The 2018 M.L.S. Weech Book Cover of the Year Bracket Starts Now!

Hello all!

I’ve been building to this for quite some time, and I’m so excited to kick things off. This is it! Twelve Book Covers of the Month join four Wild Card Book Covers to comprise a sixteen-book tournament to determine which one will rule them all!

If you like, you can take a look at each book cover’s winning announcement: December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, and November.

365 book covers. 53,047 votes. All leading to this tournament! The covers were ranked 1-16 by the number of total votes each received. That means the cover that received the most votes (Until Nothing Remains) is going up against the Wild Card that received the fewest votes. (Age of War), and so on and so forth.

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.

It’s been fun! I’d like to end this tournament on a high note. I’m trying to get 10,000 total votes. Please, tell everyone. Get people to vote. I want this trophy to mean something, and it’ll frankly mean more as more people vote.

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 Year! Announcing the November Book Cover of the Month and kicking off the 2018 Book Cover of the Year Wild Card Round!

Hello everyone,

There’s a lot to this post, but we want to give everyone their due.

Brackify is shutting down, so we’re on a crunched schedule because we want to award a Book Cover of the Year.

First order of business, let’s wrap up November.

We’ve just wrapped up the last month

We had 2,444 votes this month. This was almost a record-setting bad month for us, but a couple authors showed out and got us to at least more than the least ever.

The November Book Cover of the Month is…

 

All the Lonely People by Jason Nelson! If you’re curious about how I felt about the book, check out the Facebook post that I posted when this book first landed on the bracket, here.

Let’s look at the stats!

Nelson  received 253 total votes!

Blackwoods: The Beginning by Teressa J. Martin and Adaline McMillan was the runner up, so it’s an automatic bid into the 2018 Book Cover of the Year Wild Card round (as the sixth seed, but more on that in another post that dropped today).

But for now, let’s look at this month’s winner!

Amazon:

(START BLURB)

All the Lonely People is based on the podcast by the same name (available on your favorite podcast player).

After his wife dies, our protagonist is faced with the internal struggle of loss and grief while trying to raise his three-year old daughter. It’s an exploration of love, family, death, and what comes after.

(END BLURB)

I’ve added All the Lonely People to my TBR. (For those who are new to the deal, I buy the Book Cover of the Month to read and review in the future. I buy all the winning covers. I’ve already bought October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February, January, and December’s book.

Here’s Nelson’s Facebook page. Give it a like if you’re curious about her and her work.

So that ends another fun year of the bracket. This is the last year for a while at least, but that’s no reason to stop working hard to make this a great year. So, let’s get the 2018 Book Cover of the Year Wild Card Round kicked off! (See the other post)

 

Thanks for reading

Matt

The November Book Cover of the Month Update!

Greetings all,

With just seven days left in this month’s bracket, it’s time to update you all on how things have been progressing.

As I type this, we have 517 votes so far. That’s not a typo. That’s unfortunately the actual number of votes. To put this into perspective, last month’s winning book had more than that number of votes all by itself. We really need some help here.  Please put the word out. Please vote. I know this is the last month, but we’re still going to do the Book Cover of the Year, and I truly would like it to support these authors. I’m praying you’ll help me get these designers the credit they deserve.

The Clock Strikes by Sean Cunningham is in first place.

Most Voted on so far: Cunningham has 54 total votes. But it’s honestly anyone’s game at this point. One book getting a solid burst of support gets it all the way to the Book Cover of the Year bracket.

Least Voted for:  Deprecated by Michael Karr has 3 votes. My hope is someone will spread the word and let all of these authors know to put out the call for support.

There’s still a week left, and this month’s winner is in. Also, the runner up will get into the Wild Card round of the Book Cover of the Year bracket.

 

This is the current runner up. If it stays there, it’ll have a shot at the Book Cover of the Year Trophy (The Weech!)

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. 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, 100 people could vote someone through to the finals, but that doesn’t do a cover any good if he doesn’t win the first round. 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.

This will be the only update for this type of bracket. I hope the record does get broken and that I see voters lining up 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 November Book Cover of the Month Begins!

I’m a bit sad as this is the last Book Cover of the Month (at least for a year).  It’s well timed as Brackify is being sold if it isn’t being shut down.  It’s been fun, and I like the idea that I’ll bring it back once I get more of my life in order, but it doesn’t mean I won’t miss this part. We will still do the Wild Card Round and then the 2018 Book Cover of the Year, but that will be it for an undetermined amount of time.

 

For now, let’s send this contest off with a bang!

Unrelenting Tide by Alexa Dare and Into the Fire by K. Gorman join 30 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.

The runner up from this month gets an automatic bid into the 2018 Wild Card Round. So even finishing in the top two helps you out.

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

Thanks for reading,

Matt

An October Book Cover of the Month Update

Greetings all,

With just seven days left in this month’s bracket, it’s time to update you all on how things have been progressing.

As I type this, we have 3,988 votes so far. The fact is one author brought the full support of his following, and it shows. It’s staggering to see, and, frankly, intimidating.

Until Nothing Remains by C.A. Rudolph has a strangle hold on the lead

Most Voted on so far: Rudolph has a staggering 752 votes, mostly because 84 people have voted him all the way to the winner’s circle.  It would take the rest of the top five combined to catch him.

Least Voted for:  Dawn of War by Aaron Hodges has 26 votes each. Maybe it isn’t the best cover this month, but dragons alone should be worth 30 votes, shouldn’t they?

Honestly, Rudolph looks untouchable, but that’s what would make a great come-from-behind victory so amazing!

There’s still a week left, and we can at least see if the runners up can get interesting. After all, the first two runners up get another crack in November’s bracket, which is the next to last chance to get into the Book Cover of the Year bracket.

This is currently the first runner up. If voters keep supporting this cover, it’ll get another shot in November’s bracket!

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. 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, 100 people could vote someone through to the finals, but that doesn’t do a cover any good if he doesn’t win the first round. 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.

This will be the only update for this type of bracket. I hope the record does get broken and that I see voters lining up 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 October Book Cover of the Month Begins!

It’s been a fun two years, but at the moment, running this contest takes more out of me than I have to give. So with that said, I want to announce that I will finish this year’s bracket, but after that, I’m going to, at the very least, take some time to enjoy being married and figuring out what normal looks like. This can be fun, and most of the time it is, but there are times when I fall behind, and catching up takes time from writing, editing, or even marketing. These are all things I have to do. We’ll see how things go, but at the moment I feel like I’m taking a break once I finish this year.

Speaking of finishing this year, this month is one of only two months left. That means November will have two brackets: the normal Book Cover of the Month bracket and the Wild Card round for the Book Cover of the Year bracket.  Be on the lookout for those.

For now, let’s send this contest off with a bang!

Sorcerers’ Web by Lucia Ashta 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

The September Book Cover of the Month Starts Now!

But first, an announcement. The Power of Words is officially live! I’m thrilled at it’s early success.  I sold out of physical editions during the Baltimore ComicCon (I’ll talk more about that on Saturday), and I had more preorders for that book than any other I’ve ever had. It’s live, but it’s still only 99 cents! It will be until Oct. 14, when it goes to its regular price of $3.99. All four of us (TW Iain, Richard T. Drake, Heidi Angell, and myself) are so proud of this. I hope you’ll preorder a copy.

Now, it’s time to start a new book cover of the month competition.

Born to the Blade by Michael Underwood, Marie Brennan, and Cassandra Khaw, and White Mind by Emma Stallings join 30 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

An August Book Cover of the Month Update

Greetings all,

With just seven days left in this month’s bracket, it’s time to update you all on how things have been progressing.

As I type this, we have 1,903 votes so far. I admittedly have to acknowledge that the bulk of my disappointment stems from how much support the bracket had last month. The truth is, we’re on pace for what’s normally a solid month in the bracket, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to see these authors and artists get more support. I’d appreciate anyone spreading the word.

A Pipe of Wings by Sarah K. L. Wilson is in the lead at the moment.

Most Voted on so far: Wings has the most total votes so far with 134. She’s had 15 voters send her all the way through to the winner’s circle, which gives her a lead.

Least Voted for:  Bellweather by Susanna Kearsley and Bitter by V. Moody. These cover have 16 votes each. I’m honestly shocked Bellweather is that low and has so few votes.  Bitter is a solid cover, and I don’t think it deserves that little love either.

Wings looks pretty comfortable with 15 finals votes.  Born to the Blade by Michael R. Underwood (and a few others) is currently in second place (only 9 voters away). But things get interesting when one looks at the whole bracket.

Wings has a less secure lead in the Sweet 16. Wings is only five votes ahead of The Last Great Reaper by Billi Bell.  Fallout by Jacqueline Druga is actually only eight votes away from spoiling the whole thing (if you’re rooting for Wings). If Druga can get eight or so voters to push her all the way to the top, she’d take the title.

One benefit of a smaller turnout is how close things are.  It’s not unreasonable to think one of these authors can call up about ten fans. So I’m excited to see if the tables turn at any point during the last week of the bracket.

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. 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, 100 people could vote someone through to the finals, but that doesn’t do a cover any good if he doesn’t win the first round. 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.

This will be the only update for this type of bracket. I hope the record does get broken and that I see voters lining up 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 Has Begun!

Happy first everyone!  This is the bracket launch, but first, we interrupt this bracket for two very important announcements.

First: I’m engaged! She said yes.  Well, I knew she was going to, but I finally got around to giving her the ring that’s been taunting me for at least a few months.

 

 

 

 
Second: The Power of Words is officially available for preorder! You can lock in your ebook for just 99 cents. It goes live Oct. 1, and will be 99 cents from today until Oct. 14.  All four of us (TW Iain, Richard T. Drake, Heidi Angell, and myself) are so proud of this. I hope you’ll preorder a copy.

 

Now, it’s time to start a new book cover of the month competition.

Age of War by Michael J. Sullivan 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

Announcing the July Book Cover of the Month!

Hello everyone,

We’ve just wrapped up another month. It was simply a historically amazing month. It did so well, I’m pinching myself trying to make sure I’m not dreaming. My goal for this is exposure for authors. Yes, I get some exposure as well, but I’d rather get exposure through helping others get visibility than any other way. This month made me hope we’re reaching a new level.

We had 9,787 votes this month. That’s far and away a new record! Thank you so much! For a moment, I thought we were actually going to crack 10,000.

One cover pulled away early; another surged late (big time), but it wasn’t enough to catch this month’s winner.

The July Book Cover of the Month is…

 

Asunder by L. Steinworth! If you’re curious about how I felt about the book, check out the Facebook post that I posted when this book first landed on the bracket, here.

Let’s look at the stats!

Steinworth received 784 total votes. I’d put her as the early favorite to win the Book Cover of the Year Bracket in December.

Age of War by Michael J. Sullivan came in second, so Sullivan gets a shot at next month’s title. Hopefully he gets the same support. Usually, 30 Finals votes will get a win.  Sullivan had 64, so he’d be the very early favorite. Also, Sullivan has been in several of these brackets. He’s come in second a few times. I think he’d like to get a win.

But for now, let’s look at this month’s winner!

Amazon:

(START BLURB)

Alden knew life in the Shadowen Thieves Guild would cost him greatly, but when their next mission means abducting Princess Mayli Drake of Ammos, the price is too high. Defying the guild, Alden sets out to return Mayli safely home in hopes of restoring peace with the kingdom of Brimley. Mayli feels as though her life has torn asunder after being taken captive. However, if she is to survive, she must come to trust the renegade thief loyal to her mother’s killer. As Alden pleads for Brimley’s innocence, Mayli begins to question what she thought she knew about her kingdom’s enemies.

(END BLURB)

I’ve added Asunder to my TBR. (For those who are new to the deal, I buy the Book Cover of the Month to read and review in the future. I buy all the winning covers. I’ve already bought June, May, April, March, February, January, December’s book.

Here’s Steinworth’s Facebook page. Give it a like if you’re curious about her and her work.

Steinworth actually designed this very cover herself.  There’s a video of some of it somewhere, and I’ll try to link it.

The August Book Cover of the Month is coming along, and that contest will launch Sept. 1.

I will continue to identify and select covers for each day from Amazon’s New Release section for fantasy and science fiction. If you follow and like my Facebook page, you can see what covers will make the bracket.

Thanks for reading

Matt