This page explains the Award categories, the criteria for each and the procedure from nominations through to selecting the winner. Check out the Rules page for more info on who is eligible to nominate/vote and who is eligible to be nominated!
Best Newcomer
Criteria: Blogging/vlogging for less than 2 years. Which new blogger or vlogger is the ‘one to watch’? Who helps enliven the UKYA community? Who is learning and growing the most in terms of content and engagement (not just followers)? Who is bringing something new and exciting to the table? Whose content do you rate the most, eagerly going to read new posts and choosing books to read based on the blogger/vlogger’s reviews and recommendations?
Procedure: nominations compiled into longlist by criteria, shortlist compiled by voting, winner chosen by judges.
Best Established
Criteria: Blogging/vlogging for more than 2 years. Which established blogger continues to offer a big contribution to the UKYA community, encouraging other bloggers and vloggers, supporting readers with useful reviews and recommendations, and generally staying up-to-date with books, topics and developments in publishing? Whose content continues to deliver on quality as well as being interesting and engaging? Who has that extra something special, whether it’s beautiful images or brilliant activities on social media or consistently complex and original analysis of books, topics and trends? Whose blog/vlog do you go to when you want a quality opinion on something and who would you look to for solid advice or an example of best practice?
Procedure: nominations compiled into longlist by criteria, shortlist compiled by voting, winner chosen by judges.
Champion of Diversity
Criteria: Actively and regularly promotes a range of books that are diverse in terms of authors, themes, protagonists, etc. Supports books by authors who may be marginalised to help them find an audience. Blogs about the importance of diversity and how to make our bookshelves more inclusive. Promotes good practice about discussing and supporting diverse books. Consideration should also be given to ensuring that nominations are diverse: this is a general point for all categories, but it deserves extra attention when we are explicitly talking about diversity!
Procedure: nominations compiled into longlist by criteria, shortlist chosen by judges, winner chosen by voting.
Most Inspirational
Criteria: Posts content that makes you want to read more, read in genres you don’t know as much about, get more involved in the bookish community, attend bookish events, volunteer in a bookish capacity, try your hand at writing, or do any other bookish thing you might not otherwise have thought about seriously. Helps you and others discover books and/or issues you might never otherwise have learnt about. Makes you feel even more passionate about books and stories. Posts in an innovative way or includes a diverse range of exciting content. Includes beautifully designed posts and/or original bookish images and similar. Posts across a range of platforms, engaging lots of different people in the bookish community. Generally makes you feel happy about being part of the UKYA/UKMG community.
Procedure: nominations compiled into longlist by criteria, shortlist chosen by judges, winner chosen by voting.
Best Bookish Post
Criteria: This category is about recognising the quality of a bookish review or similar contribution. It should provide an in-depth critical analysis of the book/topic in question, offering original insights with a solid, well-evidenced argument. The post should show good knowledge of where the book sits in the literature for reviews, or how the topic in question is explored across a range of books: good general knowledge of the relevant literature is a must. The winning post should be engaging and well-written (i.e. clear and grammatical), ideally with a strong voice and possibly some humour. Only one review/post can be nominated per blogger/vlogger; however, additional excellent reviews and posts by the reviewer may be taken into consideration in the judging where someone consistently and regularly creates excellent content, especially if there is disagreement between the judges about which individual review is the best.
Procedure: nominations compiled into longlist by criteria, shortlist and winner chosen by judges.
People’s Choice for Author Interactions
Criteria: Which author provides the best interactions with YA readers through all digital channels, e.g. websites, blogs, vlogs, social media? Who goes the extra mile with fans and who should we be following? Why is this author so special to the YA community and should be winning the People’s Choice Award?
Procedure: Public (including bloggers/vloggers) can nominate. Nominations to be submitted as testimonials with the name of nomination, reason for nomination (max. 200 words) and the name of the nominator if wanting to be credited. Nominations will be complied into a longlist of 10 selected by Showmasters. Shortlist of 4 will be selected by the YALC Working Group then opened to a public vote via a web form hosted on the YALC website. Voting will be timed to fit the other category timelines.
Publishers’ Choice
Criteria: Which blogger or vlogger offers the best support to authors and books? Who is particularly good at creating original and inventive content? Who goes the extra mile for readers, authors and the bookish community in general? Who is the most professional in terms of the work delivered? Who do you keep wanting to work with? Who adds something new and special to the bookish community?
Procedure: publishers nominate, longlist compiled by criteria, shortlist and winner chosen by publisher votes
UKYABA 