What is SPFBO 9?  This is  a competition where authors of self-published fantasy can enter their work. The objective to find a winner out of the 300 entries submitted.  Ten judges (or judging teams) each receive 30 entrants.  Each judge/team will eventually submit one finalist to the second round where a winner will eventually be decided upon. Check out Mark Lawrence’s post here to look at this year’s entrants, judges and allocations list.

This year I am teaming up again with the ladies from The Critiquing Chemist .  I realise that so far this year I have been rather quiet in terms of posting – be  it either information regarding my approach this year or updates.  My apologies to the authors. I realise you’re probably all biting your nails waiting for any news so let me shine a little more light on what I’m up to so far (at this point of the competition our team approach is to post when and how we feel we have something to share – rather than co-ordinating a joint approach – that comes later when we need to discuss our finalist).

Our team have been allocated 30 books.  We split them half and half between The Critiquing Chemist and Lynn’s Books.  In previous years I have randomly selected a number of books and read a set upon amount each month before choosing Semi Finalists.  This year I have taken a slightly different approach.  I decided that rather than split the group into mini batches I’d just go with the flow and read whichever book I felt like.  The aim is to read at least 30% (more if the book really grabs me) of every book and I’d like to complete the total group before making any cuts.

In previous years I have made cuts along the way but with this approach I feel like I can take a look at the batch as a whole.  Also, to be fair, this means that all the books are still, at this point, in the competition – win:win!

My progress to date so far.  Out of the 15 books from my selection:

I have picked up 13 books at this point – so even my rudimentary maths can deduce only two titles remain.

Of those 13 I have fully read 6 of the titles.  I have read 30% or more of the remaining titles.  At this point, and sorry if this is a little bit of a teaser, I would say I have at least 3 contenders to carry forward, possibly 4 depending on my next reads. #somedifficultchoiceslieahead!

I will say I’ve had a very good time reading the entrants so far.  There’s always a measure (large usually) of guilt when the cuts need to be made.  It’s mine (and I suspect all of the other judges) most dreaded part of the competition but we can’t move forward until we make these difficult decisions and for me it’s not always that I didn’t like a book – more that I perhaps liked another book a little bit more.

After I have picked up the final two titles I shall start to post updates and cuts.  The CC and I will then read each others selected titles and then decide upon our Finalist.

The books I have completed fully I will review. The books I didn’t complete I will provide a short synopsis of my thoughts and feelings.

I expect to start posting my cuts and reviews by the end of August onwards.

Good luck to all the authors.  Thank you for taking this step and entering your books.  There wouldn’t be a competition without you.

Harsh but true : There can be only 1.