Thursday, May 9, 2013

The One Where the YA Crush Tourney Returns

So, I know we said that we were done with the tournaments after all the craziness of last summer, but we are so very weak and caved.  So many of you have told us how much you love the tournaments and  how they have introduced you to new books.  When it's for the love of books, its hard to say no.  The first crush tournament that we held was amazing.  We really want to get back the feeling and spirit of that first tournament.  We talked and brainstormed basically all year on how and even if that would be possible.  From the beginning, our intentions for these tournaments have always been to spread a love of YA literature and bring attention to great books, characters and authors in Young Adult literature.   We want to go back to those roots and ensure new books and authors are being introduced, and its not the same characters every year ending in a throwdown between the biggest fan clubs.  We've come up with a few changes that we believe will strengthen and continue on with the original purpose of the tournaments.

We've broken down the nominations into categories.  The categories we have chosen are Realistic Fiction, Speculative Fiction, 2012/2013 Debuts, and Indie published.  We will have 6 nominees from each category then 4 wild cards from any category making a 28 seed tournament.  These are the definitions:

Realistic fiction is anything that happens in real life.  This could be contemporary, historical, thriller etc as long as it fits under the heading of realism.

Speculative Fiction is an umbrella term that includes all works that could be considered non-realism including paranormal, supernatural, dystopian, fantasy, alternate universe etc.

2012/2013 Debuts is any book that has been published by a first time YA author in 2012/2013.  This must be the authors first YA novel, and it must be published in either 2012/2013.

Indie published means books that have been self-published or published by a small press.

Before the nominations open, we will give even more detailed definitions of these categories. Please note: This is a YA Crush Tournament only. No NA or MG heroes will be accepted.

We have really thought long and hard about these categories, and we think this will create a tournament that spreads a love of YA literature and brings to light books and authors that deserve more attention.  Plus, it still allows room for old favorites.

We have also invited 4 other blogs to help us out in this process.  These 4 blogs are actually going to hold the nominations for us!  All of them have been involved in the tournaments in the past and are very familiar with how the tournament works.  They will each host the nominations for their specific category.  These 4 AMAZING blogs are:

Fictitious Delicious (Realistic Fiction)
Fantasy Book Addict (Speculative Fiction)
Pageturners Blog (Debuts)
Stuck In Books (Indie)

Nominations will open on May 20th (12:01am) and close on May 25th (12:01am).  So, start following these blogs, stalk their twitters, find their facebook accounts and get your nominations ready for when the window opens in a little under two weeks!   We are super excited for this and genuinely hope all of you feel the same.  Let's all make this the best tournament ever and start spreading the word and love for these great books!

Lastly, we will only be allowing 1 crush per author.  You can still nominate as many characters from 1 author as you want, but we will only take the top one with the most votes into the tournament.  We know that this might upset some people out there, but we want to spread the love to all authors.  You might have to finally pick a team in some of those triangles that are so tormenting! And as always, previous tournament winners are not eligible to be nominated.

We will of course be sending out more information about nominations, advocates, wild cards, schedules and all the little details as the time gets closer, but we couldn't wait any longer without sharing the news.  So if you're interested in being involved in the tourney, make sure you're following the blog so you don't miss out.

Don't forget to start spreading the word right now about nominations!  Use the hashtag #YACrushTourney!

P.S. If there is anyone out there with great photo-shop skills that would be willing to help us make a banner for the Tournament, please email us at yasisterhood(at)gmail(dot)com.