April BCOTM Finals!

We’ve had a great bracket so far this month, and we have two great covers to show for it.  We ended this round with 158 votes, which gives us 4,164. We’d need more than 600 votes to get the record for most votes in a tournament, but I don’t think second most contested bracket ever is anything to shake a finger at. I’m grateful to everyone who came out to support these covers, their designers, and the authors who wrote these books.

Let’s talk about it:

The Closest Contest:

The closest match was (yet again) Michael J. Sullivan’s.  I feel the need to give this cover special recognition. No book cover has had a run like this. We’ve seen Age of Myth in every round for the past two months. Since Feb. 1, Sulivan’s book has fought to stay in the hunt, but each time it came just a few votes away. At last, another novel has been able to knock Sullivan both out of this bracket and out of the next. I personally think that sort of staying power is a testament to how great the cover is.  However, Singular by Zack Hubert managed to best Myth by a mere eight votes. This match was also the most voted on contest.

Most Votes:
Fate of the Big Bad Wolf by Neo Edmund is the current leader. He’s shown the ability to garner support from more than 100 people, so it looks like whoever wins this final is going to have to get at least that many votes. This was the least voted on contest this round (75 votes).

While only one cover can win every month, this month’s runner up is at least assured a second chance in the May bracket next month.

A quick reminder: Next month will be a complete bracket, meaning readers will only have to vote 1 time. They’ll have their own bracket, and the winner will be chosen from the total of those votes rather than the usual round-by-round format.  This will allow readers to vote once for all the covers they want all the way through the bracket instead of have to come back again and again each new round.  It has some advantages. I personally prefer the round by round structure, but if it makes it easier for authors to gain support and readers to vote, that’s what I’ll do.

For now, readers just have to focus voting on this match. You have until the strike of twelve on the 14th to pick a winner from these two covers.  My best of luck to both!

Head over here and vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt