Interview: SelfPubCon26 Looks at What's Working Now and What's Next with Howard Lovy and Kayleigh Brindley

On this week's Self-Publishing News podcast, a hoarse ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway covers Amazon's new KDP limit of two titles per week per format — down from ten, and another move aimed at the flood of AI-generated content. He also looks at a study suggesting AI detector Pangram may be more accurate than its critics claim, and at the SCBWI's tightened AI policy, which will ask award entrants to document the human creative process behind their work. About the Host Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet, and spoken word artist. He is the MC of the performance arts show The New Libertines, He competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Royal Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is   available on Kindle.

In this special episode of Self-Publishing with ALLi, Howard Lovy interviews Kayleigh Brindley, ALLi's conference and communications manager, about what authors can expect from SelfPubCon26, taking place online October 17–18. Kayleigh discusses this year's theme, "The Future of Self-Publishing: What's Working Now & What's Next," and highlights sessions on AI, book marketing, crowdfunding, European markets, and building an author team. She also explains the conference's expanded networking opportunities, this year's prize draw, and the Indie Author Lab workshop with Orna Ross following the conference on October 19. Show Notes Register for SelfPubCon26 Enter the SelfPubCon Prize Draw Purchase a SelfPubCon access pass — scroll to the bottom of the page Learn more about Orna Ross's Indie Author Lab Join the Alliance of Independent Authors About the Host Author Howard Lovy has been a journalist for 40 years, and now amplifies the voices of independent author-publishers and works with authors as a developmental editor. Find Howard at howardlovy.com, LinkedIn and X. About the Guest Kayleigh Brindley is a virtual assistant who started Admin Angels UK in 2013 with the aim of helping small business owners and authors achieve a better work-life balance. Kayleigh joined the ALLi team in 2018 as a social media administrator. She now works on ALLi comms and the annual Self-Publishing Advice Conference. When she's not working or spending time with her family, Kayleigh spends most of her time reading, running Dungeons and Dragons games, and writing stories about magic.

My guest this episode is Luke Richardson, a former journalist, nightclub DJ, and English teacher who turned his love of travel and adventure into a career as a full-time indie author. Luke visits the places he writes about, drawing on their history, atmosphere, and people to create globe-trotting thrillers. He also approaches publishing as a business and builds a close relationship with his readers. Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of 2,000+ blog posts, and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. We invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. About the Host Howard Lovy is an author, developmental editor, and writing coach with a long career in journalism and publishing. He works with writers at many stages of their careers, with a focus on helping them develop their ideas and strengthen their work while preserving their unique voices. He lives in Northern Michigan. About the Guest Luke Richardson is the author of international thrillers that blend history, mystery, and adventure in exotic locations. A former English teacher and lifelong traveler, he brings his real-life adventures to the page—and to podcasts—sharing insights on storytelling, creativity, and far-off places. You can find him on his website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

On this week's Self-Publishing News podcast, ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway covers Spotify's Partner Program expanding to 35 more markets, a self-published audiobook making the Speakies shortlist — and what the sponsor list says about Audible's standing. He closes with "AI in the Wild," a new study of 500,000 prompts showing readers are using AI to write fiction for themselves, raising the question of whether the biggest AI threat to writers comes from readers. Show Notes AI Fiction in the Wild About the Host Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet, and spoken word artist. He is the MC of the performance arts show The New Libertines, He competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Royal Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is   available on Kindle.

In this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, internationally renowned glass artist Mark Eliott joins Anna Featherstone to show how a published book doesn't need to stay in a fixed format over the years. Mark's Essence of Cloud project began as improvised glass cloud sculptures, grew into a novel and an art exhibition, and now, years later, has taken on a new form as a special-edition e-book with new nonfiction and visual elements. You'll hear about working with artistic collaborators and about flexibility and fluidity in production and distribution decisions. Sponsor This podcast is proudly sponsored by Gatekeeper Press — your partner in premium independent publishing. Empowering authors with expert guidance, 100% rights, 100% royalties, and global distribution. From editing to marketing, their all-inclusive services help you publish professionally and confidently. Gatekeeper Press — Where Authors Are Family. About the Host Anna Featherstone is ALLi's nonfiction adviser and an author advocate and mentor. A judge of The Australian Business Book Awards and Australian Society of Travel Writers awards, she's also the founder of Bold Authors and presents author marketing and self-publishing workshops for organizations, including Byron Writers Festival. Anna has authored books including how-to books and memoirs, and her book Look-It's Your Book! about writing, publishing, marketing, and leveraging nonfiction is on the Australian Society of Authors recommended reading list. When she's not being bookish, Anna's into bees, beings, and the big issues of our time. About the Guest Mark Eliott, author of Essence of Cloud, is an Australian artist whose glass work is held in private and public collections including the Corning Museum of Glass, the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft in Denmark, the Sculptureum in New Zealand, the National Gallery of Australia, and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, where he won the 2019 Tom Malone Prize. His work ranges from sculptural abstraction and biological representation to mythology and storytelling, often incorporating text, sound, wood, graphics, performance, and scent. Trained first as a jazz saxophonist at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he went on to earn a Master of Studio Arts and a Master of Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts. He teaches glass flame-work in his studio at Among the Trees, Marrickville, and lives with his partner Manjit in Sydney. You can find Mark on his website and Instagram.

In this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Member Q&A podcast, hosts Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black discuss whether a pricey Kirkus review is worth it for an author trying to get into bookstores, or whether that money is better spent on ads, a stronger cover, or a small print run for influencers. Other questions include: What should authors know about selling foreign translation rights, and which sub-rights should they try to keep? How long a term should you license, and why are translation contracts stretching from five years to seven or ten? Can you send out ARCs before you have a cover design? What do you do when KDP blocks your account without explanation? How do you find an ALLi partner who is good at marketing, and which marketing services are actually worth paying for? Should authors learn to market themselves before outsourcing it, and could AI make keywords and categories obsolete? And more! Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-Publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of nearly 2,000 blog posts and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. About the Hosts Michael La Ronn is ALLi's Outreach Manager. He is the author of over 80 science fiction & fantasy books and self-help books for writers. He writes from the great plains of Iowa and has managed to write while raising a family, working a full-time job, and even attending law school classes in the evenings (now graduated!). You can find his fiction at www.michaellaronn.com and his videos and books for writers at www.authorlevelup.com. Sacha Black is a bestselling and competition winning author, rebel podcaster, speaker and casual rule breaker. She writes fiction under a secret pen name and other books about the art of writing. When Sacha isn't writing, she runs ALLi's blog. She lives in England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son. You can find her on her website, her podcast, and on Instagram.

On this week's Self-Publishing News podcast, ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway sorts through new Authors Guild clarifications on the Anthropic settlement: payments should still begin trickling through from November, but rights-reversion disputes are clouding who gets paid what, and authors whose rights reverted by August 10, 2022 are advised to claim their full 100 percent share. He also covers Spotify taking its ElevenLabs-powered audiobook creation tool out of beta for all US authors — free for five titles, with no exclusivity — and a new Frankfurter Buchmesse report finding that only 15 percent of audiobooks are made with no AI at all. Show Notes Authors Guild guidance on the settlement About the Host Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet, and spoken word artist. He is the MC of the performance arts show The New Libertines, He competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Royal Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is  available on Kindle.  

My guest this episode is Sheila M. Averbuch, a former journalist and technology publisher who spent years pursuing her dream of writing for children. More recently, she embraced independent publishing as a way to share what she learned from her own long and sometimes difficult path to publication and to help other writers along the way. Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of 2,000+ blog posts, and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. We invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. About the Host Howard Lovy is an author, developmental editor, and writing coach with a long career in journalism and publishing. He works with writers at many stages of their careers, with a focus on helping them develop their ideas and strengthen their work while preserving their unique voices. He lives in Northern Michigan. About the Guest Sheila M. Averbuch is the author of middle-grade thriller Friend Me (Scholastic Press New York) and Pitch Your Book (ENNclick Editions) and is the UK's first pitching champion for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI.) She holds degrees from Harvard and Stanford universities and a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust, and she co-founded the SCBWI network in Scotland. Sheila lives with her family near Edinburgh, Scotland. You can find her on her website and Instagram.

On this week's Self-Publishing News podcast, ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway looks at the retro tech boom driving an unexpected CD revival — and what Gen Z's love of physical media means for print books. He then digs into a contested new study, cited by the AAP and Authors Guild, that links rising library e-lending to falling print sales, and reminds indie authors they set their own library pricing through OverDrive. He closes with an invitation to take Gotham Ghostwriters' second AI and Writing survey. Show Notes AI Writing Survey About the Host Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet, and spoken word artist. He is the MC of the performance arts show The New Libertines, He competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Royal Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is  available on Kindle.

On the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, host Howard Lovy talks to editor and author Roz Morris about what professional editing really costs and what authors get for their money. They discuss how editors set their rates, hourly versus fixed pricing, why some manuscripts require more work than others, choosing the right editor for your book, and why using AI before hiring an editor can sometimes prove to be a false economy. Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of 2,000+ blog posts, and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. We invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. About the Host Howard Lovy is an author, developmental editor, and writing coach with a long career in journalism and publishing. He works with writers at many stages of their careers, with a focus on helping them develop their ideas and strengthen their work while preserving their unique voices. He lives in Northern Michigan. About the Guest Roz Morris is ALLi's editor in chief. She is also a novelist, memoirist, and professional story whisperer. She is the author of acclaimed literary novels with big emotional canvases and memoirs that find meaning in unadventures. She is also a developmental editor and writing coach and has helped shape books that have sold more than four million copies, some of them from behind the scenes as a ghostwriter. She is the creator of the Nail Your Novel series for writers and the blog of the same name. She has judged literary prizes, including the Amazon Kindle Storyteller Award and the Vine Leaves Press New Voices Competition, and has taught master classes for The Guardian in London and Jane Friedman's online academy. Find her at her website.