Indie Book Collective discussion
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The "Why" of IndieReader
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wow...what a great idea, and an excellent, professional-looking site! I will be following IndieReader with interest. Thank you, Amy!
Amy, just going to your site now. I wanted to say how generous and far sighted of you to promote indies when you have been traditionally published.
Great looking site. The awards opportunity is definitely worth considering.
Thx. Pls let me know if you have any questions!
I agree, this site is professional and well-executed. I recently submitted my book for a review and would love it if it was selected. I would sign up for the 2012 IndieReader Discovery award, but find the fee out of my price range, so unfortunately I'll have to pass. Which is too bad (for me), as the contest is judged by some heavy hitters in the publishing world and will no doubt launch some careers.
There is a 30% discount available. Does that help?
Why?
Although my day job was doing PR for consumer companies (think Hanes and M&Ms), I was lucky enough to have had two books traditionally published, as well as having self-pubbed one on my own. I had experienced both sides of the equation, so when I read two stories—one in The New York Times and one in Time magazine—about the rise of self-publishing, it got my interest.
Thinking there must be a website that featured news about great indie books and authors, I rushed to my computer only to find that it didn’t exist. But the more I read about the publishing industry, the more convinced I became that indies’ time had come. But I also came to see—as an author—that self-published writers were getting an unfair shake. As a long-time publicist, I felt that I could help.
I had recently celebrated a big birthday and felt the need for a new challenge. Helping other writers like myself seemed like a good place to start. Shortly thereafter, with money I made from my PR work, IndieReader was born.
My main goal was—and still remains—to help create a more equal playing field for indie authors. Not because of some charitable impulse. But because I've read a lot of great self-published books (and as many lousy traditionally published ones!) and believe that it's unfair to label an entire category of books "crap" just because they don't have what some believe is a sanctioned imprint.
I know (because I’ve personally been there) how hard it is to juggle writing and promoting and making it all work financially. That’s why IndieReader created “The List Where Indies Count”—the first-ever self-published bestseller list. IR offers professional book reviews and author interviews. We created IndieReader Selects, a unique distribution service that puts indie books onto indie bookstores nationwide. And after almost three years implementing new ideas to help promote and gain respect for indie authors, we created the IndieReader Discovery Awards.
Unlike other awards we’ve created something that directly addresses what you’ve told us is one of your biggest challenges: how to get your work discovered by readers, agents and publishers. To that end, we’ve recruited an incredible panel of judges—from top agents and name publishers to PR people and reviewers—who will personally read your work because they believe, just as we do, that there’s talent to be found. And because we know that you work hard for your money, we guarantee that every book entered into the IRDAs will receive a professional IR review, regardless of whether they win or not.
IndieReader was launched to help you get your story out into the world. And what’s more, you don’t have to take my word for it; you can actually see what we’ve done—and what we continue to do—right up there on our website.
http://indiereader.com/the-indiereade...