by Tom Ashford

Welcome to the SPF Weekly Write-Up, where each Wednesday we collect together the self-publishing news of the week so you don’t have to.

This week is quick and breezy: the Man Booker Prize longlist is announced.

The Man Book Prize Longlist…

… is here! None of them are self-published titles, of course, as the prestigious prize is unobtainable for anyone who chooses higher royalty rates over the reassuring pat on the back which is traditional publishing, but at the very least we know that they’re books which either push the craft/art, are very well written, or have some wider impact on society as a whole. Well worth keeping an eye on, therefore.

And the 2019 longlist is…

The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood

Night Boat to Tangier, by Kevin Barry

My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Ducks, Newburyport, by Lucy Ellmann (a 1,000 page novel written as a single sentence, because why not?)

Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo

The Wall, by John Lanchester

The Man Who Saw Everything, by Deborah Levy

Lost Children Archive, by Valeria Luiselli

An Orchestra of Minorities, by Chigozie Obioma

Lanny, by Max Porter

Quichotte, by Salman Rushdie

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, by Elif Shafak

Frankissstein, by Jeanette Winterson

And there you go – all thirteen titles up for the top prize. Let’s see which ones get whittled down when it comes to the shortlist being announced on the 3rd September.

Tom Ashford

Tom Ashford is a professional copywriter, author of numerous dark fantasy and sci-fi novels, and the Head of Content at the Self Publishing Formula Blog. His books include the Blackwater trilogy and the Checking Out series.

He lives in London with his wife, in an apartment that doesn’t allow pets. Find out more about Tom here.