Q&A: Amy Edelman of IndieReader

By Michael J. Vaughn

The introductory email that IndieReader.com sends out to self-published authors contains two points that make it an immediately intriguing idea. The first is the statement that “…it’s stupid and unfair to brand an entire category of books as crap, just because the ‘traditional’ publishing industry doesn’t embrace it.”

The second is, “As Sundance has done for indie films—making what’s outside the mainstream cool—IR will do for indie books and authors.”

A Sundance is exactly what the world of self-publishing needs. A presenter that holds up the best works of a category that is too often dismissed by the popular media. With a launch date of June 1, IndieReader offers a promising venue for both covering the self-publishing phenomenon and offering a new retail outlet for its best products.

Frankly, I will remain skeptical of IR’s vetting process until I see the results, but they’ve certainly got talent and experience on their side. Founder Amy Edelman is an author and 20-year publicist whose team includes two veteran book publicists. Here, she answers a few questions about her new site for EditorUnleashed.

How did you get the idea for the site and what are its founding ideas?
I got the idea after reading a couple of news stories in The New York Times and Time magazine. Both stories spoke about how the traditional publishing industry is changing. The stories also mentioned that there are many self-pubbed books that have gone on to major success. I couldn’t believe there weren’t more great self-pubbed books out there, and then it dawned on me that, even if there were, there was no place to find them! So, the founding idea is that there is a lot of talent that exists outside of traditional outlets. There are very strong Indie movements in music and film … why not books too?

The other thing I want to mention is our comittment as a resource to independent bookstores. I know this sounds crazy—we are a retailer, after all. But as a writer myself, I believe that indie bookstores are an author’s best friends. They get indie books into the hands of book lovers, while indie books help indie bookstores set themselves apart from the big-box retailers. It’s a win-win. So, there will be a function on the site where indie bookstores can punch in their zip codes and find local indie authors, enabling them to set up in-store events and bring them more business, and we’ll also have a link on our site to IndieBound.

Is the large population of poorly written self-published books part of the problem behind the neglect given to self-published books? And will your team truly maintain a standard of quality for titles featured on the site?
Yes, the poor quality of some books certainly doesn’t help. It’s also the notion, which I’m happy to see is changing, that if something isn’t blessed by the big publishers, then it’s not worthy. But truly, as a publicist myself, I think the main problem is one of image.

As far as vetting, yes, IndieReader does plan to maintain a high standard, starting with the belief that there should be no basic spelling and grammatical errors and that all IndieReader books must be well-written and offer something of value to our customers. That said, everyone’s taste is different, so we’ll try to offer a broad variety in terms of content. But the basic standard of quality is non-negotiable.

What are the different ways that a self-published author can get involved in your site?
First and foremost, send us your book! If we think it’s right for the IndieReader site, we’ll send you a template to put together your web page with your own URL. We’ll have a changing featured author and book section where you’ll most likely be profiled at some point. We’ll have an indie author community, which will include a section called “Indie Journal” where authors can write about their self-publishing experiences.

So what are the indications that the time for a site like this is right? Traditional publishing is undergoing immense changes due to the economy and innovations like POD publishing. People are beginning to look beyond the next boring “bestseller” and want books—and authors—that offer something well written, thought provoking, quirky, different. And basically, IndieReader will be the place to find that.

Tell me about the background of your team members.
We have an editorial director with more than 20 years experience with lit agents and publishers and a PR director who has been working in publishing as a publicist and a director of other talented publicists for 12 years. She has worked with a wide range of authors, from celebrities to serious novelists to political heavyweights and pundits. Some of her work has included books by Thomas Frank, Robert Dallek, Barbara Ehrenreich, George Pelecanos, Rick Moody, Richard North Patterson, Queen Noor, Plum Sykes, and Atul Gawande. As a director she worked under the Harvey Weinstein umbrella at Miramax Books and at Henry Holt and Company where she managed a range of campaigns from three different imprints. We’re also working with various lit agents, indie bookstore owners and enthusiastic book lovers. It’s a great team and I’m very excited about what we’re doing.

Michael J. Vaughn is the author of nine novels, two of them self-published. You can go to outronovel.blogspot.com for excerpts.

Tagged as: self-publishing