Now that the new book platform for based indie books is up and running, it's gaining attention. You may be asking why or even thinking "Finally!" I did too... I just never imagined that person would be me, but I reached a point that I realized someone had to do something. Since no one else was, I did it. That something started as Spotlight on Indie SFF. I've been an indie science fiction and fantasy author since a small press published my first book in 2008. In 2009, I started self-publishing and never looked back. In the 2011-2012 era, I was briefly a bestselling author on Amazon. I qualified for SFWA membership but discontinued after a few years. I have a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and have been a small business owner (still am with Spotlight on Indie, LLC). I've been working as a part-time office manager and conference organizer for a small organization. I know how to manage the minutiae and put it all together! I've loved sci-fi and fantasy since I was a child (and saw the original Return of the Jedi in the theater when it was first released). Both my kids are big into the genres, which is no surprise since both myself and my husband love speculative fiction. I am a Christian before all things, a horseperson of over forty years (and still going, although he's mostly a fat pasture-pet), a cat mom, tea lover (not coffee), and mom to two high school valedictorians. I continue to write and, by the time I finish the last few books of my current series, will have written and published fifty books (mostly novels, but also some novellas and a couple of novelettes). Spotlight on Indie is the result of several years of wanting to do something for readers and writers of fiction to help with matching the right books to the right readers. I don't like certain things in books and tired of DNFing books, so I developed a system of rating content to help readers find just what they want. I was able to make this vision a reality and opened Spotlight on Indie SFF with the help of an amazing professional website developer. It was a simple site, basic in many ways... But I continued to ask for little alterations, and then the tools available to my developer improved and we decided it was time to see how big we could get. All the basic features of the original site are incorporated into the new platform, but we added MUCH more than I ever thought possible, for both readers and authors. Authors submit their books with many more purchase link options than the old site allowed and provide readers with content ratings to help readers determine if a book is right for them, which is the reason for my tagline, The Discerning Reader's Book Resource. In the upgrade, we added far more tools to help readers create recommendation lists from the available books on the site with the types of themes, tropes, settings, tones, and points-of-view they like. For authors, we were able to set up books so they have full control and analytics to track activity on each individual book listed on the site. As an author, I know this is invaluable. Authors can now add far more details of their books, and the site also allows for serial fiction to be listed, so that writers with serialized stories on sites like Royal Road, Substack, or their own blogs can participate in gaining an audience. We also created the platform as a place for the indie community to connect with one another by including a forum and the ability to rate and review each book. I put in the money to make this happen, the culmination of a lifetime of loving books and nearly as long writing them. The goal is to build a catalog that connects readers with exactly the types of stories from the indie community that they want to find; but the books must be based--no modern ideologies. I and my moderators curate the catalog of stories by giving each submission a background check to be sure it's a good fit. Whether you're a self-published author or small press, we're all part of the indie community. Sign-up today! spotlightonindie.com