Digital Book World Awards: Winner

pig with wings on a white background. studio

As I write this, I’m a little blown away. Recently, I announced that I had been selected as a finalist in the Best Children’s Book category and the Best Use of Social Medial in Book Marketing category for 7th Grade Revolution for the 2018 Digital Book World Awards. I was so honored to have reached that stage and not only that, but to have my publisher, Vesuvian Books, as a finalist for Best Children’s Publisher as well.

The awards ceremony was held in Nashville this evening, and I wasn’t able to attend, so waited patiently for the announcement to be posted online. The categories 7th Grade Revolution finaled in weren’t being announced at the ceremony, so I would have been awaiting the online announcement anyway. I felt a little like Alice in Through the Looking Glass when my publisher contacted me with the results. Lewis Carroll said it best:

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings.”

And the answer to the question about the pigs is YES, they do have wings and were flying around Nashville tonight because 7th Grade Revolution WON in the category of Best Use of Social Medial in Book Marketing. I don’t know about book marketing, but I do like the way Twitter, or as it is in the book QuackerMe, is used in the story. Without the use of social media, the book would have been significantly different. But I cannot claim all the credit for the award.

Without the use of social media in the Exploris Middle School classroom experience, first of all, I wouldn’t have had a book because I would never have heard about the exercise in the first place. But also, the teachers used Twitter in the guise of being reporters/the media to broadcast the events of the classroom to the world. I knew from the very beginning that had to be a part of the conclusion of the story … how social media is now the more immediate news source. So thank you, Karen Rectanus and Exploris Middle School for broadcasting the events via Twitter. It helped shape the book in many ways.

Here is just a part of what Digital Book World had to say about the awards this year:

“Digital Book World is honored to recognize best-in-class achievement across the wide world of publishing, and we’re thrilled to celebrate these distinguished award winners with the publishing and technology community,” said Digital Book World Executive Producer Bradley Metrock. “Congratulations to all of the award winners – we’re proud to showcase your work.”

Click the image below to go to the full article and winners list

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