I’m proud to announce that I’m taking part in this year’s SPSFC also known as SpaceFic – This is the third time it will be run and the first time I’ve attempted to judge anything. (sorry in advance for the nightmare to come)
What Does SPSFC stand for?
Well, it stands for the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition… that’s pretty self-explanatory. It’s a way for indie authors to have their books seen … and hopefully send readers and new fans their way.
What is my role in all this?
Being one of the many judges of course. But I don’t plan to linger in the shadows unseen to give my vote, I plan to also review all the books in my allotment. ~ this might be a big ask for me. I have … reading problems … problems in that it takes me a long time to finish most books. But I promise to give it my all! At the very least I plan to work hard and read the first 10-20% of our allotment for Phase One! And if that’s all clear sailing I’ll continue into Phase Two.
(check out the SPSFC website here: https://thespsfc.org/ )
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I plan to provide as many Mini Reviews as possible regardless of that book’s fate!
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Wait, you ask. Why only 20%? – because SPSFC has a lot of books to get through and only so much time to read them in. It’s a big ask even for the non-slow readers amongst us. So the first phase is broken up into teams – I’m in teams scienceficitonnews with a stack of other judges and books. As an individual we vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on each 20% sample we read then those votes are tallied up and we go onto to read the most voted books in their entirety until we decide on 2 books.
Once we’ve selected our 2 final books we come together with the other judging groups (and their 2 top picks). There we read all the remaining books until we decide the winner.
For those worried about the first stage only being a partial read through, That’s just how my team is tackling our allotment. Other teams probably have different strategies. I know there are judges in my group who plan to read all of them from start to finish. I wish I could do this, but being mildly dyslexic means it takes it out of me and I just don’t have the capacity to achieve that (we’re given more books than I average in a year!) — So I am sorry. Other judges also have to juggle their real lives and writing as well, so it’s all a balancing act.
As such my reviews will only reflect the beginning of the stories and might not reflect the overall story. If a book I particularly like doesn’t make it to the next phase I hope there is enough time for me to read it through.
I’m not 100% sure how I’ll go about reviewing the first phase. I’m tossing up between writing blogs and doing video reviews – I might have to hold up on any video content because I don’t want to end up double-reviewing any potential books that progress to the next stages. I’m thinking I’ll blog it all (which might be an embarrassing mess, sorry, dyslexic remember, and unlike writing books there aren’t a million drafts to make my words less horrific) then wait until rejections are announced before posting anything to Youtube.
Always remember – anything I post is my opinion only and not necessarily shared by my fellow judge-people.
I acknowledge the limitations of only reading the first part of any story. that the beginning of books can vary widely in structure and that some will be slower than others, and I also acknowledge that first chapters are really hard to write and as such can often have a different tone to the rest of the story. So I’ll try my hardest to take this into consideration. What I’m really looking at is what I enjoy, and if I didn’t particularly like it, will it appeal to others in the sci-fi realm? — so really, I’m looking at the potential of the book. If I can add criticisms and review points I will but there might not be much to say given the structure.
Time for a disclaimer – I am a bit of a Negative Nancy. I find it far easier to pick up what’s wrong with a story than what is right. Even when I clearly enjoy the content I tend to focus on what doesn’t work. I’ve always struggled to write reviews for books that have very few flaws than those with lots of flaws. Even if I love the flawed book. I guess that means if your review is lacking, congratulations. I probably LOVED it.
So I want people to keep that in mind – If I’m tearing something apart it doesn’t always mean I dislike it. I’ll try to keep my criticisms on point. If it’s a personal taste thing I’ll make sure you know and won’t let it affect my judgement. I weight my reviews with a bias factor. If it’s a subgenre I don’t enjoy I will try and tackle it from its intended audience’s view, not mine. Hopefully, that keeps things balanced.
I do wish you all good luck. And if you’re an outsider just following along, I hope there might be something appealing to you to pick up and give a read.
Later Navigators,
DM
PS – the Youtube clip is pretty much the same thing I wrote above so you can ignore that agony – unless you like agony that is.
