Writer Mark Lawrence has, for three years, run the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (aka SPFBO), a contest to bring attention to the number of high quality self-published fantasy books. Ten bloggers, most of whom don’t usually review self-published books, each agree to act as the judges. 300 books are accepted into the contest and then randomly assigned to the ten bloggers (30 books each) to be reviewed (Hereafter is assigned to Fantasy-Faction). Each blogger/judge selects ONE of their thirty assigned books to move forward to the semi-finals. Then, the ten bloggers each review all 10 semi-finalists and select ONE winner of the prize, which is bragging rights.
 
The real prize of the SPFBO is the publicity for the 300 books selected. With ten high-profile blogger judges, numerous other bloggers who participate unofficially, and countless readers checking out the entrants, the SPFBO raises the profile for all entrants.
 
The 2017 contest has just kicked off, with the first round, which is cover judging, in progress. Four of the judges have already submitted their top three favorite book covers from their entrants. Meanwhile, other bloggers and readers are getting in on the action by posting their own cover picks (one unofficial blogger picked Hereafter as one of her top three cover favs from among those in my group!), reading and posting reviews of many of the entries, and voting for their favorites on Goodreads.
 
This is my first year participating; I wasn’t sure what to expect when I entered. While the contest is open to all fantasy genres, it’s definitely epic fantasy heavy. Lawrence made a Worldle from the words used in the books’ titles, and you can see there’s a lot of common themes (my husband joked that I should title my next book War of the Blood Dragons).
 

 
Being different can be good, since it can make a book stand out. On the other hand, in publishing, being too different can be bad, because readers often tend to like books that fall in predicable patterns and tropes. So, I’m not really sure where Hereafter will fall in all of this.
 
If you want to get in on the SPFBO action, here’s some things you can do. Feel free to do as few or as many as you want.
 

Happy reading!