Cybils

Two Cybils judges get a promotion

Congrats to Travis Jonkers of 100 Scope Notes and John Schumaker of Mr. Schu Reads for winning a berth on an ALA judging committee. Travis moves up from judging Fiction Picture Books with us to the fancy-shmancy  Caldecotts this coming year and John, a former Graphic Novel judge, goes over to the Newberys.

Full announcement is here.

Naturally, we take full credit for teaching them everything they know about judging important lit-rahr-ee awards.

Congrats and we'll miss you.

Some Cybils love

From indie author Susan Ee, who wrote "Angelfall," the first digital-born book to make our finalists.

A few more

Author reactions are still trickling in as they get word they made the Cybils finals. Here's the original post on that. Add to that Stephanie Perkins typing a giant Eeeeep! after learning Anna and the French Kiss was shortlisted in Young Adult Fiction:

Oh, man! This is the biggest honor that Anna has received, and I couldn't be more over-the-moon.

And believe it or not, an author left  a comment here too. I think this is a first for us. Here's Tim Egan, whose Dodsworth in Rome is on our Easy Readers short list:

I'm so thrilled to have Dodsworth as a Cybil's finalist! Thank you so, so much! What a great way to start the new year!!!

I'll post more as I find them.

Stuff that makes me cry

I am a sentimental fool. I just am. I refuse to cry at funerals because I think I should be all stoic, even when my heart is breaking. But when I hear the words "thank you," I start to sob all over myself. It's embarrassing. Who does this to be thanked? Not me. I do it to fill up the free months between July and March.

Anyway. I asked my organizers for feedback from around the Internet from authors and publishers as they got the news they'd made the Cybils finals. I wasn't even through the third or fourth tweet when the waterworks began.

Take this blog post from the only author of a born-digital, self-published book to ever make our shortlists:

There's something about this whole thing that makes me feel rather giddy and punky—like I'm getting away with something I'm not supposed to. :) No matter what happens, I feel like Angelfall has already won just by making it to the finalist list against all odds.  --Susan Ee, Angelfall

Consider that accepting such titles was a total experiment for us this year and you realize just how long Susan's odds were. I like that Cybils plays against type and considers books that wouldn't get a second glance elsewhere.

Many posts and tweets were like Carmen Deedy's, who thanked us, the person who nominated The Cheshire Cheese Cat (in tween fantasy) and even one of her reviewers.

The folks in book publishing weren't back from their holiday break when we posted our finalists, so Peachtree Publishing didn't tweet their good news until Wednesday that they'd nabbed three spots on the short lists. Not to be outdone, Little, Brown squeezed into a single tweet the titles of their four finalists.

My favorite tweets are the ones that clearly indicate the author had no idea to expect a big surprise to start his or her new year. Something like this one from Stephanie Perkins:

I'm thrilled to wake up in the new year and discover that ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS is a Cybils award finalist!

Lisa Yee's another one we caught napping on New Year's Day. She calls her blog post "The Cybils, the Dreamers and Me" which Muppet lovers like me instantly recognize. Okay, so Kermit sang about rainbows. It's pretty much the same thing, right?

Then there's Mo Willems, who seems pleased no matter how many times he finds himself on our short lists:

Hey, looks like Elephant & Piggie's I BROKE MY TRUNK! is a Cybils' finalist: http://ow.ly/8fCXL Thanks web-savvy-kids-books-enthusiasts!

What's nice about Mo's support is that he really seems to get us. Web savvy. Check. Book enthusiasts. Check!

I just started reading Holly Black's Red Glove as a Round 2 judge and was pleased to see her gracious reaction, typical of many authors:

I am so excited to be on the Cybils shortlist for sf/f, especially because I LOVE all the other books on it.

Now, if that doesn't make an overlord all ferklempt, what does? There are many, many more of course: Geoff Herbach tweeted he was "psyched" and surprised to see his Stupid Fast shortlisted in YA fiction. Rae Carson says "holy wow" and thanks panelists for voting for Girl of Fire and Thorns in teen fantasy.

So. Now you know why we all do this. We do it for kids and teens and their teachers, librarians and parents. We don't necessarily do it for the authors, since there were more than 1,200 of them this year and we can't make them all happy. But when we do ... wow. What fun.

And who doesn't love a good cry?

Typos and bad links

I just fixed a huge batch of bad links due to coding problems. I don't know html and my live-in computer expert found an actual paying job and stuck me with doing this by myself. Wah. I apologize for the aggravation, especially to bloggers who saw their blog names linked to the wrong URL or none at all.

If you see another bad link or a typo, please leave a comment below and I'll get to it as fast as I can. Many thanks to those who've already done so elsewhere on this blog, or who have emailed me to let me know. I'm only one person and am doing what I can, when I can, but I will fix it if I know where to find it.

Thanks again,

-Anne Levy, Cybils admin.

Building a Better Book Blog

As of this writing, the Cybils judging panels are nearly complete, with just Young Adult Fiction and Science Fiction/Fantasy still up in the air. Many of you have already gotten a "can't wait to work with you email" from an organizer. Many more have or are about to get a "thanks for playing" email instead. Which, by the way, made me feel like crap while writing it. Probably not as badly as you felt reading it, but at least you know I hung my head in shame with every heartbreaking word. 

We can't expand Cybils to take everyone who wishes to judge. I can't make the process of selecting judges any fairer without simply drawing names out of a hat. That might indeed be the most evenhanded way, but it wouldn't necessarily give me the best short list of books in the blogging universe.

And that's my bottom line. It's not about having a sweet time hanging out together online with the cool kids. It's about ruthlessly weeding out less-than-superb titles to come up with an eye-popping list of finalists and rush-to-the-bookstore-and-get-this winners. If my organizers aren't convinced you can give me that, they're under orders to give you a "pass" this time around.

But the reason I feel crappy is because I know how rotten it feels to get rejected and you never learn why. So I asked my organizers to explain why. What resulted is a list of dos and don'ts that I hope will give you some tools to build a better book blog, or at least fill out our application more thoroughly. They're not absolutes, just insights. Picking judges will always be a subjective process and will always strike some as decidedly unfair.

The list follows the break. Best of luck to you, and please don't be so miffed that you fail to show up in early October to nominate a few books. We still need you.

--Anne Levy, Cybils Administrator

Back to the apps!

Keep those questions coming, folks. Today, a judging applicant emailed about the book apps category. She wanted to know if she'd have to buy the apps under consideration. Well, gosh no, I thought -- but then I don't know how these things work, exactly. Our wonderful, completely on-top-of-things book app organizer, Mary Ann Scheuer, put the question to the other organizers.

I can't remember the last time we were all this close to unanimous on a topic. The answer is no: if you wish to judge in our apps category, there will be no cost to you. How we get the apps is still being worked out, but you pay nada.

We may adopt a similar policy for books and ebooks. I'm very concerned that many judges feel pressured to buy a few titles, particularly in round two when time is so short. That's not a good way to treat volunteers. I can't reimburse anyone, which means judging becomes a matter of who can afford it. And that is NOT the Cybils environment we wish to foster!

-Anne Levy, Cybils admin.

Updating our FAQs

I'm going to update our FAQs again soon and would appreciate knowing your nagging questions about Cybils.  I'm especially interested in hearing from authors and publishing professionals, as I sense these two groups are having the most trouble understanding what the heck we're up to. 

I'm worried our communications haven't always been clear and we've fallen back into thinking everyone is used to us by now, and that's simply not so. We want to avoid cliquishness at all costs.

Please leave your questions here in the comments or email me at cybils09@gmails.com.  Don't worry about sounding brusque or impatient -- if we're not answering your questions up front, we're doing something wrong.

Thanks for your patience, everyone.  FAQs will be updated in a week or so, whenever I feel like I've gotten at least some feedback.  Note that they say they're updated, but the date reads November 2007.  We've changed a lot since then.

And any bloggers who wish to post on this and send people our way to comment -- thanks in advance.  We could use some help.

--Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.

A fascinating discussion ...

... is going on at the blog Black-Eyed Susan's about race,  publishing and Cybils.  I'm at work (night shift again, alas) but will post more on this -- plus other reactions to the Cybils short lists from around the Web.

Perhaps it will lead to a better understanding of the role race plays in what books we, as readers and judges, gravitate towards.  Susan's a passionate debater and her post (and the many comments) are worth checking out.

Here's that link again.

--Anne Levy
Cybils Admin.

Cybils Appreciation from a Well-Loved Author

In the course of today's blog reading, I was pleased to come across a post in which repeat Cybils honoree (and Newbury Honor recipient) Shannon Hale expressed her appreciation for the Cybils. She said:

"I've mentioned before my affection for the Cybil Awards, given out by the children's and YA book bloggers. As national and newpaper review space is diminishing, I think book blogs will get more and more powerful in reviews and book recommendations."

We express our affection right back, Shannon. And while we're not in it for the "power", of course (well, most of us, anyway!), we do hope that book blogs can help to fill the void as other sources of review coverage shrink.

Stay tuned until January 1st, when this year's Cybils short lists are revealed. 

-- Jen Robinson, Cybils Literacy Evangelist