Why Read Indie Books?

(from indie-book-bargains.co.uk
by Kath Middleton)


When I first got my Kindle a couple of years ago, I picked up a few Indie books from the Amazon forum. They didn’t cost the earth so it didn’t matter too much if I didn’t get on with them. A few, of course, I didn’t get on with. The rest have enriched my life immeasurably.

Writing is, at its most basic, a means of communication. Most Indie authors seem to write because they can’t help it. Many
have written for years, without the means to put their work before readers. There are ferocious gatekeepers to the publishing world. A book must appeal to a mass audience. It must have the potential to be a best seller, to justify the costs of publishing, editing, proofing, printing, advertising and distribution. It must have a clear, single genre so the book stores know on which shelf it should be displayed.

Although writing a best seller must be an Indie dream, most are happy that people are now able to read their work and, for
preference, enjoy it and tell others about it. Because these books haven’t had to please an editor and be chopped and re-written to a formula, they reveal the true interests and merits of the author. A good book fires and arrow straight from the author's soul into the readers. With a self-published e-Book, it is really the author’s soul you are connecting with. The sense of humour, the interests, the personal peculiarities of each writer are manifest in the stories they write and it’s a delight to meet them. It’s true communication when there’s nothing but a Kindle between the author’s thoughts and the reader’s eyes.

I have read many an Indie book which I chose either from a recommendation or from an intriguing promotion or product description, which I would be hard put to categorize. If I have to use more than two words to try to give it a genre, it’s a real Indie-mix that is a compliment! To fire up a reader, you have to write what you love. If you just write what your editor or publisher tells you will sell, that might please the publishing industry, but that fire won’t be there which can ignite the dry tinder of the jaded reader’s soul. Blimey, I love a good story, told by someone who is passionate about it. If the author’s not excited by the book, I’m sure I won't be.


Kath Middleton.
'Ignite’
ignitebooks.blogspot.co.uk

Kath is a keen reader and passionate supporter of Indie books. If you visit her blog you will see just how passionate!

In 2012, she edited the UK Amazon Kindle Forum anthology ‘A Splendid Salmagundi’.


*Blogger's note: I cannot believe this is twice today I have seen an article by an author I am familiar with. Kath writes drabbles with Jonathan Hill who you know I have reviewed and interviewed). I have not spoken to her but I feel like I know her.