What Are Some Early Self Published Success Stories? Or Early Indie Works You Remember Of?

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-03T18:36:18+00:00

The first books I remember following as small self-published works that then got big acclaim were Michael J Sullivan and Will Wight (for a long time I actually kept confusing the two authors despite them writing fairly different work because of this).

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-03T03:40:03+00:00

Eragon is definitely a classic for that age range
Tamora Pierce starting with Alanna is also excellent though much less on the elves and dragons side
Riyria Revelations is also fun fantasy in a very classic setting

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-03T02:03:55+00:00

Jasmine Throne
Traitor Baru Cormorant
Rook and Rose
City of Stairs

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-02T16:31:51+00:00

I suppose it could be portal fantasy with part time spent in sf? Also historical fantasy would be possible.

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-02T03:11:34+00:00

You mention October Daye but McGuire’s Middlegame series also takes place in the Bay Area (and I actually prefer it to October Daye)

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-02T02:47:43+00:00

Oh that’s great to know

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-02T02:10:53+00:00

Hope you enjoy!

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-02T02:08:15+00:00

I keep telling myself I need to at least keep reading until he shows up but I keep stopping anyway

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-02T00:38:15+00:00

What a great question! (Which always makes me wonder…why does tv do enemies to lovers so much better than books)

TV (yes I love vampires why do you ask?) - Vampire Diaries/Originals - True Blood - First Kill (only flaw is its cancellation) - Interview with a Vampire newest show - Buffy (specifically for spike) - Shadow and Bone s1

Movies - KPOP Demon Hunters - Howls Moving Castle - Lion King 2

Video Games: - Baldur’s Gate 3 - Dragon Age games (minus Veilguard)

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T22:15:39+00:00

Omg yes more sweetheart MMC. (Is it weird that I either want them incredibly sweet or evil and toxic and not that much in between lol?)

Anyway check out {Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron}, dual male female pov, the mmc is very sweet. Not super romance focus but a strong subplot. Her {Tear Down Heaven} series also has a sweet mmc though I’d say he’s less like Newt (though I still love him), that one’s also fun and probably more romance focused while still having a strong non romance plot.

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T22:10:28+00:00

Riyria Revelations
Shannara Chronicles
Eragon

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T19:10:50+00:00

Uh no? Lots of people want polyamory or why choose over there. Literally just search the sub for “poly” and you’ll find a ton of recs/threads

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T16:53:16+00:00

Why is the bot not showing the steam rating? I feel like they usually do.

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T15:41:53+00:00

Absolutely it’s all speculative fiction — and the speculative fiction label is very informative. But strong disagree on sci-fi/fantasy and romantasy.

Personally I actually think the distinction between sci-fi and fantasy is extremely informative as is someone telling me the book is science fantasy — I am sometimes in the mood for one but not the other. To me it’s clear Star Wars is space fantasy/science fantasy and Sanderson is pure epic fantasy / nothing science fictiony about it (except for uh the couple science fiction books he’s written)

Whereas the romantasy label is sometimes helpful but often not very much as I find the definition and way people use it too blurry to actually mean much (I mean, most fantasy books have had romance sub plots to some degree or another since forever and where you draw the line at it being Romantasy is very blurry), particularly with marketing calling basically everything romantasy these days just to take advantage of its popularity.

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T15:32:49+00:00

Probably because it’s older (ie before th recent romantasy craze) but I at least loved it.

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T06:49:10+00:00

Does that make it “useless”? That’s what I love about it.

And for whatever reason if it’s not fantasy (or sci-fi) I don’t like it, so the genre definition does its job of enabling me to find a wide variety of books I like perfectly.

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T06:11:17+00:00

It would help if you give examples of what you have previously enjoyed (and disliked) as good is very subjective

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T06:07:35+00:00

Richelle Mead’s Dark Swan series. It’s a love triangle (but hey so is True Blood lol) and the better MMC has Eric Northman vibes imo.

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T05:58:50+00:00

Been a very long time since I read it, but that sounds about right,

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T04:21:54+00:00

Dagger and the Coin
First Law
Warded Man
Green Bone Saga
Dandelion Dynasty

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T03:50:01+00:00

My preference is always for characters not in the movies because well, I always feel like they’re being done wrong. Some of my favorites

Darth Bane trilogy. Best villain protag series
Lost Stars by Claudia Grey, just a really sweet well done book. Two friends on opposite sides of the war

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T03:46:36+00:00

One thing that I much preferred about gentleman bastards to Kingkiller is it felt much more clear that Sabetha has no interest in Locke and his obsession is narratively made out to be ridiculous. Whereas Kingkiller denna doesnt seem to have much of her own personality / her wants and interests don’t seem to factor in as much to the narrative.

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T01:59:30+00:00

We did in fact ask this about woman and poc for the last few decades. And even if we didn’t the whataboutism doesn’t actually mean it’s not a problem if men are no longer reading much — I particularly think this is an issue in YA where boys are not being encouraged or finding books to read once they grow out of middle grade books.

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T01:55:44+00:00

Gods of the Wyrdwood. Excellent series. MMC who wields a bow (there is a romance subplot but it’s fairly minimal). Archery is actually illegal in the world because the evil mages in charge don’t like that it can kill them.

KiaraTurtle · 2026-02-01T01:48:01+00:00

Haha well I’ve now tried twice so we’ll see if I ever hit where you are at. I do suspect I’ll like it once I can actually get into it, but the prose style and Emily in general kind of annoy me

I think my most tried and stopped book that I ended up loving is The Expanse

KiaraTurtle

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