Cybils 2010: Ready to Go in Three Easy Steps

In less than 48 hours, you will be able to nominate your favorite book in any or all of the nine Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards:

Emerging Readers: Fiction Picture Books, Nonfiction Picture Books
Developing Readers: Easy Reader and Early Chapter (fiction and nonfiction)
Independent Readers: Middle Grade Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
Mixed audiences: Graphic Novel,  Nonfiction Middle Grade and Young Adult, Poetry, and Science Fiction & Fantasy

In putting together your list, the first thing to check is the publication date. To be eligible for this year’s Cybils, a book must be published between 16 October 2009 and 15 October 2010.  If you’re not sure, bookseller websites sometimes include that level of detail. For example, when you search for a book at BarnesandNoble.com, you’ll get the exact publication date (month/day/year) in the return.

Next, you might want to have a couple “alternates” ready to go. A book can only be nominated one time, so if you try to add a book that’s already there, the online form will kick it back to let you know it’s been nominated already.

Last but not least, be sure to have the title and the full author’s handy.  By using an online form, Team Cybils makes it easy for you to nominate your favorites of the last year. Making sure the title is correct (A Birthday for Bear v. The Birthday Bear) could make the difference on whether your nominated book moves forward.

If you’re not sure which category a book should go in, make your best placement. If the organizers think it needs to be moved, they’ll take care of that for you.

If you have additional questions, I’d recommend visiting the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Cybils Website.  On Friday, when nominations open, there will be one master post with links to each of the category nominations posts.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!