Self-Published Fantasy Month 2019 Recap

Self-Published Fantasy Month 2019 is over. While I admit I’m a little sad about that fact, I must also say I was pleased with how it went, mostly because unlike last year I was able to finish it. Here’s a quick recap of the month.

I want to thank everyone who participated in one way or another and if I’ve missed someone please let me know so I can update the post. What is included below are just those posts by bloggers who specifically tagged or wrote their pieces for Self-Published Fantasy Month.

Week 1

Week 1 included reviews from me and Maxine at Maxine’s Obsessions and @medusa2themax on Twitter.

My review of Up To The Throne, by T.A. Frost:

Maxine’s review of Touch of Iron, by Timandra Whitecastle:

Maxine also reviewed Shards, by Ben Galley:

In addition to that, Maxine offered up a review of her recent self-published fantasy purchases in a Stacking The Shelves post.

The full Week 1 in review post can be found here.

Week 2

Week 2 included reviews from myself and Paul from Paul’s Picks and @Highlander27 on Twitter. You’ll see in what follows that Paul was cranking out the reviews.

My review of Tales of Kingshold, by D.P. Woolliscroft:

Paul’s review of The God King’s Legacy, by Richard Nell:

Paul’s review of Skeleton With A Heart, by Michael Chatfield:

Other posts included one from Caitlin G. over at Realms of My Mind and @SCmoviegirl on Twitter discussing her First Step Into A Larger World: Learning To Embrace Self-Published Fantasy.  I particularly enjoyed this one because it is really what the whole month is about, taking that step into trying out and hopefully accepting self-published fantasy as an option for discovering really great stories and authors.

I also managed to finally get around to creating a Twitter account for the month. That was something I should have done at the outset but I totally missed that opportunity. I finally did it though and as of today it has a whopping 52 followers. I probably won’t do much with it until next year unless something specific comes up, but go give it a follow now @SelfPubFanMonth so you can get future updates.

Weeks 3 And 4

So as is typical with me I got behind and a little lazy and didn’t put together a week 3 review post. As such it may be a little more difficult for me to piece together all the posts for both weeks but I’m gonna give it a shot.

I reviewed Fortune’s Fool, by Angela Boord:

Paul, being Paul, posted a bunch of reviews. The first was for The Blackbird And The Ghost, by Hûw Steer:

He then added a review of A Ritual of Bone, by Lee C. Conley:

Then he added a review of Tavern, by Deston J. Munden:

Then he gave us a review of River of Thieves, by Clayton Snyder:

Finally he capped it all off with a review of Dust Of Darkness, by Deck Matthews:

Self-Published author Nancy O’Toole Meservier also got in on the action before the end of the month with a post entitled What I Read for Self Published Fantasy Month: 2019 Edition. Nancy is the author of the superhero fantasy novels Red And Black, and Black And Blue. You can find out more about her from her website (link above) as well as Twitter @watchnancytweet.

I also had the pleasure of hosting a guest post on the blog by self-published author Victoria Corva where she discussed Expectation Vs Reality: My Self-Publishing Debut. This was an interesting take as it dealt less with the objective aspects of publishing like specific sales and costs, and was more of a subjective take on the whole experience. Victoria is the author of Books And Bone. You can find out more about Victoria at her webpage victoriacorva.xyz/ or follow her on Twitter @Vicorva.

Well, that about covers all the posts for the month. All that I am aware of at least. I want to again thank everyone who participated, or shared a post on Twitter, or who just picked up a self-published fantasy book and read it during September. And if any of these posts inspired you to add a self-published fantasy novel to your TBR when you wouldn’t have otherwise done so then I’m over the moon. That’s really what the whole month was about…spreading the word about great self-published fantasy books and authors that are so very worthy of your attention.

I had a great time reading and reviewing this month and an even better time talking about and sharing fantastic stories from wonderful authors. This second year of #SelfPubFantasyMonth went better than last year — in part because I finished out the month, and in part because the engagement by others was even better. I think it was a success based upon my expectations going into it.

What Next

So what’s next for Self-Published Fantasy Month?

Well, as of this moment I plan to do it again next year. I’ll probably stick with September but that could change. I would like to have some help with it though. What I could really use is someone who is better at planning than me to assist with elements that might make the event more engaging. This could include the following:

• A calendar of events
• Daily/weekly themes (photo sharing and other)
• List of committed participating bloggers
• Wider variety of guest posts (across multiple blogs)
• Cover Reveals
• Author Interviews
• Engagement on other social media

Those are just a few ideas. I’m too busy , not organized enough, and yes too lazy to do it all myself. I’ll bring this up again as we roll into next year and see if anyone is interested.

Again, thank everyone for following along this month. I sincerely hope you found some new favorite books and authors. I hope Self-Published Fantasy Month convinced at least one reader to try out something new, something they wouldn’t have normally given a chance, something they previously thought was sub-par, something that took them by surprise and opened up a new world of amazing stories to delve into. If just one person did that it was worth it for me.

– Jason