It’s hard enough getting your name out as an author, let alone if you choose to go down the route of becoming an indie author. There’s A LOT of us out there, and whilst we compete for shelf space, we rarely spare a thought for readers. As much as we’re trying to promote our books, readers are desperately trying to sift through the self-published masses and find great reads that really grab their attention. This is why Indie Scene has launched; a new place for readers to find free short stories, interesting articles and some of the best indie books around.
You might think this magazine is just another chance for us indie authors to be seen, and, in many ways, it is. But the real emphasis here has been put on readers, and giving our fans something back. There are articles on writers and the craft of telling a story, but there are also six free short stories in the debut edition. In addition, there’s an article on the many ways to read Kindle ebooks even if you don’t have a Kindle yourself, a selection of new releases and all manner of other goodies for people to enjoy.
Indie Scene is completely free to download as a PDF (or read in your browser if you choose), so feel free to take a look. If you love the magazine, then let us know, give us your feedback. We’d love to keep creating a publication that has a reader focus and offers something new to the community, so download, have a read and if you like it, tell us!
Geoff Wakeling 
Great idea. I just downloaded the mag. If it lives up to expectations, and it does look good, I’ll mention it on my blog. Is it eventually going to be open for submissions? Not interested, myself, but if I blog about it, it would be a point of interest for others.
By the way, I’ll be leaving Squidoo soon, as my lenses revert to WIPs. Found Wizzely, a much friendlier site for writers, with less emphasis on selling and competing for ratings.
As Rosen mentioned below, if there’s enough engagement with the first publication, then more submissions will be needed.
As for squidoo…I saw a post about you possibly leaving it. I haven’t had a chance to check out Wizzely yet, but I am interested in the possibilities you’ve highlighted.
Thanks for promoting the magazine. I really like your post about it – really captures what we’ve created together.
Catana, if we make a second issue then we would love submissions. However, it was a really big project and so the future is yet undecided. The more interest this issue gets, the more chance we’ll continue.
No problem, Rosen. I think it’s really well put together and enjoyed the read and also found some new indie books to look at! Happy to do my bit with promotion. 🙂
The discussion on Kindleboards got a little heated, unfortunately, but I’m sure anyone who’s interested in such a venture wasn’t put off by it. I did second the problem with scrolling, and hope that will be changed. Newspaper-style pages aren’t appropriate for the web and ereaders.
Today’s blog post was a little update about Wizzely. I suspect that it’s much better than Squidoo for book promotion. I’ll be doing that eventually, but right now, I’m working to establish myself there.
This is a great idea! I’d love to know if you open to submissions so I can share it on our blog too. ~ Vanessa