My first indie reads were books by a friend of mine several years ago. I have a Master’s in Lit and taught English Comp and Lit classes for me than 10 years and he asked me if I would be interested in editing them. I did and I was very impressed by his books. At the time I had begun writing my first novel but didn’t get around to finishing it until recently. Since that time I’ve found myself in some indie author communities on social media. I decided to start reading their books. My usual go to authors haven’t been keeping up with my reading demands and I haven’t had any luck finding additional traditionally published authors to read. It’s all the same. Same story, different characters, different settings. Very predictable endings. I’ve found a refreshing group of new stories among the indies. They aren’t bound to the limits set by publishing houses. They don’t have to write about the same acceptable plot with the same acceptable outcome. I’ve read some people comment that the quality isn’t there in self published books. I haven’t seen that. Sure there are the occasional typo and missed error. I’ve found similar in traditionally published books as well. I read a book by a NYT bestseller recently in which it appeared the editing stopped 50 pages from the end. There were so many typos and errors in those last 50 pages. I’ve only DNF’ed one indie book in the last several months and that was a quality issue. There were too many errors. If it was a paper from one of my students it would have gotten a D at best. I just couldn’t continue. But that was 1 book out of a couple dozen or so and I knew before I finished the 1st chapter. Anyway, have you read any indie books? If not, why not?

For anyone that’s interested, I have a page on my website dedicated to recommended reads. I have listed all of the indie books I’ve read and recommend there. I created the page with the intent of giving my potential readers insight into the books I read because they do influence my writing.

  • Deguydion@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I am reading a series right now. Quality is medium, and it’s clearly a copy of Harry Potter. But I can’t not read it, my best friend writes them, and I’m one of the main character… That’s kinda weird honestly. Seeing your name, personality, your friends and family in there is disturbing.

  • iNeedScissorsSixty7@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I recently was sent a copy of The Dogs of War by Thomas Roke because he saw my review for Essex Dogs by Dan Jones on Goodreads and figured I might be his target audience (both books are historical fiction taking place during the 100 Years War in the 1300s). All he asked was that I leave an honest review. I ended up really enjoying the book and left a 4 star review. That’s about the extent of my indie reading but it was an enjoyable experience.

  • LeonStevens@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Here’s a stat:

    Each year, 500,000 to 1 million new books come out. Including self-published authors, the count reaches close to 4 million new book titles each year.

    So, indie titles outweigh traditionally published books 3:1

    Odds are pretty good that you will find more terrible indie books, which probably accounts for some of the hesitation to buy indie.

    I’m an indie. I regularly read other indie books, usually because I am cross-promoting with them and I want to make sure they are right for my subscriber list. Are there some bad ones? Yup, but there are good ones as well.

    Three million new indie books per year. I released my first books three years ago. I’m now competing with nine million books. No wonder indie authors struggle to stand out.

    Wait. Make that Nine million one thousand and twenty-four.

    (twenty-five …)

  • OnTheToilet25@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I have a kindle so I have access to many digital books. I probably read a couple without knowing. I don’t really look at publishers or authors much. I didn’t notice I was a big Neil Gaiman fan until I noticed I had 5 of his books I’m my library.

  • BohemianPeasant@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I read a few indie books every year primarily in the fantasy and scifi genres. I find that I need a “sieve” of some sort to find the books I will enjoy. I read reviews on several book-related Reddit subs as one way to find stories. Just a couple of enthusiastic independent reviews will enormously raise the probability of my reading an indie title.

    I also check out Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off where they sort through 300 self-published titles every year.

    Indie authors have a difficult hill to climb but the best ones will eventually be found.