Welcome to Self-Published Fantasy Month!
Today marks the beginning of a full month devoted to self-published fantasy. We have a lot planned for September and we’re glad you’re here. What follows below is an overview of all the events and the ways you can participate. We’ve come up with some great new content for the month while retaining what it has always been about. Whether you’ve been reading self-published fantasy for years or if you’ve never picked up a self-published book, we hope you’ll find something that sparks your interest.
DAILY CONTENT
Each day of the week in September will have specific daily content associated with it. There should be something of interest for everyone.
Read-Along Updates
Mondays are for read-along updates. Throughout the month we’ll be reading the first ever Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (#SPFBO) winner, The Thief Who Pulled On Trouble’s Braids, by Michael McClung. Every Monday beginning September 7th we’ll have an update about the read along. If you want to join us in reading this fantastic little book check out the How You Can Participate section below.
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Podcast Roundtables
Every Tuesday a new podcast will drop. The podcasts are hosted by Calvin Park at Under A Pile of Books. If you don’t already follow Calvin’s podcast, you really should.
We’ve got a great line-up of guests for the podcasts that you won’t want to miss…trust us! Today’s podcast introduces the event and the team at work behind the scenes. Hopefully we tease you enough to keep you coming back.
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Book Reviews
Book reviews are the core of what we’ve always done with Self-Published Fantasy Month and this year is no different. Well, it’s a little different because there will be MORE! The SPFM team is hoping to read and review at least four books each (a total of 16 books). You’ll see reviews from us four times a week on the following days:
Wednesdays – Calvin
Thursdays – Beth
Fridays – Justine
Saturdays – Jason
Each of us will be reading and reviewing different books so there won’t be any overlap or duplication. We’re all excited about our list of books and hope you’ll find a new favorite among them.
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Author Interviews & Guest Posts
We’ve lined up 25+ self-published authors who have agreed to subject themselves to an interview or guest post. This is a diverse group of authors who write a diverse array of fantasy and who have submitted some engaging content we hope you’ll enjoy. Whether giving insight into themselves as an author or exploring some aspect of writing and self-publishing every post will be enlightening.
Nearly every day you’ll see one author interview or guest post. If you can’t read them all right away be sure to save them and come back to them at a later date.
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Daily Challenge Posts
Each day in September you’ll see the SPFM team posting a different Daily Challenge on Instagram and Twitter. There are 30 different challenges calling out for some creative pics to celebrate various aspects of our engagement with self-published fantasy. Follow us on IG and Twitter to see all the great content. AND…we want you to participate as well. More on that below.
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Book Giveaways
Yep, you read that right, there’s gonna be BOOK GIVEAWAYS! We won’t tell you how many just yet but lets just say it should be 2 or 3 a week, plus another special giveaway for those who participate in the read along of The Thief Who Pulled On Trouble’s Braids.
We’ve asked every author who is participating in a giveaway to make it available worldwide so they won’t just be limited to the United States. Entries will be handled through Rafflecopter with one entry per person. So be on the lookout for giveaway announcements each week.
HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE
Self-Published Fantasy Month is a participatory event. By that we mean YOU are invited to join us in enjoying all the great self-published stories and authors out there. This event has always been one where anyone can review a book, rave about authors, or just talk about what they love about self-publishing. To that end we have a number of ways you can participate.
Read A Book
The first option, and one which doesn’t require you to do anything else online if you don’t want to is simply read a self-published fantasy book. Ultimately this is what the event is really about, introducing self-published fantasy to readers who’ve never picked one up, or to readers who are looking for another great self-pub read. We hope you’ll join us in talking about these great books but nothing says you have to…though we may really, really, really encourage it.
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Book Reviews
Book reviews are the core of what we’ve always done with Self-Published Fantasy Month. The SPFM team is hoping to read and review at least four books each (a total of 16 books). But Self-Published Fantasy Month has never been limited to what the admins are reading and reviewing. Every year you have been invited to join-in, and this year we hope you do it in droves! Whether you’re a blogger/reviewer, an author, or simply a book lover who occasionally likes to tweet “I LOVED THIS BOOK,” if you have a platform and want to scream to the heavens about the amazing new read we all need to know about then please join us. A review can be long or short, or even just a few words. It’s really up to you. Whether you read and review one book or five, we’d love to have you.
If you have a dedicated blog you post to, feel free to download our event banner for use with your reviews or other related posts. So join the team and let’s celebrate everything self-published fantasy!
We also invite you to show off your Self-Published Fantasy Month pride by sporting our official Reviewer badge. Once you write a review, email the link to selfpublishedfantasymonth@gmail.com, and we’ll send over your badge!
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Non-Review Posts
You’re not limited to writing book reviews. Nothing says you can’t expand into other areas. Basically you can write and post about just about anything you want related to self-published fantasy. Here are some ideas:
- Write a top 10 list
- A post about favorite self-published authors
- A post about own voices in self-publishing
- List you’re most anticipated new releases
- Tell the world about the book that got you hooked on self-published fantasy
You see, the options are about as endless as any other topic you might blog about. If there’s something you’re itching to tell us then climb up on your soapbox and shout it to the rafters.
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Daily Challenge
If you’re a visual person you’ll love this option! The Daily Challenge is a new feature this year and perfect for those book lovers who live to snap pictures of their favorite reads. We have a list of daily prompts to stir your imagination and put your picture crafting skills to the test.
This option is perfect for all the Instagram users out there as well as Twitter. So snap those photos, tweet those tweets, tag some authors, invite friends to join in, let’s have some fun with this one. Follow us on Instagram at @selfpubfanmonth and Twitter @SelfPubFanMonth then tag your posts with #SPFMCHALLENGE so we can find all your glorious pics!
SEPTEMBER 1ST–SEPTEMBER 30TH
1 – TBR
2 – The Reluctant Hero
3 – LGBTQIA+ Love
4 – Elves and Dwarves and Orcs, Oh My!
5 – Let’s Hear it For Anthologies
6 – #CoverLove
7 – Your Gateway
8 – Magical Magic System
9 – The Lovely Villain
10 – Change
11 – Creature Feature
12 – Non-Western Setting
13 – #ShelfieSunday
14 – Favorite Self-Pub
15 – Dynamic Duo
16 – The Waiting Evil
17 – POC by POC
18 – There Be Dragons About
19 – Here Comes The Cavalry
20 – #ReReadWorthy
21 – I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying
22 – That Ship Has Sailed
23 – Who Dwells In These Woods?
24 – Leading Lady
25 – Little Bit O’ Horror
26 – Coming-Of-Age
27 – #LOL
28 – Comfort Reads
29 – That’s Grim…
30 – All This Power!
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Read Along
Another new feature this year is the Read-Along. Over the course of September we will be reading the first ever #SPFBO winner, The Thief Who Pulled On Trouble’s Braids by Michael McClung! Those who participate will also be eligible to win a copy of Pulled Spat Knocked: The Amra Thetys Omnibus 1 courtesy of Michael himself. The omnibus contains the first three books in the Amra Thetys series. Three books!
SCHEDULE
We’ll be breaking this book into four chunks, and having weekly discussions over on Goodreads. Head on over to the Self-Published Fantasy Month Group and join in on the fun. We hope to see you there!
Monday, September 7th
Chapters 1-8
Monday, September 14th
Chapters 9-17
Monday, September 21st
Chapters 18-25
Monday, September 28th
Chapters 26-34, Epilogue
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Self-Promo Sundays
This one is for the authors out there. When we first started planning for this event one element we wanted to include was some way for authors to participate. You’ll see author guest posts and interviews nearly every day in September. But we recognize there are many, many authors who couldn’t be included in those posts because we only have so many days and slots to fill, and there’s only so many authors we can contact and incorporate into the event. In order to try and include as many other authors as possible we are launching Self-Promo Sundays!
Self-Promo Sundays will be your opportunity to post whatever shameless self-promo you can think of. Each Sunday we will pin a tweet to the event Twitter account for that week and you can leave a reply post boosting one or more of your books. Feel free to also tag us in a story on Instagram, and we’ll share it to ours, as well.
We only have a few rules:
- One post a day
- No spamming
- As with everything above, nothing offensive or demeaning to others.
We hope you’ll join us this month to rave about your favorite self-published fantasy and/or to try out something new. Whether you return to an old favorite, uncover a hidden gem, or discover the next classic of the genre, we want to share in the experience with you. So come along as we explore new worlds together!
Be sure to follow along on the following platforms:
Blog: selfpublishedfantasymonth.com
Twitter: @SelfPubFanMonth
Instagram: @selfpubfanmonth
Goodreads: Self Published Fantasy Month Group
Im so excited for this i plan on reading Fortunes fool i also wanted to ask you something (hope you wont mind) how can i know if a book is self published because i have some on my app but im not sure they are self published or not also thank you for conducting all this
We’re excited you’re excited! Fortune’s Fool is a fantastic read, we hope you enjoy! As for your question, sometimes it may be difficult to tell which are self-published since authors sometimes use vanity press names when publishing. You may be able to tell if you search for the book on Goodreads/Amazon and take a peek at the book details. And if all else fails, you can always reach out to the community! Feel free to drop the titles of those in question here and we can figure it out together =)
This is an amazing event and I’m so excited to be taking part. The hosts have really put a lot of effort into this readathon and it shows. I’ve got so many books to read and talk about and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone else’s reads and recommendations!
Thanks! We are glad you’re taking part. Hope you enjoy the event as much as we do!!!!