Self-Published Blog-Off Update

All right. People have been wondering where we are in the process so far. While we haven’t picked our Finalist yet, we are very close. This will be a quick summary of who we have eliminated so far. We aren’t going to get into specifics on each book, because it seems bad form to to lay it out publicly why we didn’t care for your book. I think we’ve been pretty clear about the main issues we’ve had in our posts on PoV, Beginnings, Internet Presence, and First Impressions.

Let’s start positive. Here are the two we’ve liked so far:

SAND AND BLOOD by D. Moonfire (EBR Review)
THE THIEF WHO PULLED ON TROUBLE’S BRAIDS by Michael McClung (EBR Review)

Here’s the longer list of books we have eliminated from the competition:

STORM SHADOW by Stephanie Caine
THE FINAL REQUIEM by Joe Donahue
THE ELEMENTS OF SORCERY by Christopher Kellen
THE SECRET OF AVONOA by Heidi Collotzi
FIRE HURLER by Jeff Morin
INANIS THE HOODED by Sean Froyd
CEPHRAEL’S HAND by Melisa McPhail
VALKWITCH – Michael Watson
OF INTRODUCTIONS AND ABDUCTIONS by Robert Dahlen
RED AXE, BLACK SUN by Michael Karner
THE WATCHER’S KEEP by Timothy Bond
THE EXILE OF DARIEN by Martin Owton
METAL, SALT, AND SAND by Christopher Hayhurst
HAMMERS IN THE WIND by Christian Freed
CIRCLE OF REIGN by Jacob Cooper
JOURNEY by Jack Newhouse
GODHEDE by Brian Kramer
THE BLACK DRAGON by Salvador Mercer
SHAMAN, HEALER HERETIC by Terry Green
THE BLOODY NORTH by Tony Healey
APEX RISING by Tom Wright
GODDESS by Callista Hunter
UP THE TOWER by JP Lantern

That leaves us with two stories unread:

THE SWORDSMAN OF CARN NEBETH by Tristan Gregory
HARD TIMES IN DRAGON CITY by Matt Forbeck

Once we’ve finished off these last two, we (the members of EBR) will decide which was the best of our batch. Thank you to those authors who, even though we have eliminated your story, have been patient with the process. The reality here is that this process was far quicker than normal, and we’ve probably read more of your novel than an agent would have in the same period of time. But still, thank you for not emailing us every few weeks to ask the status of your book. Professionalism is a big part of having a career as an author.