The Bookends discussion

I love a good challenge! Especially when there are books involved. This year I am, of course, participating in the yearly Goodreads Challenge, plus a few side challenges with other book clubs. But on top of that, I am challenging myself to read as many Indie books as possible!
If you feel like joining me in supporting the world's hard working Indie authors, feel free! Plus, in case reading wasn't incentive enough, I'm willing to offer up a prize! I don't know what it will be yet, but I'll try to make it a good one. ;)

Pick a level, and aim for it! Everyone who completes their challenge at the end of the year will be in for the prize draw. Easy gets you one entry, Medium gets you 2, Hard 3... you get the gist of it. And if no one wins, I get to keep it. Whatever it is.

Contest begins January 1, and ends December 31. For a book to count towards your total, it must be initially Indie, but I will allow books which have been consequently picked up by publishers. Put your entries in the discussion below, and update your progress throughout the year. I sincerely look forward to hearing about your book choices. Enjoy!

Easy: 5-9 books
Medium: 10-19
Hard: 20-29
Uber-Hard: 30+

Lindsay
Hard: 20-29

1)

Uber-Hard: 30+

Uber-Hard 30+

Books Read:

Super duper uber hard 50+ lol I mean uber-hard 30+

HA! I don't doubt that you could make it to the super duper uber hard level! Maybe I should give an extra entry per 10 books. Fair?

I'm thinking the prize should be a $10 Amazon gift card. Does that work for everybody? (Sorry, I would love to make it more, but I'm broke.)

Sounds good to me!!! I'm broke too so $10 sounds like heaven. I hate to say it but I do have an unfair advantage. I have to read at least one indie book per week....
Do you have a set up where we track this. I guess I should add an indies shelve to make it easier?

Kyla wrote: "Uber-Hard 30+

Books Read: (on my 2013 bookshelf also)
1.2."

I hate to tell you this, but the challenge can only include Indie books, not published by mainstream methods.

Lori, I am totally clueless about a better way to track these, besides creating a post in the discussion and updating it with each read completion. Or, since it would probably be easier, just create a shelf for it, and leave a link to the shelf here in the discussion. I'll check at the end of the year, and add up your entries.

I think linking to the shelf would be the easiest. We should do a blog post about this too. Invite people to join the challenge with us.

Lindsay wrote: "Kyla wrote: "Uber-Hard 30+

Books Read: (on my 2013 bookshelf also)
1.2."

I hate to tell you this, but the challenge can only inc..."

Small press books Ok?

I'm going to say yes, to small press, and YAY! for blog post. :)

Okay, so I just created a challenge, now featured on the homepage, with the rules and prize all laid out. To participate, just sign up there, and it will track your books based on the shelf name.

Thanks so much for letting me know!! :D

This is q great idea! I'll sign up for the 'easy'. Is there a link to an indie book list?

I'm sure listopia has plenty of lists for you to choose from, or feel free to check out my own Indie-love shelf. Or, what is your favourite genre? I'm sure we can find some recommendations for you. :)

Lindsay wrote: "I'm sure listopia has plenty of lists for you to choose from, or feel free to check out my own Indie-love shelf. Or, what is your favourite genre? I'm sure we can find some recommendations for you. :)"

I should just come up with a "safe to try" indies list for the blog. I got so lucky out of the gate and found wonderfully talented authors as soon as I bought my kindle.

Yeah, and I got lucky with you to tell me what to read! ;)

Love this challenge. I'm in.

Thanks, that was helpful! I didn't know Angelfall was an indie.

Technically, it was published by a small publishing company called Feral Dream. In fact, it was their first book published. I do consider small publishing firms to be among Indie, since I like to support the little guys. ;)

Is Create Space considered indie or small publishing?

They advertise themselves as self-publishing, so Indie. It can be done almost entirely without the aid of a real human being! Craziness!

Publishing houses, in my own opinion, would be where they can accept submissions, and won't accept them all. Self-publishing can be done through Create Space or Amazon, and they will never turn you away.
Does that make sense? I don't know if that is the exact definition, but it makes sense to me.

Works for me!

Lindsay wrote: "Technically, it was published by a small publishing company called Feral Dream. In fact, it was their first book published. I do consider small publishing firms to be among Indie, since I like to s..."

It's not indie anymore. It's published through Amazon Children's Publishing. Which isn't a big six, but I don't think we can deny the power of Amazon.

The small press vs indie debate is nothing new. My line is whether or not the small press falls under the umbrella of a big six publisher. If it does not then it is an indie (as in independent of big $$$). I like to think of it like music. Your fave indie band may have a record label that they record for but they still have to chip in on promo and they don't have mass distribution.

Lori (Contagious Reads) wrote: "Lindsay wrote: "Technically, it was published by a small publishing company called Feral Dream. In fact, it was their first book published. I do consider small publishing firms to be among Indie, s..."

Thanks, Lori!
I'm still going to count it as Indie because I want to read it, and then it'll count towards the challenge. You're gonna have so many entries, I have to do whatever I can to keep up. ;)

Lindsay wrote: "Lori (Contagious Reads) wrote: "Lindsay wrote: "Technically, it was published by a small publishing company called Feral Dream. In fact, it was their first book published. I do consider small publi..."
It should count it was one of the first indie success stories. Go Susan Ee!!! Seriously, go write the second book already!!!
I just realized I sounded like an "indie know it all." LOL. It's only because I have to research books that I review for Parajunkee. I needed to draw a line of what is indie and what is not.

It can be confusing. When I googled 'indie' CreateSpace came back and also a list of 100 indies and CreateSpace was not on it but a bunch of small publishers, i.e., specialize in out of print etc. Listopia indie list has Angelfall on it.

I'm counting Wool Omnibus Edition because I read the CreateSpace published version this month. It's been picked up by a major house of course, quite a phenom, but I did buy the CreateSpace and that's the one I read.

Ohhh I love Wool. It's long and takes a while to read but so worth it.

It's on my list of books to read this year, too! I am really loving the whole Indie theme this year. There are some seriously talented authors out there who deserve a little recognition.

LOL if it wasn't cheaper to buy it as an omnibus I would buy each book individually and count them separately. But I'm shifty like that.

HA! Will it count that I already have Wool, which was a freebie, and then pick up the omnibus? Does that count as two separate books?

haha!! Sure why not?

So did anyone win this? I read 78 indie books but did not see a winner picked yet. Was this still going to happen?

Yes, Lori won. I posted it directly in the challenge page. Sorry, I forgot we had a conversation going for it!