Comment by Aerroon

>Many indie works suffer from the same formulaic failings as popular works, so that doesn't seem like a solution either

I think the indie scene for a lot of media is a lot less 'independent' than we might think. This became obvious to me when I noticed the absolutely insane fights that happened on Twitter surrounding young adult literature. (Eg https://reason.com/2019/05/05/teen-fiction-twitter-is-eating...)

Science fiction and fantasy seem to be doing something a bit similar.

I think if you want more independent writers you'll have to go to places like Royalroad or /r/hfy or scribblehub.