There are some books that just can’t be published by the big multi-national publishing houses. I’m not criticizing them per se, most of what I read comes from them and a lot of it is amazing. But I think that there is a clearly defined market they need each book they publish to tap into, generally speaking.
A friend recently got me to read something from a small independent publishing house and it reminded me that there is so much good, sometimes weird stuff from this part of the industry. Niche appeal, sure, but everyone is in a niche of their own, aren’t they?
The book that go me thinking this was **Pond Weed** by Lisa Blower, which really connected me with where I’m from in the world (published by Myriad).
This led me onto a debut novel called **Kill All The Dogs** by Rick Berry, a dark comedy that satirises the political system (SpellBound).
Another I’d recommend is **Exit Management** by Naomi Booth, which I’m not even going to attempt to describe! (Dead Ink)
I say recommend but maybe these aren’t the ones for you, maybe your niches are elsewhere. But I thought they were all brilliant, at the same time as realizing they were never going to get a big publisher. (And I’m sorry is this sounds patronising to the many indie lovers already out there, but I think lots of people aren’t and I’m a fairly recent convert!)
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by forlornforbit
3 Comments
“The Employees,” Olga Ravn. I can’t remember the publisher and for the life of me I can’t find it on my shelf right now.
Fantastically strange book.
the lamb will slaughter the lion by Margaret Killjoy I enjoyed it really like margarets stuff
Rachel Rener, Andy Pelloquin, Dyrk Ashton, Trudie Skies, Helen Scheuerer, J.A. Andrews, Allegra Pescatore and John Kang are some of my favourite fantasy indie authors. Also a shout out to Dave Dobson and Rachel Aaron.