So, The Lost Company has made it to the final round of the IBOR (Indie Blog Off Remnants) competition. I am absolutely over the moon to have got this far, and you only need to look at the other books in the final round to see what a big deal this is.
But Michael, what the fuck is the IBOR competition?
Excellent question.
The Indie Blog Off Remnants competition is the unacknowledged bastard child of the SPFBO competition, the biggest indie fantasy competition around. SPFBO, run by bestselling author Mark Lawrence, takes place every year, but thanks to its popularity only 300 books make the cut, chosen at random from thousands of entries.
IBOR was created by fellow indie author Corey Ratcliff to bring together all the unfortunate souls who didn't make it into SPFBO, giving them a second chance at some of that glory.
It would be foolish to say IBOR has even a quarter of the prestige that comes with reaching the final of SPFBO. Then again, SPFBO has been running for 11 years, while IBOR is still just a baby in its first year.
That said, I think the first year has been a roaring success.
Almost 70 indie authors entered their books, and 20 judges signed up to spend their time reading and reviewing them through multiple rounds. For a brand-new competition, that's pretty impressive.
And after almost eight months, we are finally nearing the end.
The winner will be announced sometime in September, and that's why I wanted to write this piece now. Whoever wins this competition will be a worthy champion and will hopefully get all the recognition they deserve. But honestly, even making it this far deserves a huge amount of praise.
I don't mean to blow my own trumpet (I am not flexible enough anyway), but books that have reached the final round have already survived the cut from nearly 70 entries down to 20, and then from 20 down to 10. They've passed through multiple judges' hands, been selected as champions on several occasions, and made it all the way to the final table.
That's a big deal.
Being part of the indie fantasy community, I had already heard of some of my fellow finalists, but when the final 10 were announced and I actually took a proper look at them, it became obvious just how strong this competition is.
Some of these finalists have dozens, even hundreds, of reviews. Others have books on actual bookstore shelves. Their Goodreads ratings are all firmly on the right side of four stars, and there isn't a single book among them whose blurb didn't make me think, man, why didn't I think of that?
So yes, I am patting myself on the shoulder (again, not quite flexible enough to reach round to my back) for getting this far, no matter what happens next.
The winner will be announced after one final round of judges reads our books and all the scores are added together. It's explained much better on Corey's page, so I won't pretend I can do it justice here.
So, if you haven't read The Lost Company yet, now is the time to check it out. You can be one of those smug people who says, "I read it before it started winning all those awards."
And if you've already been awesome and read The Lost Company, consider checking out one of the other finalists' books and supporting them too. I've already bought a couple from the list and plan to pick up more before long.
Wish me luck, and keep an eye out for the winner.
Finalists are:
Going Fourth - GJ Dunn
Blood Bound - Trinity Cunningham
The Sorrow of the Wise Man - Bella Dunn
Partial Function - JCM Berne
Return to Aramon - Ezra Ferguson
The Lost Company - Michael Maguire
Time-Marked Warlock - Shami Stovall
Memories of Tomorrow - Noah Isaacs
Daughters of the Crossland - Brian Kerr
The Winds of War - Mosha Winter
