Small and Independent Press Books discussion

I've mentioned some of my Goodreads friend Andrew Seddon's other SF books in this group, and the quality of this one, Iron Scepter, is every bit as good as the others. (Personally, I'd rank him as one of the best speculative fiction authors writing today, at least of those I've read.) Virtually all of his science fiction fits into an overarching framework of future history (this novel, for instance, is set decades before Wreaths of Empire), but they're not a series and can be read independently of each other. Here's my review of this one: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

It seems like we are living in the age of the indie writer and the small press as the flag bearers of progessive fiction. The big presses, like politicians, have sold out to populism.

Shane wrote: "It seems like we are living in the age of the indie writer and the small press as the flag bearers of progessive fiction. The big presses, like politicians, have sold out to populism."

Hmmm! Shane, can you flesh out your thought a little bit more here?

My experience, at least in Canada, is that the experimental and genre-bending fiction is taking place more in the small press/indie space while the Big Presses are sticking more to the tried and true, the brand names, and the bankable bets. As the Big Six (or has that number shrunk?) focus their marketing budgets on a smaller number of sure hits (this is good marketing strategy, by the way, and not to be knocked), and the mid tier of publishing mergers or vanishes, it's the indie/small publisher group that is left to promote the evolution of literature. By indie/small publisher group I am also talking about those who produce well researched and edited work and not the wannabes who self-publish knee-jerk writing with dreams of becoming rich overnight. Hope I have fleshed that out enough. Regards!

Thanks, Shane. Regards to you, too!