antasy. The inexplicable. The paranormal. Tales from beyond our world have gripped us for centuries. The Victorians loved to recount ghost stories around a fire. So much so, it became a holiday tradition: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens might have been one such ghostly tale.

The inexplicable still has a magnetic effect. It brings people together in the quest for stories that spread far and wide. I can’t forget when the “girls in seventh grade” performed a Ouija board* session in the graveyard right next to my middle school. The news spread like wildfire, and we still spoke of it years afterwards. Twenty-eight years later, there’s every chance it’s entered local folklore.

*Disclaimer: Never ever conduct a Ouija board session, you’ll scare yourself.

Ghost hunters, séances and the ghost and vampire tour groups snaking through many cities after dark aren’t just people “trying to see a ghost.” It’s a collective quest for something equally foreign and captivating to us. A group search for a story we cannot rationally explain but will delight in our compulsion to tell, tell and retell. The exact same energy drives the magazine Indie Bites.

Dedicated to short, bite-size fiction and poetry in the fantasy genre, the not-for-profit quarterly enables indie authors to “share each other’s work” with their fan bases. This approach of “collaborative indie marketing” gives the stories’ outreach some teeth and helps the magazine in its core aim: “to simply get our authors’ stories read.”

Indie Bites was created from a potion of frustration and intuition. Editor Josie Jaffrey grew tired of “throwing her own short stories out into the void,” and she figured indie authors may appreciate a more concrete collaboration beyond “the usual newsletter swaps and marketing groups.” Today, Josie directs Indie Bites alongside fellow editor Adie Hart. It is published via the Silver Sun Books website, where readers can download eBook versions of the magazine absolutely free. Print copies are also available on Amazon at print cost.

Readers can expect to find work by independent authors from all over the world, covering every nook and cranny of the fantasy genre: ghosts, mermaids, curses, and vampires to name but a few. Averaging an estimated 50-percent acceptance rate, Indie Bites publishes between five and ten of the editors’ “mutual favorites from all the submissions received,” none of which exceed 7,500 words. Each issue has a dual theme—like Hexes and Heroes—and submissions are invited that address one or both halves of it.

WOW: Welcome Josie and Adie. As the editors of Indie Bites, what does "indie” mean to you? I think of it as meaning independent and going against the grain of something, being a little underground, offbeat, and undiscovered. Is that accurate?

Josie: Indie in the context of Indie Bites means simply not published by a traditional publisher. We and our contributors are independent in that sense. We are also underground, offbeat, and undiscovered, but those descriptors are a factor of our limited reach (we just don’t have the marketing budget of larger outfits), rather than being an intrinsic part of the nature of Indie Bites. Even if we had millions of readers (which we would love!), we would still be just as indie as we are now.

WOW: It would be amazing to have millions of readers! Breaking into traditional publishing deals with larger budgets seems to be increasingly harder. Many larger publishers with big marketing deals are giving celebrity book deals. This seems to make it even harder for new writers to become traditionally published. Did this motivate your decision to start Indie Bites, to cater to those authors who may well get overlooked?

Josie: The publishing market is oversaturated. I don’t think that’s controversial. There are far more authors with brilliant stories than there are resources for traditional publishers to publish those stories, in part because celebrity authors are increasingly paid enormous advances that leave little in the pot for those who write for a living. Those authors also tend to attract a lot of the marketing budget, which means there’s not much left to be spent on the midlist authors who arguably need the publicity more. But the publishing professionals (agents, editors, the whole bunch) who work so hard on their authors’ books are also overstretched and underpaid, leaving the whole industry in something of a mess. In those circumstances, it’s hardly surprising that a lot of authors might choose to reject the traditional publishing structure and take control of the publication of their work themselves.

I don’t think it’s fair to describe indie authors as “overlooked.” There’s a perception that authors only self-publish when they can’t get their work published by a traditional publisher, and this is one of the fallacies Indie Bites aims to confront and dispel by showing just how incredible (and publishable) the work of many indie authors is. Although some authors might try traditional publishers first, there are countless reasons why authors might self-publish, and you’d be surprised how many of them deliberately choose self-publishing over traditional publishing, even when they have been offered traditional publishing deals. The main reason I’ve come across for that is that self-publishing gives you a huge amount of control. The authors who choose that route can get right on top of their advertising and publication strategies, and they often make very respectable money from their work. Indie Bites gives them a platform to get their writing in front of new readers, as an additional thread to add to their overall marketing strategy.

Adie: I agree—like a lot of people, I grew up thinking that the only way to be an author was to be traditionally published, but actually, it’s incredibly lucky that now we have a thriving indie publishing scene that offers something different. I choose self-publishing not because I feel like my work would be overlooked; I genuinely enjoy being able to create a book myself. I can choose my own cover; I can hire editors I know will click with my work; I can control my own timelines; I can interact with my own readers. I think a lot of indie authors feel the same—for many people, it’s about which system suits you better personally for what you want to do with your work.

WOW: These choices are huge for authors—there’s no doubt. Being in charge of these creative decisions fits in with the generalization that indie (music, radio) automatically means being more artistic and less commercially orientated. Is this true of the writing you publish?

Josie: It doesn’t follow that the writing of indie authors is necessarily less commercial. We really aren’t aiming to publish less commercial writing. In fact, putting aside the fact that short fiction is always a harder sell than novel-length writing, we often end up picking the more commercial pieces from the submissions we receive, simply because we enjoy them more. The writing of indie authors is saleable, and much of it sells very well indeed.

Adie: One thing I do love about Indie Bites is that we choose our stories based solely on how much we enjoy them. We aren’t putting the magazine together thinking that we need big names to sell issues; we’ve published, and will continue to publish, many first pieces by new authors, simply because they’ve impressed us. You don’t need any connections to get a story into Indie Bites; you just need to be a great writer.

WOW: That’s great news! One thing you do is foster amazing connections through Indie Bites. You’ve mentioned the “principles of collaborative indie marketing.” Sharing the newsletter and the publication far and wide on social media is a cornerstone of the project. Is there a fanbase/fan group mentality behind your publication?

Josie: I don’t think I’d describe it as a fan group mentality. Because although we love it when our readers share the magazine, collaborative indie marketing is all about authors gathering together to share each others’ work in order to tap into each others’ fanbases, and not expecting readers to do it for us. The “collective” is our contributors, not our readers, and the “same interest” is getting our stories in front of readers. The drive is really a commercial rather than a social one.

Adie: We’re often fans of each other, as well! I actually first became friends with Josie after reading one of her books and messaging her to chat about it, and we’ve been lucky enough to feature stories and interviews from some of our favorite indie authors, too. Some of our submissions have come from people who’ve discovered the magazine because they enjoy a single author’s pre-existing work. I really enjoy the fluidity of the indie fantasy scene, that authors and readers (and author-readers!) often have a level of community and dialogue that feels more organic than what can necessarily happen between traditionally published authors and their fans.

Josie: That really is one of the best parts of what we do. If nothing else, Indie Bites gives us a glimpse into the sheer talent and breadth of imagination indie authors bring to the table, and that’s really exciting. It’s a pleasure to read everyone’s stories and to find new, favorite authors. I’m definitely a fan of Adie’s work, to name just one!

WOW: Great to see the collaboration is really working! Does the fun die out if you find too many new, favorite authors? Is there a sense of fun if contributors in your club read the stories you feature, and it’s not in the mainstream?

Josie: Not at all! We would love to be in the mainstream to reach more readers and spread the stories of our wonderful author contributors, but it’s an oversaturated marketplace, and the hard truth is that it’s difficult to reach readers without a huge marketing budget. Because we’re a not-for-profit anthology, we don’t have any budget at all, so we rely on our authors sharing our issues in their newsletters and on social media.

WOW: That makes sense and is a cool model. Sharing stories through word of mouth has also enabled so many ghost stories to transcend the ages. Their mysterious nature has long compelled people to tell them and keep them alive. Is it this addictive, suspenseful quality that attracts you to fantasy? Or is it something else?

Josie: If you want to highlight just how ridiculous some commonly-accepted constructs of our society are, you can’t do any better than translating them into fantasy and letting your characters poke at them. It’s a great way to expose the absurdity of real life, and to escape it at the same time. Sometimes you want a political allegory, and sometimes you want a cozy story about a badly-behaved wizard’s cat. Fantasy (and Indie Bites!) can give you both.

Adie: For me, I just can’t imagine not reading fantasy! I already have a normal life, why wouldn’t I want to imagine one where I can ride dragons or do magic or live in a castle? And since the very birth of fiction, people have been adding magical spice to their stories; I love that all fantasy sort of belongs to this long lineage of mythology and folklore and fairy tales and other pre-existing elements. Fantasy is a conversation with every fantasy author that’s gone before, no matter what your sub-genre is.

Also, I think fantasy is a wonderful vehicle to explore human nature (even if your characters aren’t human!). In fantasy, you can throw anything at a character, which allows all sorts of metaphors and interesting thoughts to be investigated. In various issues of Indie Bites, you’ll find brutal takedowns of patriarchy expressed through Greek mythology and fairy tale mirror worlds; vampirism as a metaphor for disability; the uncertainty of being a new adult adapting to the workforce (except that workforce is a magical militia); how neurodivergence affects wizardry; the agonies and delights of queer life, as experienced by everyone from royals to dragons to airship pirates. Fantasy is imagination, pure and simple, and it offers so, so much to authors and readers alike.

WOW: You’re so right! What great stories to explore on Indie Bites. Fantasy, ghost stories, and our interest in them serve as a lens on human behavior. Sometimes the barrier between humans and fantasy creatures becomes very blurred! Ghost stories tell us a lot about what life used to be like and the values people used to hold for example. I’ve noticed that ghost stories have long captivated human imagination, but seemingly every reported ghost is of a Victorian or Edwardian. Why do you think this is? You hardly ever hear a story of a Bronze/Stone Age ghost!

Adie: Actually, we’ve always had ghosts and ghost stories as long as we’ve had humans! The Ancient Greeks and Romans were huge on ghost stories that featured their own contemporary ghosts. If you’re looking for more modern tales involving ghosts from eras outside the Victorian/Edwardian, I really recommend starting with Strange Relics from the fabulous indie publisher Handheld Press, which deals with a number of archaeological supernatural happenings from a variety of time periods—Bronze/Stone Age included!

Josie: And of course we have a bunch of more modern fantasy ghost stories in our Ghosts Guilds issue, available here: www.silversunbooks.com/post/ghosts-guilds-issue-5

WOW: Plenty of supernatural offerings from indie writers there! Why have you chosen to work mainly with self-and unpublished authors, as well as those published by hybrid and small presses?

Josie: Adie and I are both self-published authors, so Indie Bites is a publication by indie authors for indie authors. Its sole purpose is to reach as many readers as possible, at zero cost to our contributors. In order to reach a wider audience, we don’t charge for ebook copies of the magazine, and we only charge for print copies at print cost. That means we run at a loss, and we can only offer our contributors an honorarium by way of payment for their work. For indie authors (like us) who are looking to build their audiences and spread their work far and wide as part of their marketing plans, it's worth it, but that model only makes sense when the contributors are indie authors.

Adie: I don’t think it can be overstated how helpful it is to be able to tap into other authors’ readerships in the indie world. In traditional publishing, this is often done with comp titles in the marketing (“for readers of X series and Y author”); while indie publishing uses this too, with Indie Bites we hope to offer more direct link-ups as well, which works well with our more organic audiences. For example, Josie’s work will probably appeal to fans of DN Bryn and vice versa, as they both write darkly humorous, heartfelt vampire stories. So Indie Bites gives us the chance to put their work directly in front of each other’s fans, which benefits both authors and their readers!

WOW: That’s lovely because so-called “comparison-itis” can often makes authors feel disillusioned, thinking they cannot find new readers. Do you put the work in front of judges as well? Does Indie Bites run contests, events, podcasts, and social media channels outside of the immediate publication?

Josie: We’re on Twitter and Instagram, and Adie handles Indie Bites communication on Blue Sky through her own account. We do have a podcast, Indie Soundbites, where we have audio versions of a few of our early stories. We’re winding that down now, though, and we’re unlikely to continue with it. The costs are simply too high for a not-for-profit like us.

WOW: Let’s learn a little bit about you! What have you written and where we can find it?

Josie: I have ten novels published so far across four different series, plus a bunch of short stories in various collections. I published my first novel in 2015, so I’ve been going a while. I don’t write or publish particularly quickly for a self-publisher—the most successful indie authors put out at least four books a year. I’m currently working on the third book in my Seekers series, a vampire detective series set in Oxford. You can find that, and all my other books, here: www.josiejaffrey.com/books

Adie: At the moment I only have short fiction published, but I’m working on my first novel, Uncursed, which is a cozy fantasy rom-com that will be the first in a series of linked standalones. I hope to release that in 2024. My short stories are mostly fairly lighthearted fantasy in a variety of settings; my two primary series are set in my District Witch world, which has tongue-in-cheek takes on fairy tale tropes, and my Scholarium world, which features thieves, necromancers, and a wizarding university. I’m also the co-editor of the upcoming Once Upon a Spring and Once Upon an Autumn anthologies from Macfarlane Lantern Press! You can find all my short stories here: www.adiehart.wordpress.com/stories/

WOW: Nice work, and I’m sure our readers will be excited to check out your websites. And if a wizarding student with unlimited access to the Union bar could translate Indie Bites to a cocktail, what would the ingredients be?

Adie: I’m not sure you’d end up with something drinkable! Josie’s end of the genre is sort of darker, more classic, and more mature, like a Jack and Coke, whereas if my end of the genre is anything it would be an incredibly sweet and sparkly party drink—maybe a blue WKD! I think perhaps Indie Bites is more of a well-stocked bar: we can find something different for anyone whatever their tastes.

Josie: I think this is where Adie and I show our age! She’s a decade younger than I am, so I think of the dark stories as more of an alcohol-heavy cocktail like a Manhattan, and her wonderful light stories as something sparkly and fresh, like a Mojito. Either way, our menu is extensive!

Thank you, Jodie and Adie, for a glimpse inside the world of fantasy at Indie Bites. WOW readers, you can check this out for yourself here: www.silversunbooks.com

If you want to get involved, here are some current submission slots:

Issue 13 (February 2024) – THEME: ROYALS & ROGUES SUBMISSION DEADLINE: December 31, 2023

Issue 14 (May 2024) – THEME: WISHES & WIZARDS SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 31, 2024

Submit short fiction up to 7,500 words to indiebitesanthology[at]gmail[dot]com using the subject line SUBMISSION: [Title] by [your name]. See the website for further submission requirements: www.silversunbooks.com/authors

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Rosie MacLeod is a London-based translator, interpreter and reporter. She has made reports for Global Radio and regularly reports for ShoutOut UK and East London Radio. She has written for Drunk Monkeys, World Literature Today, Inside Over and the Journal of Austrian Studies. You can listen to her radio work here: www.mixcloud.com/rosie-macleod. She tweets as @RosieMacLeod4. Get in touch via LinkedIn. Website: rosiemacleod.com. Instagram: @rosie.macleod.3