What I could do with is a nice list of indie authors whose books have been read by someone with equally high standards, so at least I'd know that the author concerned knows how to tell a story. Then I only have to worry about avoiding books with too-stupid-to-live female protagonists.
Good indies do exist, though, so don't despair. I've found some, varying between "can't tell the difference between this one and a good trad-published book" and "not quite as polished as a trad book, but all the right elements are there". To be fair, I'd take good plot and characterisation over polished prose any day (although, like apple pie and ice-cream, both together is better).
Like it or not, indie publishing is the way the industry is going: with digital reading on the up, and print-on-demand technology available, it's becoming increasingly difficult to define what a publisher can provide for an author that the author cannot (with a certain amount of up-front investment) get for themselves - especially when one bears in mind that newbie trad authors don't get much in publicity from their publisher, according to what I've heard.
I don't suppose anybody knows of a list of indie SFF authors who are comparable in quality to tradpub?
