Reading Indie: How to tell if a book has been written by an indie author

Would you like to know how to tell if a book has been written by an indie author? Do you need help determining if a book has been self-published? Look no further, reader friend! This blog is going to tell you how to quickly and easily find out.

Following my blog post titled, What is an Indie Author? (check it out if you aren't sure what an 'Indie Author' is), I thought it would be timely to write a post about how to tell if a book has been written by an indie author.

Okay, great. You've read the blog that tells you what an indie author is, and now you're interested in reading indie. So, how can you find out if a book has been self-published by an indie author? Let's look at a few different ways.

How to identify an indie book

• Check the Cover

  The bigger publishing houses like Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins and MacMillan will probably be easily identifiable. They have logos in prominent places (like on the spine) and want readers to know that books are theirs. These books are not written by indie authors. A book without a logo on its spine is more likely to be indie.

• Do your research

  Search the author name, head to their website, look the book up on Amazon or Goodreads. If you can see a publisher on the front cover, then do a quick Google search for them. You will most likely find the information quickly and easily.

The Silver Sheep - Independently published. Information easily found on Goodreads

Also under 'Product Details' on Amazon

• Turn to the Copyright Page

  If the copyright page does not list a publisher and says something like:

  'Copyright (c) 2025 Author Name'

  then it has most likely been self-published. If it lists a publisher, then you can look them up. Here's a random example:

  

  DreamWarp Publishing?

  A quick Google search tells me that DreamWarp Publishing Ltd has 6 works that are all written by the same author. Self-published.

• Find the publisher

  This leads on from the previous three points. Look for the publisher. It may be listed on the book cover, spine, copyright page, sales page, author website, or somewhere else.

  If the author is listed as the publisher, the book is self-published.

  However, a book can list a publisher that sounds legit, and still be self-published. For example, the author may have made up their own publishing house. Refer back to the previous points and do your research. Look them up.

• Look for an ISBN

  

  ISBN with barcode on the back cover of a paperback

  An ISBN is an International Standard Book Number that will be on the book cover and most likely on the Copyright Page as well.

  If there is no ISBN, then the book is independently published.

  Now, I am an indie author with a self-published book, and my books still have an ISBN. This number can be broken up into parts to identify the product and provide details about it. Part of this number identifies the publisher. According to Self Publishing School, this is the '35' (I think?).

  

  Publisher Code: 35?

  This is all well and good, but when I tried to look up the Publisher Code, I came up with nothing. So instead, I entered the whole ISBN into an online ISBN search tool and BAM! It told me that the book was independently published. Hooray!

  

  Results from an ISBN search

  So, moral of the story: Don't bother trying to break down the ISBN to find the Publisher Code, that's tricky (can anyone enlighten me in the comments?). Instead, use the ISBN search tool and enter a whole ISBN to help you determine if a book is independently published.

• Ask

  Ask the shopkeeper, bookseller, librarian, or whoever/wherever. Don't be shy. It's not a stupid question.

• Use context

  If you're at a market and the author has a table set up trying to sell their own books, they are most likely an indie author. If the author has a handwritten sign in your local shopping centre, then they're probably a self-published indie author. But still, why not refer back to the previous point and ask? I bet the author/stallholder/tableperson will be keen to chat!

  
  

Deliberately seek out indie books

Instead of finding a book and then determining whether it is indie or not, why not be proactive and deliberately search for books by indie authors? You will likely find markets, events, shops and websites specifically for indie books by indie authors, like House of Prose, an online bookstore for Aussie indie authors (I only just found them. Remind me to find out how to get my books in there!).

Indie authors do not have the financial backing and marketing support of a large publishing house. The majority of us are on a pretty tight budget and celebrate every. single. new. reader. (we can see every page read of our Kindle books and can track every sale).

So, not only can you bring joy by choosing to read indie, you also get to discover some brilliant hidden gems that you won't find in the big stores. It's like a secret club for awesome readers!

Welcome to the club, friend!

Much love,

Marley

P.S. Want to read indie and not sure where to start?

Click here to find out more about my book, The Silver Sheep. I have used this book as an example in most of the screenshots throughout this post.

Happy reading! x