J. D. Evans’ Reign & Ruin is the champion of Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off #7 sponsored by Mark Lawrence. In 11 months of hard work by ten blogs, 300 books were whittled down to 10 finalists, and then to today’s winner.
Reign & Ruin finished just one-tenth of a point ahead of Krystle Matar’s Legacy of the Brightwash in the tightest finish the contest has ever had. Click to see the finalists’ score-board.
The blogs that judged SPFBO 7 were:
- Fantasy-Faction
- Fantasy Book Critic
- Lynn’s Books + The Critiquing Chemist
- Booknest
- The Weatherwax Report
- The Fantasy Hive
- The Fantasy Inn
- FanFiAddict
- Becky M
- Before We Go Blog
SPFBO 8 is expected to open for contestants at 1 p.m. BST on May 14.
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This is such a cool ongoing contest. (Kudos to Mark Lawrence!)
The books in this contest help prove how much self-publishing has changed. I’ve heard great things about books on the list of finalists. (A lot of grimdark fans loved Norylska Groans.)
Also, the cover designs in the finalists are great. (My first reaction when I saw the covers was, “Wait. Those are are self-published?”) I remember the days when all too many self-published (and indie) books had the most mockable covers — I still have memories of a cover with something that looked like blue sludge.
Anne Marble wrote: “I remember the days when all too many self-published (and indie) books had the most mockable covers”
Oh, mockable covers are still around. A local college was trying to have its own literary festival earlier this year, with about a dozen local writers participating. (Mostly memoir, inspirational, UFOlogy, etc.) Pretty sure all were self-published; there was only one cover amongst the batch that looked moderately professional, rather than making me cringe and turn away. (About a quarter were covers done by the authors themselves, which unless your name is Janny Wurts is generally a Very Bad Idea.)
I’m happy that after the many grimdark winners of this contest, this year’s winner is a romantic fantasy novel.
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