Hi,
New poster and Kindle 3 owner here. I haven't read an indie book yet, but I have one on my to read list (by Gregg Taylor, I've been listening to the Decoder Ring Theatre podcast for six months now). I'm just curious about everyone's thoughts here regarding indie e-books.
I'm a voracious reader and I'm very open to reading indie authors, but I haven't found any other indie authors I've placed on my to-read list because I haven't:
(1) Gotten a recommendation from a friend whose taste I like (which is how I got into the Decoder Ring Theatre)
(2) Found an indie book with a description + cover in a format that's accessible enough for me to sample it.
It all seems pretty trivial, but as a reader, I want to spend more time reading books than looking for books. It's pretty overwhelming looking at the sea of indie e-books out there. I'm sure there's gold out there for me, but I just don't want to sort through them all!
So here's my personal wishlist for indie e-books:
(1) A rise in niche e-book websites that in a way, vets the authors for me.
I like Smashwords as much as the next person, but everyone's on it! I want a nice professional-looking website, at minimum looks as nice as ManyBooks.net, with covers and reviews on it with easily downloadable samples. I want a relevant portal to which I can find indie authors that I like, rather than navigating through general-purpose forums... but it sometimes feels like those forums just have indie authors promoting their works to each other instead of finding that relevant audience.
(2) In the same vein, nice professional looking e-magazines that's actually formatted for the e-book readers that feature short stories from indie writers.
I'm willing to take more risks with a collection of short stories by different authors, versus purchasing one book by an author. There's actually an indie Canadian science fiction magazine that I thoroughly enjoy and desperately want a Kindle version of (On Spec), but it's not available for my device. I have unmet consumer demand! (P.S. If you have recommendations for Canadian scifi for the Kindle, feel free to reply and recommend away!)
It's totally psychological, but I'm more willing to pay a higher price for an indie book that I found out through a third party, and less if i found it through a direct forum or blog post by the author. The first contact with how the work is presented to me sets my expectations. It's like a restaurant. You may be facing the same plate of food, but you're willing to pay more if there's candles, a tablecloth, and people speaking in hushed voices.
What do you folks think? Readers? Indie writers? Do these nicely presented third party websites that cater to a niche already exist and I'm just missing out? I'm open to being enlightened
