One of the things I love about indie romance is how much room there is for people to create oddly specific, heartfelt stories.
There is space for books about orc cowboys and gargoyle highlanders, and of course, mothkin professors! There’s space for love stories of all flavour: messy, sweet, spicy. Large sprawling epics and tiny one-sitting reads. There’s space for stories that would never have made it through a more traditional gate.
That freedom is a big part of what drew me here.
But I think the thing that makes indie spaces special isn’t just the freedom to create all these wild and wonderful stories.
It’s what happens when people make room for one another in that space.
For example, when an author shares another author’s book because they genuinely think their readers might enjoy it. (Oh look! Some links above!)
Or, when someone joins a newsletter promo and treats the other books there as companions rather than competition. (I’ve found some great reads in the promos that I’ve joined.)
When ARC readers take a chance on a new name. (Thank you)
When writers swap newsletters, recommend each other, celebrate a release, answer a question, or simply say, “Hey, I liked this!”
Those things can look very small, but they matter. I promise you, they matter.
Publishing can be lonely. A lot of the hard work happens quietly. We write alone. We edit alone. We upload the files, stare at dashboards, worry about covers, wonder whether anyone is reading and occasionally convince ourselves the entire enterprise has been a terrible mistake, only to come back at it the next day.
So when the spaces around that work are kind, it changes things.
Kindness doesn’t mean everyone has to agree with everyone else. It doesn’t mean every book is for every reader, or every creative choice has to be universally loved.
It usually means remembering that there is a person on the other side of the cover.
Someone who made something they care about, probably while staring at the same paragraph for too long, wondering if the whole book is rubbish. Or if readers will love a character they’ve poured a part of their soul into. A plot that touches a little too close to home.
And I think indie romance is at its best when we leave room for difference without turning differences into exclusion. Isn’t that half the point of why we like monster romance?
There is enough space for different tastes, approaches, and stories.
I don’t want the books beside mine to disappear; I want the shelf to be enormous.
I want readers to find another monster romance they love and share it with me. Then find another and another and another. I want new authors to feel like they’re allowed to pull up a chair before they’ve proved anything.
Somewhere we can all share the strange little love stories together and celebrate them.
This is the kind of indie space I like.
Warm, curious, generous, a little strange, and big enough for all of us.
Bring me your monsters!
