Fifty-two weeks, 365 covers, 64 polls have all led us here to the 2021 M.L.S. Weech Book Cover of the Year Poll.
We have 12 beautiful covers for you to choose from. If you’re looking for a bit more data on what they are and why they are in the tournament, please feel free to watch this YouTube video:
While you’re at it, would you be kind enough to subscribe to my channel? It’s free, and it really helps show support for an indie guy like me.
This contest will go on for three weeks, and then I’ll name a winner.
There won’t be a 2022 competition. I think my channel needs a bit more time to really make all the effort and stuff worth it. I may revisit the idea if my channel gets more traction, but this is it for the next year at least. The channel will go in a different direction. Once I have a sense of what sort of content viewers are looking for, I’ll build from there.
We’re officially one step closer to the 2021 M.L.S. Weech Book Cover of the Year! We have two winners to announce (including last week’s winner), so let’s get to it.
The 2021 M.L.S. Weech December Book Cover of the Month is …
School For Spirits by Aron Lewes beat out three other great covers to take the title and earn it’s place in the 2021 M.L.S. Weech Book Cover of the Year contest.
January’s contest is already halfway done. The winner for week two is …
The Tinder Box by Kate Elliott was such a unique cover, I’m not surprised it stood out against the competition.
The Tinder Box joins Spark in the January’s overall contest.
I’d appreciate it if you all stopped by my YouTube channel and checked it out. Please give it a like, share, and subscribe. It’s where I talk about the book covers and offer my opinions on why they work so well.
I’d also be appreciative if you took a moment to pop on over to my YouTube page and gave it a like and a subscribe. It’s just another way to help out your friendly neighborhood independent author.
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. This has been a record-setting month in a few ways.
4,918 votes (at the moment) is already enough to make this month’s bracket the second-most voted on bracket in the nine months I’ve been doing this. I thank everyone for their support. It’s always great to see people support their favorite artists and authors.
We’ve had three books hold the lead so far. Winged Hussars by Mark Wandrey started out in the lead. The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss held the lead for a day before A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden took it for a few days. The Girl Who Could See by Kara Swanson has held the number one spot for the last few days. The Heresy Within by Rob J. Hayes even held the top spot for about 12 hours. This is a very tight race, and with this format, anyone can win if they get a solid push near the end of the voting time.
Most Voted on so far: Swanson has the most round wins and the most votes overall with 276 total votes.
Least Voted for: The Light of Burning Shadows by Chris Evans currently has the fewest votes (81). Fans of Evans should rally to help this cover get at least a bit more credit than that.
The Elite 8 is the closest round so far. The top four vote-earners in that round are within eight votes of each other. Swanson is only four votes ahead of Oden in the final four. So looking at each round of votes, Swason has a pretty solid lead in the first two rounds, but life gets a bit tough after that.
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 Swanson). 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, 21 people (the most) have voted Winged Hussars all the way to the championship, but that’s not enough because Wandrey can’t make up the 63-vote deficit he has to Swanson in the initial round. The last time I did one of these contests, I was worried because I thought a person could win the championship without winning a round. I had a problem with that. Further study of this bracket and the reports I have access to have put my mind at ease. It’s not as simple as a round by round, but it at least won’t allow a person to snatch a championship with only a few people voting for them. 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.
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!
Happy first everyone! The shorter time for brackets means a longer wait for me, and I sort of miss the pace of the longer brackets. Then again, the additional time to write is much needed. It’s time for a new bracket though. If you’re curious or new, check out the Book Covers for December,January,February,March,April,May, and June.
July’s bracket has 31 plus The Girl Who Could See by Kara Swanson which gets a second shot at the title.
We’re doing another “vote all the way through” bracket. I put it back up to two weeks because I think the summer months are slow in a lot of ways. 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.
Greetings all,
Most Voted on so far: Swanson has the most round wins and the most votes overall with 276 total votes.
M.L.S. Weech 