Self–published novels: where to start?

I read my first self-published novel last week: Kerry Wilkinson's Locked In. Self-publishing is an area I've been utterly intrigued by, in the past – intrigued by what self-published authors can achieve on their own, the frankly phenomenal sales heights, the millions of fans some of them can attract. But my intrigue has never, until now, led to reading one of these books. Call it snobbery, but I've so much to read anyway that I haven't had the time, or inclination, to pick up something which has most likely only been through the filter of one person's brain.

Locked In has changed my mind. Expecting little, I was pleasantly surprised. One of the self-publishing hits of last year – Wilkinson says the series has sold around 300,000 copies to date – it's a perfectly serviceable thriller. Sometimes the prose is a bit clunky. Sometimes it's all a bit obvious. But it's no worse than the serried ranks of perfectly serviceable thrillers churned out by traditional publishers, and sometimes it's better – fresher.

So I'm keen to dip my toe a little further into the self–publishing waters, to see what else is out there. Problem is, I'm not sure where to start. In the absence of any better ideas, I'm going to take a look at some of the self-published books which are doing best on Amazon.

High on its free chart this morning are Mary Campisi's A Family Affair, Debby Conrad's Love, Lies and High Heels and Michael Weems' Border Crossings. I've ignored the Barbara Freethy and the Edie Claire because they were originally traditionally published, so the books I've highlighted are respectively second, third and fifth in Amazon's free charts. That means people are reading them, but does it mean they are any good? I'm going to ignore my instincts, which say no, and find out for myself.

I'll report back next week. And in the meantime, if you have suggestions for other self-published novels that I should take a look at, then let me know. It's an area we on Guardian books are keen to get to grips with, but it's so vast and nebulous – new statistics show there were almost 250,000 books self-published last year – we're not quite sure how to tackle it. Any guidance would be much appreciated, so tell us about the gems we're missing out on, and we'll see what we can do.