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(This list will be kept updated with current threads related to the Read-a-Thon. Scroll down for the original announcement.)


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Rules
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Greeting and Salutations!

We have something very exciting to announce to you all. A few weeks ago Philadelphia/RoadtoGrinell proposed a summer reading program to the forum team of Holy Worlds. Already based off of the Summer Read-a-Thon hosted by Incredibooks we planned to draw heavily from their structure. During their conversations, however, a brand new idea was born; doing it together.

Incredibooks, together with the joint forums of Holy Worlds present the Summer Read-a-Thon 2011! The knowledge and resources of Incredibooks, combined with the energy and staff of HW, and the creativity and dedication provided by both sites work together to come up with something I promise will be truly remarkable.

What is a Read-a-Thon? The goal is to read as many books during the summer as you can, and race with your friends and other users to accomplish that goal. By keeping count of the number of pages read the contest organizers will award prizes to the top reader of the summer. Signups start June 1, and the contest starts June 13th. Late signups will be accepted through June 30th. The contest ends on August 13th.

The Rules are hosted on the Incredibooks site: please check them out for more details! Signup and Reporting threads will be started on all three participating forums, as well as general chatter. Signups are required to be eligible for prizes.

Happy Reading!
Katie/Vanya/Jaynin/Janin of Yen

Update!

I've split off all the conversation from this thread and moved it to GD. Please, continue to talk away. If you have any questions, ask them. However, there will be continual updates to this thread, and I'd like to keep them all tidy. That way everyone knows to check this thread, can read all pertinent information without scrolling through the chatter, and the organizers don't feel like they're interrupting. Thank you!

Now for the news. Web badges and banners and all sorts of really super awesome cool goodies are now available on the Incredibooks page. Please check the out and spread the word! These were drawn by our very own Vilisse. Jordan Smith came up with the catch phrase. Enjoy!

All right, pay attention!

First, a praise. God has opened the floodgates and absolutely showered us with prizes. I've lost count of how many books we've got coming. Some of them are sets and signed copies. It's unbelievable! At this rate we're going to have to tell Jay to stop contacting people... got any ideas on how to restrain that guy?

Anyway. Given the showers of blessing on our efforts, we need to shove this program over the edge and multiply it. Simply put, we need more participants! And there's only one way we're going to get more participants... promotion!

We need you! We've got to get the word out about this program. So start talking, anywhere and everywhere!

Every little bit counts. Our greatest weapon is social media, so even the smallest status message can help. Post on Facebook, Buzz, Twitter (use #readathon5), whatever you've got. If you have a Facebook page for your business, please consider posting from there, too!

In addition to chattering it up, blog posts would be extremely helpful. Those of you with blogs, please consider posting on our behalf! Below I've pasted a sample post with all the pertinent information. Feel free to plagiarize it.

And remember, we have a lovely assortment of graphics, designed for us by the talented Vilisse, for your use! If you have a website, please consider posting one of these images in your sidebar. http://incredibooks.com/read-a-thon/pro ... ad-a-thon/

Thanks, everyone! Let's get the word out and multiply this thing for the glory of God!

Jordan has put up a list of prizes on Incredibooks! Check them out.

http://incredibooks.com/read-a-thon/prizes/

Nice prizes.

No iPad? What's a contest without an iPad?

Kidding, kidding. In all seriousness, those prizes look awesome enough for me.

Since my dear fellow greenies apparently can't read, I'm going to lock this thread to prevent further chatter. We have a chat thread for your use, guys. *makes a face at Jonathan and smacks Caleb playfully upside the head*

And the race is on! You can now start reading and reporting totals here: viewtopic.php?f=32&t=3508

Remember, sign-ups are open until the 30th. So if you're not on board yet, jump on!

On another note, to bloggers, the prize list has been released now and you can see how many awesome books have been donated to this contest. These authors are giving up prizes free of charge, all in the name of promotion. The idea is that they'll get publicity and support in return.

So I'd like to encourage anyone who's read any of these authors books to review them. Don't just promote the read-a-thon, promote the people who make it possible. (Of course, winners will be required to complete a review of at least seven hundred words on the awesomeness of their book... just kidding.)

The official Read-a-Thon t-shirts are up for pre-order on Incredibooks!

http://incredibooks.com/read-a-thon/read-a-thon-shirts/

Greetings, bookworms! I am pleased to announce that y'all have read over 250,000 pages combined so far this summer. In other words, a quarter-million pages. WOW.

But we're not done yet! You still have a few days to get your totals in. Be sure to post your pages on the reporting thread by 6am CT on August 14th. Pages posted after that time will not count towards your total! If you haven't totaled your pages, hurry!

And if you haven't read much this summer, there's still time! Remember, you don't have to read the most to win. Everyone that posts at least one book is eligible for the random drawings. But you won't be entered if you don't post something - so get out there!

In the meantime, be on the lookout for more details on the prizes in the near future. The organizers are getting their act together to award all these fantastically amazing prizes that have been donated to us. Keep your eyes peeled and spread the excitement!

Also, don't forget that the deadline to order your Read-a-Thon 2011 t-shirt is August 20. If you haven't seen them yet, take a look! Not only are you getting a great shirt about reading, but you're also helping to cover some of the costs of hosting the Read-a-Thon. You can get yours here: http://incredibooks.com/read-a-thon/read-a-thon-shirts/

Let's finish strong!

Hello, readers! We're into the final stretch - there's just a few days left to post your page counts! Page totals must be posted by 6am CT on August 14th to qualify. Let's pull in those last few books and break some records in the final stretch! As it stands, we've already broken all the records set by the previous Read-a-Thons!

As a teaser, here is the final list of prizes. All of these wonderful books were donated to us by the authors or publishers, so be sure to check them (and their other books!) out! Several of these prizes are going to be awarded randomly; all you have to do is post at least one book to qualify, so get out there! Click here for more information on the prizes.

READ-A-THON 5 PRIZE LIST:
Series:
Binding of the Blade by L.B. Graham (5 books!)
Blood of Kings by Jill Williamson (3 books!)

Sets:
The Fallacy Detective [and] The Thinking Toolbox by Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn (2 sets!)
Eternity Falls [and] The Tenth Crusader by Kirk Outerbridge (2 sets!)
Ryann Watters and the King's Sword [and] Ryann Watters and the Shield of Faith by Eric Reinhold
A Star Curiously Singing [and] The Superlative Stream by Kerry Nietz

Singles:
Already Compromised by Ken Ham and Greg Hall (2 copies!)
Starlighter by Bryan Davis
Starfire by Stuart Vaughn Stockton (3 copies!)


As a side note, you have until August 20th to submit your orders for Read-a-Thon t-shirts. Shirt sales help pay for postage to ship the prizes, so remember that your purchase counts as a donation as well! http://incredibooks.com/read-a-thon/read-a-thon-shirts/

Let's finish strong!

Today is the LAST DAY to post your Read-a-Thon totals! 6am CT tomorrow is the cut-off! No exceptions! (Psst... we are only 8k away from a total of 350k pages!)

That's it, ladies and gentlemen! The 5th Annual Read-a-Thon is OVER! Put the books down and step away. (Actually, we wish you'd keep reading them!)

But the fun's not over yet! We'll be double-checking the totals and doing name draws in the very near future. Results announcement will be coming soon, so don't change the channel!

In the meantime, let me remind everybody one last time that the Read-a-Thon 2011 shirts are available for pre-order until August 20, so if you want one, be sure to get your order in before then.

Thanks for a great, record-breaking Read-a-Thon, everyone!

And now the moment you have all been waiting for. (I've always wanted to say that. )

After much counting and recounting we have counted all your pages and are ready to reveal the winners. Sure, most of you know the top reader of your forum, but don't forget that this was a tri-forum contest and you must compete with complete strangers as well.

Here's how the winners are chosen. First we picked the person who read the most of all the forums put together. Then we picked the top winner from the other two forums. Then we picked the second highest reader from all three. There are six prizes left over that will be awarded to randomly drawn winners at a later date. So if you didn't win by highest prize count, don't leave yet! Your turn is coming up.

So! The grand winner is Fara of Holy Worlds Science Fiction who read an astonishing total of 45,103 pages! Congratulations Fara. The top winners of the other two forums are Hannah Marie from Holy Worlds Fantasy at 27,266 and OrdinaryDay of Incredibooks at 22,080.

Second place goes to wolfluvr42 of Incredibooks, at 19,976, Elly of Holy Worlds Fantasy at 18,458, and Andi Loyd of Holy Worlds Science fiction at 10,000.

If you are a winner you will be notified shortly by PM to claim your prize. Once all the winners have been notified we'll draw members at random for the remaining prizes. And now here's my favorite part: some trivia for you.

The forum with the most pages read is Holy Worlds Fantasy who had 47 participants read 187,478 pages. Second was Incredibooks with 26 participants who read 143,398 pages. Science Fiction came in third with 3 participants who read 67,657 pages. Grand total number of pages read for the entire contest was 398,533. (Say that number out loud and then high five the person next to you, fictional or otherwise.)

The average number of pages overall per participant was 5,313, For Fantasy the average was 5,066, for Incredibooks: 5,515, and for Science fiction 7,517, thus proving that HWFantasy only has the highest page count because of the sheer number of participants, and that science fiction writers read 2K more pages on average than fantasy writers and book reviewers.

Thus ends the official announcement. Remember to stick around for the drawings next week! Thank you so much for participating and making this the best ever read-a-thon, and we hope to see you again next year!

And it's time! Drum roll please!

The random prize winners have been randomly selected with a random number generator! CONGRATULATIONS everyone! If you're a winner, please contact Vanya with your mailing address so she can get your prize sent to you.

Varon of HW Sci-Fi – Starfire
Arias Myles of HW Fantasy – Starfire
Leandra Falconwing of HW Fantasy – Binding of the Blade
Raven of the Wood of HW Fantasy – Thinking Toolbox and Fallacy Detective
SonshineGirl of IB – Thinking Toolbox and Fallacy Detective
Princess Arante Weneve of HW Fantasy – Already Compromised
Wyatt of IB – Already Compromised
Sir Emeth Mimetes of HW Fantasy – A Star Curiously Singing and Superlative Stream

A big thank-you to everyone who participated! You helped make this the biggest Read-a-Thon yet! Keep reading!

Greetings, Readers.
I hope you had a wonderful summer and an enjoyable contest. Now that all the prizes are distributed you may feel a little let down because you didn't win anything. Don't be! You can always download and print our custom read-a-thon bookmarks, and we have another special bookmark offer for you.

This year we were inundated with donations. We had fourteen prizes adding up to over 26 individual books. We also received a large number of bookmarks... a vastly large number of bookmarks. If you would like to receive some of these bookmarks send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: PO Box 748 Tompkinsville, Ky, 42167. Please make sure it's a business sized envelope, for longer bookmarks. These fold nicely into thirds to fit inside a personal sized one.

Please note that these are not readathon bookmarks, those are only available online. These are bookmarks that were donated with the readathon books and promote works by the others who donated. Share them with your friends, and spread the word about these awesome books. (Also take note that if you won a readathon book you have bookmarks already on their way to you with your prize.)