The May Book Cover of the Month Begins!

 

Happy first everyone! As is now officially tradition here on my blog, it’s time to start a new book cover of the month competition.

Siren’s Lure by Frost Kay joins 31 brand new covers this month.

You can vote all the way through the tournament, supporting the covers you like best through each round. I like to make sure people get the credit they deserve, so please show your support. Please vote and share as much as possible to get people a chance to pick their favorite.

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

August Book Cover of the Month Midway Update

Greetings all,

With just about seven days left in this month’s bracket, I thought this would be a good chance to update you all on how things have been progressing. Things started off fast, but we’ve slowed down a bit.

2,433 votes the support has been nice to see, but some of these covers need your help.

Colony Lost by Chris Philbrook has taken the lead an run with it.

Most Voted on so far: Philbrook has the most round wins and the most votes overall with 288 total votes.

Least Voted for: Kaiju Wars by Eric S. Brown currently has the fewest votes (31). Fans of Brown should rally to help this cover get at least a bit more credit than that.

The Sweet 16 is the closest round so far. Half of those matches are within 10, but Philbrook is the story here as he’s got a commanding lead in every round, so anyone who wants to beat him needs to summon the followers by the dozens.

A quick reminder of how the tournament works. The easiest way to win is to have the most people vote for you in every round (like Philbrook). The trick is you have to have the most people vote you through in each round, all the way to the final.  As an example, 10 people (the second most) have voted Blood-Stained Heir all the way to the championship, but that’s not enough because Norman can’t get past Black Ruins Forest (though he’s only four votes away). Just remember. It’s not total votes. It’s not simple championship votes. The winning cover has to have the most votes in each round of the competition.

So let’s take a look at the three covers that have the BEST shot at upsetting Philbrook.

Blood-Stained Heir can grab victory if he gets 23 people to vote him all the way through to the championship. (That’s assuming those 23 voters aren’t answered by voters of Colony Lost or Black Ruins Forest.)

Black Ruins Forest actually needs more championship votes than Heir. While Forest has what it needs to get to the last round, the cover is actually further behind than Heir. That said, if Forest can get 26 people to vote it all the way through, it’ll take the lead.

Lucky or Not, Here I Come is actually the third-closest contender if one looks at the bracket as a whole. It’s behind Black Ruins Forest, but not by much. That said, he’d need a massive show of overall support because he only has one championship vote so far. He’d need 33 people to vote him all the way to the championship in order to take the lead.

Getting 33 people to vote anyone all the way through would be a great start, but believe it or not, the 23-vote lead Colony Lost has in the finals is actually the smallest margin of victory he has. Anyone cover not mentioned above would need more than 40 unanswered voters to push the cover all the way to the championship, and that’s not nearly enough to upset Colony Lost in that initial round (Colony has more than 100 votes in that first round.)   

This will be the only update for this type of bracket. It’s been an amazing tournament to watch thus far, and I hope readers continue to support their authors by voting, liking, and sharing the bracket with as many people as possible.  You can vote at this address!

I’ll announce the winner is just seven days!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

The August Book Cover of the Month Tournament has Begun!

Happy first everyone!  If you’re curious or new, check out the Book Covers for December, January, February, March, April, May, June, and July.

August’s bracket has 31 plus The Girl Who Could See by Kara Swanson which is only the second book ever to get third chance at the title.

We’re doing another “vote all the way through” bracket. I think two weeks is the sweet spot. This gives people time to vote. I like to make sure people get the credit they deserve, so please show your support. Please vote and share as much as possible to get people a chance to pick their favorite.

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

The March Book Cover of the Month Bracket Begins!

The dawn of a new month has become a bit of a present for me. It means I get to kick off a new bracket.  If you’re curios or new, check out the Book Covers for December, January, and February. 

I’m happy to say February was pretty darn successful. It only came a few hundred away from breaking a record! This month has 31 outstanding new covers and Age of Myth has another chance to seize the day! I’ve been tracking this set of books for a while, and I honestly think it’s the strongest so far. Look, I know I might say that every month, but isn’t that the point?

If you know the authors or the artists, please share this and tag 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 establish a few 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. I want your cover to win because it was the best, not because you had the most stuff to give away. When we get to the Final Four, I have a plan or two myself in that regard. Don’t take this to mean you can’t ask for support.

Even if this becomes nothing more than a popularity contest, that’s fine. Why not celebrate with your following? Why not be proud of the platform you have and the number of people who support you? But my biggest goal is to honestly reward the best cover. It’s about the artists. I see TONS of support for authors, and what I want is an honest way to give cover artists/designers credit. The only way that’s possible is to get as many people to vote as we can. Your fans will (and should) vote for you. Your opponent’s fans will vote for your opponent. But it’s when we get to their friends and their friends of friends that impartial voters can help the separate the field. This will ensure the winning cover was decided by the people.

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.

Round 1 will go from today to April 8.

The Sweet 16 will run from then to the 15th.

The Elite 8 will take it from there until the 18th.

The Final 4 runs from the 18th to the 20th.

The Finals will go from the 20th to the 22nd.

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

Book Cover of the Month for December 2016

Where the idea came from: As a teacher, I follow my students after graduation. I look at their work. What I do, is I go to Navy.mil (where all the Navy photography can be found) and look at 10 pages. I share the photos I like on my alter ego’s page. It’s my way of giving my students credit for what they do, showing my support, and helping my current students see what we’re looking for.  So I took that idea to Amazon. I want to the Fantasy & Science Fiction section and looked at books released during the past 30 days. I look at 10 pages, and pick my favorite.  Then I post it on FB and talk about why I like the cover.

If you follow me on Facebook, and I’d be honored if you did (just like my page), you’ve seen me post my Book Cover of the Day post.  Well, since I’ve been talking about the book covers I’ve liked over the past month, I figured it would be fun for everyone to vote on their favorite.  Now, I started this in late December, so you’ll notice there’s only 16 this time. I’ll have a full 32 cover competition at the end of January. It’s my plan to do one every month, then do one for the whole year. This lets you all do a few things.

1. It allows you to participate in my blog, which is pretty much awesome!
2. You can get a picture of what I like about covers. I teach photography, and layout and design (among many other things). I like to look at work and talk about what “works” for me and what doesn’t
3. I’ll read the winning book and post a review here on this blog.
4. I get to meet more of you on FB and other social media sites.

How it works:

Well, that’s simple. The bracket is right here. You should also be able to see and vote on it below. This is my first time trying something like this, so we may have to work on some bugs.

First round voting goes from midnight Jan. 4 to midnight Jan. 8.

The Elite Eight voting last from the end of the first round until midnight Jan. 12.

The SEMIS go from then until Jan 14.

The voting for the FINAL lasts until midnight Jan. 17. I’ll post the results here on my usual Wednesday blog, Jan. 18.

I’d love this to reach as far as possible, so any like’s shares  RTs and whatever else social media allows would be greatly appreciated. I love book covers, and this gives all of us a way to talk about them, which brings me to my last point.

Talk about these. Talk about what you like. Talk about what you don’t. If we can look at art and critique it, we’ll all get better. I want to know what you guys think.