SPFBOX Update (A tie! And more)

So once upon a time–which is to say, roughly a year ago–I entered By Blood, By Salt into a book competition. So did 595 other people. Only 300 were allowed to compete so they had to randomly select 300 entrants out of the 595.

I passed that first hurdle by sheer luck!

Then the 300 books were divided into groups of 30 and each batch was handed to a judge or group of judges (if you want the proper/official explanation of all this, here’s the link).

I was allocated to Jay Kennedy from the Youtube channel Captured in Words. This is important because I can assure you that had I been handed off to a different judge, this story might have gone quite differently. Every judge has different tastes. This part of the game involves, yes, the quality of the book but also the luck of the draw. Is your book to this particular judge’s taste? Or not at all?

So here we have a combo of quality and luck: Captured in Words LOVED my book, it WAS to his taste, and he moved it forward as his finalist.

Now my book became one of 10 finalists to be reviewed by all the judges over the course of several months.

There was breath-holding and slight drama

“OH MY GOODNESS…An amazing review!!!”

“Oh my goodness, a very critical review. That judge didn’t like it at all…”

“ooh, but this one did.”

After a certain point I figured I wasn’t gonna win, but might make the middle of the pack, or even 2nd or 3rd if I was lucky. It wasn’t like I EXPECTED to win. I didn’t even expect to make the finals.

But mathematically, it was still technically possible for me to win, so the mind wants to hang onto that in spite of reason.

After a dramatically low score, followed by a dramatically high score, and then holding breath again for the final score…By Blood, By Salt was tied with Mushroom Blues (LINKED HERE).

A complete tie. Exact same score on the board.

Unprecedented, apparently.

The author of Mushroom Blues (Adrian Gibson) and I were in a brief state of bewilderment, before they announced how they broke the tie. They broke it by counting up the number of times a book was the favorite of a given judge/group. Whoever had the most favorites, won.

Which broke the tie in my favor.

So…even though Mushroom Blues and By Blood, By Salt tied for first, By Blood, By Salt was selected as the winner of SPFBOX.

What does this mean? *Deep Breath*

A lot more eyes on my book than I’ve ever had before. Some people will like it. Some won’t. It’s been thrust from a little pond into big lake, so let’s see how it swims and how it keeps its head up.

ALSO, this means my book is automatically entered into a championship round. All 10 winners of all 10 SPFBO years will face off to find the champion of champions. But we get a month before that starts.

For now, though, whew…it’s over (ish) and it was a wild ride. I am so excited, but also pretty overwhelmed.

Truth told, I am still a little taken aback that other people see in my book the very things I most hoped they would see. I am amazed and so grateful.