You asked (griped, whined, hollered) — we heard. Here’s a few questions that have come my way:
1. Which books are eligible?
Any children’s or YA book published in English in 2006, including translated and bilingual books.
2. How do I nominate a book?
Type them into the comments section under each category. Categories are listed to your right, or scroll down through previous posts.
3. How many books can I nominate?
No more than one in a category. If you list a bunch, we’ll email you and ask you to pick your favorite.
4. What if I don’t know which category it belongs in?
Make your best guess. If you’re mistaken, the organizers will forward it to the right category.
5. If a book gets more than one nomination, does that help its chances?
Sorry, no.
6. Will the panelists really be reading all the books?
The organizers have agreed that every book must be read by at least two panelists (there are five people on a panel). If both people think it’s a strong contender, the others are urged to read it too.
7. How will the panelists get all the books? Do they have to hunt them down?
Publishers are stepping forward to offer review copies to panelists. All of the organizers are making lists of which panelists need what books to make that easier. There’s also a service called Reviewers Checklist that many of us use to get review copies. Failing all that, there’s always the public library.
From what I’m hearing from volunteers, everyone is eager to start reading. In particular, we want to make sure smaller publishers that lack the big advertising bucks get their fair shake.
8. What about books published in November or December, after the nominations close?
Many of those books will carry a 2007 copyright and will therefore be eligible for next year’s Cybils. If they have a 2006 copyright, the author or publisher should nominate the book and send galleys or an advanced review copy to the panelists so it can still be considered this year. Also, books published last November or December with a 2006 copyright are eligible for the current Cybils award.
9. How do I get in touch with one of the category organizers?
All the organizers are listed on the upper left. Click on their names and it takes you to their blogs, where you’ll find their contact information. I know that’s the long way around, but these folks don’t want spammers finding them too easily.
10. What’s with the Amazon and BlogAds?
Oh, hello, your friendly Web mistress is a stay-at-home Mom, which is how I have the time to do this. Clicking on the Amazon ad and buying a book puts a teensy commission in my pocket. Not enough to avoid having to go back to work soon, but enough to cover the costs of running the contest: mostly the domain name and some extra bandwidth. If there’s financial support for it, I think the winners would appreciate a plaque or trophy.
11. Did you pick those books for the Amazon ads?
No, they are randomly generated by Amazon.
More questions? Problems? Gripes? We want the Cybils to be as transparent as possible. Email me at anne (at) bookbuds (dot) net.
–Anne Levy, Web Mistress