There was a time when we had YA fantasy and Paranormal Fantasy categories and many high-selling books went into those groups making things a LOT easier for epic fantasy. For example, King of Thorns, came 4th in Fantasy back in 2012 and I was pretty unknown at the time.
These days both those lucrative subcategories are bound up with epic fantasy and things are much tougher. So I am very pleased that Red Sister squeezed in!
Being in the awards, and especially making it into the final, is a great help for any author, so your vote will be hugely appreciated by whoever you give it to.
Here's how the nominees stack up in terms of Goodreads ratings (which correlate strongly with sales).
(Click for detail)
So you can see that Red Sister has its work cut out if it is to make the finalist list of 10 after the 5 write-ins are added in to bring the total to 20.
I have included The Core which didn't make the list to show the "bias" Goodreads give to book 1s. I put bias in quotes as I don't feel it is necessarily a bad thing here. Sure Tad Williams is a famous author, but it is still more interesting to see new series, so The Witchwood Crown getting on with 700 ratings where The Core did not with 2500 ratings, is understandable to a degree. One of the books on the list is #11 in a series and it would be dull if all the entries were just late entries in long popular series.
The only book on the list that I've read is Robin Hobb's excellent Assassin's Fate and my vote will head that way.
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The Core isn't in because of it's release date. I think their cut off date would make it eligible for next year (although books released toward the end of the year are rarely included in the next year even though they are eligible. Congratulations on the nomination. I'm hoping for a come from behind write-in for Age of Swords. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is true. Artemis by Andy Weir is on the Sci Fi list and it isn't even released yet - comes out November 14th.
DeleteJust finished the broken empire trilogy, an amazing set of books, that has left a hunger for more of your work. Gonns start the red queens war soon. Anyhow, thank you for the brilliance that are those books!
ReplyDeleteSincerely. Kim
I was so torn between voting for Red Sister and Assassin's Fate. I've been reading Robin Hobb for much longer, but I love you both so much. Ultimately it came down to the fact that I wouldn't have even known about this vote if I hadn't seen your post on Facebook, Mark. So it was you who got the vote in the end, despite giving you equal kudos.
ReplyDeleteVoted for ya. Good luck Mark.
ReplyDelete