Wednesday, August 15, 2007

LDS Booksellers Association

I've been slacking lately in the blogging arena, but I'm still here.

Today I went to the LDS Booksellers convention in Sandy, Utah, to help run a booth for the Whitney Awards.

As a member of LDStorymakers, I wanted to do my part in promoting the brainchild of Rob Wells. He wants to recognize the literary achievements of LDS authors everywhere.

Anyone, age 12 and up can nominate a favorite book published in 2007 by an LDS author. This includes national books by LDS authors, locally published books . . . anything in the following seven categories:
Romance/Women's
YA/Children's
Speculative
(Fantasy, Science Fiction)
Historical
Mystery/Suspense
Best new author of the year
Novel of the year


If a book is to make it to the second round, it must receive at least five nominations. Then a committee comprised of seven authors will narrow it down to five books per category. The books are placed on a ballot and send to an academy of voters. If you are a bookstore owner, book distributor, or literary critic, you can sign up to be a member of the voting academy. In January, the votes will be cast and compiled.

Then on March 22nd, an award banquet will be held at the CottonTree Inn in Sandy, Utah.

Three things will make the Whitney Awards a success:
1. Nominate your favorite books by LDS authors here: www.whitneyawards.com
2. Consider becoming a sponsor. The Whitney Awards is currently sponsored by the non-profit LDStorymakers, and several other organizations.
3. If you qualify, join the Academy and take the opportunity to cast your vote.

Together, we can recognize literary achievement among LDS authors and bring awareness and prestige the craft of writing.

5 comments:

Josi said...

so how did it go today? Was there good interest piqued? I'll be there for a little while tomorrow, but only for about an hour or so. Will you be back, or were you only planning to be there today?

Heather Moore said...

I thought it went really well. I just went on Wednesday.

Unknown said...

Heather, I think the Whitney Awards are going to be huge. The more I worked the booth at LDSBA the more excited I got. My brain just started cooking and this award is going to grow into something that will take the literary world by storm! I'm so thrilled to be a part of it.

Unknown said...

Heather, you are invited to join the LDS Blog Webring I set up. You may do by going to my blogspot, locating the webring on the righthand side of the page and clicking on Join. Hope to see you come aboard.

Be sure to insert the code on your blogspot right after signing up or it halts the progression of the webring as people click on next.

Julie Wright said...

Heather, it was so fun to see you. The whitney's is one of the coolest things put out in the lds literary community. I am sop glad something is finally in place to recognize the great authors in this market.