Self-Publishing with ALLi

In another first for the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and as part of its 2019-2020 season of broadcasts, ALLi launches the first  Self-Publishing Poetry Podcast. For poets, this is a safe online space to read and perform, to get advice about online poetry publishing and creative enterprise, and to get more attention. On the #AskALLi Self-Publishing Poetry Podcast, find: advice  on how t...

Diana Stevan is in her 70s and is beginning to hit her stride as a prolific indie author of novels about family, love, and relationships. Her third self-published book, called Sunflowers Under Fire, is set in WWI and the Bolshevik Revolution. It's based on stories told to her by her mother and it's a finalist for the 2019 Whistler Independent Book Awards, sponsored by the Writers Union of Canada....

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 Orna Ross. Questions this month include: Help! Someone is pirating my book. My publisher went out of busine...

Carmen Klassen has personally gone through transitions that became the inspiration for her series of books about women and how they cope with crisis and change. We live in uncertain times. Professions appear and disappear with changing needs and technology. Our political systems are in turmoil, creating a need for all of us to have some kind of contingency plan for when things go wrong. Every week...

In the first of our new shows comparing the perspectives of fiction and nonfiction, Orna Ross, Adam Croft and Boni Wagner-Stafford discuss when you should brand the author versus when the branding should focus on the book, or the book series. What are the factors to take into account? And what about pen names? Should you have one? Or maybe even more than one? What are the implications? Tune in for...

Today's guest is author H. N. Deeb, a TV writer who also writes  climate science fiction or cli-fi, for young adults. His path was a winding one to Hollywood, where he noticed California's water crisis and wanted to write something that both warned and entertained. Deeb and I discuss why he switched careers from law to writing, and how he's helping to change sci-fi from its sexist past. Along the...

Artificial intelligence sounds like a very futuristic term but you have already experienced it in your author business, from the Amazon algorithm to Google translate. In this Advanced Self-Publishing Salon, ALLi Director Orna Ross and Advisor Joanna Penn of thecreativepenn.com look at some of the AI tools that are already available to us, as indie authors. And those that are likely to prove most u...

Today's guest is Rohan Quine, author of The Beasts of Electra Drive , which was a 2018 finalist for the Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards. With themes of magic realism, technology, horror, LGBTQ characters, it is both a genre and gender-bending indie book. I call him genre-bending because he retrospectively finds labels to apply. That means he just writes, and does not really conc...

It's Week 23 Q2, 2019, halfway through the year. How is your author business doing so far? In this month's AskALLi Advanced Salon, ALLi Director Orna Ross and Enterprise Advisor Joanna Penn discuss how to review what's working and what's not.  How do we marry the year's goals and our life roles? How change is part of the process. How to adapt to changing conditions and challenges without getting d...

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice podcast from the alliance of independent authors. Today, we present a special edition of our podcast for the launch of our Indie Authors' Copyright Bill of Rights. 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 becom...

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 Orna Ross. Questions this month include: What are the best and ethical methods to do a giveaway without usi...

ALLi Director Orna Ross and Author Dan Blank survey seven ways to be a productive writer so you can write and sell more books. Expect lots of research-based advice about how best to prepare body and mind, setting daily priorities, Block out time and shut out distractions. Plus: ways to map and log your progress and give yourself rewards. Here are some highlights: Orna on Surrounding Yourself with...

Joanna Penn, of TheCreativePenn.com , and Orna Ross, director of the Alliance of Independent Authors, explain copyright in this edition of the AskALLi Advanced Self-Publishing Salon. Think copyright is boring? Think again. Copyright controversies have seen people take to the streets in recent months, sign petitions, boycott certain companies, and even black out Wikipedia. As big content, big tech...

Howard Lovy interviews  Maggie Lynch , who writes a series of science fiction books she shares with eight other indie authors, called Obsidian Rim. Their goal is to produce a new book in the series every couple of weeks. Howard and Maggie discuss how the group is appealing to a growing demographic of sci-fi readers: women. Maggie's new book is called Gravity   and it has all the elements of space...

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week,  it's our monthly Self-Publishing Life Salon with Alli Director Orna Ross and author Dan Blank.  They discuss the importance of finding your rhythm and balance across the days and weeks.  Orna proposes a three-part planning system that takes account of processing, promotion as well as produc...

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 Orna Ross. Questions this month include: How do you go about finding a translator for your book? How would...

Hello and welcome to Self-Publishing Poetry the online open-mic and advice clinic from Orna Ross, poet, author and director of the Alliance of Independent Authors. Every month, Orna hosts a poet who is doing remarkable things, offers advice on self-publishing poetry and facilitates an eclectic open mic.  The featured guest this month is Helen Eastman, director of LiveCanon.co.uk , who talks about...

On the AskALLi Beginners' Self-Publishing Salon, ALLi Director Orna Ross and Monash University Associate Law Professor Rebecca Giblin look at copyright matters.  "What's really essential here is how we divide up the pie," Rebecca says. "The copyright is all of the financial, the economic rights that an author has in their work and that needs to sustain them and it needs to protect their interests....

On today's Inspirational Indie Authors, Howard Lovy interviews Selfie-Award-winning author Jane Davis. We don't have very many rock stars in the indie publishing world, but a few have risen to the top with a reputation for producing wonderfully written, compelling books that stand out as great literature, no matter what label you put on it. One of them is Davis, who was recently recognized as one...

Joanna Penn, of TheCreativePenn.com , and Orna Ross, director of the Alliance of Independent Authors, explain how to scale your author business without compromising your creativity or giving up on your life. Topics discussed this week include: What you really want Diversity of products Multiple streams of income How to build positive routines Tools and teams And more! Find more author advice, tips...

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week, it's our monthly Writing Salon, where we discuss the craft of writing with author Dan Blank and ALLi Director Orna Ross. This week, Orna and Dan talk about managing all of a writer's assets. As writers, we think about the work we need to do to create our books but perhaps not enough about th...

On today's Inspirational Indie Authors interview, journalist Howard Lovy talks to Steff Green. She's a paranormal romance author, teaches self-publishing courses, and is also a children's author who just Kickstarted a Gothic Picture Book. It's a book about bullying called Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones.   Steff talks about how she was bullied as a child due to her blindness, which gave her a d...

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 Orna Ross. Questions this month include: Is it worth displaying my book at BookExpo? Which is better for bo...

On the AskALLi Beginners' Self-Publishing Salon, Orna Ross and Tim Lewis look at editing. Money spent on editing is not just a necessary investment in your book but also in your writing and publishing future. Every writer needs an editor, but getting the most from your investment can be challenging, especially when you're starting out.  Orna and Tim explain how to decide which type of edit you nee...

Howard Lovy takes a close look at Inspirational Indie Authors. This isn't about their business model, their marketing, or even how many books they've sold. It's about their writing, and what indie authors have to say. Today's interview is with Yvonne Caputo, author of  Flying with Dad: A Daughter, A Father, and how his World War II Stories Brought them Closer.  Growing up, Yvonne did not have a ve...