The title says it’s The Worst Book Ever, but that’s not the conclusion of the judges of the Digital Book World Awards. My newest book has been named a finalist in the Children’s Book Category of this new, international publishing industry contest.

This awards event spans all kinds of contributions to publishing. The contest includes all kinds of categories, including Publishing Executive of the Year (among the finalists are Jeff Bezos (from Amazon) and the wonderful  Dominique Raccah (from Sourcebooks).

According to the team at Digital Book World, the judges chose their selections from a wide variety of entrants. Here’s their description of the competitive environment:

We received an incredible number of submissions, from all over the world. … Every Finalist was selected from among a pool of nominations made to Digital Book World 2018 over the calendar year.

The awards ceremony will be held October 2 in Nashville, TN. They describe this event as the gathering of community across the wide world of publishing. The focus of this organization is digital books, which is of course an important format for all books because it makes more books accessible. 20% of the attendees will be from traditional publishing, 20% from independent publishing and the rest of the attendees are from a combination of people with roles that support the book industry in other ways.

It’s wonderful to know that my books are admired by people in the industry. But that makes praise from kids no less important. As much as I appreciate kudos from grown-ups, I’m glad my books make 7-year-olds laugh, too.