Jeri Smith-Ready

TSOS Superfan Contest rules

Phillie Phanatic, the world's greatest sports mascot

David Cooper, the main character in This Side of Salvation, is the star pitcher for his high-school team. He dreams of getting a baseball scholarship, as it may be the only way to afford college. The sport connects him to his deceased older brother, John, who used to play catch with him and coach him on his fastball. Most important, the pitcher's mound gives David a place of safety and security when the rest of his life falls to pieces.

Monday, March 31—the day before TSOS releases—is Major League Baseball's Opening Day. It's the day when all teams have hope, when every fan dares to dream of the World Series. So I wanted to do a little baseball-themed game to celebrate the release of This Side of Salvation.

Don't worry: You don't have to know anything about the sport to play! All you need are your trusty social networks—Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, blogs, etc.—and a minute or two of time.

TSOS Superfan Game

Each weekday from March 31 through April 10 (nine days), I will post a new baseball-style "trading card" on my blog and on all my social networking sites. Each card will feature a different character from This Side of Salvation.

Why 9 days instead of 10? Because a baseball team has 9 players in its starting lineup*, and a baseball game has 9 innings. So each day of the contest will be like one "inning," adding up to an entire game.

Whoever has the most points at the end of the game will win the grand prize! There will also be 9 daily drawings, randomly chosen, so even those who don't rack up tons of points will have a chance to win something.

How to Play

Each day:

• Share that day's trading card ONCE on as many social networking sites as you can. (The first card is now up, here on the blog and on all my social networking sites.) (And so is the second!)
• Fill out the entry form below (or use this link in case it doesn't appear below in your browser) with your email address and direct links to the places you've shared the card.
• Do it again the next day with a new card!

Rules/Guidelines:

1. Each shared post must include the trading card image and a live link—i.e., a link people can click on—which leads to my blog, my home page, or the TSOS page on my website.
The easiest way to do that is to simply RT my tweet, reblog my Tumblr post, share my Facebook post, or repin my Pinterest post. Follow me to make sure you see them:

• Twitter
• Facebook (My author page, not my profile, so we don't have to be friends for you to see the cards)
• Tumblr
• Pinterest
• Instagram

For sharing the trading card on your own blog, I trust you know how to create links.

Exception to this rule: no links required for Instagram, since that's a trick I haven't figured out myself. Simply post the image.

2. NO SPAMMING. Please share each trading card only ONCE on each social network and only on its designated day. This way, your followers will see something fresh and new.

Entrants will only receive points for sharing the card on its designated day. This is to prevent latecomers from spamming their timelines with several cards at once in an effort to "catch up." However, I know time zones can be tricky, so I'll be flexible. For instance, if you post Day 3's card a few hours into Day 4, it will still count, but if you post it on Day 5, it will not.

3. Each "share" will count as 1 point. So if you share the image on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, you'll get 3 points that day. 

Those who play all nine innings (participate every day) will be awarded a 10-POINT BONUS!

4. The grand prize will be awarded on April 11 to the contestant with the most points. In the event of a tie at this time, we will go to "extra innings" (days) until there's a clear winner.

5. Daily drawings will be picked using the number generator Random.org. Each point gives you one "ticket" in the drawing. Winners will be contacted via email.

6. International entries welcome!

7. Entrants are solely responsible for ensuring their entries follow the above rules. No confirmations or corrections will be sent; the only communication will be to notify winners.

Prizes

Grand prize: Something you can't buy anywhere: a set of autographed, annotated copies of all four of my YA books: Shade, Shift, Shine, and This Side of Salvation. "Annotated" as in, I include comments in the margins of various pages to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of these books. Kind of like a director's commentary.

As I said, you can't buy these anywhere. I usually only make them for charity auctions, so there are maybe 5 or 6 annotated copies of the Shade series books in the world. And the grand-prize winner will be the FIRST to get an annotated This Side of Salvation.

Second prize: Annotated This Side of Salvation
Third prize: Annotated Shade
Fourth prize: Annotated Shift
Fifth prize: Annotated Shine

Daily random-drawing prizes: $10 gift card to the bookstore of your choice, PLUS a book or ARC from the grab bag provided by my publisher, Simon Pulse.

Questions? Did I miss anything? If so, ask me in the comments to this post.

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EDITED TO ADD QUESTIONS FROM READERS:

Q: What if my Twitter posts to Facebook and tumbr and Pinterest and Instagram?

A: Good question! As long as the image itself appears on those other social networks when they get their feed from Twitter, that's all that matters. If only a link or text appears, then it won't count. The key is to get the image out there where people can see it and go "Cool!" or "Hmm..." or "Huh?"

Also, you would still have to copy and paste each separate link (one from Twitter, one from FB, etc.) into the entry form so they can be counted.

Q: I retweeted your tweet. The direct link it is giving me is actually your tweet. It doesn't show my name in the link. Is that correct?

A: Yep, that's fine. I can see under the tweet who retweeted it.

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Now get ready to...



*We're pretending the designated hitter rule doesn't exist, BECAUSE IT SHOULD NOT.

Labels: current contests, This Side of Salvation, TSOS Superfan contest

• posted by Jeri @ 11:14 AM
• 2 comments