It's time for the 2013 DABWAHA!
What's the DABWAHA?
It's our March Madness™- style tournament of romance novels, hosted by Jane from Dear Author and yours truly. The tournament began in 2008 which makes this our 6th annual tournament of books. Yay!
What's DABWAHA stand for?
It stands for AWESOMENESS. And the assurance that I should be allowed to name everything because I came up with the name. (It stands for “Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors.”
What do we do?
Today, we announced the slate of nominees! Have a look.
We put together a selection of great books published in 2012 in eight different categories. The books are pitted against each other. Envision a cage match between books. Your votes determines who wins. The books compete until only one book is left.
You, the player, win by guessing which book will win each match. The person who makes the most correct guesses will win an iPad.
How come there are only 7 per category?
Because you (yes, you!) pick the 8th nominee in each category! We pick 56 of the 64 titles but readers, authors, and fans can nominate the last book in each category. This way if you think a book was excluded unfairly, you can nominate it and get all the other fans of that book to join the nomination.
We can nominate a book? Cool!
Yes. But Only 2012 Books Qualify. The book MUST have a publication date of 2012. No exceptions, no reprints. No paperback version of 2011 hardcovers.
Where is the nomination form?
So what do we do now?
Have a look at the slate of nominees, and ask yourself, What awesome book from last year should be in the last spot? Then, prepare ye to nominate. Make sure it's a 2012 book, y'all. You can also look at the calendar for the tournament to prepare yourself for voting.
Voting?
Yup. The winner of each round is determined by reader voting. Polls open, and voting commences! There's vote mongering, trash talking, and zany compliment wars on all forms of social media during the DABWAHA, too, so there's a lot of goofy fun to be had.
This sounds fun. What do we win?
PRIZES. Nice ones! The winners of the tournament – both the reader with the best bracket and the author of the winning book – win a big prize, and there are prizes for each round, plus prizes for random middle brackets, and prizes for the worst bracket of all. Lots of things to win – all provided by authors and readers, and Jane and Sarah.
Vote haggling, trading, trash talking, and all sorts of competitive behaviors are encouraged. “Lean in” readers. It is #DABWAHA time.
I think I need a nap.
So have a nap. Then get ready to DABWAHA!
Here are the Important Links:
- Where to Vote: http://dabwaha.com
- Where to Nominate: Nomination Form
- Where to Fill out the Pick Sheet: Pick Sheet – pre registration only.
- Where to feverishly recheck for results: Tourney Site
- The Schedule: http://dabwaha.com/2013-schedule/