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Sarah Stevenson--a freelance writer, artist, graphic designer, and YA author--has been a part of the Cybils since its inaugural year in 2006, and was blog editor for the 2008, 2009, and 2010 Cybils. She's also helped out behind the scenes with various items like the Cybils logo and flyers. Last year she stepped aside from her duties as Cybils blog editor due to having a book eligible in the YA category, but this year she has no such conflict of interest and is very happy to be back.

This month, with a new novel revision on the front burner, she's posting with much help from (and gratitude towards) Literacy Evangelist Jen Robinson.

As the contest really gets under way, check the blog for contest updates, profiles of our organizing team, and book reviews from our many wonderful, hardworking, and talented volunteer bloggers.

Find her on Twitter @aquafortis or on her YA blog, co-hosted by author Tanita Davis, at Finding Wonderland.

Our lovely Cybils Overlord and co-founder Anne Levy is known by many names: Cybils Sherpa, Cybils Editor, O Mighty One. Normally you can see her blog posts right here on the Cybils blog, but this year she's on a bit of a hiatus as her superhuman organizational skills are bent to the task of molding young minds as a 6th grade teacher.

When she has free time (teachers have free time?!?), it's spent writing young adult fantasy/sci-fi stories and trying to arrange some well-deserved poolside daiquiris and cabana boys for her hardworking category chairs.

Jen Robinson is always on the lookout for great books. Throughout studying engineering in college and graduate school, she could often be found browsing the children's section of libraries and bookstores. She now works in the semiconductor industry, and reads and reviews children's and young adult books in her spare time. Said spare time is in short supply these days, because she also has a 2-year-old daughter. Together, they read many, many, many picture books.

Jen has been involved in the Cybils since the beginning. For the past few years she has acted as Cybils' Literacy Evangelist. This mostly means that she uses her blog and social media platforms to spread the word about the Cybils. She also published bi-monthly children's literacy roundups with Carol Rasco from RIF and Terry Doherty from The Family Bookshelf. You can find Jen at Jen Robinson's Book Page or @JensBookPage.

Jone is a regular contributor in the Poetry Friday community. Her blog Check It Out features the work of her students, poetry books for children, and poet interviews. Her school's "Poetry Postcard Project" for National Poetry Month is in its fourth year with postcards traveling the world.

Jone begins her 39th year of teaching this year. She shares her poetry passion with students and staff in Vancouver, WA. She would rather write poetry than memorize poems. Her blog Deowriter is her online notebook for haiku and other poetry forms. You can find out what happens in the library and books she's reading through twitter @JoneMac53.

This haiku describes what she does when she's not teaching, reading or writing.

camera in hand
endless paths to wander
words arrive on wings

Jone lives in the Portland area with her bread baking husband and two doxies.

Sheila Ruth is happy to have found her tribe in the Cybils. Where else can she geek out about books with other people who get it? She has been with the Cybils since the beginning, and has worn several different hats over the years: Category Chair, Publisher Liaison, and creator/developer of the Cybils database, but her favorite part is reading and debating the books as a panelist.

Sheila loves to read, of course, and when she's not reading she can often be found working backstage in community theatre. She loves computers and technology, and also geeks out about tech gadgets. (She's firmly in the Apple camp, which is clearly far superior to that upstart, Android). She is a life-long resident of Maryland, but is equally at home in cyberspace. Her favorite TV shows are Doctor Who and Once Upon a Time, but she has a morbid fascination with Storage Wars. Her favorite books are too numerous to mention.

Jackie fully believes that her ability to consume great quantities of literature in short periods of time was first fostered by the elementary school program “Book It” which promised a button and free Pizza Hut to those who read enough. It served her well in college, and then again, in 2006 during the inaugural year of the Cybils. Since then, she has wildly wielded directives at YA Fiction panelists each fall and winter. This year she’s serving double duty by remaining YA Fiction chair and serving as Temporary-Decider-In-Chief while Anne the Overlord wrangles her first flock of sixth graders.

A full-time teen librarian, Jackie regularly bribes her teen volunteers with pizza, and is currently looking forward to the imminent purchase of her first house where she has already staked out entire walls to cover with bookshelves. She will somehow manage to move during the Cybils.

The Cybils have yet to reward her with greasy pizza.

Jackie blogs at Interactive Reader, and can be found on Twitter @interactiver.

Multi-tasking Mary Ann is how she's introduced herself lately - but perhaps that's apt as we delve into the world of Book Apps that seem to do so many things at once. Mary Ann is a school librarian, mom to three, grad student and blogger. Each day she spreads a love of reading with 300 elementary students in Berkeley, CA at Emerson Elementary School, a diverse and thriving public school. Each night she divides her time between blogging at Great Kid Books and pursuing her Masters in Library and Information Sciences at San Jose State University. Don't tell her professors, but she would much rather read children's books and share them with others than talk about formal library services! But the truth is, all this multi-tasking is only possible with nightly doses of dark chocolate.

Mary Ann has jumped into the app world with both feet. She’s been reviewing children's book apps on her blog Great Kid Books since January 2011. She chaired the 2011 Cybils Book App committee, working with a great team of panelists. And now she’s also part of the AASL task force to select the Top 25 Apps for Teaching and Learning. At her school, she’s launched a pilot program investigating the way that iPads can help elementary school children learn and explore. More than anything, the best part is seeing how this new technology can engage children in meaningful ways.

Find her on Twitter @MaryAnnScheuer.

Gina Ruiz has Cybils hard-coded into her DNA or at least she thinks so because she's been with the Cybils from the beginning. When she is not living and breathing the Cybils, she is writing; working in a law office and glaring at a certain senior partner about his sentence structure; hanging with her grandkids; eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new one she just got word was on the way in several months; reading tons; reviewing; grumbling about banned books in Arizona and cooking up a storm. She has a short story published in the book ¡Ban This! The BSP Anthology of Xican@ Literature and is working on a novel.

Find Gina on Twitter @GinaRuiz. 

I don't remember the first book I read "all by myself" and I don't know the name of every book I've ever read, but I will talk 'til I'm blue in the face about how much I love to read. And I will share that gift with everyone who is willing to listen to me read aloud.

One of the bonuses of becoming a mom almost 11 years ago was that I had the chance to channel my personal passion into a vehicle that pays forward that love in a way that nurtures new readers and their families. Through The Reading Tub, my nonprofit for family literacy, we get books to families who don't have reading material at home ... or teachers who need more books for their classrooms.

As a master reader, I look forward to practicing my craft every day. It is so exciting to find new, fabulous stories ... that enrich my life or others. It is that magic of discovery that draws me to Chair the Easy Reader / Short Chapter Category. When we find and can recommend books that "make" kids want to practice, then we are guiding them to their own gift. What could be more fun than that?

Find me on Twitter @readingtub.

Jennifer is excited to be a first-time category chair for Nonfiction Picture Books. She has been on Cybils panels for three years and is looking forward to being in control. Mwa-ha-ha! When not obsessively reading and reviewing for one of her two blogs, Jean Little Library and Flying Off My Bookshelf she is the youth services librarian for the mid-sized public library in Elkhorn, WI. She has always enjoyed nonfiction for children but became especially interested in titles for younger children several years ago when she was restructuring the children's programming and now includes nonfiction in as many programs as possible, from early literacy storytimes to after school art programs. Jennifer sees nonfiction as an integral part of her personal mission to introduce children to the amazing world around them and foster a sense of wonder and delight.

Liz Jones has participated in the Cybils graphics group one way or another since 2007.

For the past few years, a 90 hour work week put a damper on her posting at lizjonesbooks.livejournal.com -- but she's happy to be down off that schedule in 2012.

She's busily catching up on her reading, sending her college students off in search of great new titles in a genre most of them have never read (The horror!!!)...and is looking forward to blogging up a storm about this year's entries.

Find her on Twitter @lizjonesbooks.

A middle aged, middle school librarian from the Midwest, I've been blogging since 2006 at Ms. Yingling Reads. My students are impressed that I've read every hardcover fiction book in our school library, but it was really an evil plan to be allowed to read to my heart's content and be able to tell people to stop bugging me because I'm WORKING. I was on the Cybils' middle grade fiction panel in 2011, the middle grade science fiction/fantasy panel in 2010, and review for Young Adults Books Central. When I'm not reading, I'm coaching middle school cross country and planning travel based on books. Prince Edward Island is my next stop, since a phantom tollbooth has never been dropped into my living room!

Find me on Twitter @MsYingling. 

Oh, I give up. I've called myself the Cybils Editor, Cybils Sherpa, Cybils Admin. It doesn't matter. Every year, more than 100 bloggers give up any semblence of free time to become my minion for several months. For the organizers, it's a full six months. So I may as well wear my "overlord" mantel with pride while I perfect my demonic laugh.

When not bending innocent book bloggers to my will, I work part time writing up news summaries for a radio newswire. It's got the three things I like most in a day job: it's fun, it's mindless and my co-workers are hilarious (sometimes unintentionally). Oh, and I just put the finishing touches on Draft #984 of a young adult fantasy novel, which has lately been mutating into three novels, but who's counting?

I blog right here at Cybils, a seasonal occurance that seriously bends the eligibility rules, but it's nice to be the overlord.

1,091. That’s how many teen-written reviews Jackie read over the summer. Actually it's more, but we won't count the ones that were plagiarized. Of course, this was done in between Harry Potter parties, tie-dying, book bowls, copious amounts of slimy plaster, writing clubs, and making teenagers put petroleum jelly on their noses. Despite former panelist's opinions, she is not the Mistress of the Universe, nor has she had anything to do with DoDA, but she is, in addition to the YA Fiction Cybils organizer, co-host of the 5th Annual Kidlitosphere Conference in Seattle this fall. She looks forward to autumn for many reasons, but mostly for the resurgence of the Cybils. She blogs at Interactive Reader.

Jen Robinson divides her time between running around after her daughter, Baby Bookworm, and running her company, FabTime. FabTime is a small software firm that does reporting for companies that make computer chips. Baby Bookworm is a small person who cackles gleefully as she pulls the bookmarks out of books. When her responsibilities to Baby Bookworm and FabTime allow, Jen reads and reviews children's and young adult books. Jen has read aloud more than 1,000 books to Baby Bookworm so far in 2011.

Jen has been involved in the Cybils since the beginning. After putting in
her dues organizing the Young Adult Fiction and Defense Against the Dark
Arts, er, Middle Grade Nonfiction categories in the early years, she now
acts as Cybils' Literacy Evangelist. This mostly means that she jumps up and
down and tells people how great the Cybils are (a tough job, but someone has
to do it).

Jen blogs at Jen Robinson's Book Page.

Liz Jones has participated in the Cybils graphics group since she was knee high to a grasshopper, or at least, since about 2007. In this time, she has enjoyed blogging about the titles she reads at lizjonesbooks.livejournal.com, as well as spreading the word about the diversity and quality of graphics in her largely graphic-free locale by:

1)sharing them with her children's lit students at the University of Pittsburgh,

2) sharing them with her kid-clients during her work as a family based mental health therapist, and

3) handing them off to her evil minions three children, already rubbing their hands with gleeful anticipation of review copies to be shared with the minion community and its overlords their friends and school librarians.

It wouldn't be Fall without a lot of freshly sharpened pencils, my requisite new pair of school shoes, plenty of apple cider, homemade pie on Sunday and the Cybils. If I had to choose between my prize-winning apple pie and the Cybils, I'm not sure I could. I love pie a whole lot. Therefore, I love the Cybils a whole lot.

When I'm not making pie, I'm a teacher-librarian / bad dancer / Siamese wrangler / Terrier cuddler. Very little makes me happier than adding to the stack of library books that lives under my desk. I've been blogging about books for kids and teens at Shelf Elf for four years, and I'm happy to be back here again as category organizer for Middle Grade Fiction. In my house, there's always room for more pie, and always room for more books.

Gina's been with the Cybils in one capacity or another since it started and thinks its a most wondrous thing.

Gina has spent four years as a graphic novel panelist, last year she dabbled in poetry and this year (gulp) she is teaching Defense of the Dark Arts - er, make that she's an organizer for the nonfiction MG/YA category. She's also lurking about on Twitter doing all things social media. @Cybils Tweets marked with a - GR are hers. You can also follow her at @ginaruiz if you're so inclined.

She reads a lot, blogs a lot (books, cooking, online journal), fiddles around in virtual worlds and is big on promoting multi-cultural literature. Her idea of a grand vacation is going to Book Expo America or visiting dusty bookshops in any city.  She speaks hardcover, paperback, Kindle, Nook and Spanglish. Most recently spotted at the zoo with her partners in bookish madness - Jasmine and Aiden. Her next big project is a blog (not up yet) about  the wonder of libraries that she's currently working on with a friend.

Editor's Note: The references to DoDA (from the Harry Potter series) are my fault. I can't seem to get an organizer to stick in this genre for the life of them. Er, me.

E ditor's note: Jone has written us a shadorma, a poem with a meter of 3-5-3-3-7-5.

Multi-tasking Mary Ann is how she introduced herself lately - but perhaps that's apt as we delve into the world of Book Apps that seem to do so many things at once. Mary Ann is a school librarian, mom to three, grad student and blogger. Each day she spreads a love of reading with 300 elementary students in Berkeley, CA at Emerson Elementary School, a diverse and thriving public school. Each night she divides her time between blogging at Great Kid Books and pursuing her Masters in Library and Information Sciences at San Jose State University. Don't tell her professors, but she would much rather read children's books and share them with others than talk about formal library services! But the truth is, all this multi-tasking is only possible with nightly doses of dark chocolate.

Mary Ann has been reviewing children's book apps on her blog Great Kid Books since January 2011, and has been fascinated with the way this field is developing. In many ways, good children's book apps draw on the fundamental qualities of children's books; but in other ways, they are completely new. It's exciting to think critically about what makes an app really successful in engaging its audience.

If you haven’t already read the February 2011 issue of The Writer Magazine, I highly recommending grabbing a copy of it and absorbing it from front to back. Not only does the reader learn about the latest contest winner and get to read a super-interesting new story, but there are also several lessons in writing that will hold their footing anywhere.

A profile that will grab your attention and hold it for as long as you have memory is one written by Bob Blaisdell. He writes about a little recognized writer by the name of Jorge Luis Borges.

This man who had almost no vision is described as “a thoroughly literary being” and from the examples given of his talent, I’d have to agree. He did things with words and concepts that I’ve never seen before. And now that I’ve seen those examples, I’ll never look at my writing the same way again. His one piece of advice for writers was “Let your imagination out to play.”

Though he’s gone now his writings and his examples will live on to inspire and instruct those who’ve come after. Be sure to study Borges’s technique as revealed in Blaisdell’s profile of this little-known author.

Mark Wagstaff’s prize-winning story is showcased along with a great little biography of the writer. The magazine also chose to annotate with the contest judge’s evaluation and reasons for choosing this story as the winner. This read shows much of what a current editor might be looking for in submissions in the way of style, tautness of structure, etc. There’s a lot packed into less than 2000 words here.

Literary fiction author, Charles Baxter does an interview with Luke Reynolds. Baxter talks about how writers need to remain true to their stories and the characters who live within them. Reynolds calls Baxter one of the contemporary masters of literary fiction. That’s a title hard to come by today. If you want to see how a modern literary author, with stories made into movies, thinks and works, this should be a can’t-miss interview for you.

Stephen Delaney takes the reader into the mind of the character by showing how to use the character’s thoughts to help tell important parts of the story as well as unveil character backstory, personality traits, physicality, etc. without having to use narrative in the usual way. His point is to show how to create the drama of a piece by using those thoughts. This was a great instruction piece and well worth holding on to, regardless of the genre involved in one’s writing.

There are more interviews, more instruction pieces, and oodles of extras that The Writer is so good at laying at the feet of writers. And if you can’t get your hands on the physical magazine, drop onto the website at: www.WriterMag.com/

Peruse the website and enjoy all the goodies available there. Sign up to get updates, if you wish. They come in handy.

And in case anyone wonders if this is advertising for the mag, I can tell you that they don’t need me to spread the word about their offerings. I just wanted to clue in those who don’t already subscribe or visit the site as to what they’re missing. This month’s issue is an especially good one. At least, for me it was.

Next time I’ll deal with another subject. Have a magnificent week, all. Until you drop in again, a bientot.

Claudsy

Everything You Do Online Reflects on Your Book: Make Sure That Reflection Is Professional
Guest Expert: Phyllis Zimbler Miller

This month’s guest post is a natural extension of last month’s guest post “Do Your Offline and Online Book Promotion Activities Support Each Other?”

In that post I talked about how your book author website should present consistent information about your offline and online book promotion activities.

In addition, all your online book promotion activities should present you as a professional book author, regardless of whether your book was traditionally published or self-published.

Recently a book marketing consulting client asked me why he could not build a website himself for his nonfiction book the same as he had built for his business. I asked if he wanted my honest response.

When he said yes, I told him that his business site did not look professional. (And he agreed.) Then I added, as everything related to a book reflects on that book, he should have a book site that does appear professional.

And this advice about professionalism extends to everything you do online to promote your book.

For example, I’ve noticed typos in the Twitter profile bios of many people. Now this bio has a maximum of 160 characters. Do take the brief time to make sure you have spelled all the words in the bio correctly.

I always proofread my tweets and the comments I leave on blog posts before hitting “submit.” Now I know I may still occasionally miss an error, but I do try to ensure that whatever I write online is professional.

And this same advice goes for tweetchats or forum discussions or whatever.

Why is this so important?

You do not want to appear unprofessional and risk this reflecting negatively on your book.

And as you have spent a great deal of time writing your book, you should take the time to make sure you are not hindering your own book promotion efforts.

Bonus tip for customizing your Facebook and LinkedIn URLs rather than having those long URLs:

Facebook: Sign into your account. Then go to www.facebook.com/username and get your customized URL for your Facebook personal profile.

(Note that this profile must be in your own name and NOT your business name or you are in violation of Facebook terms. See my blog post )

Also, if you have a Facebook Page for business – formerly called a Fan Page – Facebook currently requires that you have at least 25 people who have “liked” your page before you can go to www.facebook.com/username and get a customized URL for your Facebook Page. But when you have at least 25 people, also get a customized URL for this page.

LinkedIn: Sign into your account. Then click on PROFILE (in navigation bar) and click on EDIT PROFILE.

On the right-hand side of the next screen click on CHANGE PUBLIC PROFILE SETTINGS.

Then you’ll see at the top of the next screen YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE URL and click on EDIT.

And, yes, having a customized URL instead of a long, awkward URL can reflect positively on yo

Remember those amazing panelist roundtables we posted to the blog a couple of years ago? Today, we're kicking off a new set of Q&As with our panelists, complete with a fresh new title. Okay, well, it's not new so much as "borrowed" from Stephen Colbert's "Better Know a District" feature, but hey--immature artists copy, mature ones steal, right? Or something.

Anyway, our NFPB category organizer Jone MacCulloch (Check It Out) asked her Round I judges the following question:

What nonfiction book would YOU like to write if you had the chance?

Karen Terlecky, Literate Lives: a picture book about Jackson, Wyoming

Amanda Goldfuss, ACPL Mock Sibert: a book about animals in space travel

Abby Johnson, Abby (the) Librarian: a biography of Ted Fujita, the scientist who developed the Fujita scale for measuring the intensity of tornadoes

Carol Wilcox, Carol's Corner: a book about guide dog puppies and a photo essay about foster kids

Shirley Duke, Simply Science: a book on mollusks and adaptations

Doret Canton, Happy Nappy Bookseller: a book on art as it relates to self-expression

Jone: a biography of Benjamin Rush

Today, the Cybils; tomorrow, the publishing world? Perhaps. Thanks to our Round I NFPB judges for letting us get to know them a little better!

--Sarah Stevenson, blog editor

Since I last saw you all back in February, a few amazing things have happened.

I interviewed a witch who casts spells and stuff and even writes YA. I interviewed an Iraq war veteran whose blog was censored by the U.S. Army. I meet some cool people in my day job as a radio news writer. Until a month or so ago, it was actually my night job. My hours were mercifully switched, but not before I completed draft #584 of a YA fantasy novel on my nights off. I seriously thought about ditching the big, shaggy, rambling monster of a manuscript. Then my first page went and got itself shortlisted in a big ol' national contest. Plus, my writing group loves the darn thing, so it's my albatross for the foreseeable future.

Oh, and I'm back as your taskmaster-in-chief and executive bottle washer. It's my privilege to run the Cybils every year and take all the credit for your hard work. Kidding! Seriously, welcome back, everyone.

--Anne Boles Levy

Susan Thomsen traces her love of nonfiction back to the days when she was mesmerized by such World Book entries as The Exoskeleton of Insects. She is positively thrilled with today's nonfiction bounty. Thrilled! Just ask her about Civil War submarines, P.T. Barnum, frog scientists, or growing up on Israel's West Bank--all of which were subjects in recent nonfiction for middle-grade kids and teenagers. Susan is the author of Elvis: A Tribute to the King, a book in the shape of a record. Nonfiction, of course.

--Susan Thomsen, Chicken Spaghetti