NERDS HEART YA
A long, long time ago on a web page far, far away, a group of people wondered what it would be like to help promote awesome young-adult books that didn’t get much love or visibility when they were published. Nerds Heart YA was born and young-adult authors and readers everywhere did a dance of happiness (see also: Snoopy).
Currently, Nerds Heart YA is hosting their second annual contest, which works a lot like the March Madness brackets for college basketball. Out of the thousands of books published books in 2009, they chose 32 finalists and created brackets for each. Now, they’re hosting a read-off of sorts where they pick which books advance. They’ll keep whittling down the list until there’s only one book left.
Last year’s winner was Steve Kluger’s book, My Most Excellent Year.
I am proud as punch that, this year, Donut Days made it into the finalists list and — be still my heart! — made it through the first round of eliminations. If there is an American Idol for books, this is it. (Except the judges are really super nice. No Simons here. Or loopy Paulas for that matter.)
No matter the winner, this effort to support underrepresented YA literature deserves props. And links and web hits and RT’s. So for those who RT or promote the contest (@NerdsHeartYA), I’m offering two prizes to winners who will be chosen at random. Just leave me a comment and let me know what you did (tell me if you RT’d or linked to the contest or blogged about it or something else) and I’ll throw your name into the prize pool. I’m giving away a $15 Barnes and Noble gift card, as well as a signed copy of DONUT DAYS.
Thanks for the support, and goooooo books!
9 Responses to “NERDS HEART YA”
June 16th, 2010 at 6:13 am
We have tried very hard to filter out the Simons
Thanks for posting about NerdsHeartYA and congratulations on seeing your book go through to the second round where it will face ‘In Mike We Trust’ by P E Ryan.
June 16th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Hi! I saw the RT of this from @nerdsheartya, and have tweeted about it myself. (twitter.com/Spindilly). Congratulations on making it to the second round – I know that they usually pick AWESOME young adult stuff to begin with, so getting to the second round really shows how good it is!
June 16th, 2010 at 11:53 am
I was actually one of the judges that sent DONUT DAYS through to the next round. It’s an excellent book and I don’t know why it didn’t get more love the first time around, but it was a pleasure to read and promote!
June 16th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Yay for Nerds Heart YA! I am quaking in my boots at the prospect of facing IN MIKE WE TRUST. But I am *all* about this cool, awesome contest. Thanks for all you guys do to show love to YA lit. I wish I could buy you all ponies.
June 16th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
OMG Lara! I’m so happy for you!! I just got a copy of MY MOST EXCELLENT YEAR last week and I’ll put it next to your book for some good luck (but I’m sure you won’t need it ;P)!
Oh and here’s my tweet: http://twitter.com/ylin0621/status/16342893151 xD YAY LARA!!
June 16th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Congrats, congrats! Nerds Heart YA is so awesome – I got so many good recommendations from that last year.
I retweeted for you http://twitter.com/SeeMichelleRead/status/16343313379
Thanks! and good luck!
June 17th, 2010 at 12:47 am
Congrats !
i saw Yan’s Tweet about this.
and this is my tweet : http://twitter.com/becunique/status/16348734045
June 17th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Thanks you guys! Will keep the contest open for a few more days, then close it out. Yay!
June 17th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
i tweeted, need summer reads!