The answer\u2019s not what you think. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m an indie book fanatic. I run an indie book review website. My newsletter is called Read\u00a0Indie<\/a> for crying out loud.\u00a0<\/p>\n But I wouldn\u2019t dream of\u00a0reading ONLY indie books.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not what this is about.<\/p>\n It\u2019s about the books. If a book comes out from Penguin Random House (PRH) that looks badass or there\u2019s a new book from George Saunders, I\u2019m not going to pass on it just because it was published by a major press. And I don\u2019t want you to do that either.<\/p>\n We\u2019re in this reading world for the books. That\u2019s it. Sure, you could follow indie presses around, reading only the books they put out, but you\u2019re missing out on something that could change your life if you\u2019re only reading indie.\u00a0<\/p>\n What I\u2019m vouching for isn\u2019t exclusivity. It\u2019s for variety. For following your interest. For believing in someone you\u2019ve never heard of.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some uninformed readers might see indie\u2013or the process of self-publishing or publishing with a small press\u2013as a marker against quality. \u201cThey didn\u2019t get picked up by an agent, so they must not be very good,\u201d or \u201cThey had to publish themselves, so they must have gotten rejected from mainstream publishers.\u201d<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not the case at all. (Okay, maybe sometimes it is.)<\/p>\n Nowadays, authors choose to go the indie route for a variety of reasons. The biggest of which is that they get full creative control. They believe strongly in their in-book decisions and don\u2019t want to be told they have to change it. It\u2019s too risky, too experimental, a publisher might say. But a reader could say, \u201cIt\u2019s perfect just the wonky way it is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And on top of that, they get a considerably higher royalty rate when they self-publish. It\u2019s a business decision, not a way to skirt quality gatekeeping.\u00a0<\/p>\n So why should you read indie books?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Some books get picked up by major publishers because of their sales quality. Just like Marvel movies bring in the big bucks, these presses might focus on trends, on big-ticket stars, on hitting the three-act structure and hitting it hard.\u00a0These stories can be amazing, and they can scratch the exact itch you\u2019ve been trying to reach.<\/p>\n Indie books can do that too, but sometimes they\u2019re published not because they can make a big splash in the marketplace but because they\u2019re good enough to wow smaller audiences\u00a0at Cannes or\u00a0the Tribeca Film Festival. They tell quiet stories that reverberate. They are sold by lower-budget publishers who believe in quality over sales potential. They don\u2019t need perfect 3-act structures; they want stories that inspire change, that break storytelling rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n One small press book,\u00a0Ducks, Newburyport<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Lucy Ellman, is 1000+ pages but mostly just one long continuous sentence. It was published by an indie (Biblioasis<\/a>) and was shortlisted for\u00a0the Booker prize. You might see why a book like that wouldn\u2019t gel with major publishers but fits neatly with a passionate indie press.<\/p>\n Pretending that money doesn\u2019t play a part in all of this would paint an incomplete picture. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m the only one who\u2019s been to a bookstore recently to see a $32 hardcover and think, \u201cI could read three different books for this price.\u201d Or, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind ordering dinner for my family tonight instead.\u201d Many major publishers are publishing ebooks at $15 a pop.<\/p>\n But since indie authors are out here getting 70% author royalties instead of an average of 10%, they can price their books much cheaper than those major presses. Especially in the ebook space. It\u2019s common to find ebooks for\u00a0$3.99 or less<\/a>\u00a0as opposed to the $15 ebook PRH just came out with. Print books can be cheaper too.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re read more indie books, you can put money back into your pocket AND into more authors\u2019 pockets.<\/p>\n If you can make money writing fiction, you deserve it. I want authors from major presses\u00a0to have money too. (We can share, can\u2019t we?)\u00a0<\/p>\n But it\u2019s true: giving your money to Walmart is a lot different than giving it to your local corner store. Actually, in these cases, sometimes your corner store is getting a single $2.48 sale per day, and it\u2019s\u00a0the week of their grand opening. Your support might not carry these authors monetarily into their next project, but they wrote this thing to be read. And you are giving them a shot.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just about money of course. You can support authors and presses\u00a0by writing reviews for them too. If you leave a review for Stephen King\u2019s\u00a0Carrie,\u00a0<\/em>you\u2019ll be one of 17,000. If you leave a review for an indie book, you could be one of ten. And boy do those ten reviews make a difference!\u00a0<\/p>\n Not only does it give your author a warm fuzzy feeling\u2013since they\u2019re probably checking their Amazon sales page often\u2013but you\u2019re also playing a part in helping your fellow readers decide whether they should buy it\u00a0or not. As readers, we\u2019re all just out here\u00a0trying to guess that the time we\u2019re about to give this paper-and-ink product will be time well-spent.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stephen King is a celebrity. If you see him in person, you\u2019re definitely going to get googly-eyed. (Or at least I would.) But when you read indie, you\u2019re not reading a celebrity. You\u2019re reading that random\u00a0guy over in apartment 3b who always goes out of his way to smile.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unless you\u2019re going to a heavily trafficked author signing, most of the\u00a0authors you meet in real-life are indies. And since they\u2019re not celebrities, you mean more to them than you would mean to Stephen King.\u00a0<\/p>\n If somebody on my block read and liked my book, I\u2019d first be surprised\u2013because I wrote\u00a0a niche book for authors about getting book reviews<\/a>\u2013but then I\u2019d be the one asking for an autograph . Who is this hero making my day, my week, my year?\u00a0<\/p>\n It means a ton for indie authors to hear from fans, enough so that they might even be able to reply back to your fan email. You can usually foster a much deeper connection with indies than you can with mainstream authors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Put your trust in these people.\u00a0<\/p>\n Don\u2019t see publishing indie as a knock against their quality. See it as a choice.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t read only indie books. Just read them in conjunction with the ones published by celebrities and superstar authors. Focus on the content. If it\u2019s in your wheelhouse, choose it and\u00a0let it knock you out of the park.<\/p>\n Joe Walters<\/strong> is the founder of Independent Book Review<\/a>. After falling in love with reading and writing at Kutztown University, he did the only thing he could think of: quit his teaching job, become a server, and write as much as possible. <\/p>\n When a local job in publishing popped up on a job board, he traded in his PF Chang\u2019s apron for a bookish t-shirt and has been promoting indie press and self-published books ever since. He\u2019s also the author of The Truth About Book Reviews<\/a><\/em>. When he\u2019s not writing or doing editorial or promotion work, he\u2019s playing with his kids or reading indie books by Kindle light.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The post Why Should You Read Indie Books?<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why should you read indie? The answer\u2019s not what you think. I\u2019m an indie book fanatic. I run an indie book review website. My newsletter is called Read\u00a0Indie for crying out loud.\u00a0 But I wouldn\u2019t dream of\u00a0reading ONLY indie books. That\u2019s not what this is about. It\u2019s about the books. If a book comes out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}They can be incredible.<\/h3>\n
Indie books are often cheaper.<\/h3>\n
Your support often means more for indies than it does for majors.<\/h3>\n
You\u2019re reading books by your neighbors.<\/h3>\n
All I\u2019m asking is\u2026<\/h3>\n
What percentage of your reading life is spent reading indie books?<\/h2>\n
About the Author<\/h4>\n