheet.
Thank you Jane!
I’m so excited! I always play the NCAA Tourney pics games too. Always a fun time of year.
As sure as I am about another dismal attempt on my part at winning I never noticed the prizes until just now.
WOW… I mean, that’s a bucketful of wonderfulness!
Huge props to the sponsors and to DA & SBs.
Yes. Mad love to DA, to the SB’s and to all the sponsors. This rocks!
This is my 1st year, so how do i register to begin with?Do i need to set up an account? :0)
I’m a first timer! It’s all set up now! Whoot! I hope mine wins. I LOVED the book I chose as the final winner. *crossing fingers*
@liz…: There is a link in the post that leads to the tournament pick sheet. There you enter your online ID and your email address. You click on the books that you think will advance through the tournament and press “submit” at the bottom of the page.
thanks! I will work on this now! :0)
@liz…:
I had to email Jane to figure out the registration myself. On the bracket page, near the User ID menu, there’s a button that says “New.” You have to click that “New” button and then you will get a pop-up that lets you enter your user ID. Once that’s entered you can enter your email address and click on the book to fill the bracket, then press submit.
I just filled out mine. I’m confident I won’t win anything but it’s a lot of fun regardless.
@Janine technically you can’t win any of the prizes.
I caught the tail end of the inaugural DA BWAHA Tournament last year so I’ve been looking forward to this! Thank you to all the organizers and the sponsors!
Hmm, I clicked on submit. But when I go back to current standings my choices do not appear, it still shows “none.” So, I filled it out again, same thing.
Is there a time delay or am I doing it wrong?
@library addict: Yep, as stated in the post, there is a delay because we download the results, add them to the database and then upload the results. We aren’t able to automate it yet. Maybe next year.
Geez, just shoot me. Guess I missed that sentence, but I see it now. Sorry.
Thanks for all of your guys’ hard work and patience.
*sigh*….my first brackets!!!! I am so excited. I had to get my hubby to help me out, he had a hard time first holding his laughter in and then typing through the eye-rolling. He is such a wiener! lol
[...] Bitches, Trashy Books and Dear Author are holding their Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors, aka DA BWAHA. [...]
I’m excited. I played last year, but lost very hard. I changed my strategy, though, so maybe that means I will lose less hard.
I would like to know if the books are ranked, or just randomly listed in 1-16 order?
Thanks for claryfing but it make no difference to me since I am in it for the fun. I fill out an Oscar ballot when I watch the Academy Awards too even though I don’t get any prizes for that either — it makes the show more interesting.
But even if I weren’t affiliated with DA and if I were therefore eligible to win something in DABWAHA, I’m certain I still wouldn’t win a thing…
Shannon C.,
There’s a strategy to this???! Darnit. All I did was look at the covers.
Just a note, you don’t have to type in your selections. Just click on the title of the book you think will make it into the next round and it automatically fills in the brackets.
@Jayne:
Thank you, Jayne!!! That just made my Monday morning SO much simpler!
OK, so I’ve made my selections. Maybe made isn’t quite the right word…some of the books I’ve never heard of :) Guesstimation is such fun :)
Are the books on the brackets supposed to all be (c) 2008? There’s a 2007 book on the list, so I was wondering…
@jmc err, they are supposed to be all 2008 releases.