Cybils

Cybils ends tonight!

The moment is almost here. Instead of editing the blurbs for the winning titles, I spent my last day of the 2011-12 Cybils season in a courtroom filling out a jury questionnaire. I did my civic duty and am now free to finish the post, which goes up at one minute after midnight my time. Arizona exists in a parallel universe with a slipstream time current (I'm not really sure what that means, but it sounds good), so that's 2 a.m. on the East Coast and 11 p.m. for the West Coast.

We'll be announcing winners in all eleven genres, including the brand-spanking-new Book Apps. Join us tonight for The Big Reveal.

Cheers,

Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.

Monday Monday

Not my favorite day of the week. I've already made one boo-boo. I was deleting comment spam (how much do I hate those people? Honestly, if you want to peddle your knock-off Uggs, buy a freaking ad!) and I accidentally deleted a legitimate comment. If it's yours, please repost it. Sorry!

Also, our fabulous teen nonfiction organizer, Gina Ruiz, is leading an effort to try and get the Tucson school board to reintroduce books that were banned as part of an effort to end ethnic studies statewide. Yes, my proud state is up to its silly tricks again. Gina explains it better. However, it's not part of the SB 1070 anti-immigration statute, but grows out of the same illogic and fearmongering that led to the bill's passage.

Gina's also compiling a list of books banned in Tucson and has a petition to sign.

Update: Here is an article explaining the controversy.

Update II: Gina gets a mention in The Nation.

RIFfing with Cybils

I'm a big fan of Reading is Fundamental, and not just because I've met leader Carol Rasco and she's as amazing as you'd expect. She's one part missionary, one part Southern Belle and about 50 parts Energizer Bunny. RIF puts books in the hands of kids who really need them, kids like me when I was wee. I have some happy memories of the bookmobiles they no longer do (when I am Queen of the Universe, I will have to fix this. I picture fleets of bookmobiles for every corner of the globe).

But I'm not queen of anything. Even the dust bunnies smirk at my feeble attempts to coax them from under the sofa. But Carol and RIF need our help and I'm determined to give this a try. RIF lost all its federal funding and now must rely 100% on donations. I'm not in a position to write a check but they're more than happy to accept gently used books.

Which brings me to my new project: RIFfing with Cybils

Here's how it works: If you were a Round 1 panelist, you probably have a few review copies that have stacked up. Need a place to donate them? Here's an interactive map with RIF offices around the country. Find the one nearest you and if it's convenient, drop off a load of gently used books.

If you don't live nearby but can afford fourth class postage, they're happy to accept your donations any way they can get them. Or have a friend who commutes to the area drop them off. Make a special trip one day. Or round up books from friends and all of you split the media mail postage. The donations are tax deductible, of course.

I'll be reminding us all once a week about this. Please email me at anne (at) inlandempress (dot) com if you do participate and I'll be sure to list you and the RIF office to which you donated (but not the total number of books -- unless you'd like to add that. Some people don't want their donations detailed and I totally respect that).

If you're not a Round 1 judge or any sort of judge and you'd just like to help a great cause, feel free! I'll list you too when I do our roundup of donors.

I'm going to keep on this folks, so you'd better get busy. I want to hear some good news from bloggers around the country that you're busy packing up those gently used books for a generation of kids who are going without.

Charitably,

Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.

Enjoy your last glimmer of 2011

... because we intend to ring 2012 in with a bang. Yep, it's our very own Cybils tradition of rousing you from your New Year's celebrations with the publication of our short lists. Tune in at one minute past the stroke of midnight (Mountain time). That's 2:01 am Eastern and 11:01 pm Pacific.

On behalf of all of us here at the Cybils Awards, we wish you a happy and healthy New Year, full of lots of great books and the time to read them all in.

--Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.

Neener Neener Neeners

The lists of finalists are streaming in from our panels and I'm as thrilled as ever. Some exciting stuff awaits you at 12:01 am Mountain Time (2:01 am Eastern, 11:01 am Pacific) on January 1st. There's a good mix of familiar authors and new discoveries, plus at least one self-published title in the mix.

Hints? Spoilers?

Keep dreaming.

See you in a few days!

-Anne

No such thing as a free hobby

A disturbing article about William Morrow's not-so-nice letter to bloggers. Basically, they imposed new restrictions on their review copies and initially demanded the books be reviewed within one month. They later retracted the deadline, but the memo still says it's a blogger's "job" to review the books they send. Not hobby, labor of love or avocation. Job.

Note our own Pam Coughlin is quoted. In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that book blogging led to my own freelance reviews for the LA Times for a brief time. I haven't reviewed for them in several years, however.

If this represents the first of many such missives from publishers, it won't be good news for individual book bloggers or for Cybils. While I understand that the mountains of review copies do get expensive for publishers, and times are indeed tough, I think they should really be focusing their efforts on tracking the number of blog reviews of a specific title and their effects on sales. It can be done. We've done it when we announce the winners and then watch as Amazon rankings spike for a few days. And they naturally have access to more precise sales data than we do.

That would help publishers figure out which reviewers might have had an influence, and work better and more efficiently with us. I also think it's better when they send us a checklist so we can select books rather than sending their entire frontlist. Of course, many already do this, but I recall HarperCollins being one of the more egregious senders-of-everything when I was still doing Book Buds.

Would love to know your thoughts on this.

The absolute last word on bookmarks

They arrived earlier this week. That's a nearly 3-month delay from when I reordered them. Must be some kind of record. Aargh. And just in time for it to be 2012; making the bookmarks even more dated. Double aargh.

Anyway, if you requested 'em, you're getting 'em. I'll stand in line along with the rest of the world at the Post Office on Monday.

I think this is the last year I do this, even if they are wildly popular. Or maybe not. Judging by the two-foot-high stack of empty envelopes (all addressed and waiting to be stuffed), I guess this is a pretty popular promotion.

Happy Black Friday, all. Remember the Amazon ad at the tippy top of this page and help us get our wee commission on your orders. Thanks!

Annual pathetic plea for money

Sigh. It's that time of year again, when I remind you of our fabulous Amazon Affiliate thingee and plead with you to do your holiday shopping by clicking on our site first. It's gotten a little dire around here. We (okay, I) haven't ordered the 2010 awards yet because we haven't had the money.

I do have the money now, but I won't have it for 2011. At this point, it probably seems best to wait until I have enough for both in the hopes that a bigger order will get us a bigger discount (that's worked in the past, but it means I'm getting "where is my award" emails from authors. Aargh).

Is there anyone out there who doesn't know how this Amazon stuff works? You click on the ad up top or in the sidebar or on any book cover picture throughout our site. As you browse through Amazon, it remembers our Cybils affiliate code and we get a measly modest commission.

Also, we're getting some interesting ads this year. Please click on them to show support for our sponsors. We'll get more such ads if sponsors see people responding.

There's also a "Donate" button on the top of the right-hand column. I'm not a charity and your donation isn't deductible, sorry to say. But it goes straight to the Cybils account, not to me, and I've so far been about as scrupulous as a math dunce can be in keeping it all straight. I swear. In fact, money is more likely to hemorrhage from my private savings into the Cybils account than the other way around, but what's an overlord to do?

Many thanks for not rolling your eyes during my annual appeal. Now, click on an Amazon ad and start spending!

Regards,

Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.

Bookmarks #(*&%!!

Bad news for those who ordered bookmarks. The printer isn't shipping them until Oct. 24th. They were originally set to ship Oct. 3rd. No reason given why. I still have all your addresses and will get them to you as soon as they're in my grubby paws.

Apologies.

Thanks for joining us!

Nominations are now closed for the 2011 Cybils Awards. Thanks to all who nominated a book. We're still sorting through more than 1,100 titles behind the scenes. For those worried about having nominated a book in the wrong category -- fear not. We'll figure out where it's supposed to go. As long as it was nominated by midnight last night and otherwise meets our eligibility requirements, it's a go.

We hope you'll keep visiting us this season! We'll begin running the best of our judges' book reviews on Wednesday. Reminder: we're also looking for photos of your local indie bookstore. Take a few snapshots next time you wander in and let us know what makes them great.

--Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.