Self-Publishing with ALLi

On this episode of Self-Publishing with ALLi, Dan Holloway reports that audiobook sales grew 9 percent in the US and 10 percent in the UK in 2025 — a return to double-digit growth — but cautions that active titles grew even faster, meaning many individual authors are getting a smaller slice of a bigger pie. He also questions a suspiciously low 0.03 percent figure for AI-narrated audiobook sales, and examines an Authors Guild survey finding that only a quarter of readers paid for the book they were reading last month, with library lending and "other sources," including piracy, making up much of the rest.

Sponsor

Self-Publishing News is proudly sponsored by PublishMe—helping indie authors succeed globally with expert translation, tailored marketing, and publishing support. From first draft to international launch, PublishMe ensures your book reaches readers everywhere. Visit publishme.me.

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.

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 Amelia Ross, a developmental editor and children's librarian who specializes in KidLit, about what authors need to know when writing for young readers. Amelia explains the differences between board books, picture books, early readers, chapter books, middle grade, and YA, and why age categories matter. She also discusses authentic voice, age-appropriate content, the role of illustrations, and why children's books work best when lessons emerge naturally through story and character.

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

Amelia Denyven Ross is a developmental editor for KidLit authors. She has an MFA in children's literature and has studied fiction for young readers for twenty years. During that time, she has also worked with children and teens in public libraries and schools, where she has led story times, facilitated book clubs, and mentored teen writers. Now, as a freelance editor, she splits her time between the library and working remotely from her home in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Amelia is an active member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, the Editorial Freelancers Association, and the Alliance of Independent Authors.

Germany is the third-largest book market in the world, and unlike the English-language market, it is not yet saturated. Skye MacKinnon has turned her second publishing language into her bestselling one across three pen names and more than seventy translated titles. In this conversation about the newly released second edition of her book, Self-Publishing in German, she tells indie authors how to decide which of their books to translate first, where AI earns its keep and where it quietly ruins things, and how on earth you market a book in a language you don't speak.

Show Notes

• Skye MacKinnon's store
• Skye's author resources page

Sponsor

Our Creative Self-Publishing stream is brought to you by Orna Ross's Go Creative! program—helping authors harness the power of creative flow in writing and publishing.

About the Host

Orna Ross launched the Alliance of Independent Authors at the London Book Fair in 2012. Her work for ALLi has seen her named as one of The Bookseller's "100 top people in publishing". She also publishes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and is greatly excited by the democratizing, empowering potential of author-publishing. For more information about Orna, visit her website.

About the Guest

Skye MacKinnon is a USA Today bestselling author, self-publishing educator, and translation expert who has published more than ninety books across multiple pen names and genres. A former journalist and science communicator, she is known throughout the indie author community for her work on wide publishing, foreign-language translations, and international book marketing. Through her books, coaching, and leadership in the Wide for the Win community, she helps authors expand their reach beyond the English-language market, drawing on her own experience publishing more than seventy translated titles in German.

On this episode of Self-Publishing with ALLi, Dan Holloway reports on a week dominated by good news for readers and indie authors alike. He covers new social reading partnerships — Kobo with StoryGraph, and Everand with Fable — that let readers track, share, and experience books together. He reports on the American Booksellers Association's announcement that indie bookstore membership has hit its highest level since the 1990s, driven largely by single-genre stores focused on romance, fantasy, and romantasy. And he ends with a personal highlight: a new romantasy bookstore called Bad Girl Books is opening in Oxford — in the former Albion Beatnik space — with a specific welcome for self-published authors.

Sponsor

Self-Publishing News is proudly sponsored by PublishMe—helping indie authors succeed globally with expert translation, tailored marketing, and publishing support. From first draft to international launch, PublishMe ensures your book reaches readers everywhere. Visit publishme.me.

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.

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 member-first Q&A on the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, ALLi nonfiction adviser Anna Featherstone walks authors through how to write, publish, and promote nonfiction that sells—covering how to test market demand, what makes a book stand out, and the most common pricing and production mistakes. She shares practical, low-cost marketing tactics, from direct outreach and library events to writing ready-made stories that overstretched newsrooms welcome.

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.

My guest this episode is Michael Maloof, author of award-winning thrillers about a former CIA analyst drawn into conspiracies that stretch across continents. Michael brings to his fiction a background in technology, entrepreneurship, global travel, and real-world tactical training. His books combine action, technology, emotional stakes, and a strong female lead who refuses to back down.

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

Michael Maloof is the award-winning author of the Kate Preacher thriller series, including Relentless, Unstoppable, and Defiant. His globe-spanning thrillers blend international intrigue, emotional stakes, and authentic tradecraft, earning praise for their intensity and realism. Having traveled to more than forty countries across six continents and trained alongside elite military and intelligence professionals, he brings a rare level of authenticity to his work. A serial entrepreneur and lifelong adventurer, Michael writes stories shaped by risk, determination, and discovery.

On this episode of Self-Publishing with ALLi, Dan Holloway reports on Spotify's investor day, where the company credited its Page Match feature for a 60 percent rise in audiobook listening hours, notes ElevenLabs' quiet expansion as a listening platform in its own right, and examines a troubling trend in AI copyright class actions — where increasingly narrow eligibility requirements around ISBN registration and Copyright Office filings are leaving many indie and overseas authors out of the picture.

Sponsor

Self-Publishing News is proudly sponsored by PublishMe—helping indie authors succeed globally with expert translation, tailored marketing, and publishing support. From first draft to international launch, PublishMe ensures your book reaches readers everywhere. Visit publishme.me.

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.

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.

Orna Ross explores what social media can — and can't — do for indie authors in a landscape that has changed beyond recognition. Listen for tips on how to audit what social media truly costs you in time, money, and creative energy; a comparison of the top ten platforms for authors in 2026; and questions that point you to the right platform for you — or help you decide whether social media is worth your time at all.

Show Notes

Self-Publishing Store

Sponsor

This podcast is proudly sponsored by Bookfunnel. Do you have reader magnets, ARCs, and direct digital sales? Want to join multi-author promotions? Thousands of authors trust BookFunnel for seamless delivery and real human support. Visit BookFunnel.com.

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 Host

Orna Ross launched the Alliance of Independent Authors at the London Book Fair in 2012. Her work for ALLi has seen her named as one of The Bookseller's "100 top people in publishing". She also publishes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and is greatly excited by the democratizing, empowering potential of author-publishing. For more information about Orna, visit her website.

In this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Member Q&A podcast, hosts Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black discuss how to successfully pivot from one nonfiction topic to another, including whether you need a new pen name and how to manage existing backlist titles.

Other questions include:

• What are the most effective low-budget marketing strategies for a nonfiction book about technology and society
• What options exist when series covers are inconsistent and how important is it to obtain source files from designers
• Should an urban fantasy series be focused on a tabloid rather than a single protagonist, or is that a strategic mistake
• How should UK authors operating as limited companies complete KDP tax forms, particularly the limitation of benefits section
• How can authors troubleshoot A+ content on Amazon when it refuses to populate despite entering all required information

And more!

Show Notes

Lessons Learned from Starting a New Pen Name (Sacha Black podcast)

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 episode of Self-Publishing with ALLi, Dan Holloway covers a week dominated by AI controversy: Spotify's expanded ElevenLabs partnership for seamless AI audiobook creation, Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt's muddled attempt to clarify his store's AI book policy, and a Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner accused of using AI — and why Dan thinks the organizers got their response exactly right.

Sponsor

Self-Publishing News is proudly sponsored by PublishMe—helping indie authors succeed globally with expert translation, tailored marketing, and publishing support. From first draft to international launch, PublishMe ensures your book reaches readers everywhere. Visit publishme.me.

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.

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.