Askalli: Self-publishing Advice Podcast

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice broadcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it's our monthly IndieVoices' self-publishing salon with interviews conducted by ALLi Managing Editor Howard Lovy and updates from News Editor Dan Holloway. This Month's IndieVoices I’m about to say something with which just about every other person in the publishing industry will disagree. In fact, most will strongly, passionately, with much snooty sarcasm, disagree with what I’m about to say. Ready for it? Everybody has a memoir in them. Not only that, but everybody should write one. There, I said it. Every life is unique, and everybody has a story that only they can tell. As a journalist, what I enjoy most is getting people's stories in their own words. As a book editor, I can help them tell it in a way that brings out their own voice, that will invite others to relive their unique lives with them. With the rise of self-publishing, authors don't need to put up with rejection by acquiring editors who

Welcome to AskALLi, the Self-Publishing Advice Podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it’s our monthly Member Q&A where ALLi Members’ have their most pressing self-publishing questions analyzed and answered. Join your regular hosts for the Member Q&A: Michael La Ronn and Dan Blank. Questions this month include Amazon has made an error in my royalty reports. What do I do? Two part question: 1. In my book, I have included links to YouTube Jazz recordings by jazz greats like Dizzie Gillepsie. Do I have permission to do that? and 2. If I want to copy a website address into a link, does that infringe on copyright? How do I make it easy for a bookstore to carry my book without bearing the financial burden of returns? How do I convert a PDF to a fixed layout ebook? When I launch my book, should I change my spelling to American English? How long should my novel be? Find more author advice, tips and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center: https://selfpublishingadvice.org, with

In this month's Advanced Self-Publishing Salon from the Alliance of Independent Authors, Orna Ross and Joanna Penn discuss the latest news in author-publishing, including the latest publishing trends and opportunities. Topics discussed this week include ALLi is getting ready for Digital Book World and its online advice conference. ALLi is in the middle of its Self-Publishing 3.0 campaign. Joanna is finishing Valley of Dry Bones. What's it like to co-write with your mom? Orna launching two books: poetry and GoCreative! What about Foreign Rights Deals? Is that significant income? CreateSpace is being rolled into KDP Print. What does it mean? Walmart partners with Kobo. How does this impact authors? How many platforms should you use? And more!  Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, http://selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven’t already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at http://allianceindependentauthors.o

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it's our monthly beginners' self-publishing salon with advice, tips, and tools for indie authors just starting out. Topics discussed this week include: What is crowdfunding? Is it a good way to test the viability of your book? Will you get funded if nobody knows you or your work? Is there a financial risk in crowdfunding? What are the different crowdfunding services? How do extra incentives work for crowdfunding donors? And more!  Find more author advice, tips and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center: https://selfpublishingadvice.org, 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. You can do that at http://allianceindependentauthors.org. Now, go write and publish! About the Hosts Jyotsna Ramachandran is the founder of Happy S

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice broadcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it's our monthly IndieVoices' self-publishing salon with interviews conducted by ALLi Managing Editor Howard Lovy and updates from News Editor Dan Holloway. This Month's IndieVoices You or your kids are going back to school now, but as we all know, the excitement comes with anxiety. Financial anxiety. Among the many costs of a college education, one thing that many parents fail to account for is the high cost of textbooks. My guest today is David Harris, editor in chief of OpenStax, based at Rice University, which has a solution to the problem.  David and I discuss how more colleges and universities are using free, open-license textbooks. At OpenStax, they all go through a peer-review process. Students enjoy them because they're free and instructors like the way they can be tailored to individual lessons. Free, open-license textbooks are changing the way we think about educational publishing. News edit

Welcome to AskALLi, the Self-Publishing Advice Podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it’s our monthly Member Q&A where ALLi Members’ have their most pressing self-publishing questions analyzed and answered. Join your regular hosts for the Member Q&A: Michael La Ronn and Dan Blank. Questions this month include How do I get other well-known authors to endorse my books? How do I build relationships with other authors? Is there a standard form and/or process for setting an embargo date when sending out ARCs for reviews? I'd like to translate my book. How would I go about that Crowdfunding my book: should I do it? What tools can I use to format my book for ebook and paperback formats? If I copy-edit my book, do I need a proofreader as well? What about apps like Grammarly for proofreading? Do middle-grade readers prefer to read ebooks or paperbacks? Find more author advice, tips and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center: https://selfpublishingadvice.org, with a huge archi

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it's our monthly beginners' self-publishing salon with advice, tips, and tools for indie authors just starting out. Topics discussed this week include: Publishing a series/catalog of books to become successful; The different kinds of backend businesses authors can have behind the book (coaching/ online courses/ affiliate products); Why it's not a good idea to leave your day job till you become successful; How to calculate the number of books to sell before you break even; How to check how well a book is doing using its Amazon sales rank. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center: https://selfpublishingadvice.org, 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. You can do that at http://allianceinde

In this month's Advanced Self-Publishing Salon from the Alliance of Independent Authors, Orna Ross and Joanna Penn discuss how to refocus your author business. Topics discussed this week include ALLi is pulling together a video and document explaining facts and myths about working with Amazon. Orna is engaged in a great experiment to treat her poetry as she would any work of fiction or nonfiction. Joanna is reading "time slip fiction" and writing a book based on Ezekiel's Valley of the Dry Bones." It's important, as creative entrepreneurs, to map out your time in advance. The challenges of becoming a screenwriter. Ask yourself what you want to be known as. What do you want them to say about you at your funeral? What are the tasks you should outsource? If you build your assets over time, success is inevitable. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, http://selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven’t already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-pub

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice broadcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it's our monthly IndieVoices' self-publishing salon with interviews conducted by ALLi Managing Editor Howard Lovy and updates from News Editor Dan Holloway. This Month's IndieVoices Rachel Thompson is an author and book marketing expert. Her series of books, Broken Pieces and Broken Places, about coming to terms with sexual abuse she suffered as a child, has inspired many other survivors to come out of hiding and seek help. In this episode, Rachel talks about the abuse, but also how writing the books and helping others brought healing after almost a lifetime of guilt and trauma. Her books and online forums have been an inspiration to many other trauma survivors. Also, Dan Holloway discusses the news. Amazon replacing libraries? Also, trouble on Prime Day.    Find more author advice, tips and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center: https://selfpublishingadvice.org, with a huge archive of ne

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it's our monthly beginners' self-publishing salon with advice, tips, and tools for indie authors just starting out. Topics discussed this week include: Financial risks of self-publishing What about bookstore distribution? But don't you get advances with traditional publishers? Do you get the best of both worlds with hybrid publishing? Amazon imprints look for self-published authors Find more author advice, tips and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center: https://selfpublishingadvice.org, 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. You can do that at http://allianceindependentauthors.org. Now, go write and publish! About the Hosts Jyotsna Ramachandran is the founder of Happy Self Publishing and author of the international bes

Welcome to AskALLi, the Self-Publishing Advice Podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it’s our monthly Member Q&A where ALLi Members’ have their most pressing self-publishing questions analyzed and answered. Join your regular hosts for the Member Q&A: Michael La Ronn and Dan Blank. Questions this month include When it comes to CreateSpace, can I use my personal name or the name of my business instead? When it comes to including blurbs from other authors on book covers, should I use “Bestselling author of” or “author of?” How do I start landing speaking engagements? What are some tools I can use to give away my book? Find more author advice, tips and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center: https://selfpublishingadvice.org, 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. You can do that at http://alliancein

In this month's Advanced Self-Publishing Salon from the Alliance of Independent Authors, Orna Ross and Joanna Penn discuss publishing in different genres. Topics discussed this week include Orna talks about the "waves of concern" over Amazon reviews, rank stripping, and book stuffing. ALLi is having private and public meetings with Amazon officials to get to the bottom of the issues. Update on Joanna Penn's many projects, including ebook, print book, audiobook, workbook, and multimedia course … all at the same time. And she is 7,000 words into her next thriller. Orna launches a Patreon page for her poetry and is writing a book on how to write Haiku News update on Donadio & Olson literary agency embezzlement, bringing up the question: Do you really need an agent? Do authors need to pay attention to the business side? What's going on with Amazon reviews? Putting it in perspective, most ALLi members are very happy with Amazon's review system. Joanna and Orna describe the multiple genres in which they write.

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice broadcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it's our monthly IndieVoices' self-publishing salon with interviews conducted by ALLi Managing Editor Howard Lovy and updates from News Editor Dan Holloway. This Month's IndieVoices If you think your kids aren't reading books like you did when you were young, they may just be doing something more important: Reinventing the way books are written and read. It's collaborative, it's a need for instant reaction from friends, and, if you haven't already guessed it, it's Wattpad: A reading and writing and social network service that has your kids' attention, and increasingly, adult writers, too, along with major studios like Netlfix and Hulu, which are adapting Wattpad stories. Today, I'll feature an interview and a reading by Wattpad user Jandra Sutton, a special interview with Ashleigh Gardner, deputy general manager of Wattpad Studios, and of course an update on the indie publishing world with our news edi

This seminar from author AG Billig is from our Self-Publishing Advice Conference.  Literary history abounds in authors who wrote books that stood the test of time. Nowadays, some successful authors launch book after book after book, and never seem to be out of ideas or inspiration. What do they have in common? They are authentic, go beyond the limits of their mind, and don’t question their worth as writers, and their success. They follow their inner compass, enjoy the process of writing, and are happy to offer their gift to the world. If they can do it, you can do it. In this session, you will learn all about their tricks. You will be given practical tools and exercises that will help you to keep your creative juice flowing so that you never have to face writer’s block again. Overcome self-imposed limitations and beliefs regarding your success as a writer, Learn how to use your five senses (and the sixth one, too) to find inspiration on the spot, Enjoy the process of writing (even when it feels lonely). Find

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it's our monthly beginners' self-publishing salon with advice, tips, and tools for indie authors just starting out. Topics discussed this week include: Introducing new co-host Tim Lewis, author of six books and the Begin Self-Publishing Podcast Do you need an editor at all? (Yes. 99.5 percent of all writers do!) Everybody makes mistakes There are different levels of editing, from developmental editing to copy editing and proofreading. Should you go through all the phases of editing? Each has its own purpose. Do beta readers cut down on editing costs? Most 1-Star Amazon reviews are due to typos and grammatical mistakes. If you don't have the money for an editor, try bartering. Does the author have to accept all editors' changes? What editing services are available? A checklist of things to look for in an editor. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center: https:/

Welcome to AskALLi, the Self-Publishing Advice Podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it’s our monthly Member Q&A where ALLi Members’ have their most pressing self-publishing questions analyzed and answered. Join your regular hosts for the Member Q&A: Michael La Ronn and Dan Blank. Questions this month include What is the best way to format bibliography/works cited at the end of my book so that it looks good in ebook and paperback? What is the best way to build a team of publishing professionals around me? Does Alli recommend PublishDrive? (Yes!) Is it possible to distribute a 4x6 book on CreateSpace? How do I go about getting permission to use a song lyric from a famous artist? If you publish books wide, what is the best way to build a readership on smaller platforms that don't offer advertising services? What is the easiest way to build an author website? Find more author advice, tips and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center: https://selfpublishingadvice.org, with

In this month's Advanced Self-Publishing Salon from the Alliance of Independent Authors, Orna Ross and Joanna Penn discuss how to assemble a team of professionals. Topics discussed this week include News update from Orna Ross: Drowning in GDPR, but all ALLi sites are updated and there's a downloadable guide for members. Orna is also setting up for Self-Publishing 3.0, launching a Patreon for poetry, and is finishing up a script. Joanna publishes How To Write Non-Fiction: Turn Your Knowledge Into Words, along with workbook, large-print editions, multimedia course, and audiobook. The difference between trademark and trademark. Has Amazon really banned ARC reviews? No, but there is a communication problem. Is traditional publishing shaking in their boots? When is an author ready to build a team of professionals? What are the different kinds of professionals you need to hire? Be prepared to cut your losses if one of the professionals isn't working out. What should you outsource and what should you do yourself?

In this seminar from our Self-Publishing Advice Conference in London this year, author and publisher Jane Friedman discusses "funding your writing career." Jane talks about scholarships and grants for writers and how to get organizations and patrons to support your projects. This Month's Highlights There are four different approaches to funding your writing. You don't get any money unless you ask. Grants and other "free money." Prove that you can be trusted by producing work. Get your work out there. Have a vision for what you want to do with your writing. What are the common types of grants? How to increase your chances of getting a grant. Identify a specific project. Calculate a realistic goal for crowdfunding. Crowdfunding by the numbers Creating a pitch video Rewards should be affordable and easy to fulfill Donations PayPal and TinyCoffee Recurring donations, such as Petreon. Sponsor-Patron Pay your taxes! Take a look at Jane Friedman's book, The Business of Being a Writer. Find more author advice, tips

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice broadcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it's our monthly IndieVoices' self-publishing salon with interviews conducted by ALLi Managing Editor Howard Lovy and updates from News Editor Dan Holloway. This Month's IndieVoices Claire Baldry of East Sussex, UK, is 63 years old and recently launched a website and Facebook group focused on older readers. It's been increasingly popular as older people look for books that reflect their own experiences. Maggie Christensen, an Australian writer by way of Scotland, Oregon, and California, just wouldn't accept the notion that nobody wants to read about the lives of older people. Dan Holloway updates us on the news, including net neutrality, and the birthdays of Smashwords and Patreon. Dan promises poetry skydiving for June. We'll hold him to that. About the Hosts Howard Lovy has been a journalist for more than 30 years, and has spent the last five years amplifying the voices of independent publishers an