When it comes to reading romance, we all know the more books, the better. We are a voracious set of readers who are always seeking the next story that will give us that same high. However, a lot of readers struggle to find authors beyond the “bestsellers” promoted by the traditional publishing machine.
With that in mind, I’ve rounded up five easy ways for the average reader to find romance authors who either self-publish or are published through small, independent presses.
What is an indie romance author?
The term “indie author” usually refers to an author who self-published their title, or published through so small an independent press that the author does the bulk of the marketing themselves.
When you self-publish your books (like I do), you accept all the risk of the business of your book on your own shoulders. You invest your own time in writing, editing, and perfecting the “product” (aka, the romance novel). You make all the decisions about the “packaging” (aka, the cover, the formats, and layout design). You manage all the retail relationships (aka, publishing to sites like Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, etc.). You’re also in charge of the marketing (aka, writing the blurb, sending out press releases, running ad campaigns, participating in award competitions, entering events, etc.)
An independent press will take on a few of these burdens, such as the packaging and the retail relationships, without having the resources of a traditional publisher to manage everything besides the writing and basic marketing.
Why look for indie authors?
Indie authors are a treasure trove of stories for romance readers. Ever since the advent of self-publishing ebooks via Amazon and other retailers, authors have been able to share their stories without having to wait years for a publisher to decide to take a risk on their writing.
That means that indie authors are telling stories that push more boundaries than traditional publishing. For marginalized communities, there are more #ownvoice romances. There are more non-heteronormative romances, or romances between hetero characters that question marriage as the happily ever after.
There are also indie authors writing romances that follow the traditional formula - only, they’re doing it so much faster than if they had to be on a publisher’s schedule! That’s great news for readers who are always looking for the next book in a series.
Why is it hard to find indie romance authors?
Most people aren’t aware of how they find out about books. They see the title on their #bookstagram feed a hundred times, or they hear about it in a radio story, or all their friends are telling them to read it.
The thing is that many of those channels are powered by the traditional publishing machine, which invests a lot of money into getting their books to the front of bookshelves at stores and into the hands of influencers.
And that’s great! But if you want to seek out stories from indie authors, you might need to do a little more digging. So, without further ado, here are the five ways I recommend discovering indie romance authors for your to-be-read list!
5 Ways to Find Indie Romance Authors
Follow specific hashtags on social media
For those of you on social media, the indie authors are probably out there, hoping to land on your feed!
Check out hashtags like:
#indiewriters
#indieauthor
#indiebooks
#indiepublished
#selfpublished
#selfpublishedauthor
#selfpublishbehappy
#selfpublishingauthor
#selfpublishing
#selfpublisher
#indieauthorsunited
#indieauthorsbeseen
The great thing about this method is it costs nothing (except a few seconds of time) for either your or the author!
Subscribe to authors you like
Another great (and free) way to discover more authors is to follow the ones that you like! Like their Facebook pages, follow them on Instagram or Twitter, and subscribe to their newsletters. We authors love to promote our friends, no matter how they are published.
For example, many authors save spots in their monthly newsletters to spotlight other authors. Often, those spotlights are on titles that are free or at a steep discount, so you discover a new indie author and get a deal in one fell swoop!
“You May Also Like” retailer suggestions
When you buy a romance ebook, pay attention to what the retailer suggests as similar titles. Sometimes these recommendations come from a retailer algorithm that takes into consideration the publication method. Other times, like on Amazon, publishers and authors can pay to show up in those recommendations based on title and author keywords.
Either way, you’re likely to discover authors you’ve never heard of by browsing the retailer’s suggestions.
Note: not all indie authors can afford pay-to-play in ads!
Freebie and Promo Emails
Since self-published authors own the rights to our books, we can choose when to set them free and when to discount them. Many times, we offer “freebies” or discount titles to $0.99 and promote the heck out of them on:
It’s free for you as a reader to subscribe to these email services, so that every day you get a new batch of deals landing in your inbox. Most of them will be indie romances!
Note: None of these services are free for authors, so not all indie authors can afford to participate!
Awards Finalists
If you like to know what other people think about a book before trying it out yourself, check out the finalist lists of awards programs for “vetted” indie romance novels.
Each award program is judged differently, so it’s worth reading their goals to make sure you know how the novels were evaluated. That said, you can review the finalists knowing that a panel of readers were involved in making the selections.
Here are a few indie awards programs with romance categories to get you started:
*Humble brag: my indie historical romance novels have placed as finalists in these awards!
Note: awards programs generally require entrance fees that can range from $20 to more than $100, so these lists are representative of indie authors who can afford to and choose to enter, not all indie romances that are out there.
Some Indie Romance Authors to Get You Started
Now you know why it is important to seek out self-published romance authors and how to find them. To get you started, here are some of the indie romance authors on my radar!