Category Archives: About Indie books

Are Self Published Books Not As Good As Traditionally Published?

Posted on February 8, 2013 by | 6 Comments

Post written by Tahlia Newland

The general perception is that self-published books are inferior to those published in the traditional way, but that is a generalisation and, of course, is not always the case. Unfortunately, however, many of them are every bit as poor in quality as those who subscribe to this generalisation would have us believe of all self-published books, and such books bring all self-published and indie published books down in the public perception. This is a shame because some of the best books I have ever read are independently published and it takes only a glance at the Awesome Indies site to see that there are many that are every bit as good as, and in some cases better than, traditionally published books.

 So what to do? How do we remove this damaging generalisation from people’s mind streams?

First, I think it’s important not to deny the fact that many self-published books are of poor quality. In an informal survey of Awesome Indies reviewers, on average the percentage of books that reviewers rejected as unsuitable for the Awesome Indies list – and therefore not up to the same standards as traditionally published books – was between 50 and 75 percent of the books submitted to them for review. Many don’t even pass the test of reading the sample. If these numbers are taken as representative then, in conservative terms, around 50% of indie books available for sale are not what a traditional publisher would consider a publishable standard. I’ve asked my reviewers to take numbers over the next few months so we can get a better idea of the actual percentages, but the main point is that a significant number of self-published books are not up to standard.  That’s just how it is.

If we don’t want all those wonderful indie books to suffer because of the ones that aren’t so good, then we must point readers to sites like Awesome Indies where the books listed have been vetoed by what is essentially the equivalent of a publishing houses’s editorial staff.

These, we can say, are the good ones.

Apart from that, we can keep up our efforts to educate those who want to publish their books and hope that they learn enough to either publish something up to standard, or to desist from publishing at all. Even so, there will always be some who will publish just because they can, and readers will always have to negotiate the minefield of books published without a gatekeeper and hope that the one they bought won’t blow up in their face. For so long as there are mines set to explode, people will always avoid the minefield. At least the Awesome Indies offers a field free of mines for readers to browse in, but we have to direct them to it or risk losing their patronage next time they are burned by a self-published book.

As my regular readers know, I am a great believer in indie publishing, but sometimes when I look at the next book in my to be reviewed list on my Kindle, I hope it won’t be an indie book. You just can’t be sure that you won’t be wasting your time, and after a few unfortunate reads, I long for something reliable. So I understand exactly where people are coming from when they say that they don’t read self-published books. I also know that they miss out on the most exciting books being published today.

The only answer is to buy your indie books through sites like the Awesome Indies, or on the recommendation of someone you trust.

How do you feel about the quality of self-published books? Are sites like the Awesome Indies the answer to the readers dilemma?

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AI Author Interview: The Summoner Author Layton Green

Posted on September 25, 2012 by | Leave a comment

This interview by Jen Blood was originally posted on the BloodWrites Mystery site.

When I was just getting into this whole indie business, I stumbled upon Layton Green’s first novel in the Dominic Grey series, The Summoner. And loved it. And proceeded to rave about it, to pretty much anyone who would listen. It was one of my first Mystery Picks, and made it to my list of Favorite Reads of 2011 last December. If you’re a fan of the occult, paranormal mysteries, or just plain great writing, interesting characters, and exotic locales, I highly recommend checking out his series. You can read a free excerpt of his second book in the Dominic Grey series, The Egyptian, right here.


Let’s start by talking about the first two novels in the Dominic Grey series, The Summoner and The Egyptian. Can you tell readers a little about the series, and what they can expect when they pick up a Dominic Grey novel?

Sure.  The series centers around an ex-Diplomatic Security Agent (Dominic Grey) and a religious phenomenologist (Viktor Radek) who investigate the world’s most bizarre and dangerous cults.  When one picks up a Dominic Grey novel, one can expect an atmospheric but fast-paced novel of suspense, set in various exotic locales, with a dash of romance. A Dominic Grey novel will also delve into a particular and unusual cult or religious system, explore a timely political or social issue, examine a few tough philosophical questions, and — most importantly – be a roller-coaster thrill ride! The series has been described as “Indiana Jones meets the X-Files.”

“I admire Dominic Grey’s strong sense of self…, his fierce independent streak, and, of course, his mad fight skills.”

Norman Mailer used to say that his goal as an author was to create characters who were braver, stronger, and smarter than himself. Do you think Dominic Grey fits that bill for you? In what ways do you admire the character?

Oh, that’s fairly apt!  Though I would add the word “much” before those attributes.  I admire Dominic Grey’s strong sense of self despite the low places he has been in life, his fierce independent streak, and, of course, his mad fight skills.


With The Summoner set in Africa and The Egyptian in Cairo, it’s clear that exotic locales play an important role in the Grey novels. You’re quite well-traveled (from what I’ve read, anyway); what are a couple of your favorite destinations? Are there other settings you’d love to see Dominic traveling to?

I love to travel anywhere, though some of my favorites are London, Prague, Venezuela, Italy, Greece and Zimbabwe.  I have more destinations in mind for the Grey series than I probably have time to write, and all I will say about the  future locales is that I think my readers will be very pleased . . . .

“To write it well, I need to feel it, see it, smell it, experience it.”

You have a wildly diverse employment history, from U.S. attorney to knife salesmen on the streets of Brixton. How important do you think your experiences have been in providing both fodder and perspective for you as a writer? How much do you draw upon those experiences when writing your novels?

Absolutely essential.  To write it well, I need to feel it, see it, smell it, experience it.  I’m a born dilettante, and let’s just say it’s a good thing being a novelist is working out.  Because selling knives on the streets of Brixton, while great fodder for a novel, was not that fun.

I’ve read that your interest in the occult is part of what sparked the Dominic Grey novels. Are there any particular subjects that are especially interesting to you? Do you have any anecdotes about your own adventures conducting research?

I have a very strong interest in religion, the occult, and everything in between and beyond.  I especially love those hidden nooks and crannies endemic to religion and the occult, those shadowy areas that stir the imagination.

Let’s see, a research anecdote: for my first (unpublished) novel, I broke into Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris with a few friends and a ladder, and it was quite a chilling experience.  To this day, all of us swear that we saw a ghost.

In addition to some wonderful prose, you have a very filmic way of writing. Are you a fan of movies? Any in particular that have inspired you along the way?

I do love movies.  Though I don’t consciously draw on movies for inspiration (I’m much more of a reader), I worship the Indiana Jones films, and most things weird (especially Tim Burton, David Lynch, and Roman Polanski).

What is your favorite part of writing the Dominic Grey series? What is most challenging?

I love the travel and the research, and the writing process itself.  The first draft is definitely the most challenging – it’s very mentally challenging to create something out of blank space.

What have you been working on most recently? Do you have another novel on the horizon?

I am wrapping up the editing on the third Dominic Grey novel, I have a standalone novel I would like to publish next year, and I’m also midway through a fantasy novel that has been a lot of fun to write.

Do you have any upcoming promotions or appearances you’d like readers to know about?

We just had our second child, so I’ve been hunkering down at home.  I expect to gear back up my appearances and promotion schedule early next year.

Where can we find you online?

www.laytongreen.com

Layton Green on Facebook

http://www.amazon.com/Layton-Green/e/B004FZX2NI

And my obligatory parting question at BloodWrites: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three non-essential things (or people) would you need with you to stay sane?

Ha, great question.  I’ll answer the “things” portion, since my family is the obvious answer to the “people” question and let’s assume my wife wouldn’t let me be stupid enough to strand the entire family on a deserted island (I might very well accomplish this on my own).

Things:

1)   A copy of The Magus by John Fowles
2)   A packet of grape seeds
3)   A 20-pack of pens, of course.

Thanks so much to Layton for taking the time to answer my questions! If you haven’t checked out his novels yet, you can find The Summoner and The Egyptian on Amazon for just $2.99.

Jen Blood is a freelance writer and editor, and author of the Amazon bestselling mystery All the Blue-Eyed Angels and its recently released sequel, Sins of the Father. She is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for production and promotion of the third novel in her Erin Solomon mystery series. Learn more at www.erinsolomononkickstarter.com.

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Awesome Indies Excerpt: The Drowning, by Richard Herley

Posted on August 20, 2012 by | 1 Comment

The Drowning
By Richard Herley
Awesome Indies Contemporary Fiction Pick

May 1944: dawn in the Bay of Biscay. A U-boat lies crippled on the seabed. Within earshot of the warship that sank her, a solitary survivor breaks the surface. Injured, in shock, hypothermic, his life-vest torn, he cries out for help.

The captain is on the bridge and brings his binoculars to bear.

The order he gives sets off a train of consequences reaching down through the landscape of post-war, post-colonial Britain, changing not only his own life and the lives of his men, but those of civilians ashore and of children yet unborn.

Spanning seventy years, set in England and in Nigeria during the Biafran crisis, this is a sweeping, compulsive story about conscience and selfishness and the far-reaching damage that cruelty can do.

The first 201 words.

The boat was done for. And so was he, but he would not admit it. During the second set of explosions he had been thrown against a bulkhead and he was in pain, but far worse was the noise inside his skull, a blare grown monstrous from a tiny seed: the very first sonar ping of the ASDIC.

Soon after the seawater had reached the batteries, those men who had not already been killed and who had been unable to don their Dräger lungs had been choked. Georg had heard some of them quacking like Donald Duck, their voices distorted by the chlorine gas; yet it was even now possible that, elsewhere in the hull, others were being kept alive by pockets of air. Such a pocket remained here in the middle of the boat, under the conning-tower hatch.

His conscience, as much as the pressure differential, would not let him open the hatch. As soon as he unscrewed it, the hull would flood completely.

But his lung – a rubber and canvas life-vest with a rebreather – could only keep him alive for so long. The rebreather comprised a canister of soda-lime to absorb carbon dioxide while breathing foul air.

The Drowning on Amazon
On Smashwords
Barnes and Noble

http://richardherley.blogspot.com/

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Come on guys, give Indies a fair go!

Posted on June 14, 2012 by | 10 Comments

Post by Tahlia Newland

It’s amazing how much prejudice there still is out there for authors who have self-published, or created their own little publishing company or author’s collective or whichever of the forms Indie publishing takes. You can see it in talk in forums, blogs, and in reviews that are unfairly harsh—I have seen some pretty emotive words leveled at books that are excellent enough to have gained acceptance for the Awesome Indies list. (In one case by readers who simply didn’t like the ending and confused their dislike of the story with a bad book – nah, two different things.)

The standards for inclusion on this site are high. Every review and reviewer is checked out before a book is added to this site, and every book here proves that  Indie & self published books are as good as traditionally published books. If at least one qualified reviewer didn’t think so, they wouldn’t be here. And our reviewers are people who know. Also note that not all of an author’s books are automatically added to this site. It’s on a book by book basis, because authors do improve.

Being on this list proves that a book is of the same quality as those published by a traditional publisher. They don’t have to meet traditional publisher’s ideas of what is fashionable and what will sell; nor do they have to catch the eye of the right person at the right time in order to be published, but they do have to come up to the same standard of quality.

It seems that for some people Indie books need to be twice as good as traditionally published books in order to get over their prejudice. Of course, there is some basis to the prejudice. Around 1 in 4 of the submissions for the Awesome Indies site are rejected because they don’t meet our standards, but I also read books from traditional publishers that wouldn’t make the list either. Just because some aren’t up to standard doesn’t mean that they all are.

What I ask is that people read with an open mind. Read every book with the same attitude.

  • Don’t expect something to be poor just because it’s not traditionally published or good just because it is.
  • Don’t grumble over 3 typos in an Indie book and ignore them in a traditionally published one. Seriously, even the best edited books will still have a few typos.
  • Don’t assume that if you don’t like an Indie book, it must be poorly written, or that if you like a traditionally published book that it must be well written. Quality and personal preference are two different things and even professional editors can disagree over technical details.
  • Beware of emotionally worded reviews. They are unreliable. Remember that anyone can leave a review on Amazon. They could be someone with a grudge against the writer or against Indies in general. (Yep, some see us as a threat.)
  • Don’t judge books by their cover and assume that if you don’t like a cover, it must be unprofessional. The author may have paid good money for that cover, or they may also be a visual artist themselves. If you don’t like a cover from a traditional publisher, you would never call it unprofessional..
    • I’ve seen covers called unprofessional when it appears that the reviewer is simply unfamiliar with the cover style of a genre eg fantasy covers are usually more complex than thrillers and contemporary fiction.
    • The word ‘unprofessional’ is something that is applied to something that is poorly executed and anyone looking at the cover can make that decision for themselves, so you really don’t need to mention it in your review.

And for Indie books

Be aware that it’s a global market. One of the reasons Indie books are cheap is because they do not make a different version for different countries. Therefore, Americans are sometimes going to be reading Australian and UK spelling and punctuation. These differences are not errors.

  • Words in which the Americans use a ‘z’ are spelt with an ‘s’ in other places in the world eg analyse is also spelt analyze, depending on where you live.
  • Americans remove the ‘u’ from many words than originally had a ‘u’ in them. The ‘u’ is still there in many countries. eg ‘mould’ and ‘mold’ are both correct, as is ‘humor’ and ‘humour’.

Please don’t show your ignorance by claiming that a book with cultural/national differences has spelling errors if the usage is consistent throughout the book.

 Now take one step further and be big hearted.

Try understanding the difficulties Indie authors face and acknowledge their important contribution to diversity for readers and the development of new forms of literature. With this understanding, try helping those just starting out to improve, rather than slamming them. They are developing a business from scratch and often with little money. (Cirque du Solei started out on the street.) Don’t assume that their attitude is unprofessional just because you found a mistake. Mistakes can be corrected. Covers can be redone. Books can be re-edited, but a unique voice, once lost, is likely lost forever.

Be honest, but also be kind . . . to everyone.

Do you give Indies a fair go?

Do you think that some people are harsher on Indie published books than on traditionally published books?

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Awesome Indies Picks Win Big in the 2012 Indie Book Awards!

Posted on June 4, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The 2012 Indie Book Awards were announced recently, and we at Awesome Indies were thrilled to learn that a couple of our favorite picks here at the site were also recognized in the awards. Pavarti K. Tyler, now a reviewer here at AI, was the winner of the General Fiction/Under 80K words category with her novel, SHADOW ON THE WALL, SandStorm Chronicles #1, which is a featured AI pick in the category of Magical Realism. Emlyn Chand won in the Best Multi-Cultural category for her novel, FARSIGHTED, featured here in AI’s YA — Urban/Paranormal Fantasy category.

Tyler’s SHADOW ON THE WALL was just released in April of this year, and is already garnering critical praise. The novel tells the story of Recai Osman, a Turkish Muslim working to overcome his own demons as he searches for the strength to answer Allah’s call in the quest to become “The Sandstorm” — a Superhero whose mission is to affect change in his home city of Elih and beyond.

Chand’s immensely popular FARSIGHTED was published in October of 2011, and consistently ranks in the top fifty in its categories in the Amazon bestsellers’ listings. It tells the story of Alex Kosmitoras, a blind high school student who befriends Simmi, the new girl in town hailing all the way from India. Her arrival just happens to coincide with Alex’s sudden ability to see into the future.

We at Awesome Indies wish both authors our heartiest congratulations for their well-deserved wins. Be sure to check out both Pavarti and Emlyn’s novels, and peruse our site to find other quality indie reads in a multitude of genres!

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Awesome Indie Book a finalist in the 22nd Annual Midwest Book Awards

Posted on May 27, 2012 by | Leave a comment

BOOK OF MERCY FINALIST IN 2012 MIDWEST BOOK AWARDS


Book of Mercy, published by Osmyrrah Publishing, was a finalist in the 22nd Annual Midwest Book Awards, which were announced on May 9 in Bloomington, MN. Publishers from 12 Midwestern states submitted 362 entries in 50 categories in this year’s competition. The Midwest Book Awards are sponsored by the Midwest Independent Publishers Association.

Recognized in the literary fiction category, Book of Mercy by Sherry Roberts is a funny novel about a serious issue: censorship. It’s set in the fictitious small town of Mercy, North Carolina, where a group of influential women–the Mercy Study Club–decide to remove “undesirable” books from the school library. One woman stands up to them, even though she can’t read. Antigone Brown learns, that when it comes to being a parent, there’s more worth fighting for than you can ever imagine.

Author Sherry Roberts has worked in newspapers and magazines in Missouri, Vermont, and North Carolina. She wrote for several years for USA Today and is the author of another novel, Maud’s House.

Book of Mercy is available in paperback and eBook on Amazon
and from Osmyrrah Publishing.

Sherry’s novels combine humor and unforgettable characters as they explore issues of the day. The brand new Book of Mercy features a mother-to-be who wages a battle against censorship in her town. Maud’s House explores what happens when a small Vermont town losses its creativity.
Follow Sherry on Twitter or Facebook

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How do you define Indie published?

Posted on April 28, 2012 by | 11 Comments

On the 17th April, I posted an article about the six kinds of Indie published books. It raised some very interesting comments and ended up being a discussion of what constituted Indie publishing. I thought it better if we continued that discussion in a separate forum, so here it is. I’ve cppied the most pertinent comments here so you can see what’s already been raised. What we want to know is how you would define Indie publishing. Bear in mind that Indie is short for Independent, so we must ask ourselves, independent of what.

The discussion began with this comment by Nicola Slade.

I think I belong in yet another category, that of an author published by mainstream publishers who are actually Independent, ie family-owned like Robert Hale Ltd and the late Transita Ltd. There are plenty of independent small presses too.

This raises the issue of what constitutes Indie. I had this discussion with Andrew Jute and we decided that if you consider yourself Indie then you probably are. Many of us have seet up our own publishing companies, me included, mine is family run too but it only publishes my works. Indie to me means self published or Independant publishing where the author has a vested interest in the company

If you think you’re Indie, you are. Small publishers as well as self-publishers fit, at least in my definition. The Big 6 (including all of their imprints) and some of the largest houses that aren’t Big 6 (Harlequin, for example), clearly aren’t, and no author signed to any of those would consider themselves to be indie. – Booksandpals

The author has to have a stake in the business though. There are a lot of smaller publishers around that you can’t call Indie eg Carina Press. The tricky area is when something set up to publish one author’s book starts publishing others and authors have to go through the same sort of submission process. Then we have to ask, how much control does that author have over their final product and what is their relationship to the company.

Wait, are you saying that you don’t think an independent, small press that operates like a traditional/large publisher (i.e. the authors have minimal control and no ownership interest) is NOT an “indie” press? Certainly, “indie” presses that are simply an imprint/arm of a large, tradtional publisher (like Carina) fall in a “whole ‘nother’ category. LOL, this definately captures the problem of putting labels on things and of being clear when we define our terms. I just recently completed a ten part interview/guest blog post on the distinctions between tradtiional, indie, and self-publishing and my conclusion is that all these various options are a spectrum not seperate and distinct entities.  Terri Bruce

Definitely a spectrum. See why Andrew said that if you think you’re Indie you’re Indie. That’s how I’m operating this at the moment. Mind you, as the Indie movement builds a positive reputation, we may have people saying they’re Indie just to get on the support wagon, so some sort of guidelines might be helpful for everyone.

I do think the distinction needs to be made between a small press and an author run press. My concept of Indie is an author publishing independantly of a traditionally run publishing house. Size isn’t what it’s about. There are new models arising where the author retains control of their work and those are the real Indie publishers eg Evolved Publishing. Even though they have a submission process, they are based on the idea of authors helping authors.

Perhaps in the end, it’s about values, not business models.

What do you think? Take it away folks.

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The six kinds of Indie published books

Posted on April 17, 2012 by | 33 Comments

It seems to me that there are six kinds of Indie Published books. Out of these six, only the last fits the idea that many people have that Indie books are of inferior quality. The number of books in the first five categories are growing, and I believe that the numbers of books in the last category will shrink as it becomes clear that readers won’t pay for poorly written books, especially as more blogsites appear that list ones of quality.

Previously published authors’ backlists – you’ll find no surprises here. These books are exactly the same as what you’ll find in any bookstore. They were on the bookshelves years ago, but not now. The copyright has returned to the authors, so they’re putting them back in the market. They usually have an established reader base and many of their more recently acquired fans haven’t read their older books, so they’re snapping them up. Many of these authors are earning more than they ever did with the traditional system, and as other authors realise the viability of going Indie, the number of books in this category will grow.

Agented authors books – these authors’ work is good enough to get an agent, but the agent didn’t score a publishing deal. Sometimes the author got sick of trying; sometimes they ran out of options and sometimes they just decided that going Indie was a better deal in the long run. A traditional publisher would most likely have published such books 5 or more years ago – agents only take books they think are good enough to sell – but they missed out because of the shrinking traditional publishing industry. Sometimes this is simply because they didn’t find the right publisher at the right time; sometimes it’s because they are a little different from the present fashion in the genre. For example, traditional publishers are favoring dark, brutal, often depressing stories for young adults. If you want something without that flavour, you’re likely to find it in Indie published books.

Mainstream books by skilled authors who have decided against the traditional route – These books are similar to books produced by major publishers. They fit the genre and the fashion of the day and are professionally produced. The author has simply chosen Indie publishing because it suits them to take control of their own work.

Books that are too short for traditional publishers to consider – in this category, we have novellas, novelettes and short story collections. Electronic books give authors the freedom to write stories to their natural length. They don’t have to pad something out to an acceptable length to make it salable in paperback. Shorter works work well on ereaders because they are so easy to carry around. You can read a short story while waiting for the doctor and you can read a novella while the rest of the family watch a b-grade movie on TV. There’s a lot of excellent books in this category, in fact all the short Indie fiction I’ve read has been excellent.

Quality books that are different / alternative /outside the box –Books in this category are of a professional standard but are too different for a traditional publisher to risk taking on. Big publishers have to feel sure that they can sell a book to large enough numbers of readers to pay their huge overheads and make a profit. That means that they are limited to the demands of the present market as they perceive them to be. This is the most exciting category, because this is where you’ll find the real alternative to the mainstream. This is where new trends will emerge, where you’ll find talented new authors and books for niche markets or that break new ground.

Books by unskilled authors without the skills to be published any other way – these books languish in the free or 99c categories of ebook – the good ones are usually only there for a short time, or they’re the first in a series, or a short work as a sample of an author’s work. You can avoid poor quality books by choosing titles from the Awesome Indies listing. As time goes on, these authors will either improve or give up. There are excellent books in the free and 99c bins, (especially the short ones) but don’t expect them all to be good and you won’t be disappointed.

The last category is the one that gives Indie publishing a bad name, but the important thing to understand is that they are only one category of what you’ll find in Indie published books. Don’t let a few poor experiences turn you off the whole scene, it’s called throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Does this sound like a reasonable categorization to you? have I missed anything?

Written by Tahlia Newland. If you enjoyed this blog post and would like to read more, you can subscribe to new content delivered by email or RSS feed (see the buttons on the right side bar). You can also follow me on Facebook and/or on Twitter.

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