Announcing the 2017 M.L.S. Weech Book Cover of the Year!

Greetings all,

It was a great year filled with a lot of great covers, great authors, and some amazing books.  Thanks to this idea, I got to read my favorite book of the year. I got to make some amazing connections, but this is really all about the covers.

We had 5,317 votes for this bracket. That’s actually fantastic given we had one less round. In the monthly brackets, we start with 32, and that ads 16 more votes per voter. These numbers mean we had at least 1,329 unique voters, and that’s awesome if you ask me. The winner of this contest can say more than 1,000 people looked at all 16 covers, and thought his or hers was best. (I have to TRY and keep some drama don’t I?)

There were three different leaders at different points of the contest. It was a close fight between the last two (came within ten voters, which would be one percent for those math people out there). However, I’m proud to say we have an undisputed champion.

The 2017 M.L.S. Weech Book Cover of the Year is…

 

 

 

 

Colony Lost by Chris Philbrook! This was the August Book Cover of the Month. Just check out that link for a book blurb and more info on how his cover did.

Let’s look at the stats!  Phil brook beat his other competitors by more than 40 votes in each round. Night Stalker by R.L. Weeks gave him a bit of a run for his money in the Elite Eight early on, but then he pulled away. The Door Keeper by Steen Jones also gave him a good fight up till about three days ago. It looked like The Girl Who Could See would be the only one to best him in the finals, but then he snatched the lead and didn’t let it go!  He only won that championship round by ten votes, but those ten voters came in a very timely manner.

He received 542 total votes. He came into the tournament ranked fifth. He started out chasing Loveless by Marissa Howard, but then managed to climb his way to the top.

That means the Weech goes to Philbrook’s cover designer, which means he not only owes us a jig (I’m not kidding this time Chris, your fans deserve it!), but I also need him to tell me who that designer is so I can engrave The Weech and send it over to him.

 

I hope you all had fun this year. I really am pleased with how things turned out, but I’m hopeful this continues to grow. I hope the authors and artists who were involved spread the word so other authors and artists can get exposure. That’s the whole point of this tournament.

That said. There’s another post on my blog that just came up. The December Book Cover of the Month is up and running as we speak. I won’t be pestering people nearly as much. You all came out by the hundreds (literally), and I think it’s only fair to step it back a bit for the December and January Book Cover of the Month brackets. But it was fun this year, and I’ll do it again next year. We’ll see how things go after that. If it catches on, I’ll keep it going.

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

The 2017 M.L.S. Weech Book Cover of the Year Bracket Starts Now!

Hello all and Happy New Year!

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, November, and The Wild Cards.

346 book covers. 43,724 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 (Loveless) is going up against the Wild Card that received the fewest votes. (The Girl Who Could See), 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, but, as I mentioned when I announced the Wild Card Winners, 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.

Also, if you’re wondering where the 2018 December’s Book Cover of the Month bracket is, worry not. That bracket will kick off RIGHT after the BCOTY ends. So this month will be pretty full and by the time we get to Feb. 1, people might be pretty tired of it. I’m not sure what else to do about it, so I’m open to ideas, but this is what I got right now.

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 Review: The Door Keeper by Steen Jones

This image was taken from Goodreads.com for review purposes under fair use doctrine. The banner and author’s image were taken from her blog for the same purposes.

Spoiler Free Summary: The Door Keeper by Steen Jones  was my March Book Cover of the Month. It’s a fantasy story about Eden Saunders, a young single mother whose trip to learn more about her birth mother thrusts her into realms she’d never imagine. As she learns more of her place of origin, her mother’s secrets and tragedies leave her with a choice that will affect not only her life, but that of her young daughter.

Character:  Eden has some sympathy to her, and she’s proactive. Honestly, my knock on her is she’s a bit too proactive. I found myself wishing she’d thought of a few things more carefully before she found herself in danger. This seemed like an intentional character flaw to me as she habitually acts first and then considers those consequences later. Some of those impulsive decisions didn’t necessarily sit well with me, but her actions lead to more interesting conflicts which have higher stakes. Some of these characters were interesting, but unexplored. Marek, is a character I would’ve liked to have seen explored more. His arc was probably the most interesting, but it wasn’t honestly pursued.

Exposition: If I’m being honest, it’s been too long for me to remember much about the exposition. It was first person narrative, but I don’t honestly recall too much exposition. It could be the amount of time it’s been, but I don’t think so. I’d remember being slowed down by a ton of exposition, and this book didn’t slow me down that much. I have to be honest about the time though. I’d say it was done only when necessary if I was forced to comment on it.

Worldbuilding:  This is the best quality of this book. The realms are interesting. This is what kept me reading. Portals (or in this case literal doors) to other places aren’t rare in fiction like this, but the world building for each culture and each setting stand apart. The author seemed to have given a lot of thought to the appearance of each realm as well as the political landscape.

Dialogue: This was hit or miss for me. Sometimes it was snappy, but other times it felt a tad forced. I’d never go so far as to say it was ever stilted or bad, but the snappy, witty segments showed promises of what could be where the more forced or stereotypical dialog passages were harder to handle because I knew what Jones could do.

Description:  If the worldbuilding is the best aspect of the book, this is the next closest. Jones makes each setting and location feel visceral. I honestly think her magical realms feel more real sometimes than her Earth realm settings. I think her worldbuilding and description work together brilliantly. This means if wondrous landscapes and brilliant details are priorities for you, this book is probably right up your alley.

Overall: This was an ambitiously optimistic novel with a fascinating world to explore. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone looking for stories jam-packed with conflict. The problems and challenges are quickly overcome without a lot of effort or sacrifice. (Some may argue the sacrifice part, but I’m willing to have it with whoever wants.) That said, some readers appreciate a story that’s happy and hopeful throughout. The entertainment of the story is in the experience of the worlds, not the evolution of it’s characters. Fans of wondrous landscapes and interesting settings will love it.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Announcing the March Book Cover of the Month!

The March Book Cover of the Month bracket has just wrapped up. This was a very tough bracket from my point of view. We had some heavily-supported authors and some tight races. We didn’t break a ton of records, but still had a solid month. We had a total of 2,808 votes. The last round had 190 votes. It was a pretty close contest, but someone has to win.

The March Book Cover of the Month is…

This image and all associated images are used for review purposes under fair use. The intent is to draw attention to the product.

 

The Door Keeper by Steen Jones! 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!

I’d have to say this is a bit of an upset. This isn’t because Door Keeper isn’t a great cover; I only select covers that are great to go into the bracket. I say it’s a bit of an upset because Frank Dorrian had such a huge following. In terms of pure numbers, To Brave the End actually had a total of 348 votes, which is more than the 288 (yeah, that much more) than Steen had through the tournament.  But Dorrian had a strong Elite8 and Final4; however, Steen had the stronger finals, and that’s how tournaments work.  She brought her following when it mattered most, wining 107 to 83.

All is not lost for Dorrian.  He’ll receive the last (reentry) bid in the April Book Cover of the Month. If you liked his cover, you’ll have another chance to get him some recognition next month.

Now, for this month’s winner…The Door Keeper is Steen’s first novel.  Here’s the Amazon blurb.

Amazon:

(START BLURB)

Adventure. Love. Destiny.

Single mom Eden Saunders has learned that tragedy is simply a part of life. Her mother died during childbirth, and her husband was killed just three years after they married. On a journey to discover where she comes from, Eden inherits the key to unlocking new worlds from her deceased mother—including the world that should have been her home. The only thing stopping her from exploring them is the fear of leaving her daughter behind. Caught up in the circle of legacy, Eden discovers the mother-daughter bond that even death cannot break.

In discovering where she truly came from, Eden inherits a key from her deceased mother that opens doors to different worlds beyond her imagination, including the world that should have been her home. The only thing stopping her from exploring them is the fear of leaving her own daughter behind. T he Door Keeper explores the circle of mother/daughter legacies, and the bond that unites them; a bond that even death can not break.

(END BLURB)

As always, I’ve purchased the book and added it 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 bought Manning’s cover, Howard’s cover, and Deyo’s cover, and they are also on my TBR. (I’m reading Manning’s book now. Look for a review on that probably in the next two weeks.)

Here’s Ms. Jones’s Facebook page. Give her a like if you’re curious about her work.

The artist for this cover is Meghan Brim.  I’ll reach out to her and see if she’d like to have an interview later on in the week.  I don’t have a website of info for her just yet, but I’ll be sure to give you everything I can once I (if I) contact her.

The April bracket is ready to go and will launch on May 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

March BCOTM Finals!

The semifinals are over, and that means we’ve narrowed down our vote to the final 2!  We ended with 94 votes. This pushed us to 2,618 for the month. As always, 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:

 

I can honestly say they were both close depending on how you look at it.  The Door Keeper by Steen Jones beat The Burning World by Isaac Marion won by 10 votes (63 percent of the total). To Brave the End by Frank Dorrian only beat Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan by 60 percent (11 votes).

Most Voted On Contest:
Dorian’s match was the more voted on of the two with 55 total votes (more on that below).

Most Votes:
Dorrian’s book cover has taken every round since the Sweet 16. He’s rolling along, but I think Jones will give him a run for his money. I’m looking forward to seeing who wins.

As always, the top runner up for the round gets the chance to try again, and, for the first time, that lucky cover is once more Age of Myth. I’ve never had a book cover appear on more than two BCOTM brackets before. But Age just keeps hanging around. Age had 22 votes to Burning Wolrd’s 14, so is why Age gets the chance to try again.

A note on the tournament itself. I’ve spoken to a few authors, and it’s pretty demanding having a round-by-round that goes on for some three weeks. I’m going to try a few things in the next few months (the next few brackets) that I hope increases participation and limits how much these authors have to work to rally the troops.  I don’t want this to be work or annoying to anyone.

Next month, the first thing we’ll try is a shorter time period. It will still be a round by round, which is something I’m a fan of. It lets me highlight covers multiple times, and usually lets a different cover shine each day I do an update blog. I’m going to try a single-vote tournament in June, just to see how it goes.  What I want is the best blend between max participation and exposure for these artists and authors.  Once I try a few things, I’ll let the one I feel is best run for a while before I change things up.

But that’s all future stuff, and the Finals have just begun!

They last until midnight of April 22. (That’s about 48 hours).

Head over here and vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

March Book Cover of the Month Final 4!

We’re down to four, and I think it’ll be a tough round!

We picked things up a bit. This round had 314 votes, which brings us to 2,524 for the month. I’d love to see us break 4,000 for the month, but as long as you’re supporting the covers you love, that’s all that matters.

Let’s look at how this round broke down:

The Closest Contest:
Last month’s runner up, Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan, just finds a way to win every round. It’s always close, but Sullivan always comes through. He managed to beat Empress of the Fall by David Hair by just 10 votes (barely 57 percent of the votes in that match).  That was the closest match no matter which way you measured it.

The Largest Victor:
I’m not an odds man myself, but I’m thinking whoever wants to make it to the finals is going to need at least 65 votes.  And only two people have been hitting (and passing) that mark so far. This week The Burning World by Isaac Marion beat Gilded Cage by Vic James by a sound 44 votes, and at 79 percent of the votes, that takes the cake no matter how you slice it.

Most Voted On Contest:
As dominant as Marion’s victory was, his match didn’t garner the most support. That distinction goes to To Brave the End by Frank Dorrian vs Ahe’ey by Jamie Le Fay. That match was well ahead of the rest with 106 votes. I’ve seen Mr. Dorrian’s posts on FB and Twitter. I’m much obliged for your support, and your readers are doing a fine job of backing your outstanding cover.

This was still a slower than usual round. (Honestly, we’re only three months in, so it’s not like there’s a “usual” yet.) Still, all the contests had at least 60 votes, which is pretty respectable in my opinion.

Least Voted On Contest:
The Door Keeper by Steen Jones vs Asharielle by Kathryn Cook racked up 63 votes. It was a pretty close match, with Jones only wining by 14 votes.

Most Votes:
Marion came on strong, but Dorrian wins his second round of the tournament with the most votes.  He earned 64 for the round and is sitting at 232 for the tournament (That’s 16 votes more than Marion at the moment).  I hope this motivates Jones and Sullivan’s fans: It looks like an epic head to head between Dorrian and Marion unless someone pulls of an impressive upset. For those rooting for those underdogs, remember to share the tournament and ask your friends to support.

The Final 4 ends at the strike of Midnight, April 20. That’s only 2 days, so call your friends, share my posts, get your readers engaged!

The good news for those who made it into this round is that one of you is already guaranteed a bid in next month’s bracket if this month doesn’t work out for you. The top vote-earning runner up will automatically go in for the April bracket, so every vote counts in this round.

Get out there and vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

March Elite 8!

Hello everyone! The Elite 8 is here! The Sweet 16 had 457 votes, which puts us at a total of 2,210 votes so far!

Let’s go over some numbers:

 

The Closest Contest:

Empress of the Fall by David Hair narrowly defeated The Secret of Spellshadow Manor by Bella Forrest. It was the closest match both in terms of votes (only by 7) and percentage of votes (55).

The Largest Victor:
Frank Dorrian has thrown down the gauntlet. He racked up an impressive 82 votes.  His book, To Brave the End, defeated The Lich by Adam Vine by 55 votes (75%). In fact, Dorrian earned more votes than any single match. (So needless to say his match had the most votes, and Dorrian’s book received the most votes).

Least Voted On Contest:

Night Lights by Helen Harper vs Gilded Cage by Vic James only received 53 votes. This was a slower round than usual, but we were bound to level off after three consecutive record breaking months. Fifty votes in a contest isn’t anything to balk at, but, as always, I’m going to ask that when you rally your voters, please ask them to vote in each match.

 

To Brave the End is the current leader in total votes due to his amazing support. The Burning World isn’t far behind, but rest of the pack is.  The number three vote earner so far (Asharielle by Kathryn Cook) is 46 votes behind.

There’s still time to support your favorite book cover.

The Elite Eight lasts until April 18, so things should pick up with less time to vote between rounds.

Head over here and vote!

One last thing.  I’ve gotten a bit of feedback that says the tournament is too long. I want the authors to have enough time to drum up support, but I don’t want it to be taxing.  Do any of you have any ideas or recommendations? Is the tournament too long? How many days do you think you need?

Thanks for reading,

Matt

March BCOTM Sweet 16!

I keep feeling overwhelmed when these numbers are so high, but they just keep climbing.  This is another record-breaking round.  This month’s first round had 1,642, which is nearly 200 more than last month’s first round.

Let’s go over some numbers:

 

The Closest Contest:

Night Lights by Helen Harper beat Holding Their Own XIII Renegade by Joe Nobody only had a three vote difference.  Lights won the day. That match was a 52-48 percent split.  So was The Door Keeper by Steen Jones vs God of the Sun by Kimberly Loth. Keeper took that match.

The Largest Victor:
Hello Isaac Marion and his hoard of loyal voters! My goodness, his book The Burning World, beat The Front  by David Moody to the tune of 93 votes and 85 percent of the match.  Get this….HIS match wasn’t the most voted on contest!

Most Voted On Contest:
When matches are getting up there, it’s hard to notice how close they ar.  To Brave the End by Frank Dorrian vs Fade by Daniel Humphreys was only decided by 15 votes, but it had 155 votes total!

Least Voted On Contest:
I’m a little sad.  Most votes had more than 80.  Heck, a lot had more than 90 votes, so I’m sad that Betrayal by Dirk van den Boom vs Arkwright by Allen Steele only received 64 votes. If you could please ask your supporters to vote in each match, that will only increase the level of competition.  Let’s try to support each match.

Most Votes:
Marion is off to an amazing start. I’m pretty sure he broke the record for more first-round votes. He took 112 votes all by himself.  Perspective: All of December’s bracket only had a TOTAL of 144 votes. So Marion has staked his claim. Is anyone ready to take him on?

So now it’s on to the Sweet 16!  This round will last until April 15. That’s 7 days to pick which 8 will move on.

Head over here and vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

February

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