I made a post about this on Facebook already, but I was told to put it on the blog as well, and so I shall!
Reddit's r/Fantasy hosts a contest every year called the Stabby Awards. It exists to promote excellent fantasy content across a bunch of different categories, and the mods of the subreddit work very hard at this every year. Each winner gets a real, no-kidding, metal dagger mailed to them with their name, work, and category printed on it; I have one myself, hanging on my wall, from when House of Blades won Best Indie / Self-Published in 2013. The contest has gone on every year since, but I've never promoted it before, because it feels...inappropriate. Like I'm linking to it just to say "Hey, vote for me and not these other guys!" Also, I just don't care much about contests or winning contests in general, and I usually don't follow them myself. This year, I've changed my mind. As a community, r/Fantasy has supported me to a frankly surprising degree ever since the launch of House of Blades. Thanks to many of you, I'm sure, my books get mentioned on the subreddit every few weeks, and recommended to people more often than that. So this time, I'm going to do what I can to spread the word for them instead of the other way around! This is a cool thing they're doing, and it's worth promoting; there are tons of great authors on there, and you can upvote multiple people in each category, so it's easy to scroll down and support everyone you like. Plus, I always find some new things to read on here. So that's new. Here's the link to the voting page for the 2017 Stabby Awards, which also explains how to vote and how the contest works. The r/Fantasy community is very supportive of independent authors, mainly because everybody wants more fantasy to read, and /u/elquesogrande, the moderator running the show, is particularly awesome. I've had interactions with him in the past, when doing AMAs for reddit, and he's got a heart of gold and eyes of steel. Or...wait. Anyway, check it out, support some cool authors, and at the very least get an idea of some more stuff to read. Plus, support the people who are running r/Fantasy, because they deserve it. Or don't. I'm not your dad. -Will EDIT: Since everyone involved in this is a volunteer, they've also set up a GoFundMe page to fund the contest. Just getting that out there.
36 Comments
Faris
1/10/2018 05:06:27 pm
Andrew Rowe had already sent me there from his newsletter. I'm hoping that reading through some of the other nominations that I'll find some more books and authors to read.
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Clint
1/10/2018 05:20:27 pm
I don't think you gotta worry about seeming like those guys who always tell people to vote for them. As far as I've seen, you only ever tell people to follow what they're interested in. It just so happens that we're all ( for the most part, I think) interested in what you have to say.
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One of the main reasons why I didn't promote it these other years is because I'm not really eager to win. I wanted to give the spotlight to other people, because people on r/Fantasy spread the word about my books all the time.
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Garbagiel the Raccoon
1/10/2018 05:50:11 pm
Just because Will hasn't commanded you to vote for him doesn't mean that it's morally acceptable not to vote for him.
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Sam
1/14/2018 07:45:31 pm
😳
Demanding Fan
1/10/2018 06:17:54 pm
Yay! New blog post! Here is your A+.
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Joel
1/10/2018 06:20:13 pm
Just because you decided not to come back after your cigarette break doesn't mean you're not my dad.
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Sam
1/10/2018 07:01:58 pm
Thanks again Will. kdp.amazon.com was just what I was looking for.
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Sam
1/10/2018 08:04:45 pm
Also, thanks for the support. Some authors get really upset when they hear about amateurs trying to self-publish books. "Poisoning the well" I believe the last guy called it. He felt that people putting out low quality books tended to lower people's opinion of self-publishing in general, which was hurting his sales.
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Yeah, I hear that perspective a lot, but I consider it a shortsighted view. Who exactly is the gatekeeper here? Who decides whether something is good enough?
Sam
1/11/2018 05:31:05 pm
Yeah, I figured when I first posted the story that it would be quickly buried in the bowls of Amazon never to see the light of day unless I specifically linked somebody to it. Nobody is going to take that story and say "Hmm, I've never read a self-published book before but I'm going to take this story with a homemade cover and consider it representative of self-publishing in general."
Sam V2
1/14/2018 07:47:04 pm
Darn I leave for a month and someone else ends up with my name. This is why you don't #%^#%* leave blogs for more than two hours.
Dustin
1/10/2018 08:14:29 pm
I just have one question for you Will. Are you so sure you're not my dad?
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Diego
1/11/2018 06:49:11 pm
Ooo!!! Playa!!!
Ravi
1/11/2018 08:06:13 pm
Ahhh the stabbies! Will, you know what you have to do to earn my vote... That's right! Eat French Fries! Do it and my vote is yours!
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Fellow Daoist Ji Ning
1/11/2018 08:25:25 pm
Oh, is it that time of year already? Nice. Looks like Skysworn is up there on the Best Novel list.
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Awesompossum
1/13/2018 09:06:25 pm
I disagree.
Aaron
1/14/2018 07:48:29 pm
And if it fails?
Deadnettle
1/12/2018 08:14:15 am
This is my first year voting in the Stabby awards, and I must say that I really like the fact that you can cast your vote for as many authors as you like. That way I don't have to choose between my two favorite independent authors, Andrew and Will. It also is a great opportunity to find some new authors to read. Does anyone have any specific titles to recommend from the other contestants?
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Shady Upvote Dealer
1/12/2018 10:52:15 pm
Hey Will, I got a contact I could put you in communication with... for a small fee.
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Sam
1/13/2018 10:11:47 am
I'm more interested in talking to a Nigerian prince. I hear all they need is acess to my bank accounts so they can transfer millions of dollars over from their home country. Know any?
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Sam V2
1/14/2018 07:51:32 pm
As a matter of fact, I DO!!!! Yours truly has recently been notified he will come into an inheritance! You will receive a hundred times what you give me now! So give a million, get a hundred million! Contact, questions, payment info at www.nigerianprince/scam.com
TBoy
1/13/2018 02:56:55 pm
Hmm. Looks legit to me!
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Shady Upvote Dealer
1/14/2018 10:36:19 am
Here at Shady Upvote Dealers LLC, where when and how you use your procured up-votes is entirely up to your discretion, and is covered in depth in in section IV of our privacy policy.
Ron
1/15/2018 04:32:15 pm
Off topic question but is there any news on the movie and television front? Have you sold the rights to make a movie to anybody yet Will?
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Sam
1/16/2018 10:05:04 am
Well the thing you have to remember is that Sanderson has entire teams of people behind him who specialize this stuff. He's got people at his company, agents, and publishers at Tor all working on deals like that. Will didn't go to law school and he's not an agent. As a self publisher he's on his own, so it's much harder for him to sell movie or television rights.
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TBoy
1/17/2018 10:48:11 pm
Congratulations William Lawrence Wight III on winning second and third place on best self-published novel and third place on best novel.
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