After a few years’ hiatus the Hive is BACK to cast an eye over another tranche of the best and the bravest in fantasy self-publishing. As our (nearly) all new team gets stuck into our allocation of books to be shuffled and finalised, we thought we’d let you know a bit about our judges, our approach and what you can expect from us as the contest unfolds.

For those unfamiliar with SPFBO, you can read Laura Hughes’ excellent article on it HERE, and you can catch up with the SPFBO community on Facebook  HERE.

Our Team

Theo

Team Leader (does that make me Gandalf?)

About Me: Aka T.O.Munro or Matthew Munro. I am looking forward to the herding of cats process that is the lot of most SPFBO blogger team co-ordinators. (Funnily enough we do have an actual cat in our team). I should also emphasise that it is pronounced Spiffbo not Es-Pee-Eff-Bee-Oh and I will not be moved on this.  I have been a contestant in SPFBO twice and a judge in 3 and a half of the 10 competitions so far. I have taught creative writing in undergraduate workshops and as an adult learning course at Queen’s University Belfast. I write fantasy and science fiction including a self-published fantasy trilogy.  I also do a very small bit of freelance editing. So along with reviewing books and interviewing authors for the Hive, writing and fantasy and speculative fiction are very much in my blood.  

My Favourite Subgenres: I couldn’t really pick a genre – however, I do like to read about kick-ass female characters, particularly ones that manage to kick-ass in ways that don’t involve simply doing ‘man things’ better than men do.

What draws me to self-publishing and SPFBO in particular: I do think self-publishing has much more agility than traditional published books – with their typical two year timeline from acceptance to hitting the bookshelves. So self-publishing can catch the zeitgeist a bit more easily. At the same time, in not trying to be commercial, self-publishing can try the quirky story approaches that mainstream dare not risk and you can see this in the diversity (as well as the quality) of the 10 SPFBO champions so far.  

What I’m Looking For: I think, paradoxically, the easy thing is to have a great innovative idea and I’m sure I will see lots of novel approaches (oops forgive the pun). But what I’m looking for is the quality craft of prose and plotting that turns a great idea into a great book.

G.D. Penman

If T.O. is Gandalf, I guess I’m Gollum (Don’t get preciousss about it, Theo)

About Me: I am an internationally bestselling fantasy author, the ghostwriter of over 100 books in other genres, a former full-time book critic and small press editor.

My Favourite Subgenres: While I cut my teeth on epic and urban fantasy, I don’t play favourites with genre now, as long as the writing and story are good, I am on board.

What Draws me to self-publishing and SPFBO in particular: Traditional publishing plays it safe, it is conservative, and it is slow to respond to change. Self publishing is the cutting edge. Sometimes that means work that is a little less polished, or subject matter that is out of vogue, but it is exciting.

What I’m Looking For: Substantial bribes from any author hoping to make the shortlist. (You do know you can’t say that right? Theo)

Cat

Um… I guess that makes me Galadriel? I own quite a few robes! Tall, quiet but badass when required.

About Me: I love the term ‘Book Dragon!’  I’ve loved reading and writing my entire life and have shelves full of goodness in every room. I also fulfilled a dream of becoming a Proper Writer, with two books of my own plus contributions to a few others. My ‘day job’ is a professional Pagan chaplain/priest, having worked in hospitals, prisons, schools etc to teach and support (basically The Vicar of Dibley in the aforementioned robes). 

My Favourite Subgenres: I love the weird ones that catch you by surprise. Horror, scifi and fantasy, with everything that crosses over those. I especially appreciate titles that somehow work within those while transcending them, because genre is a construct designed to make booksellers jobs easier.

What Draws me to self-publishing and SPFBO in particular: The originality of self-publishing is always great to see, and while editors are absolutely invaluable, I enjoy hearing the author’s voice – something which can be lost in traditional publishing. This is my first year taking part in SPFBO in this capacity, and I’m already so excited about the variety of submissions!

What I’m Looking For: Something unique and new (or that plays with tropes at least), which pulls me in from the first chapters and makes me want to stick around. An atmosphere/mood that stays with me is also a big plus. 

Vinay

Sticking to the Lord of the Rings character list, I think I am a combo of Merry & Pippin – bringing in the chaos goblin (hobbit) and driving the other sensible people mad (looking at you, Gandalf)

About Me: I am a long-time fantasy reader and pretty much love this genre to the exclusion of all others. While I am currently shackled to a professional corporate job, I am a reviewer for Fantasy Hive while also being an active Beta Reader especially in the self-published space. I am always looking for free books & what better way than to become a reviewer.

My Favourite Subgenres: I do love epic fantasy, grim dark fantasy and urban fantasy (that doesn’t devolve into romance). But those are all just labels to an extent and there are overlaps. I love innovative approaches to standard tropes and brilliant magic systems

What Draws me to self-publishing and SPFBO in particular: I have been a keen follower of this space over the last 3 years and found that self-publishing allows for stories to evolve over a broader arc while making some truly left-field choices. It also allows for interesting combinations to filter through, which may not make it to mass consumption at first glance

What I’m Looking For: Looking for good books – more pertinently, an innovative, engrossing story packaged well with a good sense of pace. I do love it when stories explore mythology especially the ones that we don’t get much exposure to. I also want more risk in storytelling in subverting traditional norms and tropes into something fun. More importantly, I am looking to be entertained 🙂

So, with a team of would-be Gandalf, Gollum, Galadriel and Perrin/Mippy the chaos Hobbit what could possibly go wrong!

Our Approach for Round One

We’ll take a look at our selection of 30 books in two phases.

In phase 1a

the team will all read the first 10% or so of all 30 books and they will RAG rate (Red-Amber-Green) the books on the basis of

• Red – not enthused enough to want to read on
• Amber – curious and could read on more
• Green – definitely want to read on more.

The team will then select up to 6 semi-finalists where there is a consensus of enthusiasm for reading on past that initial 10%.

As that sifting process involves looking at ALL the books before making any decisions, it means we’ll be quite quiet for the first month or two as we do the work. There will then be a flurry of a half-dozen or so posts announcing which books have been cut and which have been selected as our semi-finalists to get a full read.

In phase 1b

The team will go back to all of us reading all the semi-finalists all the way through, which will take us another couple of months or so, so again we’ll be quiet for a while.

We’ll then post collaborative reviews that everyone has chipped into for all the semi-finalists and finally announce which of them has been selected as the Hive’s chosen finalist to go forward to SPFBO11 Round Two.

Thankyou to all our batch of authors for throwing your hats and your books into the ring. We’re looking forward to getting to grips with you stories and finding out the best of self-published fantasy.

Our Batch of Books

As you will see from our handy feature image (Thank you, Beth, Theo), all the book covers for our batch of thirty are displayed there.

You also have the authors and their book titles listed below with links to the books’ pages on Goodreads pages.