We KNOW we’re your FAVORITE book review site, dear reader, but we know we’re just one bright, based, shining star in a big galaxy of other sites like Epic Indie, Lorehaven (and us!) who are doing what they can to make lesser sung indie titles a bit more . . . uh, sung.
“A rising tide lifts all boats” is a Raegan-ism that our boss Declan often likes to invoke, and in the spirit of such, we sat down and had a chat with the admin of yet another absolutely essential hub of based book reviews, Spotlight On Indie.
UR: Let’s go all the way back - where did your love of the SF/F genre come from and whose writing do you admire most or take the most inspiration from?
SoI: I grew up with two younger brothers and a dad who loved SFF. I was surrounded by it. I liked some of the girly stuff, but having two brothers as playmates in the 70’s and 80’s laid a foundation of more boyish interests. I grew up as a tomboy at a time when it was safe to be that way. I was old enough to see Return of the Jedi in the theater when it was first released, along with E.T., Ghostbusters, and many other movies of that era. We also watched the original Doctor Who on PBS.
I read some science fiction and fantasy, but I was a big horse-girl. I soaked up everything horses, and science fiction and fantasy went a little to the wayside for my teen years. I went through years of reading everything by Walter Farley, Marguerite Henry, and other writers of horse series.
We did have some Doctor Who books in our little high school library, but not much. The bookmobile and Scholastic book orders were a highlight of those years. I never gave up on sci-fi tv and movies, though. I watched ST:TNG every week. We only had four channels and lived on a farm, so there wasn’t much outside of reading and playing outside back then. Saturday morning cartoons had superheroes and fantasy cartoons. My brothers were into Transformers and Star Wars and collected the toys and played video games (Atari and NES), so I was exposed to all of that.
That’s where the foundation was laid. Being on a farm with very little tv and no internet back then gave us lots of time to let our imaginations run wild.
My husband is a total geek into Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, gaming and more. Stargate SG-1 and Farscape were our shows when we were dating and into marriage and starting a family. In fact, I was about 8 months pregnant with child one when we went to Return of the King on opening night. That was interesting.
As for authors whose writing I admire... I mentioned two of my favorites growing up, but when I was in college the first Star Wars extended universe books came out. My brothers knew I loved Star Wars and bought me one of them. The Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn hooked me, and I continued on with each of the different authors in the Star Wars EU; some I liked and some I didn’t. I’ve liked many authors outside of that, but each author has books I like and books I don’t, so I can’t say that I follow authors so much as series or simply the occasional standalone novel or even short story collections.\
UR: What was the lightbulb moment that spurred you to action in making the site? It’s clearly the result of a lot of effort. Tell me about it.
SoI: I have a background in small business and a bachelor’s in business administration. I had a licensed home daycare when my kids were young and have been the office manager for a small non-profit for over a decade since they’ve been in school. Not to mention, running my own self-publishing business as an author on the side for eighteen years now.
The idea for Spotlight was percolating for a few years, but the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back was receiving an indie book sale announcement that was pushing DEI authors and topics. This was only a couple of years ago. Something inside me snapped; not in a mean way but because the weight of the cultural animosity towards light and truth and the obscenity pushed in all entertainment was too much. I wanted a way to find books focused on fun stories without the modern ideologies. I had been wanting to create a site for books without woke narratives for a while. Over time, the idea developed more fully from the original spark was reached at that point.
My faith was also transforming me. As a Catholic, I wanted to avoid certain content. That’s how the content ratings idea was born. On the flip side, I know that there are people who want gritty and dark, and those content ratings can go both directions. While Christians can find good books that fit their preferences for exciting, clean fiction, readers who like gritty, realistic action or other such content can find that too.
The original site was Spotlight on Indie SFF, because that’s my primary interest. It wasn’t fully what I wanted to do with the site, but it was what I could afford. To support the local economy of my area and to have a better chance of finding someone to support my vision of a site for sci-fi and fantasy without woke content, I contacted a few website developers and made sure they were comfortable with my plan. My current developer built the original site based on Wordpress for my budget. To pay for it, I sold a saddle and some other horse tack I no longer needed and had enough left over from a single paycheck that the total came to exactly what I needed.
“Something inside me snapped . . . the weight of the cultural animosity towards light and truth and the obscenity pushed in all entertainment was too much. I wanted a way to find books focused on fun stories without the modern ideologies.”
Then I went back to social media after having quit for a few years. Starting over was difficult and I’m really not a fan of social media, but I had spent the money and wanted to support other authors. (Gaining traction from ground zero is hard and the weight of the struggle can be disappointing at times.) In fact, every time I wondered if what I was doing was right, I’d get a message or comment of support. As one example, I was praying before mass one Sunday with that thought in my mind and happened to check the time on my phone and noticed a notification--an author friend who had supported my idea from the beginning had commented how much they appreciated what I was doing. Things like that happened a few times--just as I would question if I was supposed to do this, someone would post something supportive. God was always there nudging me it seemed.
I also started some limited marketing of the site by creating videos to promote on YouTube and X, first with book covers, then later using AI-generated video clips. My meager personal book marketing budget went into this.
As time went on and authors added their books, I asked my website developer to add a few little tweaks here and there. It reached a point that, knowing where I really wanted to go with this (because I had provided a detailed idea in my original proposal to him), he suggested that we go ahead with the upgrade I had wanted. This time, I had managed to save up some of the funds in advance from my day job. Also, some new tools had become available to him to rebuild the site for closer to my budget. Not only that, but he had learned about the book industry more over the ten months since the first site went live and had more ideas to make it better. A lot of the features of the site are based on my input as an author and reader, but some of it is my website developer.
“We haven’t really seen any bestsellers like we did up through the mid-2010’s. Part of that could be because people are reading less, but I suspect that part of why people are reading less is due to the content by Tradpub.”
This isn’t a cheap project to provide free. Financial support is voluntary, but the featured books section is available for those who want to support it and boost any book (theirs or someone else’s). I set up the original site the same way and had the idea that anyone could support a book and the site in this way. Not only am I supporting other indie authors by making this available, but other authors and readers can also support indie books on the site.
There’s still work to be done on the site, which I like to call a platform because of all the bells and whistles it has. It’s been live only a couple of weeks, and we’re finding little things yet to fix, and there are things I’d like to add in future upgrades. My developer also thinks we need to create an app, so there’s plans for that in the future too.
Also, with this amount of work to create a home for based indie stories, I didn’t want to leave out other genres. I’ve added more to the available fiction BISAC codes beyond SFF. Originally, all the books were on single SF and Fantasy pages, but now users can filter what they want, so it’s not a problem having a big catalog. Hence the change from spotlightonindiesff.com to spotlightonindie.com.
UR: If you had to convince a mainstream reader to take a chance on indie books, what would you say independent authors offer readers that tradpub doesn’t?
SoI: Tradpub locations are in urban areas and largely focus on DEI content and sensitivity readers. They want stories that fit within neat little boxes and agendas. They’ve grown stagnant in their bubbles. I’d be happy to be proven wrong, but we haven’t really seen any bestsellers like we did up through the mid-2010’s. Part of that could be because people are reading less, but I suspect that part of why people are reading less is due to the content by Tradpub.
Indie authors--self-published and small press published--are free to do as they please. Because of this, indie books are wildly imaginative--no constraints. They cross all the typical barriers. There’s something for every reader, books with niche appeal and books with mass appeal. That’s also a reason why with the upgrade, we added the vibes and themes section in each book listing for authors--to provide some of those ideas to readers.
UR: On the flip side, from your personal perspective, what’s the biggest mistake you see most indie writers make, storywise?
SoI: Impatience and rushing, not editing enough at any stage from developmental to copyedits. It’s too easy to hit publish as soon as you’re done. When writers need to do is set it aside, as hard as it is and as much as they want the affirmation of others. Put a project aside for at least six months and work on something else. Then go back. I guarantee you’ll see it in a completely different light.
As for writing, there are so many areas and everyone has their own weaknesses that need improving. Of the indie books I’ve read that needed more editing, the biggest mistakes have been not starting in the right place--too much expository up front--not enough detail throughout, and infodumps. I’m sure editors have their own input on what they see, but those are the issues I’ve typically come across when I see them. Those could also just be a me thing.
Want more Spotlight On Indie?
Check out their website at www.spotlightonindie.com
Authors can read up on their submission standards and guidelines here. They also have listings for where authors can find services related to publishing, editing and cover design.
Find them on X at x.com/spotlightfic.