Pimp & Vote #TeamTristan in the #YACrushTourney & You Could Win Cool Shit!

(You might wanna grab a snack cuz this is gonna be a long-ass post, as I'm longwinded to begin with and all updates, giveaways, and incentives earned will be posted here. Just sayin'.)

VOTE HERE

Clearly, the YA Sisterhood's YA Crush Tourney is a big deal. Not just for me, but for all the participants, whether they be the authors, the fantabulous bloggers hosting the event, the most-excellent crush advocates, the dedicated fans who tirelessly pimp their fave book boyfriends, or even the Twitter lurkers who just like to silently giggle at all the previously mentioned folks who flail about over REAL fictional guys who can only be found in the pages of some choice reading material.

However, the 3rd annual YA Crush Tourney is super special to me because unlike many of the authors, books, and yummy crushes who've been fortunate enough to really be a part of something like this, this is my first time. That's right, I'm a Tourney Virgin. And, I couldn't be more excited about losing my maidenhead (<—Yeah, that's what it used to be called way back in the day. I know...) in this whole thing because the peeps who are helping to pop my cherry are truly some of the most selfless bitches I will ever be fortunate enough to have known.

Now, there are several of them but I want to mention a handful specifically and they are:

• Allura—the unabashed Twitter whore whose GYP dedication is as appreciated as it is deep and everlasting.
• Nicole M.—an enthusiastic fan and newbie videographer. (You can see her trailer for Shark Bait below the Rafflecopters, and let me just say OH MY GOD.)
• Val—a friend, a great blogger, a GYP fan and GYP Street Team member who also happened to have advocated against Tristan in the first match of the tourney (I know, right? Needless to say there was much usage of words beginning with F when the tourney schedule was posted and I saw who we had to beat in order to move forward.).
• Erin W.—a GYP fan, blogger, and button making fiend.
• Kylee—a gung-ho GYP fan and blogging teen.
• Ellen—another friend, blogger, and GYP fan & Street Team member who's advocating for another crush in this thing (Seriously, I really don't envy the advocates in having to choose sides like they've had to and I wish them all the best of luck.).
• Christine—yet another blogger and fan with some Photoshop skillz of her own.
• Ashley—my bitch in shining armor. 'Nough said.

These chicks have given me advise, kept me in the loop, and worked ever so hard at introducing my books to others, promoting Tristan and the tournament, and creating ways for all GYP and #TeamTristan fans to pimp and show their support. Without them, #TeamTristan wouldn't have been possible because chances are, neither Tristan nor any of my other GYP guys would've ever been nominated or won a spot in the tourney to begin with. So, thanks, you guys, Tristan and I owe you, and he and I have a little something for you and the rest of the Team Tristan Bitch Slaves. :-*

Yes, even with getting a small glimpse at who some of my supporters are, it's safe to say that I am very fortunate and blessed indeed, although there is one person without whom Tristan wouldn't stand a chance; his advocate extraordinaire, Angela. And you know, I'm not entirely convinced it's purely coincidence that the person fighting for Tristan in this whole thing; his guardian if you will, comes from a blog entitled Reading Angels. If people only knew half of the tireless effort, hard work, dedication, and heart Angela has put into her esteemed position and in seeing that Tristan is represented with style, class, and in the manner befitting not only his character but a champion as well, they'd understand why I couldn't be more tickled and grateful to share this experience with her. And to you, Angela, I thank you for everything from the bottom of my heart. It has been my utmost pleasure to work with you in addition to having the opportunity to get to know you better and I can only hope that our friendship will continue to grow for many years to come.

Okay, so now that the mushy stuff is out of the way, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that if you're here reading this particular blogpost, you've already read at the very least Shark Bait, if not The Other Fish in the Sea as well and are sufficiently fiending for the release of Shark Out of Water, and if that's the case, you're probably already a fan and subsequently don't need to be convinced to vote for Tristan in the tourney. However, I'm not delusional (mostly), nor am I entirely presumptuous enough to believe that there aren't people who might be undecided and/or haven't read and fell in love with my books and therefore don't even know who the fuck Tristan is. So if you're one of those undecided people, Angela has prepared a seriously kick-ass advocate post HERE where you can read for yourself why Tristan deserves to be the victor, and you can vote for Tristan there as well. But she also has a nifty little post up on her blog HERE, featuring testimonies from the people who know Tristan best; his peers, friends, and a couple other assorted people in his life.

So, what is this post about, you ask? Well, it's all about incentives, bitches!

Like I said before, I have been blessed to be supported by everyone on #TeamTristan as well as many others who find themselves in opposing camps, and I've decided you ALL deserve a chance at some fun rewards for your kind words, support, hard work and effort to help make the Grab Your Pole series successful!

For each match Tristan is in, I will do the same giveaway and up the ante with more and more teasers from different characters when Tristan's votes reach certain amounts in each match. I will also do another giveaway for some AWESOME & TRULY EPIC prizes for each match Tristan actually wins! I'm not going to tell you what they all are, but just know the more matches Tristan wins, the bigger and better the prize! Here's what's up for grabs in match #1 on June 21st:

TEASERS FROM SHARK OUT OF WATER!!

When Tristan's votes reach 300, I'll release a teaser from Kate. When Tristan's votes reach 600, I'll release a teaser from Dear Jeff. And if Tristan reaches 900, I'll give you all that unreached teaser from Brandon from last week's match! :-p

AND ALL THIS:

E-copies of Shark Bait & The Other Fish in the Sea

$10 Amazon gift card (e-mailed to winner)

Shark Bait drawstring bag

Original Shark Bait refrigerator whiteboard

E-copy of Shark Out of Water to be received on release day

60 #TeamTristan/2013 YA Crush Tourney Bookmarks

Yep, bitches, all of that is what I'll give away in each match that Tristan is in! And what's better is that I'm splitting them up into 6 separate giveaways so if you don't particularly want to win one of the prizes offered, you don't have to enter that giveaway! But wait! There's more! If Tristan wins his second match on June 28, I'll do ANOTHER giveaway for the following prize:

Here's how to enter:

FIRST & FOREMOST — VOTE!!! You have to in order to enter the Rafflecopters below and you'll find the link within the mandatory option! Good luck, everyone, I love you all mucho! Now go forth and pimp the ever loving SHIT out Tristan and this tournament!!

(Please note that e-book giveaways are international, however all swag giveaways are limited to US & Canada only)
**1st Place Winners hold the first slot in each Rafflecopter, all others are winners of commemorative bookmarks**

a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway
*NOTE: A winner the commerorative 2013 YA Crush Tourney T-shirt will only be chosen if Tristan wins the June 28th, 2013 crush tourney match.*

NICOLE'S EPIC TRAILER FOR SHARK BAIT

TEASER INCENTIVES EARNED:
So, it was insanely difficult (like bathing a cat difficult) to pick non-spoilery teasers from Shark Out of Water for you all, so while they might not seem like much to begin with, keep in mind where we left off in The Other Fish in the Sea and all the questions you hope to have answered, and then, let your imaginations scamper off to do what it does best!

Round #2, Tourney Match 16 vs. Kaiden—June 28, 2013
300 Tristan votes reached at roughly 2:30 pm PST
This SOoW teaser is from Kate:

“So what the hell, Tristan? I got Camie in the divorce so you and I aren’t friends anymore?” Kate - Mediation of Custodial Friendship

Round #1, Tourney Match 10 vs. Chase Williams—June 21, 2013
250 Tristan votes reached at roughly 10:15 am PST
This SOoW teaser is from Melissa:

“Uh, only that no one’s heard from Tristan since early Sunday afternoon, no one has any idea where he is, and no one seems to be concerned about whether he’s even okay…” Melissa - Unnerving Normalcy

The 2013 #YACushTourney Is Upon Us!

5/25/13 Crush Tourney Update:

WE DID IT!!!

Thanks to the hard work of the @GYPStreetTeam (pimping ain't easy you know), and the support of readers and fans alike, our GYP boy, Tristan, made it into the YA-Sisterhood's YA Crush Tourney!!

Thank you all SO much for your time and support, but it's not over! Now, Tristan along with 28 other drool-inducing guys (once the wildcard entrants are chosen) are in need of a "Book Blogger Advocate" to represent them and fight for them in the head-to-head rounds of the tournament which will begin on June 10th. So, if you're a book blogger and want to represent #TeamTristan or another guy in the tournament, keep your eyes peeled for the opportunity to do so! Advocate sign-ups will start this coming week after the 28th (I believe sign-ups are slated to run from May 28th thru June 1st) so make sure you apply QUICKLY—doing that will help you have a better chance at the yummilicious crush of your choice!! And, I know in the past there have been co-advocates, so if that's something you're interested in check with the YA Sisterhood now to see how you would go about doing that!! 

We're also in need of you folks who are uber-talented in the art of Photoshop!! Tristan's advocate will need pictures of hot guys who "look" like him and then they should be manipulated in some way to include quotes or just plain cool shit so that they stand out. We all know I'm deficient in that area so if that's something you're into and want to help out, I encourage you to do so! You can email your designs to me or the GYP Street Team, or you can simply post them to my Facebook Fanpage wall. Also, if you already have them highlighted or have the time and desire to go back through Shark Bait and The Other Fish in the Sea, #TeamTristan could probably use some awesome and swoon-worthy quotes and snippets for his advocate to use in the battle. Again, you can email those to me directly or to the Street Team, but please, in the interest of preventing spoilers, do not post quotes and snippets on a public forum like Facebook. Whatever quotes are chosen to be used in the tourney posts will be of course be seen by tournament participants and voters, however we don't need to spoil too much for readers so those quotes will be reviewed for length, "true" spoilers, and so on prior to using them.

I would also like to strongly urge you to join in the crazy-fun shenanigans that Twitter can be home to, and not only that, encourage all your friends and followers to do so as well! If you're not yet on Twitter & are concerend about not having followers, don't fret, you can follow all the Twitter peeps who follow The GYP Street Team and I'd be willing to bet a lot of them will follow you back, which also happens to be an excellent way to make new reader friends! Plus, Twitter is an excellent resource to find some of THE best book bloggers and reviewers in the blogosphere who might turn you on to a book you've never heard of or one that you've been putting off and want to kick your own ass for not reading sooner, AND they do some fantstic giveaways as well! Once you're on Twitter, make sure you follow @GYPStreetTeam in addition to me and use #YACrushTourney as well #TeamTristan in your crush tourney tweets!

Once again I'd like to thank you all for your endless support and enthusiasm. You guys make my heart happy sigh, and I know if we all do our part in regard to pimping and voting, Tristan can move forward in the tourney, so come on, guys, let's pimp our boy with #NoShame!!

Don't forget to grab your #TeamTristan badge!

______________________________________________________________________

So...

YA Sisterhood's YA Crush Tourney is upon us. For those who are familiar, you know what crazy-exciting fun this event is, for those who don't and are GYP fans, you're about to find out. Your Twitter and Facebook feeds will most likely be blown the fuck with tweets and posts pimping and encouraging you and everyone on the planet to nominate and then vote for your favorite YA Book Boyfriends (of course if you're a GYP fan, I'm going to hope your faves will be Tristan, Jeff, Pete, and Brandon :-p).

Again, for those who are familiar and have participated in the shenanigans in the past, there are some changes this year to nominations and where and how it's all going down and you definitely should read the rules (especially in regard to the categories), but to make it easier on you, I've sort of broken it down below to ensure no one's votes are summarily thrown out.

Tristan and Jeff qualify for the Debut category with Shark Bait (you have to cite the book they're representing) which is at Page Turner's Blog: http://www.pageturnersblog.com/2013/0...

ALL 4 guys qualify in the categories of Realistic and Indie, but if you vote for Pete and/or Brandon in either of these, make sure you're citing The Other Fish in the Sea as the book they're representing b/c neither of them really had much to do in Shark Bait. If you nominate Tristan and/or Jeff in either of these categories, you can choose either book. The blog for Indie nominations is:http://www.stuckinbooks.com/2013/05/i...

The blog for Realistic nominations is: http://fictitious-delicious.blogspot....

You can only nominate each guy once in each category so for example, I'll show you how I voted:

Debut:
Crush #1 Tristan/Shark Bait
Crush #2 Jeff/Shark Bait
Crush #3 
Crush #4
Crush #5
Crush #6

Indie:
Crush #1 Tristan/Shark Bait (I might've cited TOFitS, but can't remember—both books qualify but you can only vote with one)
Crush #2 Jeff/The Other Fish in the Sea
Crush #3 Pete/The Other Fish in the Sea
Crush #4 Brandon/The Other Fish in the Sea
Crush #5
Crush #6

Realistic:
Crush #1 Tristan/Shark Bait (I might've cited TOFitS, but can't remember—both books qualify but you can only vote with one)
Crush #2 Jeff/The Other Fish in the Sea
Crush #3 Pete/The Other Fish in the Sea
Crush #4 Brandon/The Other Fish in the Sea
Crush #5
Crush #6

(Yeah, even though you can nominate up to 6 Book Boyfriends in each category, I left all the others blank b/c I'm selfish and don't want to create anymore competition for my guys. :-p How you fill in your form is totally up to you though, as long as it's only one vote/reader/qualifying character/qualified category.)

I know many of you aren't happy with a certain character right now, but think big picture and try to put the good of the series before your what your personal feelings might be at the moment. Plus, there's a reason why the GYP Street Team is pushing him. Not only has he been the Main GYP Book Boyfriend thus far in the series, but the new rules stipulate that although you can nominate several characters from the same author, only one character per specific author will be able to make it into the tournament. That means that if Tristan makes it into the top 6 of a given category with 76 votes and Jeff for example gets 68 in another, they'll place Tristan and not Jeff. So, in looking at the possible competition, we were strategizing and are thinking the Debut category will be the easiest way to get into the actual tournament and Tristan is *the* Book Boyfriend in the debut of Shark Bait. And by the way, getting into the tournament at all is HUGE. This thing trended worldwide on Twitter last year, so it's a really big deal (and a lot of fun)!! However, after some initial numbers updates, the 3 categories the GYP boys fit into is really pretty much anyone's game at the moment, so if you have the time and/or inclination, go ahead and vote them where they're qualified to be nominated and we'll see what happens.

Right as of this minute (according to the last update), Tristan is sitting at #3 in the Debut category, which is excellent, however he can get booted easily by Friday (May 25th) when the nominations close, so don't put it off! None of the guys are showing in the top 10 in Realistic at the moment, but the #1 dude is there with only 25 votes so if we really want to and pimp HARD, we can crush this shit! Also, there is no public listing of top 10 for Indie right now, but it would be nice to see if we can get someone to place there as well, again with the understanding that only one of the guys will be able to make it into the actual tournament regardless of how many categories he's nominated in. I know I've outlined it fairly well here, but just make sure you all read the rules for each category, and be sure to use a real name and a valid email address when you nominate/vote, and keep in mind that anyone with an email address can participate including your moms, dads, aunts, uncles, spouses, children...you get the point, which is that literally anyone can nominate and vote as long as they're real, have a valid email address, and fill the nomination forms out correctly. ;-)

If you do decide to participate and are on Twitter, make absolutely sure you're pimping with the hashtag #YACrushTourney (this goes for Instagram as well), and if you can, think about following and then tagging @GYPStreetTeam in your tweets so that they can help. Plastering Facebook is awesome too, and using any other social media outlets like Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, and so on to rally support and votes is encouraged as well. You can even simply get on the phone or drive your ass over to your BFF's house and make them get on the bandwagon as well. And don't forget, this is YA—meaning Young Adult, so if any of you have NA/Adult author friends you feel comfortable enough to ask for their support, I say do it. This is the kind of thing where I myself and the Street Team will be pimping with #NoShame and we can use all the support and backers that we can get our newbie/greedy little hands on. We also had someone make a button/avatar that's on my FB fanpage and here on my blog up on the righthand side for anyone who really wants to show their #TeamTristan support!

Additionally, if we get one of our boys in the tournament, we'll be needing everyone to continue to vote in the March Madness-style head-to-head rounds, AND we'll need a blogger advocate for him, so if you're a die-hard fan and a blogger, think about whether this might be something you'd like to do! Sign-ups for advocates will take place May 28th—June 1st, after the nominations for the crushes are over, which is this Friday, May 25th.

If you'd like more info on the tournament you can go to the YA Sisterhood and read up on it a bit! http://ya-sisterhood.blogspot.com/201...

Again, I just want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for what will hopefully be a bonafide deluge of #TeamGYP/#TeamTristan crap flooding your personal posts and your feeds, as well as all of your encouragement and support of me and this series. Really, I'm truly humbled and honestly, I'm uber-giddy about the possibility of being in this tournament with some of the authors I'm up against...it's an incredible honor and I wouldn't even have the chance if it weren't for all of you, so seriously, thank you. :-* 

Why? What? When?

So, I have a few announcements for everyone today...

The first is that at some point this week, you all should expect to start seeing reviews of The Other Fish in the Sea popping up. This is extremely exciting for me, but I'm also a little petrified. Knowing my work is being read and will subsequently be reviewed, sometimes freaks me the fuck out and I chain smoke and become an unbathed basket case. Truly. It isn't pretty. However, even with that being the case, I would like to beg everyone and their mother's fourteenth cousin twice removed to please write and leave a review for Shark Bait on Amazon and even Barnes & Noble if you can, and then when you finish reading TOFitS, please do the same. Why? Because reviews are what power the book industry in all manner of ways. Even if you don't particularly care for a book, leaving a review whether negative or positive helps the reading world to know whether a certain book might be to their liking or if it's something they probably shouldn't spend their hard earned money on. Additionally, the more reviews left for a book on buy sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, the more exposure a book will receive. Reviews also drive best seller ranking—again, regardless of whether the review is positive or negative. So, if you're one of the people out there who feel like traditional publishers should be banging down my door so you can see and even purchase my titles in brick and mortar bookstores, or if you would get a giggle out of seeing Shark Bait or any of my other books on Amazon's Top 100 in overall books or even *whispers out of ultimate respect* the NYT Best Sellers List, you HAVE to leave a review on Amazon first and foremost. I'm an un-agented Indie author with inadequate funds to do a lot of pimping, book signings and appearances at big book events, and uber-cool giveaways, not that any of you need to hear about my financial standing, but my point is, there's only so much book bloggers and I can do to bring word of my creative genius to the rest of the world. (<—Digging deep for this godawful showing of egotism this morning, aren't I? Ugh.) And not only should you leave a review, but you should encourage everyone you know who has read the books to do the same. And this goes without saying of course, but I would be grateful if you were to encourage everyone you know and even perfect strangers to buy and read the books if they haven't yet.

This brings me to announcement number two... In the coming week, I believe, everyone who wants to become a tried and true Grab Your Pole pimp will have the opportunity to do so while also having the opportunity to win fun and unique GYP paraphernalia by joining what? Well, the GYP Street Team of course! Members of my Street Team will earn what I like to call "pimp points" for completing certain tasks and then those points will accrue over a designated time frame where at the end of that time, people with points will be entered to win something. There will be more info about this in the next week or so as well as when you can begin signing up, however, I wanted to give you all a heads up about this now because one of the things you'll be able to earn points by doing will be submitting proof of purchase to the GYP Street Team officials via either a forwarded email receipt or an original screen shot of your receipt for your purchase of The Other Fish in the Sea. And guess what? You'll get double points for purchasing TOFitS on release day! So, even if you don't have a chance to sign up to be a member of the GYP Street Team the day it launches, screen cap your purchase or save your email receipt so that when you do join, you can maximize your points earned, but be sure to sign up quickly as the first giveaway is set for one month after The Other Fish in the Sea releases, I believe. 

Yeah, I know, you're all thinking that none of this information is all that helpful to you right now because you don't even know when in the fuck the damned book is coming out, right? Well, despite still having quite a bit of work to do and knowing I'm going to be a raging bitch monster to those closest to me, have zombie-like bags under my eyes, and I'll have to be a horrific wife and mother to make it happen, here's announcement number three:

NEXT TUESDAY

APRIL 23 in the year of our lord 2013

That will conclude the announcements as well as this blogpost. Let the universal celebration and widespread chatter about the date of release for #TOFitS commence.