![](http://cameroncooperauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Untitled-picture.png)
For many years now, indie publishing fantasy authors have had an amazing annual contest; the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off., run by Mark Lawrence. It’s hugely popular — the latest contest reached it’s maximum number of entries (300) in only 9 hours!
But straight SF isn’t allowed in the contest, so Hugh Howey, a couple of years ago, launched a science fiction version.; The Self-Published Science Fiction Contest.
300 SF books are judged by teams of reviewers and move through an initial screening, where many of the 300 get dropped, a quarter final round, then semi-finals, then finals. A single winner emerges at the end.
The winning novel and author get nothing but bragging rights (but wow, they’re seriously impressive bragging rights!).
For readers, though, this is a great place to find vetted, excellent SF, plus read some super thoughtful and thorough reviews (or watch them), to help you figure out the good stuff. I’ve already picked up a half dozen books that I wouldn’t have otherwise bought, just because the reviewers raved about them.
![](http://cameroncooperauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Hammer-Site-200x300.jpg)
And even better: Hammer and Crucible has made it thorugh to the semi-finals. Reviewer Josefine of the “Dragons in Space” review team gave it a great review, which you can find here. (She also just released a video announcing her favourite books for 2022 and Hammer and Crucible is one of only two SF books she listed.)
I honestly didn’t expect the book to get this far. Space Opera is often looked down upon by the more literary end of the Science Fiction genre. And I certainly don’t expect to get into the finals, because I’ve read some of the books in the semis and fully expect them to go through, instead.
But we’ll see. I got this far, so who knows?
You can find details and pick up a copy of Hammer and Crucible, which is book 1 of the Imperial Hammer series, here on Stories Rule Press, or at your favourite retail store (links to other stores are on SRP, too). It’s currently discounted by well over 50% in ebook.
Cheers,
Cam
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