Where to Look, Who to Support

Now that you're caught up on why and how to support indie authors, let's talk about where.

If you're just now easing your way into the indie world, here are some good places to start, beginning with our marketplace, then moving to our warm and welcoming community, and finally to the broader ecosystem that we support and that supports us in turn. If you're a SFF nerd like me, I've placed SFF-specific resources at the bottom!

Our Marketplace

Choose where your money goes – buy books where it'll have the most impact.

Our Community

Promote and engage with the indie author community, both digitally and in person.

Our Ecosystem

Support our wider ecosystem of independent creatives – a rising tide lifts all boats.

  • Report any piracy or plagiarism, in whole or in part, of our books. If you're unsure whether we've allowed a free download, ask us!
  • Support your libraries (including Little Free Libraries) generally! They have so much to offer.
  • Vote. Campaign. Educate. Push back against legislature, negligence, and ignorance that undermine freedom of speech and literacy efforts.
  • Practice attribution. Want to share some cool art you saw? Also share who created it, ideally with a link. Want to quote something? Don't let it be a mystery if those are your words or not.
  • Take a staunch stance against generative AI, both in art and writing. AI steals our work. AI attempts to scam us out of money. AI contributes to a blight of misinformation and worthless slop that suffocates legitimate human artistic endeavor. There is no excuse. Educate yourself on how to spot it, beyond the obvious "there's too many fingers."
  • Shop local and support the arts wherever you can! Get involved in your community, especially in things like farmers' and artists'/makers' markets.

Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror -Specific

  • Author Rob J. Hayes posts a list of self-published fantasy every month on his blog.
  • Indie Fantasy Addicts not only has a searchable database, but hosts a summer reading challenge and a holiday market.
  • The annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO), hosted by community veteran and author Mark Lawrence, is a year-long event that is fun to follow! 2026 marks its eleventh year running, and you'll often spy its gradually-shrinking list of competitors on places like r/Fantasy as something of a reading guide.
  • FanFiAddict is an amazing resource for SFF readers and writers, including running TBRCon and the FanFiAddict Book Club, a weekly podcast.
  • Similarly, H.I.V.E. Tribe is a great place to discover new indie SFF reads; I love reading their team's reviews. They also have a lively Discord server of readers and indie authors here!
  • Narratess hosts a sale of indie SFF books every April and August! Follow Tessa on Bluesky to be kept in the loop.
  • Bookmatch.co.uk matches indie SFF books with readers, making it a great niche review site alternative to places like NetGalley, BookSirens, or Booksprout!
  • The Broken Binding is an independent UK-based (and online) bookstore well-known for their signed and special editions, but also for their indie author selection.

To Conclude...

All in all, I hope that should the opportunity present itself – whether it’s with me, or with any other independent creator or business – you will choose to support someone who will feel and appreciate it keenly, rather than a billionaire or a faceless corporation that will scarcely notice. Stories are our oldest and perhaps dearest heritage. In these current times where creative expression, even truth, is subject to question or suffocation, supporting your storytellers will always be worthwhile.

Last updated: 9/19/26