A cool way to find new books

[Jefferson]

I've tried several times in the past to get into indie fiction — self-published, micro-published, etc. But the problem for me was that too many of them were absolute crap. So this past summer, I decided to try an experiment that would at least give me some value back for the time I was spending on those books - even the weak ones. And that's where the ImmerseOrDie review series was born. Every morning, I get on my treadmill, open a new indie book, and start my daily walk. If the story holds my attention for the full 40 minutes, it survives. Simple as that. But if bad grammar, poor editing, unbelievable actions, or any of the other hallmarks of weak writing trip me up enough to pull me out of the story, I make a note. And when I have 3 such notes, I close the book, stop the clock, and write a report on what went wrong.

So far, I have put 147 indie books to my treadmill test — 3/4 of which have been fantasy — but only 16 of them have survived. Ouch. But on the plus side, those 16 books are really strong, and 12 of them I would stack up against anything coming out of traditional publishing houses. There really are some diamonds in the swamp. So if you'd like to see the cream of the indie crop as I find them, you can seem my daily reports here on my GR stream, or on the web site. Or if you'd rather just see a list of the winners, you'll find that here.

And what's the value I've been getting out of all this? Well, I've finally found a way to make reading an aerobic activity.:-)

[Jeff]

I've found indie books to be a nice detour off the normal tropes of fiction. Big publishers tend to publish only "whats hot". So we get 50 types of female monster hunter/vampire boyfriend/Ghost investigators.

I'm a lot more forgiving a reader then you probably are. Also sometimes I want just a trashy action story or alien invasion story. I don't always need something deep to read. For the $1-$2 these folks usually ask, I feel ok with giving them a try. A lot of indie writers will offer the 1st book free, or get them into a big collection for a $1 on amazon. I found a couple good zombie authors in a collection like that.

One of my favorite stories (The Scourge) was some indie book I grabbed on a lark and I loved the setting and story, got to chat with the author and got to beta read one of his books. It was a great experience I would never have had if I didn't give some indies a chance.

[Lára]

Interesting, but I have another way of finding new books to read. I still think peek-a-boo or randomly picking a book is the best way to find a new read, however unreliable it might be.

To be honest, I really don´t pay any attention about the genre the book has been put into, so I just grab whatever suits my mood - that´s mostly considered a failure, since I prefer books that completely go agains me, but can still win my attention ^^ (be it just a single coloured book with no description, super interesting summary or whatever) - I always read a sample (if available) and I actually carry a mental (always a written but rarely a read one) list of books I want to read with me whenever I enter a library or bookstore.

Since I generally have so little books I want to read, I´m almost always able to find something that´s a bit rebellious and against my mood. Let´s just say that entering library or bookstore has a potential to win me. It´s not always successful though.

I´m not much of an kindle/comp/whatever electronic reader, so I confine myself to what´s physically available and I´m rarely let down