Congratulations to Children's Choice Award finalists and get the widget

The finalists for the 2011 Children's Choice Book Awards were just announced. I'm excited to say that books written by four of JacketFlap's members are among the finalists! Please join me in congratulating the four finalists by clicking their names below and leaving a congratulations comment on their profiles:

Shark vs. Train, by Chris Barton

Hot Rod Hamster, by Cynthia Lord

Finally, by Wendy Mass

Even Monsters Need Haircuts, by Matthew McElligott

Voting for the finalists is now open. Children and teens will be able to cast their votes for their favorite books, author, and illustrator at bookstores, school libraries, and at the Book Week website (BookWeekOnline.com) until Friday, April 29, 2011. More than 15,000 children and teens from around the US spent months reading and evaluating books submitted by publishers to select the finalists in the Book of the Year categories; the Favorite Author and Illustrator finalists were selected by the Children's Book Council from an evaluation of best-seller lists. The winner in each category will be named at a gala celebration on May 2, 2011, hosted by 2010 3rd-4th Grade Book of the Year winner Jarrett Krosoczka, at The Lighthouse in New York City, as part of Children's Book Week (May 2-8, 2011), the oldest national literacy initiative in the United States.

To enhance the awareness of the awards, the Children's Book Council is working with JacketFlap again this year to create a Children's Choice Book Awards Widget, which displays a different finalist book every time it loads on a web site or blog. You can get the Widget for your own blog or web site at:

http://www.jacketflap.com/widgets/widget.asp?widgetname=CCBA2011

Please spread the word to children and teens so they can vote. Remember, voting ends April 29, 2011! The full list of award finalists are listed below.

Tracy 


Kindergarten to Second Grade Book of the Year:

Even Monsters Need Haircuts by Matthew McElligott (Walker)
Hot Rod Hamster by Cynthia Lord, illustrated by Derek Anderson (Scholastic Press)
How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills (Schwartz & Wade/ Random House)
Little Pink Pup by Johanna Kerby (Putnam/Penguin)
Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld (Little, Brown)

Third Grade to Fourth Grade Book of the Year:

Babymouse # 12: Burns Rubber by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (Random House)
Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray: The Uproar at the Front Door by Nick Bruel (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)
Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods & Heroes by Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda (Candlewick)
Finally by Wendy Mass (Scholastic Press)
Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Knopf/Random House)

Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year:

Big Nate: In a Class by Himself by Lincoln Peirce (HarperCollins)
It's a Book by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)
The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1) by Rick Riordan (Disney-Hyperion)
Smile by Raina Telgemeier (Graphix/Scholastic)
Zebrafish by Peter H. Reynolds and FableVision (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster)

Teen Choice Book of the Year:

Burned (House of Night, Book 7) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (St. Martinâ?Ts Griffin/Macmillan)
Fang (A Maximum Ride Novel) by James Patterson (Little, Brown)
Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press)
Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, Book 5) by Richelle Mead (Razorbill/Penguin)
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (Dutton/Penguin)

Author of the Year:

Cassandra Clare for Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book 1) (McElderry/Simon & Schuster)
Suzanne Collins for Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) (Scholastic Press)
Jeff Kinney for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (Amulet/Abrams)
Stephenie Meyer for The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Megan Tingley/Little, Brown)
Rick Riordan for The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, Book 1) (Disney-Hyperion)

Illustrator of the Year:

Robin Preiss Glasser for Fancy Nancy and the Fabulous Fashion Boutique (HarperCollins)
Loren Long for Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters (Knopf/Random House)
Nancy Tillman for Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You (Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan)
David Wiesner for Art & Max (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Mo Willems for Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)

Talk to Wendy Mass During her Book Phone Tour Monday November 22nd at 7PM (Eastern)

I just learned that JacketFlap member Wendy Mass (author of ten novels for young people such as Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life and A Mango-Shaped Space) will be doing a book phone tour this Monday, November 22^nd at 7PM (Eastern Time) to promote her new book, The Candymakers. That means you can call in and join a 30 minute chat with Wendy from the comfort of your very own home! The book phone tour was organized by the Books of Wonder bookstore in New York City.

To join the tour, you need to register in advance here. You sign up (it's free!), and then you'll receive an email with instructions on how to call in. Wendy will talk a bit about what went into writing The Candymakers, and then they'll open up the call for a live Q&A session. If you order a book, she'll sign it to you (or whoever you like) and Books of Wonder will ship it in time for the holidays! 

If you decide to join the chat, please leave a comment here to let us know how it went!

Tracy

Borders eBook Store Online and Free Coffee!

Borders eBook store is now online. According to their site, there are now more than one million titles available, including hundreds of thousands of free eBooks. These eBooks will work on a variety of devices. There are desktop apps for PC and Mac computers. And, for the mobile reader, there are apps available for iOS devices (iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads), Blackberry and Android devices. Finally, the eBooks are also readable on several eBook readers, including Sony Readers, the Kobo eBook reader, and soon the Aluratek Libre reader.

Free Coffee!

Borders has an interesting offer to entice people to download their mobile apps. If you go to your local Borders and show them an installed eReader app, they'll give you a free cup of coffee. Their website for the promotion indicates that this is limited to the apps for the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.  They don't mention support for people with the Borders app on an Android phone, but I guess it couldn't hurt to ask since the ad does say "show us your Borders eReader App, get a FREE Small Brewed Coffee".

Let me know what you think of the apps, the eBook store or the coffee!

Tracy

Independent Booksellers partner with Google Editions

According to an article in the New York Times, the American Booksellers Association (ABA) will soon partner with Google Editions as the primary source for e-Books on the websites of independent booksellers. This is significant, as the ABA has over 1,400 bookstore members. If you're interested in the growing number of options for retailing e-Books, I recommend you read the article:

Stores See Google as Ally in E-Book Market

Tracy

Amazon 70% Royalty Option for Kindle Digital Text Platform Now Available

Amazon's new 70% royalty option is now available for it's Kindle Digital Text Platform. The 70% option provides authors with the means to earn a larger share of revenue from each Kindle book sold. Amazon's existing standard royalty option still remains as an alternative. See Amazon's press release below for details on qualifying for the 70% option program.

Tracy

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SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that the 70 percent royalty option that enables authors and publishers who use the Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) to earn a larger share of revenue from each Kindle book they sell is now available. For each book sold from the Kindle Store for Kindle, Kindle DX, or one of the Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, PC, Mac and Android phones, authors and publishers who choose the new 70 percent royalty option will receive 70 percent of the list price, net of delivery costs.

In addition to the 70 percent royalty option, Amazon also announced improvements in DTP such as a more intuitive “Bookshelf” feature and a simplified two-step process for publishing. These features make it more convenient for authors and publishers to publish using DTP. Delivery costs are based on file size, and pricing is set at $0.15/MB. At today’s median DTP file size of 368KB, delivery costs would be less than $0.06 per unit sold. For example, on an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option. This new option, first announced in January 2010, will be in addition to and will not replace the existing DTP standard royalty option.

“We’re excited about the launch of the 70 percent royalty option and user experience enhancements in DTP because they enable authors and publishers to conveniently offer more content to Kindle customers and to make more money from the books they sell,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content.

DTP authors and publishers are now able to select the royalty option that best meets their needs. Books from authors and publishers who choose the 70 percent royalty option will have access to all the same features and be subject to all the same requirements as books receiving the standard royalty rate. In addition, to qualify for the 70 percent royalty option, books must satisfy the following set of requirements:

• The author or publisher-supplied list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99.
• The list price must be at least 20 percent below the lowest list price for the physical book.
• The title is made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights.
• The title will be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech. This list of features will grow over time as Amazon continues to add more functionality to Kindle and the Kindle Store.
• Under this royalty option, books must be offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices.

The 70 percent royalty option is for in-copyright works and is unavailable for works published before 1923 (a.k.a. public domain books). The 70 percent royalty option is currently only available for books sold to United States customers.

DTP is a fast and easy self-publishing tool that lets anyone upload and format their books for sale in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). To learn more about the Kindle Digital Text Platform, visit http://dtp.amazon.com or e-mail dtp-support@amazon.com.

Kindle is in stock and available for immediate shipment today at http://www.amazon.com/kindle.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer

The new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is out, and it's great! I can't wait to see this!

Tracy

Correction regarding Children's Choice Book Award finalists

Earlier today I announced the names of three JacketFlap members as finalists in the Children's Choice Book Awards:

Shiver, written by Maggie Stiefvater

Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life, written by Rachel Russell and illustrated by Leisl Adams.

In fact, Rachel Renee Russel is the sole credited author and illustrator of Dork Diaries. JacketFlap member Liesl Adams and Rachel's daughter Nikki contributed artwork to the book as assistant artists under her direction.

Congratulations again Rachel!

Tracy