As is the case in life, it pays to have a thick skin. Things don't always go to plan, and there are always disappointments, but we just have to pick ourselves up and move on. That particularly applies to me at the moment!
After my blog about 'Alby and the Cat: Showbusiness' being nominated for the 2010 Cybils Awards, I've just learned that it was made ineligible, with the reason given that it had a 2008 copyright, whereas the competition's rules state that the copyright must be within the 12 months of the previous year's Cybils Awards. I can tell you right now, though, that 'Alby and the Cat: Showbusiness' had a 2010 copyright; it was my first Alby book, 'Alby and the Cat', that had the 2008 copyright so, infact, 'Alby and the Cat: Showbusiness' was eligible for the Awards.
I emailed the contact address that was given on the blog site, however did not hear back, so followed that up a couple of weeks later, and received a reply saying that the organisers check the publication date against WorldCat, which is a massive online catalogue. Apparently they had the publication date as 2008 (which was correct for the first Alby book). I'm assuming that when someone nominates a book, they may not actually send in a copy of the book to the organisers, but I'd have thought the organisers would have sought more details of the book in question, ie. ISBN at least, and not relied so heavily upon a 'massive online catalogue' that is clearly not foolproof.
After corresponding with Anne from the Cybils blog site a few times, it appears that the book cannot be reinstated now, so I just have to accept that this was all just a bit of bad luck. I can be happy, though, in the knowledge that someone liked 'Alby and the Cat: Showbusiness' enough to nominate it for an award. But it would have been just SOOOOOOO good if it had been given the opportunity to go further in the competition. It's hard enough for us authors to get our books 'out there' because it's such a competitive market, and book competitions are great in that regard. They can introduce you to an author whose books may otherwise have laid sitting dormant on bookshelves.
As for me, I'm just going to put this little setback behind me. Put it down to another of life's little lessons - one of many to still come, I'm sure!
