If you’re on this post you are desperate to find out where to find indie books, and I’m here to give you all the details plus a few of the best ways to help out your favorite indie authors.
There are many different reasons why and author would choose to go indie, be it the control they keep over their schedule and stories, or the lack or representation in traditional publishing. Indie authors are out here doing every single part of publishing process on their own.
For me personally; I write, edit, publish, market, and create most of everything on my own, or with the help of my amazing husband. The fact is I don’t have big marketing teams or editors to keep me going, and while that seems like a lot, the fact is, I prefer it this way. I chose being an indie author because I want control over it all. My schedule, my creativity, and my stories 100% belong to me.
The downside to being an indie author is it can be difficult to get a large readership. However, I’m hoping this post will help.
That’s the whole purpose of this blog, right? I’m out here reading and recommending books I love by mostly indie authors, because as an indie author, I know we can use all the help we can get. So whether you are an indie author yourself, looking for places to submit your books, or a reader wanting to see what you’re missing out on, I’ve got all sorts of information here.
Find Indie Books
Finding indie authors to read isn’t as difficult as it can seem, especially once you know where to look. While my first few suggestions are websites specifically geared toward indies, there are a few sneaky ways you can find new books within your day to day scrolling and scanning of recommended books.
Indie Book Directory
First up is the Indie Book Directory. What started off as a simple post on Threads to find new authors, turned into a full fledged directory with over 1500 entries and growing every single day.
You can search by genre, tropes, author, or title and you can filter by genre as well. When that mood reading kicks in, you are sure to find something directly up your alley too.
In fact, right now, Indie Book Directory is hosting an eBook giveaway on their Instagram, and with a little bit of shameless self promo here, my entire completed series is in the giveaway. So you’ll want to check that out.
You can also follow them on Threads, Instagram, and Tik Tok too.
Left Unread Books
I’ve been following Michael LaBorn for a while now, paying attention to the amazing work he’s doing for the community. If you’ve been paying attention to the publishing industry for any amount of time, you know that there are huge barriers put in place that prevent black and brown voices from being heard. Michael is working to disrupt and dismantle those systems.
He is constantly putting together information, getting black and brown indie authors noticed, and putting in a whole hell of a lot a work into supporting books and authors who are writing – fiction and non – about those systems and taking them down.
The work he does is extremely important and I highly recommend scrolling through his list of books to find those that interest you. He has everything from non-fiction, to fantasy, and even some dark romance, so I’m positive you’ll find something within your preferred genre.
I also recommend following Michael LaBorn on Threads, Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, and subscribing to his Bindery.
IndieBookStack
While still new, Indie Book Stack looks like a promising new list to find Indie Authors in your favorite genres. They have the ability to search for books in genre, search for new authors, and their Substack has information regarding giveaways, sales, arcs, and more.
Additionally, they have a podcast so you can listen to interviews with indie authors and hear about their books, processes, and find out more information.
If you are looking to support Indie Authors this is a great place to start.
Social Media
Social media plays a huge role in an indie authors career. Following, commenting, sharing, and even liking posts can go a long way to helping an indie author. But more than that, it’s one of the best ways to find and interact with your new favorite author.
Threads
I have found so many new indie authors on Threads, far more than I ever did on any other platform, mainly because it’s still so new and the monetization and enshittification of the platform hasn’t happened yet.
Indie author, indie books, and any other book related topic, will have your feed flooded with all sorts of new suggestions. You’ll be finding your latest indie book obsession so fast your head may spin. Furthermore, the community is fantastic, constantly reposting each other and commenting giving us a real sense of connection that I particularly enjoy.
Bookstagram
The OG, however, Instagram comes with a downside. Unlike Threads where Indie Authors will pop up on your feed the moment the algorithm realizes you like the topic, Bookstagram is not so great at that. You’ll need to seek out new Indies to follow.
However, with the addition of the recent repost feature on Instagram, it’s getting easier to find new indies. The people I follow are great about reposting other people they follow and support, making it easier to find new and interesting books to read.
Booktok
The book community really took off on TikTok with BookTok, at least for those of us who read romance though not at all exclusive to romance. It’s so easy to find new authors or new books to check out and is part of the reason why so many authors have found success.
While still extremely active, recent changes in the algorithm are drastically affecting what we are getting on our FYP’s. I don’t honestly know how much longer the book community has on TikTok’s platform, but for now I still recommend it.
BookTube
I’ve recently found my way onto the BookTube side of YouTube, and while for the most part I’m seeing a lot of traditionally published books, more and more indies are being spotlighted. It’s at least worth giving a glance to every now and then to see what you might find.
BookSky
Bluesky is another fantastic platform for indies, though I don’t think we’ve yet found our footing there as it’s still growing. The things I love most about Bluesky have to deal with the different feeds you can create or have already been created that you can follow. These feeds help you to find a whole slew of new authors and books to read.
The downfall, as of right now, is the lack of interaction on those posts. I’d like to see it become more than an endless scroll of promotion and micro-blogging and see more of a community being built on the platform.
Goodreads
I know there are loads of review sites that heavily feature indie authors, unfortunately there has been a bit of controversy surrounding a few of them, which brings me back to Goodreads. The platform has needed major updating for years, and all we have seemed to gotten is a slightly different logo, which was disappointing.
However, there are still lists, discussions, and recommendations that are being made on the platform every single day for indie authors. So while it has problems, like some of the other review sites, it still remains a powerhouse in the book community for finding new authors to follow and books to read.
Amazon KU
An insanely large number of Indie Authors are actually on Kindle Unlimited, and while there are a few traditionally published authors, I would say the majority of KU is self published. So any time you look through the recommendations on KU, you are likely going to find new to you authors to read. And honestly, those suggestions are often really good. At least in my experience.
Though be aware, you will need to work with your KU a bit to make sure you are getting the exact recs you want. They often favor authors with over fifty reviews, but I have found a few smaller authors that I really enjoyed with some heavy searching and filters.
How to Support Indie Authors
With all of these great ways to seek out indie authors, you might be asking yourself how you can help an indie get seen on algorithms, in feeds, and in recommendations. Well, I have a couple of low effort options for you, and they are free. I only hope that you take the time to do these with your favorite indies, because it takes a few minutes for you but means everything to us.
Reviews
Please, please, please leave us reviews. Reviews are the absolute best way to help us gain new readers. Even if it’s a simple, “I absolutely loved this book,” it means everything. Leaving reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, or your favorite book review site, helps others find us more easily.
Sharing
Share your own posts, our posts, someone else’s post, just keep sharing. Readers are more likely to pick up a book if another reader recommended it than they would by seeing our marketing posts.
Sharing your thoughts, adding our books to recommendation posts, even a 5 second “Go read this book now!” post can help us grow our readership. And we greatly appreciate when any reader does this.
Interacting
Interacting on our posts also helps the algorithms to spread our content. Especially if you only typically interact on bookish related posts. By reposting, commenting, and liking our posts the platform takes a good look at that and says “Oh, more people like this user will like this,” and shoves it out to other users like you.
Read Indie Authors
Being an indie author is a lot of hard work, but it’s thanks to readers like you who help us find our readerships and grow. Every reader who talks about our books sets us up for more people to give our books a try.
Keep reading, keep sharing, keep reviewing, and know that we appreciate the hell out of you!
And if you have any suggestions to find indie books, please leave a comment below.