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I have a major announcement! I’ve been working away this weekend on a little webpage I’m calling The Indie eBook Hall of Fame. This site is designed to be a one-stop filter for readers to help them find the best of the best indie ebooks being reviewed out there in Blogland. To land on the list, the book must be available in ebook form in multiple formats, and must have been reviewed (and recommended!) by at least three independent bloggers—not just Amazon, Smashwords or Goodreads reviews, but full-on write-ups by bloggers who are reviewing indie books.

The internet indie scene can seem at times like the world’s biggest slushpile. This site offers not just one, but THREE gatekeepers who have screened the content for you and found it worth recommending. Each of these books was found worthy by more than one reviewer.

I started by combing the archives of my own reviews and those at a handful of other blogs I follow, looking for repeat appearances. And I’ll keep my eye out for more. But of course, I can’t do it alone. Here’s where you can help me:

– If you are an author, you need to set up a Google Alert on yourself so you can tabs on who is reviewing your stuff. When you hit the magical three excellent reviews, send me the info on your book and where it’s been reviewed so I can check it out.

– If you are a blogger and you have a book you’ve read that is worthy but doesn’t have three reviews yet, send me the info and I’ll add it to the ‘Almost’ Page, where other bloggers who are trolling for their next great read can go and look for something. And of course, if YOU are trolling for a new read, why not check out the ‘Almost’ Page yourself?

– If you are a blogger who regularly reviews indie books, and you are not yet on the Blog Roll at the side of this blog, email me so I can check out your site and add you.

I am very excited about this page—it’s not just me, recommending these books (in fact, there are a few on there already which are patently not my thing). It’s the entire blogging community. Please spread the word so those who have intel about thrice-recommended books I’ve missed can get it sent to me. Let’s create a true one-stop resource where readers can connect with truly excellent indie reads.

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"I’m a journalist, a teacher and an e-book fiend. I work as a French teacher at a K-3 private school. I use drama, music, puppets, props and all manner of tech in my job, and I love it. I enjoy moving between all the classes and having a relationship with each child in the school. Kids are hilarious, and I enjoy watching them grow and learn. My current device of choice for reading is my Amazon Kindle Touch, but I have owned or used devices by Sony, Kobo, Aluratek and others. I also read on my tablet devices using the Kindle app, and I enjoy synching between them, so that I’m always up to date no matter where I am or what I have with me."

10 COMMENTS

  1. Despite limited success with indie authors in the past, I’m going to try two: Radium Halos and Sleight Malice. I’ll have to wait to read them for further judgment. Overall, I probably wouldn’t be very interested in most of the titles.

  2. As a self-published eBook writer I encourage and admire folks that bravely put forth their books for critique BUT still have a bone to pick with a few of my fellow authors… more specifically the ones that don’t update their covers. We redesign our covers once (soetimes twice) a year to match changing trends; some o four first covers seems awful in comparision and were justificbly done away with.

    Fonts do get overused and many of them quickly wear out their welcome. I may just vomit if I see one more pixelated/cheesy cover harboring the overly-overly-OVERLY-used Papyrus font. Times new roman, or even Courier New, but please no more Papyrus.
    Personally, I gravitate towards a main title in Dante all caps, with no more than 2 fonts types on the entire cover.

  3. Joanna – a great idea and I wish you the best of luck with it.

    On the subject of reviews I think that the review style on Amazon is one which I would love to see used more widely. There is an Average rating yes, but there is also a distribution between the ratings which give a good idea about how varied the reviews are.

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