Four Days Left: A May Book Cover of the Month Update

It’s that time again folks.  I’m flying on a plan back to the place of residence, so my laziness combined with the fact that I actually sort of skipped an update lead me to post one now.

Usually with four days left, we’d be doing  the final four, so I’ll update you on how that’s going.  But first, this announcement:

I’m happy to report we’ve shattered the record for most votes in a bracket.  We’re currently at 5,524 votes.  I thank you all for your participation, and hope you’ll continue to support the Book Cover of the Month each time it kicks off.

Let’s get down to business.

As it stands right now, your final four are:

Dawn of War by Robbie MacNiven,

The Lost Travencal by C.M. Jobe,

The Other One by Amanda Jay, and

Fate of the Big Bad Wolf by Neo Edmund.

The current top dog in terms of total votes is Dawn of War with a massive 528 votes.

The lowest vote-earner is The Empire’s Ghost by Isabella Steiger.

That being said, what matters most is that Dawn of War is in the lead because it won 72 total brackets, so you don’t need 500 votes. You just need 73 more supporters to choose the next four days to vote!

If the tournament stays this way, The Lost Travencal and The Other One would receive auto-bids into the June Book Cover of the Month, but Fate and The Acquisition of Swords by X can leap right over them if they can get their following to support them for one final push, but that’s true of all 32 books.  Anyone of these covers can have a final big day and steal the title for the month.

All you need to do is head over this website and vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

The May Book Cover of the Month Bracket Starts Now!

Happy first everyone! It’s time to kick off a new bracket.  If you’re curios or new, check out the Book Covers for December, January, February, March, and April.

May’s bracket has 31 new covers and last month’s runner up, Fate of the Big Bad Wolf by Neo Edmund, has another chance to take the title home.

We’re doing things differently this month. In previous months, we had a round-by-round competition, which I loved. But it’s demanding on readers and fans. They have to keep coming back to vote each week, and I want this to be fun, with as much participation as possible. So this round is a one shot bracket. What this means is each person will only have to vote once for his or her own bracket. Instead of waiting a few days between rounds, you can vote all the way through the tournament. If this works better for people, and increases participation, we’ll keep this format going forward. It’ll still last for two weeks, and I’ll still do updates every so often, but no one will be out of the fight until the last day of the tournament.

As always, I’d appreciate it if you tag the authors and artists if you know them. I try to tag or friend every author I can, but sometimes it’s hard to track someone down. Max participation is a huge deal to me. The more people who vote, the more recognition these authors and artists receive, and I want this to be as legitimate as possible.

Image taken from Pixabay.

If you are the author, let’s remember to be good sports! 1) Please feel free to message or contact me at any time. 2) Please feel free to like, share, text, ask for support, and call everyone you know. I absolutely want max participation. However, if you’re going to offer giveaways or prizes, please offer them for voting, not just voting for you.

Also, while your summoning your army of voting soldiers, please make sure you ask them to vote in every match. Part of the idea of this is to get exposure to as many artists and authors as possible. By all means, if you can get 1,000 people to vote for your book, do it. Just please also send some eyeballs to the other matches.

A final note to authors and artists: I currently have links to the books’ Amazon pages. If you’d prefer I switch that link to sign up for your newsletter or like your social media page or whatever, just send me the link and let me know. I want this to help you. I want this to be as helpful as possible, so whatever you need me to do to facilitate that, just let me know.

 

I hope you keep having fun. Please, vote, share, and discuss as much as possible.

All you have to do now is head over here to vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

April Elite 8!

This month has been quantifiably competitive! We’re kicking off the Elite 8, and each person in this bracket has a dedicated following! The Sweet 16 had 771 votes (just short of a record), which puts us at 3,046 votes so far.

Let’s go over some numbers:

The Closest Contest:

Michael J. Sullivan just won’t go down. His cover for Age of Myth is the only book to have to rematches. It seems like every match he’s in is a close one. This match with The First City by Joe Hart was no different.  Sullivan edged out Hart by 1 vote (51 percent of the 97 votes the match received). The Day the Sky Fell by Adam Dreece also narrowly beat Brimstone by Cherie Priest. (I mean the last vote tipped the tie at 11:54 p.m.).

The Largest Victor:
Neo Edmund’s readers helped the cover for Fate of the Big Bad Wolf earn a decisive 28-vote victory (66 percent of 86 votes) over J.N. Chaney’s Hope Everlasting.

Least Voted On Contest:

We didn’t have quite the same max participation as we did in the last round, but everyone still got plenty of votes.  Chaney and Edmund’s match was the low-vote earner this round.

 

Most Voted On Contest:
The most voted on contest was Gods and Monsters by Janie Marie vs The Bone Tree by T.A. Miles. They both received more than 50 votes, but Marie took the round with 72 out of a total of 123 votes.

Most Votes:
Gods and Monsters has surged to the front of this bracket. Marie’s received the most votes of the round as well as the most votes so far (164). It’s going to take at least 75 votes to beat her.

The Elite Eight lasts until May 10, which is another three days to show your support for the cover you like best!

Head over here and vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

April’s Sweet 16!

I’m always amazed at the support these authors generate. This month is no different.  I’m getting used to each month’s first round outdoing the month before it, but I’m more impressed this month.  In about half the time, your readers helped shatter the record for first round votes. You generated 2,250 votes, which is 502 more than ever before.  What makes me happiest is that every match had more than 110 votes. So all your readers came out to show support, and they were kind enough to show that support to all of you.  Please thank them for me.

This month didn’t have a lot of close calls, but the votes were coming in so fast and furious (really hate that term these days) that I had to wait for the next round to start before I could finalize this post. One match had a lead change just while I was typing this post out. (Well fought Michael J. Sullivan and Frank Dorrain!)

Let’s go over some numbers:

The Closest Contest:

The above shoutout should have been the hint. Michael J. Sullivan had a late (like 11:30 p.m. late) surge and took the match by three votes (just 51% of the total votes).  That makes Age of Myth vs To Brave the End the closest contest no matter how you slice it. Sullivan just won’t go away. He consistently finds a way to win (except for that pesky final match).

The Largest Victor:
World, meet Neo Edmund and his outstanding cover Fate of the Big Bad Wolf. He beat Malevolent Mind by Misty Harvey by 64 total votes, which is 74 percent of the matches’ 132 total votes (No, it’s not the most voted on contest. Like I said, you all had a TON of support!)

Most Voted On Contest:
For my money, the most voted on match was the most fun match to watch. It had a lot of lead changes and was always close.  Waters of Salt and Sin by Alisha Klapheke managed to beat Restitution by Kristen Martin by just 8 votes (one of the three closest matches). This match dominated in terms of total votes with 188. I saw both authors tweeting and sharing away.  It was great to see their participation and touching to see how many readers showed up to vote for them.

Least Voted On Contest:
For the first time since I started this, I really think we had max participation in that every match had a significant number of votes.  Yes, the above match had some 20 votes more than the others, but everyone got some love.  However, someone usually gets the fewest.  This round, the match between by Darkborn by Carrie Summers  vs The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski received the fewest votes (120).  Summers took the match pretty handedly though (by 46 votes).

Most Votes:
Usually, the winner of the most voted on contest also earns this distinction.  Not so this month. Joe Hart’s The First City received 100 votes. There were a lot of books that received more than 90 votes, so it’s just a testimony to how much love voters showed all of the contests.

So now it’s on to the Sweet 16!  This round will last until May 7. That’s 3 days to pick which 8 will move on.

Head over here and vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

The April Book Cover of the Month Bracket Begins!

Happy first everyone! It’s time to kick off a new bracket.  If you’re curios or new, check out the Book Covers for December, January, February, and March.

April’s bracket has 30 new covers.  Age of Myth is fighting more than I’ve ever seen a cover fight. Michael J. Sullivan finished with the top most votes in the semifinals, which earned him yet another shot in this month’s bracket. Frank Dorrian’s To Brave the End was last month’s runner up, so he gets another crack at the bracket as well.

As always, I’d appreciate it if you tag the authors and artists if you know them. I try to tag or friend every author I can, but sometimes it’s hard to track someone down. Max participation is a huge deal to me. The more people who vote, the more recognition these authors and artists receive, and I want this to be as legitimate as possible.

If you are the author, I feel the need to let’s remember some basic guidelines.  1) Please feel free to message or contact me at any time. 2) Please feel free to like, share, text, ask for support, and call everyone you know. I absolutely want max participation. However, if you’re going to offer giveaways or prizes, please offer them for voting, not just voting for you.

Also, while your summoning your army of voting soldiers, please make sure you ask them to vote in every match. Part of the idea of this is to get exposure to as many artists and authors as possible. By all means, if you can get 1,000 people to vote for your book, do it. Just please also send some eyeballs to the other matches.

A final note to authors and artists: I currently have links to the books’ Amazon pages. If you’d prefer I switch that link to sign up for your newsletter or like your social media page or whatever, just send me the link and let me know. I want this to help you. I want this to be as helpful as possible, so whatever you need me to do to facilitate that, just let me know.

Since we’ve been going, I’ve been evaluating how the participation has been. A few authors mentioned that it can be pretty exhausting having a 22-day-long tournament.  So I’m going to try a few new things.  This month, I’m simply trying to reduce the amount of time in the tournament.  This torment will run from today to the 14th.  I’ll do something different next mont.  I’d like your thoughts and feedback as to which way is best.  My goal is to have a fun, honest, meaningful competition that helps everyone. Your feedback will make that possible.

Round 1 will go from today to May 4.

The Sweet 16 will run from then to the 7th.

The Elite 8 will take it from there until the 10th.

The Final 4 runs from the 18th to the 12.

The Finals will go from the 20th to the 14.

I hope you keep having fun. Please, vote, share, and discuss as much as possible.

All you have to do now is head over here to vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Fun and Games are coming!

$100.00 Amazon Gift Card Newsletter Sign-Up Giveaway

Enter for a chance to win and then join us 16 December 2016 for additional prizes. The winner is announced 18 December 2016.

Join the HMS Slush Brain Blog Hop this holiday!

• Angela B. Chrysler
• C.L. Schneider
• Matthew W. Harrill
• Adam Dreece
• Chess DeSalls
• Kylie Jude
• T.H. Morris
• MLS Weech
• J.K. Norry