Join the movement to read more indie books

Do you go out of your way to buy from indie coffee shops? Listen to music by indie musicians? What about indie books? When was the last time you read one of those? What’s the next indie book on your to-be-read list? Indie Ebooks Day wants to know!

Indie Ebooks Day is a grassroots movement to celebrate the vibrant, diverse stories of indie authors and the ebooks that make those stories available all over the world. The @IndieEbooksDay Twitter accountis devoted to promoting indie books all year round, with the first official Indie Ebooks Day happening on July 27^th, 2019.

Why buy indie?

There are three main reasons to buy indie books:

• Make sure authors get your money – Independent authors, whether they’re published through a small press or under their own name, get higher royalty rates than anyone signed with the Big 5. This means when you buy a book, you know your money is going directly to the person who wrote it.
• Support diverse stories and voices – Many marginalized authors choose independent publishing because they’re told their stories are “too diverse” by the Big 5. When you dive into the world of indie books, you’ll discover a rich collection of unique stories with diverse casts. 
• Save money – Big publishers typically charge around $10 for an ebook, but many indie authors make their books available for $4.99 or less. This means you can buy twice as many indie ebooks as traditionally published ones!

Why ebooks?

Most independent publishers today use print-on-demand to make print books available, but we chose to celebrate ebooks specifically for a couple of reasons:

• They’re accessible – Ebooks allow readers to change fonts and font sizes to suit their reading needs. Text-to-speech programs on phones and tablets even make it possible for visually impaired people to have their book read out loud to them, without the added cost of producing an audiobook.
• They’re affordable – As we mentioned above, most indie authors sell their books for $4.99 or less. This means you can save an enormous amount of money by buying only indie books for a month (or a year!).

So how can you participate in Indie Ebooks Day?

Indie Ebooks Day is a Twitter event happening for the first time on July 27^th, 2019. You can participate in three simple steps:

• Buy an indie ebook on July 27th
• Take a photograph of yourself reading your new indie ebook
• Share your photo with the hashtag #IndieEbooksDay; make sure you include the title of the book in your post, especially if you share one of the pages instead of the cover

Not sure where to find the perfect indie ebook for you? Not to worry! The official @IndieEbooksDay Twitter account shares a featured #EbookOfTheDay every single day, and we’ve also got an amazing line-up of featured authors for July 27^th. Follow us and you’ll never have to think about where to find indie books again!