Zivan - Childless Cat Guy<p>I read The Fatness as part of the r/fantasy reading challenge on The StoryGraph. </p><p>A challenge intended to help you diversify your reading. </p><p>The prompt was:</p><p>15. Small Press or Self Published (962 added)</p><p>Read a book published by a small press (not one of the Big Five publishing houses or Bloomsbury) or self-published. If a formerly self-published book has been picked up by a publisher, it only counts if you read it before it was picked up. HARD MODE: The book has under 100 ratings on Goodreads OR written by a marginalized author.</p><p><a href="https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/07d82cd6-23ef-421f-a799-2dc2f3f185fb?scroll_to=fb6f2734-065c-4800-bea8-c040a6f3e85b" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">app.thestorygraph.com/reading_</span><span class="invisible">challenges/07d82cd6-23ef-421f-a799-2dc2f3f185fb?scroll_to=fb6f2734-065c-4800-bea8-c040a6f3e85b</span></a></p><p>Because of my low vision I only read audiobooks, and small press or indie books are often not available in audio. </p><p>There's a whole controversy about audio books read by AI virtual voices, with Audible / Amazon promoting it as a way for indie authors to get their books published in audio format for a lower price. </p><p>As someone who uses assistive tech, I cal already load an e-book into an app Like VoiceDream Reader and have it read to me by a TTS (Text to Speach) engine. </p><p>The trick was getting a book without DRM so I can choose what app I use to read it. </p><p>Here the Fediverse came to my aid. It was on the Fediverse that I learned about SmashWords, a DRM free e-book store and it was through the fedaverse that I follow Mark A. Rayner and know about his novels. </p><p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/audiobooks" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>audiobooks</span></a></span> <br><a href="https://tweesecake.social/tags/StoryGraph" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>StoryGraph</span></a> <a href="https://tweesecake.social/tags/ReadingChallenge" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ReadingChallenge</span></a> <a href="https://tweesecake.social/tags/fediverse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fediverse</span></a> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mas.to/@markarayner" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>markarayner</span></a></span></p>