The End: Self-Pubbed Blog-Off

Posted: March 1, 2016 in News Tags: The Great Self-published Fantasy Blog-off

Well here we are. The end. It’s finally come. Oddly enough, I don’t mean this in a bad way. When I asked my fellow reviewers here at EBR if they wanted to participate in this contest, they said yes… but were worried. I shared that concern. Would we be able to get through a single novel? Would we be happy picking a winner? Would any of the novels be good? Adequate, even?

In our original slush pile of 26 novels, we finished exactly two. THE THIEF WHO PULLED ON TROUBLE’S BRAIDS and SAND AND BLOOD. We ended up sending THIEF on to the final round with a score of 7/10. Very respectable.

If you want details on what we thought of that original batch and our process for reading those pieces of fiction, we published a few articles here, here, here, and here.

After all that business, we arrived at the finals. The favorite novel from each of the ten participating review sites.

*A quick note on the other review sites. They are all awesome. I have enjoyed reading their differing perspectives. It’s so refreshing to see such differing opinions, and have them all be respected.

Here are the 10 finalists, and the scores we gave them:

THE THIEF WHO PULLED ON TROUBLE’S BRAIDS – 7/10

BLOOD RUSH – 7/10

THE WEIGHT OF A CROWN – 5/10

SINS OF A SOVEREIGNTY – 5/10

WHAT REMAINS OF HEROES – 4/10

UNDER A COLD SUN – 4.5/10

PRIEST – 3/10

AS SOUL FOR TROUBLE – 5/10

CITY OF BURNING SHADOWS – 8/10

SHATTERED SANDS – 4.5/10

We were way more picky than the other review sites, on the whole. There was some noise made about this fact. Oh well. We score how we want to score. Just because we don’t like a novel doesn’t mean other people won’t. Yay opinions.

We came to respect these authors. Doesn’t matter if didn’t like certain novels. We saw a lot of promise in these ladies and gentlemen. And kudos to these individuals for putting themselves out there.

The novels we liked best – obvious by our scores – were THE THIEF WHO PULLED ON TROUBLE’S BRAIDS, CITY OF BURNING SHADOWS, and BLOOD RUSH.

And the winner of the contest? THE THIEF WHO PULLED ON TROUBLE’S BRAIDS. Our finalist! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The interesting thing is that we gave it the second lowest score… and it still won!

Congratulations to Michael McClung! This is awesome. We couldn’t be more pleased for him, and the fact that he signed on with Ragnarok Publications.

A high-five to all the finalists. Seriously, forget the scores for a second. Congrats on making it through the gauntlet. Keep on improving – advice for every author regardless of fame.

Again, thank you to the other review sites: Bookworm Blues, Fantasy Faction, Fantasy Book Critic, Lynn’s Books, The Fictional Hangout, Beauty in Ruins, Bibliotropic, The Speculative Book Review, and Fantasy Book Review. We respect you all a ton and hope to continue conversing with you in the future.

As for Mark Lawrence? This as a great idea. Thank you for allowing us to participate. Read his (final comments about the Blog-Off.)

Another long-distance high-five to Michael McClung. Way to go! You deserved to win, and you earned it.

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