Give Indie Books a Try

What are Indie Books? The easiest answer is that they are books self published by the author or small independent press. Why should you give your hard-earned money and time to Indie Books? Well, that requires a much longer and nuanced answer than the first question. I'll do my best to list those reasons below.

Reason 1

You feel tired or burned out by the books being put out by traditional publishers. Many of the books being published by the large presses have similar stories and story elements, and often times stories feel recycled and regurgitated. Why is that? It's simple really, many of the stories presented by agents to the large presses are written with certain formulaic requirements. So, what you end up with are slightly different story clones with different titles and character names.

The nice thing about Indie Books is, they are not beholden to those large press requirements. What this translates to is a lot more freedom in story development, characters and character development, world building, and story arc. If this right here doesn't convince you to try out an Indie Book, then nothing will.

Reason 2

Indie Books are practically raining from the sky with the availability of Amazon's KDP and Ingram Spark. Anyone (over 18) can create an Amazon KDP account and publish their work (ebook), whether it's a short story, collection of short stories, romance, mystery, horror, suspense, fantasy, scifi and any other genre you can think of. And the same can be said of Ingram Spark, except unlike Amazon, publishing on Ingram Spark is not free.

For the Indie Authors, who typically do not have a large budget, publishing through Amazon is the way to go. With this free to publish ebook option, there are literally hundreds of new books showing up on Amazon everyday. There are more than enough Indie Books to keep you reading for your next ten lifetimes.

Reason 3

As if the first two reasons weren't enough, this one should reel you in, the Price! Since the Indie Authors are able to get their ebooks published for free, their ebooks are usually priced well below those of the traditional large presses. Because the large presses have a lot of overhead, they charge from 6.99-10.99 on average. Some might be more and some less. However, for the Indie Author with little overhead, the price can start as low as 0.99, with the average price range being 2.99-4.99!

Reason 4

This one could also go under the last reason, but I felt it should get a section all its own. If you're not aware, Amazon has something called their Kindle Unlimited subscription. What this does, is it allows a subscriber to read any books that are enrolled in the program, and most Indie Authors have their books enrolled. What that means, for the low price of 9.99 per month, you can read as many books as you can read for no extra fee! That's right, no need to purchase any of the Kindle Unlimited books. Simply download, read, and return.

While authors do not earn as much this way, they do still earn for every page that each reader reads. So, whether you purchase a book or read it through a subscription, you're helping to fund an author's ability to continue writing.

Reason 5

Most Indie Books these days receive the same amount of editing and review, if not more than the traditional publishers these days. Often times, these Indie Books have been in the works for years before the author puts them out for all the world to read.

One of the common excuses given by people that refuse to give Indie Books their due these days is because of their quality, or lack of. Yes, there are some that get published without the due diligence done, but by and large those books are now the exception. And if a mistake does happen to sneak through, it is often rectified almost as soon as it is found.

Reason 6

Most Indie Authors, which include me, often make little to no money on their books. They write and publish them because it is what they enjoy doing, and as long as people continue to enjoy them, they will continue writing. Those Indie Authors that can make a living on their Indie Books are few and far between, and we all know this.

Believe it or not, you actually make an Indie Author's day whenever you purchase or read one of our books, sometimes even our week.

Yes, yes I know I'm more than a little biased when it comes to buying and reading Indie Books, but that does not negate any of the reasons I have put forth. With so many different stories available in each genre, it should easily be possible for anyone to find a book or an entire series to thoroughly enjoy. So what are you waiting for? There are thousands upon thousands of worlds waiting for you to enjoy!