Indie Author Found Here

Where you can find your next favorite indie author

I’ve been writing my whole life. I don’t have any unique or inspiring story to share in that regards. A writer at heart, like so many other writers!

Photo by Fiona Murray on Unsplash

When I decided to publish my work, I had to choose which route to take: query agents and get published traditionally or publish independently. That may be a story for another time, but skipping to the end, I went the indie publishing route. The publishing industry has changed. Services like print on demand and Amazon have opened avenues that had before been gate kept by agents and publishers. It’s all very exciting! Craig Mod wrote a fantastic article on the future of books for Wired. He said it so well, I’m not going to dig into it much in this newsletter but refer you directly to the article if you would like to know more. Instead, I want to explore where readers can find the growing population of indie authors.

What I love about the writing community is the support. Authors love to shout out other authors. The Indie Fiction Digest is not only a place where I can sandbox my fiction and highlight indie authors. Indie authors can be hard to find (kind of what comes along with the independent part, yeah?). I wanted to provide a list of where you can discover your next favorite author. This is by far not a complete list, but hopefully a place for curious readers to start.

So Where Can you Find Indie Authors?

You can find them everywhere! You just have to know where to look:

Retailers (digital)

• Amazon

  • Amazon is a big publisher of indie authors. Writers can publish through Amazon without an agent or publisher. The platform is one of the big factors that has led to the takeoff of indie publishing. 

• Barnes & Noble

  • Similar to Amazon, authors can publish their ebooks through Barnes and Noble as well. Those Nook readers aren’t left out!

• Kobo

  • Kobo is a book selling platform that originated in Canada. They sell ebooks, audiobooks, as well as coordinating ereaders and tablets. Kobo is a huge supporter of authors. I really like the platform.

• Libraries (Hoopla, Libby, BorrowBox, Baker & Taylor etc)

  • You can find indie authors at libraries too! I think libraries are a great way to try out new authors and see if you like them before purchasing their books. And indie authors are paid for their books being checked out at the library. Most of my book sales over these last couple months has been through Hoopla. I’m happy to see the library apps getting put to use!

• I am not a personal user of the following apps, but I do make my books available for readers on these apps:

  • Smashwords

    • An indie publishing platform that has supported authors since 2008.

  • Apple Books, Google Books, Gardners, Tolino

Retailers (physical)

Print of Demand is a huge game changer in publishing. Authors no longer need to purchase physical copies of their books in bulk to sell to readers. Authors don’t need to purchase any physical books. Retailers like IngramSpark and Draft2Digital allow authors to upload their manuscripts and covers. Copies of the book are printed when a sale is made on platforms like Amazon or directly from authors through platforms like Shopify.

• Amazon Direct Publishing

• IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, Book Vault, and other print on demand services

  • Draft2Digital does print now! While I’ve only used IngramSpark and KDP through Amazon up to this point, I’m curious about D2D’s print options. I plan on experimenting when publishing for print next

• Libraries

  • If you can’t find an author you’re looking for, ask a librarian! Readers asking their local libraries to carry their favorite indie authors is a great way to get even more indie authors in libraries.

• Indie Bookstores

  • Independent bookstores use companies, like IngramSpark, as a book catalog. If you want to support an indie author and an independent bookstore, ask your local bookstore about the book you are looking for. More often than not, the independent bookstore can order through the catalog directly.

Retail (audio)

Between you and me, audio is EXPENSIVE. Voice acting is a talent (on top of all the editing raw audio). Some indie authors create audio themselves or they hire actors. Audio is huge! I know I enjoy being able to listen to an audiobook or a fiction podcast during my work commute or while doing chores. I have only dipped my toe in the audio world though, as an author. Price is the biggest factor. I’ll stop here, though. I can keep going!

• Audible

• Scribd

  • This is my preferred platform (other than libraries). The catalog of audio can be limited (usually won’t find new books published by the Big 5 publishers, more on that in another post). For a monthly price, you have the entire catalog available to you through Scribd. I often find the books I’m looking for, especially indie published and small press books. I like that I can listen to as many books as I have time to listen to, instead of having credits per month like Audible.

• Kobo Plus

  • I’ve just started exploring Kobo Plus. I still prefer Scribd so far, but I’ve got quite a few nonfiction books lined up through Kobo.

• Spotify

  • Spotify has been working on breaking into the audiobook market. You can purchase audiobooks through Spotify (Doesn’t tend to be included with the price your subscription. Not ideal, but it does help authors get paid)

• Apple Books/Google Books

• Libraries

  • Hoopla, Libby, Overdrive, etc. All of these platforms offer audio as well as ebooks

Subscription (paid and free)

Here is where Substack comes in! While serialized stories have been around since before novel became popular, serial fiction is trying to make a comeback! There are quite a few platforms that are made by authors and for authors, which is really cool and exciting. Lots of new stuff for you to check out. 

• Substack

  • While the majority of you receive my posts through your email and that’s where you hang out, Substack is its own social media platform that has generated a fantastic community of writers. I really enjoy getting to know other fiction writers on Substack. You can also go to my Substack, Indie Fiction Digest, and access all of my past posts. You can also become a paid subscriber. Substack writers have a variety of options when it comes to subscription plans (for example, my paid subscribers get access to audio). Paying for a writer’s work on Substack will pay the author directly for their writing.

I want to add a quick plug for

Thomas Umstattd Jr.

’s podcast episode on Substack. While his pocast, Novel Marketing, is targetted toward authors, his episode about Substack is great for readers too! He does a great job providing the pros and cons of Substack. He touches on what I love about the platform. If you’re over social media or just looking for another platform to scroll through, Substack is a great place to be. Check out Thomas’s podcast episode to learn all about the platform.

• Wattpad

• Simily

  • Another new platform designed for fiction authors. Similar to Medium, where readers can access a limited amount of stories free for the month or pay a monthly subscription. Medium has primarily been a nonfiction platform. Simily is only fiction. There is a great team over there. I’m excited to see what comes of this new platform.

• Radish

  • This platform specializes in romance fiction.

• Scribd

  • Just throwing Scribd out here again because it is a subscription platform. You pay a price per month and have access to their whole catalog.

• Kindle Unlimited

  • Kindle Unlimited also charges readers a monthly subscription. Authors who put their books in KU have to agree to exclusivity, though. That means they can’t sell their ebooks on any other platforms. Some authors do really well on KU, but the exclusivity is not the publishing route I want to take, so you won’t find my books in KU.

• Kobo plus

  • Similar to Scribd. You pay a monthly subscription fee and have access to the books included in KOBO Plus. Indie authors have an option to put their books in KOBO Plus when they publish. You’ll find mine there!

• Kindle Vella

  • Kindle Vella is one of the newest endeavors by Amazon. Readers purchase coins and use these coins to purchase parts of an author’s serial. It’s not the easiest to navigate. There was a lot of excitement in the author realm when Kindle Vella was launching, but a lot of that has sputtered out now. I’ve looked into Vella. It is difficult to navigate as a platform. I’m not sure about exclusivity, if it’s similar or different to KU. Let me know if you know anything about that!

• Author newsletter exchanges 

  • I mentioned before that the author community is super supportive. Authors love to shout out other authors! Indie authors will also do exchanges with other authors and share each other’s books with their audience. It’s a way to get our titles in front of readers that may enjoy them. Platforms like StoryOrigin and Bookfunnel help authors with these exchanges. I like both platforms. Bookfunnel is great! Super reader friendly. I use their app to read books I have gotten through these newsletter exchanges.

  • Speaking of newsletter exchanges, you can check out some free indie stories here! I snagged several of these Tales from the Cave.

• Ream

  • Brand new! Ream is a new serial fiction platform that allows readers to pay authors directly for their serialized stories. It’s so new that I’m still learning how the platform works. I’m hearing great things about it. I just need to find time to learn more about it and decide which of my works (if any) would be a good fit for this platform

• Direct Sales

  • Direct Sales is the growing in the indie world. What reader doesn’t want to pay the author directly instead of filtering their purchase through bigger platforms, like Amazon. Similar to print on demand, there are companies that are making direct sales doable for authors. 

• Shopify, Paypal, Stripe, etc.

  • Shopify has some print on demand options which is really cool for indie authors. This allows you to purchase directly from authors while still getting the book from a print on demand company (so no need to share your address with the author to get the book shipped to you). 

  • Other payment companies, like Paypal and Stripe, connect through platforms like Substack and Ream to pay authors directly that way. It’s just a click of a button on your end and you’ve paid your favorite author for their work!

• Author websites

  • Check out your favorite author’s website! See what they have set up for you to purchase directly from them. An author’s website is the one place they have complete control over. If an author offers direct sales, you would find the information there.

• Laterpress

  • This one is new, like Ream. Laterpress is another serial platform that allows readers to pay authors directly. You would find these works serialized through Laterpress on an author’s website.

• Ask!

  • Speaking as an indie author who likes the idea of direct sales, but has lacked the time to get it set up, it can’t hurt to ask an author directly. Let them know that you are interested in supporting them and want to know if they have any direct sales options. Hypothetically: an author may have a bookshelf filled with paperback copies of their books that are just waiting for a reader to crack the spine and enjoy the story (I’m not speaking from personal experience or anything…) You could also ask about direct sales of digital copies (ebook or audio). Perhaps the author prefers you purchase through a specific platform or maybe they haven’t even thought about it, but you have made their day by asking. It can’t hurt, reach out!

There are many ways to read books, all depends on how you like to read. And technology is changing how we read. My Future of Reading series is exploring how reading has changed. I’d love to know how you read! I’m collecting some data for a future post. Let me know with the survey below: