Bitchin' Blog Posts

64 Books Enter. One Leaves. Much Arguing In Between.

by SB Sarah | March 16, 2008 | Sunday at 5:00 pm | 36 Comments

DA BWAHAIt’s time! And IT IS ON. Dear Author and the Smart Bitches present the DA BWAHA Tournament.  We have fielded a slate of 64 “best” books in 8 different categories:

     
  • Young Adult
  •  
  • Paranormal
  •  
  • Erotica/Erotic Romance
  •  
  • GLBT
  •  
  • Historical
  •  
  • Contemporary
  •  
  • Novel With Romantic Elements
  •  
  • Category



Today through Wednesday 7 am EST, you are allowed to fill out your bracket.  The bracket is found here

On Wednesday, you’ll begin to see polls, both at Dear Author and at the Smart Bitches, pitting different pairs of books against each other.  The goal, when filling out the bracket, is to guess which book is going to win each poll.  The winners of the polls advance against each other until the final poll contains the last two books, one of which will be the 2008 DA BWAHA Book of the Year. 

You will need to enter a tiebreaker number (anything from 1 to 1000) in case your bracket ties with someone else’s bracket. Our tie-breaker will be the total number of entries we receive.  Please use the threads both at Dear Author and here at the hot pink hall of Bitchin’ to bemoan our picks, to engage in speculation regarding the winners, and to generally have a good time.

Welcome to the 2008 DA BWAHA.

Filed: DA BWAHA Award

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Aimee said on 03.16.08 at 06:06 PM

very cool, ladies.

Teddypig said on 03.16.08 at 06:16 PM

I don’t know, I do have one thing I would have liked to have seen.

I would have loved to have the nominations for each category get the chance to pan out against each other before going up against a whole other category.

That way there might be a bigger blood bath but also it would feel more logical in some ways.

SB Sarah said on 03.16.08 at 06:19 PM

TP - when I was test driving it last night, I double checked that. Each book should be up against another book in the same subgenre in the first round.

Tina said on 03.16.08 at 08:43 PM

I can’t write the books in the bracket-is there something else I’m supposed to do than just follow the link?

Marianne McA said on 03.16.08 at 08:43 PM

Only read 5….

Being pedantic, wasn’t Lord John and the Private Matter published ages ago? Is it meant to be LJ & the Brotherhood of the Blade?

(In which case I’ve only read 4.)

SB Sarah said on 03.16.08 at 08:47 PM

Tina: Click on the book title in the “Make Your Picks” page here. That should cause your pick to appear in the next column to the left, advancing through the bracket.

And Marianne: I think you are right. EEP!

maya said on 03.16.08 at 08:48 PM

am i a total doof?
was able to fill out everything but the field for my own name. wouldn’t let me in.
????

Kay Webb Harrison said on 03.16.08 at 09:03 PM

Maya,
Click on “New.”

gremlin said on 03.16.08 at 09:31 PM

question: the Tie Breaker on the entry page says ‘total points in final game’, but on this blog entry it says ‘total number of entries we receive’.  which is it really?

other than the tiebreaker, i’ve got my entry ready to submit.

Amelia "Fuckheady Bitchipants" Elias said on 03.16.08 at 09:35 PM

Maybe it’s just because I’ve never followed sports tourneys, but this elimination thing makes zero sense to me.  Although since I don’t recognize any of the titles, I suppose my vote would be meaningless anyway!

Have fun, everyone who gets it!

Jenyfer Matthews said on 03.16.08 at 10:19 PM

You and me both, Amelia. I’ll be the ditz on the sidelines cheering for the books with the prettiest covers :)

Ciaralira said on 03.16.08 at 10:38 PM

I haven’t even heard of half these books. Why didn’t you pick well-known ones?

Sarah Frantz said on 03.16.08 at 10:39 PM

Re: going up against a book in the same category…that’s not how it’s done in the basketball, is it?  Or are there only four brackets, so they all go up against the opposite sede?  NOT a b-ball fan, can you tell?

Allie said on 03.17.08 at 12:00 AM

Eep, I only know some of these books.  And sometimes I voted against one I loved to pick one I felt was more crowd pleasing . . . my competitive blood is pumping.

Becky said on 03.17.08 at 12:03 AM

I’ve read 9 of the nominated books.  Seven of them go up against each other in the first or second rounds.  So even if I just votes for the ones I know, that doesn’t help me eliminate many.

close66- My pick for winner was pretty good, but I really doubt I’m “close”.

Wry Hag said on 03.17.08 at 12:03 AM

Might this tourney be underwritten by RWA?  Cuz . . . I didn’t see any e-books. 

Just kidding.  For the most part.

megalith said on 03.17.08 at 12:18 AM

Wow, I’d only read a few of these, so I had to go mostly by the synopses. Sorry, I had no strategery beyond voting for those that sounded interesting and those that I knew and loved. So, I doubt I’ll be anywhere near competitive, but I did end up with a hella good TBR list. Thanks!

BTW, was my name supposed to appear on the list on the final screen? I hope not..Oh man, do not make me do that again…

kpsr. said on 03.17.08 at 12:56 AM

i’ve been trying to figure out what it is about the ya selections that’s bugging me.
i finally think i figured it out.
it’s not really in any way a romance catagory.
or at least, the majority of those selections don’t fit in a romance catagory.
you’ve got suicide, child abuse, cancer, alienation all happy fun times.
it’s not that there aren’t great books in that list (there are, although boy toy is not one of them, imo) it’s just jarring because i have trouble comparing to the other lists.
huh.
i spend too much of my time with kids books. maybe i should get out more.

SonomaLass said on 03.17.08 at 03:29 AM

I can’t believe I have to pick between Jennifer Crusie and Nora Roberts in round one. Wah!

I agree about Diana Gabaldon’s book being the wrong Lord John.  Any way to fix that?

This is great, and obviously a LOT of work.  Sure, there will be a few kinks, but overall, what fun!

Thanks to all who have/are/will work so hard on this.

orangehands said on 03.17.08 at 05:31 AM

I think I recognized about five of the books, so I just picked the ones I thought might win. Like Allie, my competitive blood is pumping (and knows it probably won’t make it to round two)

Took me about an hour to fill out :)

kpsr: no, don’t say that! i picked Boy Toy for the first three rounds or so. dang it.

Vanessa said on 03.17.08 at 06:56 AM

Ok, just so I know I’m not being completely slow here: I have to pick my choice for each category, in each round, all the way to the end? Like, when I hit “submit” every single field is filled out, right? AND THEN the polling thing happens? I’m a total and complete newbie to any March Madness situations lol

maya said on 03.17.08 at 07:11 AM

report for benefit of other tech-doofuses (besides myself: i refuse to believe i’m the only one! but if i am - carry on)

pressing the ‘new’ button beside the ‘name’ field DID NOT work in the early afternoon of Sunday, nor on the first two tries coming up to midnight sunday. but on the third try, moments into monday morning - presto!

so if it doesn’t work for you, try more than once and/or come back later.

let the thread debates begin!

Another Damn Sarah said on 03.17.08 at 08:38 AM

I have read exactly one these books:  13 Reasons Why.  And it was pretty damn good.  All the other choices were based on cover art, book title, and synopses.  So this is going to go exactly like all the March Madness tourneys I’ve filled out, except I know more about books than basketball.

orangehands said on 03.17.08 at 09:06 AM

Vanessa: you have it.

Shannon C. said on 03.17.08 at 09:54 AM

I’ve read exactly one of the books on the balot, too. Although to be fair some of the others I picked are on my TBR pile. I guess I better get to them a lot sooner given that I’m pinning a lot of hopes on them. Also, I went with crowd-pleasers for the most part, except for the book I have personally read.

Brianna said on 03.17.08 at 10:01 AM

Umm, I don’t mean to sound like a total idiot, but when it says ‘Name last, first’, does that mean ‘surname, first name’? I’m confused (which after only an hour’s sleep in the last 40 hours is not difficult).

Nora Roberts said on 03.17.08 at 02:21 PM

I’ve never participated in an author/book poll. Just didn’t think I should. But I couldn’t resist this one. FUN! And yes, of course, I voted for myself.

I got a kick out of voting for books I’ve read or heard buzz about—or never heard of at all.

KCfla said on 03.17.08 at 02:47 PM

Too Cool!
( though I’ve read only 6 of the books, and have a snowball’s chance in Hades of winning lol!)

Sandy D. said on 03.17.08 at 04:20 PM

Um, what kind of number should one put in the tie breaker total points in final game? I picked a number at random. :-/

Erin said on 03.17.08 at 05:13 PM

Holy crap this is awesome…

doelily18 said on 03.17.08 at 08:21 PM

hey just a quick question, how long does it take for your name to show up in the standings, cause mine is MIA. Sorry if the answer is blatantly obvious but im slow and in need of help.
Thanks ladies

HelenKay Dimon said on 03.17.08 at 10:25 PM

I’m with Nora.  This was too fabulous to miss.  And since my bok goes up against SEP in the first round, I wanted my book to get one vote… :)

Spider said on 03.17.08 at 11:23 PM

I, too, am having issues getting my picks in.  I’ve tried twice now (with two different browsers: Safari, then Firefox), and I still don’t see my name under “players.”

Is there a delay to it, in which case I can leave well enough alone, or should I be making a note to try again later?

joanne said on 03.18.08 at 12:58 AM

For God’s sake; take up a collection and send me money, I’ve read a shit load of those books…


submit word: effort 37… if it was an effort at 37 at my age it’s a damn impossibility…..

Vanessa said on 03.18.08 at 03:24 AM

Thanks orangehands :) ok, so it went, but I’m also not seeing my name. I’m gonna chill though, as I’m assuming that its gonna pop up when it feels like lol

SB Sarah said on 03.18.08 at 03:27 AM

Once Jane gets the bracket entries, she has to upload them in batches - so stay tuned. Your name will appear.

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