Wow!

I really don’t know what else to say at this point other than “Wow!”

This has truly been an epic month. It’s been a month that completely surpassed all my expectations. What started as a self-hosted event on a tiny little blog two years ago blossomed into something truly amazing this year. 

The first two years of Self-Published Fantasy Month primarily consisted of a few reviews from myself and a handful of other bloggers who also decided to participate with a guest post and interview sprinkled in here and there. This year though…well…here’s a few highlights…

2020 Self-Published Fantasy Month Highlights

  • 54 Total blog posts
  • 16 Host book reviews
  • 23 Author interviews
  • 9 Author guest posts
  • 30 Book giveaways
  • 5 Podcasts
  • 1 Read-along
  • 10 Reviewer badges handed out

That is nothing short of amazing considering what had come before. This year Self-Published Fantasy Month truly became the event I always hoped it would be; an event that would showcase indie authors and books, day-in and day-out, while bringing greater awareness of how great self-published fantasy really is to readers in this community and beyond.

I want to thank every author who participated. Thank you so much for agreeing to an interview, or a guest post, or to sit down for a podcast. Thank you for all the books you offered-up for a giveaway. Thank you for tweeting about your books on Self-Promo Sundays. Thank you for writing some great fantasy stories that let us escape from the every day ups and downs of our lives for just a little while.

I want to thank every reader and blogger who followed us over the course of the month. Whether you kept up from day one or just found us in the last week, thank you. Thank you for the reviews, and the daily challenge posts. Thank you for joining in the read-along. Thank you for all the retweets of all our posts. Thank you for jumping in and doing your own interviews and guest posts associated with the month (some of you did an amazing job in this regard). Thank you for sharing your love of indie fantasy. I hope you all found a favorite book from this event, and a new favorite author to follow and support.

I also need to thank the rest of the Self-Published Fantasy Month Team. It is an understatement to say I couldn’t have done this without them. It’s hard to believe that my first messages to them back in May about whether they’d be interested in co-hosting the event this year turned into this. Every one of them went above and beyond besides just writing reviews and helping line up authors. Beth doing all kinds of extra work behind the scenes getting posts prepped while having to stress about forest fires just a few miles down the road and no internet. Calvin with the podcast and the amazing discussions that platform gave us. And Justine who was responsible for all the graphics and the event website and so many other technical things behind the scenes as well as getting so many posts prepped. You are all amazing and wonderful and awesome and I’m honored to call you my friends. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

What Next

Even though September is over the event isn’t totally finished. We still have a few giveaway books to award to lucky winners. Since we ran each giveaway for 8 days there are a handful that have not yet completed their entry period. Over the coming days we’ll continue to post winners for these books on Twitter so be on the lookout to see of you won!

If you have any feedback about the event we’d love to hear it. We hope you enjoyed it. We learned a lot and know there are always opportunities for improvement. At this point I can’t say what the future holds. Will there be a Self-Published Fantasy Month next year? Maybe…but let’s get through the rest of 2020 first.

Until then keep shouting to the heavens about all the great self-published stories you come across, keep supporting indie authors and books, and tell a friend or two about them.

– Jason