It’s that time of year again Factioners! In the north spring is coming to an end. In the south winter is on its way. And it is time for the 7th Annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off to begin!
We at Fantasy-Faction have been judging the contest since its inception way back in 2015. Along the way we have discovered some amazing self-published books and authors and had the privilege to share them with you!
How It Works
For those who are new to our site or new to the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off, or SPFBO, let me explain how it works.
Before the contest begins, self-published authors submit their stories, until 300 entries are received. Then those 300 books are divided between ten different SFF review blogs. This year, those blogs are:
- Fantasy-Faction (us)
- Fantasy Book Critic
- Lynn’s Books + The Critiquing Chemist (joint team)
- Booknest
- The Weatherwax Report
- The Fantasy Hive
- The Fantasy Inn
- FanFiAddict
- Becky M (of InkyLeaves)
- Before We Go Blog
Each blog reads through their slush pile of thirty books and picks their favorite to go onto the finals. This works differently for each blog, but here we review five books at a time saving our favorite five for last. Then each of our five semi-finalists get’s its own review then we announce our winner.
After all winners have been picked, each blog reads the other nine finalists, and rates them on a scale of 10. Whichever book scores the highest is the winner!
What Books Are We Reading?
Here is our list of 30 books for round one of this year’s contest. They are listed in alphabetical order by title. You can click on each book to see its Goodreads page. If you like you can check out all the covers on our Pinterest board here. You can also vote on the best cover in this year’s contest here!
You can see the entire list of 300 books on Mark Lawrence’s website.
- As I Was on My Way to Strawberry Fair by Raymond St. Elmo
- Bad Cow (Oræl Rides to War #1) by Andrew Hindle
- A Bad Rune at Angels Deep (The Shattered Frontier #2) by Anthony Lowe
- Blood Indigo (The Hoop of the Alekšu’in #1) by Talulah J. Sullivan
- The Blood of the Spear (The Eye of Eternity #1) by Mark Timmony
- Burn Red Skies by Kerstin Espinosa Rosero
- The Cutlass Swoon: A New World Romance (Book One of The Davy Jones Trilogy) by Andrew Marc Rowe
- Dawn Rising (Marked #1) by A.F.E. Smith
- Djinn Tamer: Starter (Bronze League #1) by Derek Alan Siddoway and A. J. Cerna
- Doomsayer Prince (THE ARTIFACT WAR Book 1) by Rune S. Nielsen
- Dragon Mage (Rivenworld #1) by M. L. Spencer
- Duplicity of Power (Wild Heritance #1) by S. Lynn Helton
- Echoes of a Storm (The Storm Series #1) by Alan Scott
- Girlgoyle (Hollow Mountain Butterfly #1) by Better Hero Army
- Gleeman’s Tales (The Gleeman’s Tales Duology #1) by Matthew Travagline
- Lake Merrin (Journal of an Adventurer #1) by Samuel Colbran
- The Lightning Knight (The Knights of Nine #1) by Sean P. Valiente
- The Mazes of Magic (Conjurer of Rhodes #1) by Jack Massa
- The Museum of All Things Lost & Forgotten (Ordinary Sorcery) by A. R. Henle
- Of Blood and Fire (The Bound and the Broken #1) by Ryan Cahill
- Order of the Magi by Christopher Scott
- Overworld (Dragon Mage Saga #1) by Rohan M. Vider
- The Pirate’s Scourge (Blood Sea Tales Book 1) by Chris A. Jackson
- Seasons of Albadone by Élan Marché and Christopher Warman
- Seven Ways to Kill a King by Melissa Wright
- The Sword in the Street (The Ink and the Steel #1) by C. M. Caplan
- Twelve Jackals: Illicitum (Book One) by Moud Adel
- We Seek No Kings: A Post-Apocalyptic Epic Fantasy (The Steel Clan Saga Book 1) by T. Thorn Coyle
- A World Broken (Chronicles of the Lady Sar #1) by Carol A. Park
- Wrath (Dinosaur Dungeon Book 1) by Alex Raizman
Who Will Be Judging?
Our judges this year are a mix of season veterans and new blood. Our tastes rang across the board and we can’t wait to see what the authors have for us this year! Let me introduce our team.
A. M. Justice
A. M. Justice is an award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy, a freelance science writer, and an amateur astronomer, scuba diver, and once and future tango dancer. She currently lives in Brooklyn with a husband, a daughter, and two cats. This is her third year as an SPFBO judge.
- Website: amjusticeauthor.com
- Twitter: @AMJusticeWrites
- Facebook: A. M. Justice
- Instagram: amjusticeauthor
A. A. Freeman
A. A. Freeman is an author, crafter, and all-around geek that lives in the foothills of North Carolina and spends her days writing fantasy and science fiction with a hint of romance. When not writing she knits, cross stitches, plays video games and works on perfecting her dried rose petal shortbread cookie recipe. She’s probably not a robot. Beep boop.
- Website: aughtpunk.com
- Twitter: @aughtpunk
- Facebook: A. A. Freeman
- Instagram: aughtpunk
Julia Kitvaria Sarene
Julia has been a bookseller and purchaser in Germany since 2003. Her love of books only grew over the years, just as her love for fantasy and sci-fi did! She is especially interested in indie publishing and discovering new talents, she has been a judge for SPFBO since 2018. She reads every subgenre and style of fantasy, as long as it’s not overly romantic! If she’s not reading, she likes to stalk (foam!) animals with her bow and arrows. And we simply won’t mention her audiobook addiction here…
- Facebook: Julia Kitvaria Sarene
- Instagram: juliakitvariasarene
- Goodreads: Julia Sarene
- The StoryGraph: kitvaria_sarene
- Readerly: kitvaria_sarene
Kartik Narayanan
Kartik loves books and has been reading since he can remember. He generally reads all kinds of books but some genres like SFF and non-fiction involving science and maths are more equal than others. When growing up, he was influenced by Gerald Durrell and James Herriot. So naturally he ended up working in the IT industry. Somewhere along the line, he discovered Isaac Asimov and Terry Pratchett and that’s when his obsession with SFF started. He lives in India with his wife and his two daughters, all of whom spend most of their spare time reading.
- Twitter: @hajaarfunda
- Facebook: Kartik Narayanan
- Instagram: narayanankartik
- Goodreads: kartik narayanan
- YouTube: Kartik Narayanan
Kerry Smith
Kerry lives in Wellington, New Zealand and this is her 2nd year as a judge for Fantasy-Faction. She has been an avid reader from a very early age and fell in love with fantasy when she discovered different worlds at the top of a magic tree. She enjoys most sub-genres of fantasy though she tends to avoid reading books that are reverse harem and overly sex filled. When she’s not reading, Kerry volunteers at a charity shop/drop in centre for the local LGBTQI community. She can be found on Goodreads, Storygraph and Readerly under the name Kerry Smith.
- Goodreads: Kerry Smith
- The StoryGraph: demoniker
Lynn K.
Lynn is owner/editor of Grimmedian.com, a spec fiction review site, and is in her fourth year of reading for SPFBO. You’ll find her blog is predominately filled by self-published work. She is a voracious reader of SFF who’s always seeking gems in SFF and speculative fiction.
- Website: grimmedian.com
- Twitter: @Grimmedian
- Facebook: Lynn Kempner
- Goodreads: Lynn K : Grimmedian
Jennie Ivins (Me)
Jennie is the editor of Fantasy-Faction and even though she’s been here since the beginning, this is her first year judging for the SPFBO. She is also stay-at-home mom from New Jersey with three autistic boys, a fantasy writer, computer addict, and lover of geeky things!
- Twitter: @Autumn2May
- Facebook: Jennifer Ivins (Jennie)
- Instagram: jennie.ivins
- Pinterest: Jennie Ivins
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So that’s us and the contest. We will be posting an article about once a month as we let go five books at a time. The first will be in June. Stay tuned to see what gems we find this year in the 7th Annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off!
Good luck to everyone competing and may the best book win! Happy Reading!
If you’d like to follow along more closely, you can join the SPFBO Facebook group and follow the #SPFBO tag on Twitter! You can also keep up to date with all the books’ scores on Mark Lawrence’s website!
Title image by Martin Hetto.
Geoff Matthews
Julia Kitvaria Sarene