The SPFBO: Introducing Round One!

So, here we are again. The Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (#SPFBO) 3 is set to begin on July 1! Read all about it on Mark Lawrence’s blog, or check out our own announcement here. For now, here’s a rundown of how Fantasy-Faction will be handling Round One.

As you know, 300 competing titles have now been split into batches of 30 and assigned to one of the ten participating blogs. Here’s the tough part: we can’t keep them all. It’s a bit like being asked to foster a small herd of kittens, then being told you’re only allowed to adopt one of them. We try hard not to become too attached, but it proved very difficult last year and I wouldn’t be the least surprised if the same were true again this time. As yet, we have absolutely no idea which one of our 30 we’ll be keeping, but we do have a few first impressions that we’d like to share.

Before we introduce our batch of SPFBO contenders, though, let me first introduce the Fantasy-Faction SPFBO Judging Panel!

THE TEAM

• G.R. Matthews
  The Team Captain
  Twitter: @G_R_Matthews
  He’s been on board with the SPFBO since day one; he even entered it himself once, all the way back in 2015. (Yup. He’s that old!)

• Jennie Ivins
  The Voice of Reason
  Twitter: @Autumn2May
  Having co-edited Fantasy-Faction for the last few years, Jennie’s great at making sure things go to plan; she’s also a much-needed calming influence on the team.

• Michael Everest
  The Drill Sergeant
  Twitter: @MichaelWEverest
  Fresh-faced, eager and raring to go –  Mike is a relative newcomer to the contest, but is no stranger when it comes to doling out critique. Pep-talks aplenty lie ahead!

• Julia Kitvaria Sarene
  The Reading Machine
  Twitter: @KitvariaSarene
  Not only is Julia a mod on our 5,000-strong Facebook group, she’s the most prolific reader we’ve ever met. Also a seasoned beta reader, she’ll be adding her opinions – which are always blunt, honest and fair – to help us make our decisions.
• James Latimer
  The Grumpiest Man on Earth
  Twitter: @NotJamesLatimer
  Speaking of blunt opinions . . . meet James! Reader, writer and self-proclaimed Hunter of Hidden Gems, JL will bring a whole new level of honesty to the decision making process.

• Laura M. Hughes
  Me!
  Twitter: @HalfStrungHarp
  I had a whale of a time as part of the FF judging team (which, in addition to G.R., was also comprised of A.F.E. Smith, Sonia Grace and Richard Bray) during the SPFBO2. I wrote about the experience here, and as you can probably imagine am thrilled to have been asked to participate once again.

THE FORMAT

The best thing about participating in the SPFBO as part of a team rather than as an individual is that Round One ends up being a hell of a lot fairer. As the contest progresses you’ll hear us continually stress that much of what gets said is completely subjective (IMO, FWIW, YMMV, etc.). Aside from issues with (e.g.) spelling or grammar, which are more or less indisputable, the bloggers’ opinions are exactly that: opinions. So when there are FIVE pairs of eyes (instead of just one) potentially reading the opening chapters of every single book entered, chances are we’ll be able to give a more rounded view of each one, and to choose our finalist according to how many of us it managed to strike the right chord with.

Here’s a rough idea of the schedule we’ll be working towards:

Focusing on Round One only, here’s how it’s going to work:

* The five of us will work through the first chunk of each of the thirty books. We’ll do this more or less independently of one another, though if it happens that one of us checks the spreadsheet before reading and it already shows three definitive ‘NOs’ then chances are the remaining two will pass and move on instead to the more divisive books.

* In all cases, we’ll try our absolute best to read between three and five chapters before making the decision to eliminate anyone.

* We’ll provide balanced feedback on every single book we eliminate. Here’s an example from last year’s Round One, where we took it in turns to write up a couple of short paragraphs for each book based on everyone’s thoughts as recorded in the spreadsheet.

* As in the example I just gave, we’ll be eliminating books in batches of five as and when our collective feedback comes in. Since we’re working through them in no particular order, please don’t assume that we hated your book just because it happens to be in our very first batch of rejections!

* We’ll continue to eliminate those that the majority of us concur are not finalist material in batches of five until we’re left with either five or ten that show promise. We’ll then announce these as our semi-finalists (again, please do check out the ones from last year) and over the coming weeks we’ll attempt to read each semi-finalist from beginning to end, posting full reviews and eliminating them one at a time until we’re left with only our finalist and runner-up.

THE COMPETITORS

Finally, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to the thirty wonderful and varied books that chance saw fit to grace us with for the first round.

1. Alexia Purdy, Ever Shade
2. Angela Holder, The Tale of Gurion Thricebound
3. A.R Winterstaar, The Child Revealed
4. Bill Hiatt, Living with Your Past Selves
5. Brandon Barr, Ella Dethroned
6. Brett Herman, Chaos Trims My Beard
7. Brian D. Anderson & Steven Savile, Akiri: The Scepter of Xarbaal
8. C.D. Gallant-King, Ten Thousand Days
9. Charlotte E. English, Draykon
10. Christopher Bunn, The Hawk and his Boy
11. Christopher G. Nuttall, The Zero Blessing
12. Frances Smith, Spirit of the Sword: Pride and Fury
13. Ginny O, The Dawn Warrior
14. Guerric Hache, Zeroth Law
15. Gus Campbell, Pagan Heart
16. Jade Kerrion, Illusions
17. Joseph J. Bailey, Spellslinger
18. Kristal Shaff, Life Charmer
19. K.S. Villoso, Jaeth’s Eye
20. Maghan Richardson & Tina Verduzco, Storm and the Mermaid’s Knot
21. Marina Finlayson, Stolen Magic
22. Melissa Snark, Valkyrie’s Vengeance
23. Michael-Scott Earle, Wings of Justice
24. Nigel Bird, Drawn In
25. Richard Parry, Night’s Favour
26. Ryan Mueller, Empire of Chains
27. Scott Fitzgerald Gray, Clearwater Dawn
28. Terri Bruce, Hereafter
29. Ulff Lehmann, Shattered Dreams
30. V.R. Cardoso, The Dragon Hunter and the Mage

It’s almost certain that one of these books is a future SPFBO3 finalist – perhaps even the winner! Can you guess which one? (We can’t . . . yet!)

For more about the #SPFBO 3, read our introduction post here.

If you’ve been following the previous SPFBO then let us know about any entries that have caught your fancy! Join the discussion on social media (there’s a Facebook group here) and weigh in with your own opinions using the hashtag #SPFBO.

Oh . . . and stay tuned for the COVER CONTEST!

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