My Favourite Indie Authors

         Recently I was given the opportunity to get my hands on a large quantity of books of my choice, a readers dream! Where did I turn? Amazon. "Why Amazon?" you might ask, "Why not Chapters? or Barns and Noble?".  Well its pretty simple, the big book stores don't have a good chunk of my favourite novels... but Amazon does. Amazon is teaming with indie authors that I think write books with terrible covers and no advertisement, but that have so much heart and quality in their stories.

          Let's start with the hard stuff, what is difficult about reading Indie books. Weeeeeeeellllll, I'm just gonna say it, we are all thinking it: Indie covers are BUTT-UGLY 90% of the time. It gets really hard to want to own or read a book that makes you cringe while looking at the horribly photoshopped uncanny valley covers (which is because cover design is expensive, so don't get me wrong, I say this critique understanding the limitations indie authors experiance). People are visual by nature and books with ugly covers will rarely find an audience willing to give it a chance. Another rough thing about indie books is that there is absolutely no quality control. They physically can be fairly bad quality but that's not what I'm taking about, writing wise, you cannot be sure what you'll be getting with and indie book. It could be absolute trash with grammar errors and absolutely no plot, and you won't have a clue ti'll you've purchased and started reading it; which makes it very hard to trust indie books. It is safer to look at books that have been vetted and edited for formal publishing. 

           Now on the flip side, it's time to compliment indie books. Firstly,  just like there is no quality control without a publisher, there are also the MAJOR benefits of not having a formal publisher involved. Publishers can be greedy, shallow and shortsighted. They tend to publish based on perceived "trends" and have a history of turning away some of the best stories out there; for an example of this think about how many gosh-darn publishers rejected the world wide phenomenon of Harry Potter. Looking for books outside of the formal publication sphere can let you find some of the ABSOLUTELY MOST CREATIVE AND ADDICTIVE BOOKS YOU WILL EVER FIND ANYWHERE! Not only is the indie ecosystem massive, allowing for more natural talent to be discovered organically and for healthy competition, but it also allows the diamond in the rough authors to shine without the interference of a publishers demands and dumb additions/removals (which rarely ever actually improve the book). I love when a naturally talented author is just let to do their own thing, because that always makes the best stories ever. I can't even begin to gush about how incredibly addicting I find some of the indie books I've read. Another bonus is that indie authors are down to earth, and you can often actually interact with them online. They are super kind and tend to foster great literary communities that just mutually love books, unlike the stale facebook pages of publishing companies. Anyway, I've ranted long enough, now to gush about the books I got!

        I decided to take this opportunity and purchase the physical books from my all time favourite indie authors and show them some love for writing stories that I am ADDICTED to. 

I finally took the leap and got the whole seven book series of the Walker Saga! It is presently my favourite YA series, so I AM PUMPED! I also ordered the last two books in the Dragon Marked Series (I already own book one), since I really loved it.

I have been hooked on the Quinn Loftis Prince of Wolves series since middle school, and I still love the classic soul mates werewolf books. I ordered the all 11 books, and I got the 2 books in her Viking based series, since I have read and liked the first one (I reviewed an ARC of it), and want to give book 2nd a chance.

I got 3 of my favourite (that were available to purchase and in stock) Kelly Oram books. She is the only contemporary author that I like, her stuff is fantastic (quirky, but fantastic). I also got Remember Jamie Baker, the third instalment of the Jamie Baker series, and it will finally finish off my collection (something that is very long overdue).

This one is an oldie but a goodie. I got the 5 book series by Starla Huchton of her fairytale retellings. I have only read the first 2, years ago, but I loved them so much and I love fairytale retellings so I chose to get this series. I also read a few other Starla Huchton books and they are also good, and she is a good author from my experience, so the risk seemed worth it to me.

I have already read and reviewed Farah's 2 books, really liked them, and felt that she was worth supporting, this one its just as simple as that. I think The Last of the Firedrakes is worth a look to those who haven't heard of it before.

I got the last two books in the Curse of the Sphinx series, already owning book one and two. This will complete my collection. I really loved the way Raye presents mythology, and the sphinx is a rarely touched topic.

So this one has a story. Joss Stirling both is and isnt an indie author. She used to be published, but recently has become independent. This book, Flare is the third/final book in her independent series, which will complete my set (which is quite extensive). I really love her writing and both her published and indie books are worth a read. 

This one is a weird one, one of the only Chrissy Peebles books I've read, I loved it. It was quirky and had a spicy romance. Not much else to say about it.

I chose to get Fate's Fables by T. Rae Mitchell because I found its take on story hopping and fables/fairy tales to be really unique and interesting. I thought I'd add it to my collection.