Indie Book Sites: Helping Readers and Writers

When both of these features were run, I dutifully posted information to FaceBook, Google+, and Tweeted proudly. I write today because I’ve received a number of responses from people who were surprised at the information offered about Indie Work at these two sites. These responses made me realize that a lot of folks are still not clued in to the Indie options out there. Www.indiesunlimited.com/ and aknifeandaquill.wordpress.com/ are two of several dozen quality information sites for readers and writers both.

I’m going to post a list of my favorites below, just so people know about ’em.

The Indie vista is becoming a bit cluttered these days if you check out Kindle Store, Smashwords, iBooks or any number of other amalgamated independent book sites. Special indie book websites are one way of getting direction about what is worth checking out and where the deals are (many of these sites have postings on “Free Books” that indie authors offer).

What’s most clear to me these days is that the standard approach to book buying used to be a sort of passive “maybe I’ll go to the bookstore on Saturday morning”approach to things. The new digital world of books, coupled with the demise of Borders and other big box stores, means that readers need to be a bit more active. You now have the option to say to yourself, “maybe I’ll sit in my bathrobe with a second cup of coffee after reading the paper on Saturday morning and check out some books online.” You may be sitting on your ass before taking a shower, but you’re actually required to be more active than when you used to just saunter into Borders or Barnes & Noble letting their table and shelf displays catch your eye.

When you add the Indie concept into this equation, it gets even more complicated. That’s what these independent book sites are all about. And that’s why you want to know about them. You can spend $12.99 on a new bestseller, or you can spend $2.99 on a first novel by an independent author. In either case it’s a crap shoot. Indie sites help with that … and help you save money.

The other thing I want people to know about is book bloggers. If you’re looking for great Indie and non-Indie e-books, there are now literally hundreds of “super readers” out there who run blogs reviewing the books that they’ve read. I’m going to save that info for another day. For now, check out the brief list below. If you want more, I’m sure by now you know how to use Google. 

Indies Unlimited

A Knife and A Quill

Pixel of Ink

Digital Book Today

Kindle Nation Daily

World Literary Cafe

Indie Reader

Awesome Indies

More in few days on book bloggers and other review platforms. Remember, too, there are probably two or three dozen undiscovered Fifty Shades of Grey out there. You just need to find ’em.

And, for what it’s worth, remember that Beyond the Will of God is waiting for you to buy it and read it. You can get it as a paperback or as a Kindle e-book.