SPFBO 2017

Apologies for the slight hiatus from bloggery and blogcraft. Due to the aligning of the stars, I had a lot of formatting for not one but two books. Traitor’s Prize and Sir Edric’s Kingdom will hopefully both be forthcoming in the next few months.

The Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) was created a few years ago by Mark Lawrence, author of The Broken Empire Trilogy, amongst other things. It’s a Ronseal title, as between 250 and 300 self-publishing fantasy authors submit their books and are brutally torn to pieces/lavished with praise and adulation by 10 elite and very attractive bloggers/reviewers. Each reviewer/judge-overlord starts with a list of 25 to 30 and whittles that down to just 1.

The final 10 are then all read by every Supreme Selector and rated, with just one being pronounced the winner.

In short, there’s a 96% chance or so of losing out at the first round, and a 99.7% chance of not winning outright. However, the SPFBO is still an excellent contest, and I hope you do pay it some heed (just check the hashtag on Twitter for more).

It’s a great way for publicity-starved self-published writers to get on the radar of potential readers, and to do so in a way that depends on the quality of their writing rather than paying for marketing. Not only that, it’s a great way for readers to find new books they otherwise might not have seen. Those who win, or even come close, may well end up with traditional publishing deals.

So, it’s bi-winning, as Charlie Sheen might say. It’s also now an annual contest, so if you have a self-published fantasy, keep your eyes peeled for next year. And who knows? Maybe you’ll win.

For myself, I’ve entered Kingdom Asunder, the first part of The Bloody Crown Trilogy. Its sequel, Traitor’s Prize, will hopefully be out soon.

Thaddeus