What Self-Published Stories Have You Read?

[Stuart Dren]

I'm not really counting books from other forum members, because the discovery vector for those is crystalline.

It occurred to me that I think a lot more about presenting an indie book than finding one. Are we the kinds of people that find them, community notwithstanding?

Edit: I'm struggling to think of any that I haven't learned about on writing forums.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Occasionally I buy a self-published book from a friend or acquaintance, but that's about all.

 

[defaux]

I'm afraid I get the majority of reading material from the library, or sometimes the Kobo store. It's hard to push past the "top whatevers" lists and harder to identify where one might even find indie work of substantial quality - beyond personal recommendation, which comes (for me) primarily from folks on these here forums, thus disqualifying them from the topic at hand.

I'd be interested to find a listing of such works, though. A goodreads, or some reliable reviews of self published titles that aren't pure clickbait.

 

[Set2Stun]

Recently I have scooped up some ebooks from some experienced self-pubbers I've met on Twitter and read a couple of 'em. And they're quite good!

There's a lot of crap out there with no gatekeepers of course, but it's not too difficult for decent writers to filter out the crap from the quality of the blurb and opening pages.

Happy Indie April to all of us who have self-published a book !

 

[JT Woody]

(My library, at least), i've been noticing a number of self published books coming in every so often.
After publishing my own, i've noticed some tells that something has been produced with KDP that arent in trad pubbed books. For example, the last page has the date the copy was printed, and a tiny QR code.
Also, the size of a book (cover, text, margins).
I guess, ive handled enough books to notice these little details.... but i'd never would have paid attention to if i hadnt gone through the self pub process myself.

When i see these things, i look up the book and author to see. They are either self published or have been published by a very small independent press.
(There are 6 on the newbook shelf right now at my library from what i can see)

Im sure ive read a number of them before i paid attention to it.

 

[JT Woody]

Ooh wait!!
I distinctly remember a certain series i read a while back by an amazon self pubbed author. A kind of series where you hide the cover so people dont know what freaky shit you're reading, haha!

That series has suddenly found its niche and the author has gotten picked up by an agent and a Big 5 piblisher who are now republishing the entire series.... with sweet, unassuming covers

 

[Stuart Dren]

Ooh wait!!
I distinctly remember a certain series i read a while back by an amazon self pubbed author. A kind of series where you hide the cover so people dont know what freaky shit you're reading, haha!

That series has suddenly found its niche and the author has gotten picked up by an agent and a Big 5 piblisher who are now republishing the entire series.... with sweet, unassuming covers

Haha. That's the kind of thing that immediately came to my mind as types of self-published stories that other people would be more naturally aware of.

Recently I have scooped up some ebooks from some experienced self-pubbers I've met on Twitter and read a couple of 'em. And they're quite good!

There's a lot of crap out there with no gatekeepers of course, but it's not too difficult for decent writers to filter out the crap from the quality of the blurb and opening pages.

Yeah there were some Youtuber books I checked out but didn't pass the sniff test. I usually check the opening too, in case they're just not great at writing blurbs.

 

[Stuart Dren]

(My library, at least), i've been noticing a number of self published books coming in every so often.
After publishing my own, i've noticed some tells that something has been produced with KDP that arent in trad pubbed books. For example, the last page has the date the copy was printed, and a tiny QR code.
Also, the size of a book (cover, text, margins).
I guess, ive handled enough books to notice these little details.... but i'd never would have paid attention to if i hadnt gone through the self pub process myself.

When i see these things, i look up the book and author to see. They are either self published or have been published by a very small independent press.
(There are 6 on the newbook shelf right now at my library from what i can see)

Any trend in genre for what you see coming in that's self published?