300 books           10 Judges            1 winner

If you’ve been following SPFBO (The Self Published Fantasy Blog Off competition, brain child of Mark Lawrence) you’ll probably be aware already that we have our winner.  It was a close competition with some excellent reads – I advise you to step over here to see what takes your fancy. 

The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson topped the charts and is a worthy winner.  This was closely followed by my first book (and definitely not my last) by Michael R Fletcher a dark and grim little number called Black Stone Heart.  Shadow of a Dead God by Patrick Samphire was actually the first finalist I read and it really set the bar high (so no surprise that it came in the top three).  Anyway, I won’t go through all the finalists here, the final order, scores and all the reviews can be found on the link above and I highly recommend giving them all a try in fact I think I can safely say that there’ll be something here to satisfy every taste – from epic style fantasy to character focused, to grimdark, to norse retelling to gladiatorial style fight club and much, much more.  (Never forgetting of course that there were some amazing books that didn’t make the final cut – check out the blogs to see their thoughts on their original batch of books and eventual semi finalists).

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Moving swiftly on – ‘WHAT!!’ you may say.  ‘Already? No, it’s too soon’. 

Well, SPFBO 7 will be starting on the 1st June so this post also acts as a ‘heads up’ for all you authors out there who would like to submit your work for the next competition.  The details can be found here  – (hint – the doors for submission open on the 14th May).

Two things must thee know about SPFBO.  

Firstly, it’s a competition – you have to be in it to win it.

Secondly, 300 books may enter the gates but…

Don’t be put off by those odds though – come for the competition but stay for the community, the camaraderie and the friends you will make along the way.

That is all.  Keep your eyes glued to Mark Lawrence’s blog, check out the SPFBO Facebook group or sign in to Twitter (#SPFBO) for further updates.