Fantasy TOP - land of best fantasies

I know I tried to do something like this 18 months or so ago, but I've been thinking about it again..and the Genre Diversity post by Mark C. Newton (along with the comments in the post) gave me another push. So what am I talking about?

I'm going to make a 2nd attempt to read mostly "classic" epic fantasy and small press epic fantasy. What does that mean? It means, at least for awhile, you won't find reviews of the latest books here (note that I will start reading Malazan this fall, with book 10 due out in late winter..so that series will show up here a bit later). The side benefit of reading these older books is that I can focus on complete series (which I have been wanting to do anyway). The small press books can be current, and I will take submissions for these again..but read the rules for submission later in the post.

Part of the reason I am doing this is to read complete series, but also to bring attention to some older books that no one else is. And a side reason is I want to see if this truly hits a note with anyone. Some of the comments in Mark's post took a shot a bloggers who worried about their page counts/visitor totals. I've been vocal in the past about telling you I don't want to write these posts in a vacuum, and that I care about my "numbers". After all, if I wanted to just have a conversation with myself, I could do it without a blog. So, in Mark's post, shots were taken at bloggers who are "too concerned" with visitor hits..though I don't see how it is any different than an author being "too concerned" with book sales. But that is as far as I want to take that argument..that should be its own post at a later date. Anyway, the side reason to do this experiment is to see if people (blog visitors) care about small press and older fantasy books. Right now I have 480-500 blog subscribers according to feed burner. I will be interested to see if that number changes (and how) over the course of the next couple months as I focus on the older and smaller press stuff. I assume the subscriber count will decrease, but time will tell.

Now I'll discuss the rules for what I will be reading.

Classic Fantasy Rules:
--Mostly books published in the 1980s and 1990s. Some lesser known works of the 2000s will creep in..but only if those books from the 2000s form a complete series.
--I will be reading ALL of these books on my nook e-reader. This means ALL of the books will be available to purchase in digital format. I know some don't want to read reviews of older books because those older books aren't easily found outside of a used book shop. For my challenge, all the books I am reading can easily be bought in the .epub ebook format. I'll try to list which online stores carry the book, as part of the review. So, if you like the book, you will be able to read it on your computer, phone, or dedicated e-reader. If you are a person that reads physical books only..you might have to look for some of these books in a second hand shop.
--I will be reading epic fantasy only...which is mostly what was published in the 1980s and 1990s anyway.
--I will still post NEWS about new releases, I just won't be reading them for a bit.
--If you are an AUTHOR (from a major publisher) who published books in the 1980s-mid 2000s and your series is complete and available in epub format, I'll take submissions from you. I'll even host a giveaway, interview, or guest post. Just contact me (bossfan2000 AT yahoo DOT com).

Small Presss & Self Published Rules:
--I will accept submissions again from small press publishers and indie authors.
--You must be able to send me the book in .epub format so I can read it on my nook. Last time, I agreed to convert pdf files to epub myself, but that didn't turn out well. Thus, I am interested in .epub files ONLY.
--Your book can be newly published, it doesn't have to be old. But, it either has to be a standalone story, or part of a COMPLETED series. I'm not interested in book 1 of a new series you just published..mostly because the chances are too high that the series will never get completed. I know this can happen with major publishers, too. But if I am going to take the time to read your book, I want to know that I can read the complete story..not just the first book. This way, if I happen to like the book, I know I can promise the blog readers (and myself) that they can read the entire series now. Note that I am not asking you to send me the .epub files of every book in your story..just the first book in the series (again, standalone books are fine).
--Like I mentioned in the Classic Fantasy rules, I am interested in EPIC/HIGH/HEROIC fantasy only..though steampunk would be considered. I will NOT be interested in anything resembling urban fantasy or paranormal romance. And no zombies, vampires or werewolves as main characters, either. I'm just not interested in those types of stories.
--You have to be able to accept criticism (if necessary). If your book lacks editing, I won't overlook it just because you didn't have access to a professional editor. Your readers don't care, and neither do I. In the end, if they buy your book, they expect a good story without the distractions of grammatical errors and punctuation issues, etc. At least, your issues should be no worse than those books from my major publishers :)
--If you meet the above criteria, shoot me an email with more details. My email address is found at the top right of the blog (bossfan2000 AT yahoo DOT com). If you contacted me or sent me a book 18 months ago when I tried this, feel free to contact be again. I'm going to make a better effort this time around and committing to this challenge for at least a couple of months (or more).
--If you are willing to give away 1 or more FREE copies of your DIGITAL book, I will be happy to host a giveaway for you if I think the book fits the scope of this blog (i.e. I'll host a digital giveaway if your book meets the criteria above. I won't host giveaways for books I wouldn't read..like those zombie and vampire books I mentioned). For the giveaway, I am assuming you will give the winner a digital coupon on a site like Smashwords, or will just email a copy of the .epub book to the winner(s).

So that's it. Other than news posts about new releases, this blog will become a bit retro/indie for awhile. I know some of you don't like giveaways, but if I am going to try to help promote older books and indie authors, giveaways are a good way to do that..and I want to do everything I can to completely embrace this challenge of highlighting older and unknown books & authors.

The first book I am reading is The First King of Shannara by Terry Brooks, published in 1996. If you have books/series you would like me to read, and they fit the rules posted above..leave a comment with the book title(s).