Monday, March 18, 2013

BigAl's Books and Pals Readers' Choice Awards




In the twelve months ending February 28th, 2013, BigAl and the Pals received over 1,400 books to consider for review. Almost 300 of them were selected, read, and reviewed. From those we chose the books we felt stood out from the pack as exceptional examples of Indie writing (self-published and small press) and divided them into twelve categories.

For the next two weeks we'll be collecting votes from our readers to determine the winners in each category and holding a giveaway in conjunction with our voting. The Rafflecopter form below can be used to vote, with entries made in the giveaway for each of your votes, along with several other entry methods.


Since many of these books may be unfamiliar, you can find our review on any of them using the index by author or index by title pages (links on the top right of any page on the site). Between now and Friday our posts we'll be focused on these awards, with posts each day spotlighting the nominees.

Might we suggest that if you aren't familiar with the books in categories you enjoy, now would be a great time to sample them using Amazon's "Look Inside" feature,  and please encourage all your book loving friends to drop by and participate.

Please note, the giveaway and voting form below does NOT work with Microsoft Internet Explorer. You'll have to use another browser.

If you aren't familiar with the Rafflecopter application/form, here are a few quick hints. 

First, If you see a sign-in page below, you'll have to either sign-on using your Facebook login or by giving a name and email address by clicking the appropriate button. (No, we won't use your email address or any information gathered to start spamming you. The Rafflecopter application picks winners for the giveaway randomly and provides us with the email address for the winners. Otherwise we'd have no way to reach the winners to award the prizes.) 

Second, you'll see twelve (I said eleven in some places, once I ran out of fingers my counting went astray) boxes with down arrows and the verbiage "Your vote in the ________ category". Click the down arrow, make your choice, then click enter.

Third, there are other ways you can get additional entries to the giveaway, which are each of the boxes with down arrows below the voting boxes. Click the down arrow on each of these and it instructs you on what to do for each.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

43 comments:

Jennifer said...

I can't get any of the drop down boxes to work for the voting on the different choices. What am I doing wrong?

Dave said...

I can't get the drop-down menus to work, either.

?wazithinkin said...

I didn't have a problem with any of the drop down boxes. :/ They all worked for me.

BooksAndPals said...

Jennifer and Dave,

Robotcopter has a sign-in required (which is how they tell who you are to limit voting multiple times). I'm signed in, so I can't see what the screen would look like for you, but look for a login button or link of some kind. I believe there are two options, the first is to use your Facebook account, which is easiest if you have one, the other is entering an email address.

Jennifer said...

I logged in using my email, and the drop down boxes don't appear. Maybe the email log-in option doesn't work....?

Has anyone else logged in with email and been able to vote?

Thanks for the help!

Dave said...

I logged in with my email account. The screen even says, "Hi, Dave." The categories are visible, but the drop-down menus still don't work. I'll try logging in with my Facebook account.

Jennifer said...

Same here, Dave. Everything shows up, but the drop down boxes don't appear until the last few choices (following with Twitter, etc.).

Laurie said...

I logged in with e-mail account and had the same result as Dave. Except my screen said "Hi, Laurie." But couldn't use the pulldowns.

Dave said...

Logging in with Facebook didn't work, either.

BooksAndPals said...

Those who are having trouble logging in, what browser are you using?

BooksAndPals said...

It appears that using the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser will not work. I logged in using that browser and my email address and got the same problem.

FWIW, I stopped using it as my default browser because I kept running into problems like this elsewhere.

Jennifer said...

Ah okay. Thanks! I am also using Internet Explorer. I'll try a different browser.

Barbara Silkstone said...

Not working for me on Explorer. Will try on another computer.

J Teal said...

Couldn't find my favourite: The Dimension Researcher by Chris James. Disappointed I wasn't able to vote for such an excellent novel. Other than that, love this poll.

Barbara Silkstone said...

Poll is a great idea. I got in on Safari. Wouldn't work on Explorer. Thanks BigAl!

S.W. Vaughn said...

Oh, what a cool idea! I'm going to start looking through the titles on Amazon now... sooo much to read. :-)

WING WIFE said...

Al, My name is not listed by my memoir, WING WIFE. It says "Wing Wife by" and then has no author's name. It should read "Wing Wife by Marcia J. Sargent". Thank you for doing this. Thank you for my nomination.

Ginger Dehlinger said...

I don't even see a voting button. My browser is Firefox.

EdwardLorn said...

Thank you for including my book, Hope for the Wicked, Al! It's truly an honor just being nominated!

E.

Anonymous said...

There is no voting form below the giveaway. Any suggestions for me and my friends?

BooksAndPals said...

Sorry, Marcia. Everyone needs an editor. I've fixed it.

Anonymous. The voting forms are the first several choices in the giveaway form. You may have to sign in to see them, either using Facebook or your email address.

WING WIFE said...

Thank you, Al! We all need editors on occasion:)

One other error: I've been looking at/reading other entries in other categories. in Romance, Dashing Druid by Lyn Horner is listed as "Dashing Duid".

BooksAndPals said...

Thanks, Marcia. I think I've got to give myself a 3 star review due to proofing errors. :(

Laurie Boris said...

Thank you, B&P, for this opportunity! Can people vote in some categories and come back for others as they learn about the books, or must voting be done in one shot?

Dave said...

In the contempory fiction category, you have Memoirs from the Asylum by Memoirs from the Asylum. That book didn't actually write itself, it was written by Kenneth Weene. :)

BooksAndPals said...

Thanks, Dave. (My review is now down to 2 stars.) When I get into copy/pasting mode sometimes the results aren't what I want.

BooksAndPals said...

Laurie, Yes, they can vote in some categories and then come back to vote in others later. In those categories where they have already voted, even though it is marked "Done" there is an edit link than can be used to change their vote up until the deadline. It is also possible to gain extra entries to the giveaway in the "tweet about the Giveaway" by tweeting every day. It will reset each day - I think at midnight eastern time.

Walter Knight said...

Are Republicans allowed to vote? I seem to be locked out.

Fine.

BooksAndPals said...

I think you must be missing a valid form of ID, Walter. :)

Yes, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Whigs, and anyone else can vote. If you're having trouble, look at the instructions above which I just added to help those who haven't done a Rafflecopter giveaway before. Also, you have to use a browser other than Internet Explorer (possibly only older versions). It has issues with a lot of websites, as well as the Rafflecopter application.

Jody E. Lebel said...

I signed in with FB...got my name...Hi Jody, got the menus, got it to change to green...then nothing. Can't vote.

Very frustrating.

Ruth Gutscher said...

I had no problems - great contest

Muzz05 said...

Voted with no problem but tried to subscribe, via email and went through your spam filter 5 times typing in the words correctly, before I gave up.

BooksAndPals said...

Muzz05,

I'm sorry about that. The capcha validation on that isn't one that I can control, or at least I haven't been able to find a way. I've removed those from commenting because I dislike them, too.

Anonymous said...

I read Mr. Weene's book some time ago and gave him a 5 star review on Amazon. This book was so well written it was a pleasures to read. The subject matter was a little daunting but the author has such understanding of the problems of both patient and caretakers. This book should get your award.
Mary Firmin

?wazithinkin said...

Good luck to all those nominated for Books and Pals first ever Readers’ Choice Awards. I hope you all get lots of votes.

I am very excited to see the final results. :D

Bill Kirton said...

Just wanted to say thanks to Big Al and the pals for the lovely surprise of being nominated. As a nominee, I already feel like a winner.

Aria Kane said...

I just wanted to say thanks so much for doing this! I was so thrilled to learn that I had been nominated!! <3

James Hulbert said...

Let me join all the other authors and readers in thanking BigAl and the Pals for having this competition and for making me and 'A Kiss Before You Leave Me' a part of it. We all have a lot to learn from you!

David Antrobus said...

Want to say ditto to all the other appreciative comments, especially Bill's sentiment that being a nominee feels like being a winner in itself.

Mister Teacher said...

Al, I'm honored to be included in the humor category! Thanks for the cool contest!

Lyn Horner said...

Al, I'm thrilled to learn my book, dashing Druid, is nominated in the Romance category. My computer died last Sunday, or I might have discovered this honor sooner.

I'm doing a happy dance now, at least in my head!

William L.K. said...

Al!!!!
This is crazy hard!

You have some awesome books here to choose from.

I will try my best... :)

?wazithinkin said...

Congratulations Tracie M., Leanna H., and Josie H.!