Mar 13 2011
DA BWAHA – It’s Bracket Time
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.
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Mar 13, 2011 @ 04:59:26
I’ve got a copy of last year’s bracket if you need it.
Will the early round voting be in 4 hour (or was it 6?) blocks again this year?
Mar 13, 2011 @ 08:21:36
I hope there’s a worst bracket winner because I’m counting on that. (I haven’t read so many of the books…)
Mar 13, 2011 @ 09:13:29
Hey, if you pick an underdog and can get all your friends to vote for it and push it through the rounds, you have a better chance of winning the grand prize.
Just sayin’. :)
Mar 13, 2011 @ 09:57:57
As always, I find it extremely difficult to fill out my brackets as the categories narrow. Too many excellent books to choose from!
Mar 13, 2011 @ 10:01:58
@library addict: I thnk we ran voting in 12 hour blocks and we will probably do that again.
I do have the brackets from last year, just not the results.
Mar 13, 2011 @ 11:38:51
Jane,
Where do I enter my Tie breaker #? In the comments?
I’ve done my picks. Can I go back in an add my # if I put it in the wrong place?
Mar 13, 2011 @ 12:19:15
When I was in college, I joined a bowling league we had set up for our dorm floor. At the end of our tournament, I had the lowest average score – 67. I got a nice trophy, a pretty tiara and everyone bought me beer for the night.
I fully expect the same when I am the chief loser here. :D
Mar 13, 2011 @ 13:18:55
Meljean Brook is using the name “DorkPower” to play? LMAO!
“There Be Dorks” for the win next year.
Mar 13, 2011 @ 14:07:54
oh my! I’ve only read 2 of the entries this year lol
Mar 13, 2011 @ 14:13:59
Can I ask how you determined the seeds? Is it based on your idea of what is most popular? Random decision?
Also, just out of curiosity, how did you decide which categories to complete against one another (for example, region 3 is YA vs PNR) to get to the end?
Ok, last question (and maybe you can’t answer this) but for the tiebreaker about how many votes will be cast in the final round – can you give any info on last year’s results? Or how many people participated in last year’s tourney? For those of us who haven’t participated before and have no idea. Or is that TMI?
Mar 13, 2011 @ 14:23:02
JANE? Since it appears that others have successfully filled out their brackets, I’m not sure why it’s not working for me. When I get to Round 6, there’s too many drop-down boxes and it seems to confuse itself and the rest of them all appear empty. I can send you a screen capture if you can’t duplicate it.
Mar 13, 2011 @ 14:27:17
Mine was a little mushed up in the middle, Bev. If I remember correctly, the top two were round six, and the third one a little below those two was the final round and went “live” after the top two were done. Don’t know if that helps.
Mar 13, 2011 @ 14:45:55
@BevQB hmm. Can you submit without filling in round 6? because if so, just submit and then email me the round 6 winner and I’ll fill it in manually for you. It could be that your screen resolution isn’t wide enough. I can change the brackets to run from top to bottom instead 2 regions on the right and 2 on the left, but I thought that would be confusing for readers.
Mar 13, 2011 @ 14:48:57
@jayhjay
1. I seed based on the books that I think are the strongest in that category (which is how I understand the NCAA tournament does).
2. Regions – again, I look at which sections might be the strongest and rank them that way. I.e., in the NCAA tournament, there are 4 number one seeds. So I look at the 64 books, 8 categories and think, which are the top four books in the separate categories. And I make the categories battle it out in the first couple of rounds which ensures that a representative from each category emerges. Otherwise (and this is what happened the first time), some categories never made it out of the first round.
3. Last year, we had over 800 entries. I think we had 899 or something like that. It was close to 1,000 because we had a 1,000 limit last year (we don’t this year).
Mar 13, 2011 @ 15:06:38
@Jane: I *think* I’ve got it based on Shannon’s advice (Thanks Shannon!) I guess I was confused by the final winner and the round 6 brackets all being in the same column. But once I filled both sides of the bracket in and then pondered that Round 6 column a bit more, the way the picks were displayed started to make more sense.
Or to put it another way- if I had filled out BOTH sides of the bracket before trying to figure it out, this would have been a non-issue.
So… um… nevermind. Nothing to see here. Move on along.
*rolls eyes and whistles innocently*
Mar 13, 2011 @ 16:18:17
I’m so clueless this year. I’m thinking of picking with an eye toward the booby prize.
Mar 13, 2011 @ 17:05:24
Did a combination of which-cover-do-I-like-best and einey, meeney, miney, moe.
In the end I went with my heart and voted for my personal favorite of the books nominated to win.
I’m already looking forward to the Second Chance bracket – LOL.
Mar 13, 2011 @ 17:49:39
Can we go back and change some of our picks?
Mar 13, 2011 @ 17:51:25
@Liz: Yes, you can resubmit as many times as you wish until the deadline of March 15, 2011, 11:59 pm.
Mar 13, 2011 @ 18:35:32
Honestly, a chimpanzee has a better chance at this than I do. Can I borrow someone’s?
Mar 13, 2011 @ 18:36:56
@library addict: “Did a combination of which-cover-do-I-like-best and einey, meeney, miney, moe.”
Or as I like to call it… who has the nicest looking uniforms!
Mar 13, 2011 @ 18:37:24
@Jane: Thanks Jane!
Mar 13, 2011 @ 18:45:44
Last year I spent HOURS (days actually) researching each and every book, checking for buzz, reviews, etc. It helped a little in the first round, but after that it made no difference as everyone’s strategy picks blew bracket after bracket for me.
So this year I didn’t look at one single book before picking my brackets. I didn’t even look up the authors. I picked based on the abbreviated titles that caught my eye or, for the VERY few that I’ve read, I picked it if it was one of my keepers.
So Darlynne, I guess that would be about the equivalent of chimpanzee picks. Let’s see if your theory holds out. ;-p
Mar 13, 2011 @ 18:53:05
I’m going to check which books were nominated, but other than that…I’ve decided to go with what I love. Last year I tried to pick what I thought everyone would vote for, but…I actually think I did worse that 2009.
And I’m rapt one of my favourite books in 2010 – Amy Lane’s Keeping Promise Rock is included in the Region 4 bracket!
Mar 13, 2011 @ 19:14:45
This is the first year I am participating. So excited to fill out the brackets.
Mar 14, 2011 @ 00:38:15
This is the 1st year I’m participating and can I just say I’m impressed with this whole setup. It is so awesome to be able to rate my fav books – tournament style. It’s just like a tennis Grand Slam when my fav players are up against each other in the early rounds. I did not expect some of my choices to turn out the way they did due to the match-ups, but my 4 semi-finalsts, 2 finalists and winner made me very happy!!! :-)
Mar 14, 2011 @ 02:30:31
This is my first time too. I haven’t even heard about some of the bookk-which made me add them to my tbr pile-so I’m also doing the einey, meeney, miney, moe thing.
Mar 14, 2011 @ 20:09:08
Dang, I don’t recognize any of these titles — I’ll be going for Worst again this year. I did so well, missing every pick until right near the end, where I got a couple right. *hangs head in shame*
Mar 12, 2012 @ 11:17:56
I would love to participate–is it too late and if not, how do I do this? Thanks!
Mar 12, 2012 @ 18:30:32
@trish dechant: You need to go here and click “NEW”. A popup box will appear. Enter your name. Close the box. Enter your email address. Read more here
Mar 13, 2012 @ 09:00:36
@Jane:
I have gone to that page….and there is nothing in the top right that says NEW…am I on the wrong page?
Thank you for your attention into this matter.
Here is the link of the page I am looking at:
http://www.mysideline.com/u/18566/custom/tournamententry.htm
Mar 13, 2012 @ 09:19:20
@trish dechant: Scroll all the way to the right. There is a new button. It might be hidden based on the size of your screen and you need to scroll to the right.