I’m thrilled to welcome Founder, President, and Cheerleader of IndieReader, Amy Edelman, to Creating the Write Reality. A respected publication founded in 2009, IndieReader targets customers (readers and the trade) looking for great independently published books. Not just a publication, IndieReader offers many services for authors: Reviews, IndieReader Discovery Awards, Publishing Services, Curation service to Scribd and Bibliolabs, In-store distribution, and more.
Amy has over twenty year of experience as a publicist, but she is also a published author. Self-publishing her first book, The Fashion Resource Directory, in the 80s before it was fashionable, she went on to publish her next two books traditionally. The Little Black Dress and Manless in Montclair were published by Simon & Schuster and Shaye Areheart Books (Crown imprint). Having experience as a hybrid author has given Amy a unique perspective when it comes to what authors need.
Just a little background before we begin. For me, finding IndieReader was a breath of fresh air for my second book after publishing my first with a small press that provided traditional distribution. Going “indie,” I found myself in the position of “Authorpreneur,” wanting the same traditional distribution advantages for my second micro-published print book that I had with my first. But traditional distribution alone isn’t enough. Just because your book is available, doesn’t mean the trade will buy it. Two more things need to happen: validation on the quality of the book and discoverability.
This is what led me to leverage the IndieReader In-Store (IRIS) program (using Ingram Wholesale) to put some weight behind my micro-published book. For a nominal fee, the program includes:
With that, let’s begin. Amy, thank you so much for taking the time to be here today! It’s been great working with you so far, and I’ve appreciated your responsiveness and support as part of the IRIS program. I think this in an amazing option for indie authors looking to have some “traditional” advantages.
Q: As a published author, you have a unique perspective on the kinds of services author crave. Can you tell us a little about each of the services and how these offerings can help authors?
What initially drove me to create IndieReader was what I saw as the ridiculously uneven playing field between the opportunities available to traditionally published versus self-published authors.
As a twice traditionally pubbed author I knew that there were certain services that came with the “territory”, namely free book reviews and in-store distribution. What I didn’t understand at the time was that I was indirectly paying for those reviews—in outlets like People magazine, Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus—via a percentage of my royalities (most publications provide reviews in exchange for publisher’s advertising dollars). As far as getting the front table at bookstores including Barnes & Noble, that was also being paid for indirectly by me through my publisher.
As both a self and traditionally published author I have found there advantages and disadvantages with each. What appeals to me most, as a self-pubbed author, is the artistic control. The very words “self-published” suggest that the author is the sole visionary behind a work. They could have others assist, of course (and that’s where IR’s services some in) but the control, the decisions—and the resulting expenses—are all the authors.
As far as IndieReader (the online magazine launched 6 years ago this month), our focus continues to be indie reader-friendly features like author interviews; “Alike But Indie” and “Hot Indie Cover Boys”; our weekly news round-up, “Indie Voice”; our weekly updated bestseller list, aka the “List Where Indies Count” (where dozens of titles and authors have been signed by traditional publishers) and, of course, our book reviews.
The bulk of our author’s services came a little later than the on-line magazine and have pretty much grown organically in that we’ve only added services as authors have expressed a need.
We added IndieReader Reviews mainly because we wanted to include them in IR’s content in order to help readers distinguish the good books from the bad.
A year or so after we began offering reviews, we launched the IR Discovery Awards. The reason? We were reading such great books, and the existing award opportunities didn’t appear to have the framework in place to take deserving authors to the next level of discoverability. I’ve spent most of my working life as a publicist and was formerly trad pubbed, so I was lucky enough to have contacts who I could reach out to to get on board. From the start, we’ve been lucky to have supporters including Amazon—who provides the winners Kindles—and Kirkus, who provide two reviews for the main winners.
After the first couple of years (we’re in the midst of our fourth IRDAs) we were reading such great books that we thought we should get a bonafide literary agency to agree to take a look at the IRDA winners (at that point we were working with a bunch of agents at ICM, where my book agent is based, but we didn’t have any kind of deal in place for them to actually sign-up the winning titles). A year and a half ago IR formed an alliance with Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, whose client list includes indie (and formerly indie) authors including Tracey Garvis Graves, Colleen Hoover, Abbi Glines and Samantha Young. D&G agreed to review the top winners of the IRDAs with an eye towards signing them for representation.
So now that IR was taking the position that self published books could not only be good, but great, we thought it was our responsibility to help get the word out there for all the worthy authors. And that’s when we started IR Curation, which takes the books that have recv’d 4-5 star reviews—via their entry into IRDAs and reviews—and put them into our App (IndieReader), promote them through our editorial partnership with the Huffington Post and USA Today and offer them for sale via sites that were interested in working with us, such as Scribd (the book subscription service) and BiblioBoard (founded by the same guy who founded CreateSpace and targeted to libraries).
We started IR Pub Services around the same time as the reviews and they are pretty soup-to-nuts, including everything from editing and formatting to design and publishing.
IR In-Store, our unique indie (books) to indie (bookstore) distribution service came about last year because, frankly, an ebook can get a self-pubbed author only so far. The truth remains that ebooks are still a small portion of overall sales and that book discovery begins at the physical bookstore (no one visits Amazon to peruse the shelves) and indie authors were almost completely shut out of all but the most local of bookstores.
From the retail side, indie bookstores are realizing that they need an edge over competition and that having indie authors available in their store (and local indie authors available at in-store events) gives them that edge. I have to admit that this is the service of which I’m most proud, as it goes a long way to even-ing out the playing field for indie authors.
Q: I love the whole concept behind the IR Discovery Awards which actually leverages agents, traditional publishers, public relations professionals, bloggers and reviewers as judges. This gives indie books exposure where they may not have received it before. I know that at least one author – Tracey Banghart – went on to signing a contract with Alloy Entertainment for her book The Shattered Veil, which was re-released as Rebel Wing (Author Spotlight: Tracey Banghart). Are there other success stories for this program you can share?
It was actually the originally self-pubbed Still Alice (now a movie starring Julianne Moore who recently won a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for her performance) that led me to launch IndieReader in the first place. I wanted to prove to readers—I still do—that all self-pubbed works weren’t crappy books written by authors who couldn’t get a trad pubbed book deal.
As far as IRDA winners who have gone onto being trad pubbed, it’s important to note that for many of them, getting a trad publishing book deal is not their main motivation, but getting greater exposure for their books is. To that end IRDA fulfills its commitment annually as our winners list gets picked up by major news outlets such as The Huffington Post, USA Today and trade publications including Shelf Awareness and Publisher’s Lunch. Also, we have a lot of authors who come back and enter other books in the IRDA’s and/or sign up for reviews, so I’d have to say that they’ve been happy with the results.
Q: The IRIS program is such an exciting option for authors, tell us a little bit about how the program is doing. Is it getting the attention from bookstores and libraries that you expected? Any success stories to share there?
The program—which, as you probably know, is the only way for indie authors to make their books available to indie bookstores nationwide—is doing fine, but not as well as I had hoped when we launched it last year. Frankly, we expected more enthusiasm from indie authors, as the general rule of thumb is that bookstores are ground zero for discovery, something that self-pubbed authors need more than their traditionally published counterparts.
Also important to note, the sales to bookstores in just one element of IR In-Store. The other—included in the IRIS fee—is the ability of librarians, bookstore buyers and bloggers to review included titles via the IRIS/Edelweiss Digital Review Services (similar to NetGalley, a service that costs indie authors upwards of $300 to participate). IR does get a monthly report on these uploads, which is forwarded regularly to participating authors who are have been thrilled with the results.
As far as attention from booksellers and libraries, IR—like the traditional publishers who sell books via Edelweiss—aren’t privy to the sales and returns of the 37,000 individual booksellers. We do believe that overall the participating authors are having a good experience, mainly because they have come back and added other titles.
Q: If you are part of one program, such as IRIS, can you also leverage the others? Meaning, for the Curation service and IR Discovery Awards, both of which require reviews, can your IR review from IRIS count to qualify you or do you need a second review?
Yes, all of the services IR offers are complimentary to each other, with the starting point—for the IRDAs, IR In-Store and Curation—a book review. For that reason we offer discounts if an author signs up for the IRDAs and buys a book review and, as per your question above, if their book has already been reviewed by IR they can subtract that fee when they sign up for IRIS.
Q: Are there any trends you are seeing in the industry that may shape current or future services? Where do you see areas of rising need?
I think that entering 2015 IR is prepared to offer authors all they need in terms of services. At this point I’m just waiting for more readers to join the party and realize that talent and quality of books out there. I’ve always felt that indie authors should enjoy the same cachet and recognition of other indie artists (ie musicians and filmmakers), but despite hundreds of indie authors being discovered and signed by traditional publishers—therefore reinforcing the fact that there are some great indie books—it still hasn’t happened. But it won’t stop us from continuing to try.
Q: What’s next for you as an author? Any new book projects to share?
It’s funny, but I never really considered myself a bonafide author because I never really had much of an imagination (I’ve written one nonfiction book and one “almost” memoir and I’m in awe of authors who bang out 2 or 3 books a year). In fact when I was having trouble with part of my manuscript for Manless in Montclair I asked my longtime agent and friend what “real” writers do. She said “you are a real writer!” and we left it at that.
I originally started IndieReader as a distraction from my longtime PR work (for consumer company’s including M&Ms, Hanes and Dunkin Donuts) and a full-blown mid-life crisis and since then it’s turned into a pretty full-time gig.
Also, my first book (The Little Black Dress) was written in ’95 through ’96 and pubbed in 1997 and my second—written through 2003-2004 and pubbed in 2007—so I feel like the 10 years apart thing buys me some time.
Thank you so much for joining us, Amy! It was a pleasure.
Your turn: What questions do you have for Amy?
To learn more about IndieReader’s Author Services, click here: http://indiereader.com/authorservices/
