I have recently fallen for Indie books. Based off of my reading list from Goodreads, I read more Indie novels than regularly published novels. It is amazing, the difference a few years make. Honestly, a few years ago I would never touch an indie book (or write one for that matter) and now, they are mostly what I read. Why? This is why:
1. Indie books have no limitations. Having read novels in the Christian publishing world since I was a little girl, I detected a bit of a pattern. Every book was different, but every book fundamentally the same. And I know this because often times my relatives would ask me for a book that was Christian but different, and the only author I could really recommend to them was Francine Rivers (I mean, you just never know what’s going to happen in her books).
2. Spice. I have found indie books to be more romantic. When my cousins wanted a book to read, I knew what they were asking. They wanted the spice of a secular romance tendered with the foundation of Christ and while Christian novels may have the foundation, they often lack spice. So I love that when I read an Indie novel sometimes I don’t know what I’m getting, but I do know that so long as it’s Christian I can trust it will be alright.
3. Sink or swim. Indie books have to sink or swim based off the reviews of the masses. Regularly published novels often get, what I consider to be, false praise from other published authors that leave me thinking, really, you liked this book? Published novels will often have beautiful covers, loads of advertising and nothing substantial between the pages. That’s not to say that Indie books don’t sometimes get inflated reviews, but since they make their bread and butter on reviews, I trust those reviews more than any advertising a company can do.
4. Unique. I really kind of like NA novels. I really kind of can’t stand secular NA novels. Let’s be honest, there are like no regularly published Christian NA novels, but Indie has opened the door for some really awesome ones. I can’t tell you how many times I will read a secular NA/YA novel and discover the author claims to be a believer and I think to myself now if only the Christian publishing world would open up to these kinds of books (assuming the author would make the foundation Christ of course!).
5. Location. I love that not all Indie books take place in small town America. Indie books take place all over the world and even in made up worlds.
I just think that if you had to guess who read Christian romance novels based off of what the publishers are producing, you would think they were older, southern, women who live on lots of land in small towns where everyone knows everyone and everyone looks the same. So thank God for indie which has opened the door to new worlds. Do you like Indie books? Why or why not?
remaininhislove 
What a great post. I agree with all the points you’ve made. I love not knowing what to expect, and the addition of a bit of spice. And I love that these books open up more of the world.
In Australia, we have lots of indie books and small publishers. That’s really all we have. It’s a matter of helping people to find out about them.
The saddest thing about some indie books is that their covers and editing standards are sometimes not up to scratch compared with what ultra-professional big publishers churn out. I guess another challenge indie authors face is also to help readers get past these surface issues to discover the great stories in their books.
You are so right about the editing and covers, the covers can turn you off so fast and if the book isn’t edited (or read for content matter) than that can be disappointing, but fortunately I’ve found most indie books to be relatively cheap.