Self-Publishing with ALLi

In this Self-Publishing Advice Conference highlight, Orna Ross revisits classic book marketing must-dos and updates them for 2025. Grounded in ALLi's Reach More Readers guidebook and the organization's Ethical AI policy, the session cuts through content overload, shifting algorithms, rising ad costs, email deliverability problems, and growing concerns about reader trust. Ross offers a human-first, values-based approach to marketing that helps author-publishers make clear, ethical choices without burning out. Writers leave with a simple mini-audit of their current marketing and a short, realistic upgrade list to help them reach more readers on their own terms.
This is a post from SelfPubCon (The Self-Publishing Advice Conference), an online author event run free twice yearly in association with the Alliance of Independent Authors.
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. You can do that at http://allianceindependentauthors.org.

My guest this episode is Diana Colleen, a Canadian-born, Seattle-based writer whose work is shaped by a life of activism, public service, trauma, and healing. Drawing on her experience with meditation and psychedelic-assisted therapy, her fiction explores climate responsibility, wealth, power, and the possibility of personal and societal transformation.
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 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
Diana Colleen is a Canadian, Seattle-based psychedelic facilitator and writer whose work blends consciousness, healing, and social change. After a profound personal transformation through psychedelic-assisted therapy, she committed to storytelling as a way to challenge entrenched systems of power. Her fiction explores the climate crisis, billionaire-ism, and the inner work required for meaningful change, asking what humanity could become if empathy, accountability, and contribution replaced ego and competition. Diana Colleen can be found at her website, dianacolleenauthor.com, and on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.

Orna Ross and Joanna Penn compare notes from the indie front line, drawing on Jo's new novel and her renewed focus on business basics for ALLi's Indie Author Lab at the London Book Fair, alongside Orna's shift to Substack and a clear-eyed look at what is changing fastest for authors. In this forward-looking conversation, two self-publishing veterans unpack agentic AI, the challenge of staying discoverable in a sea of content, and how permission-based audiences, reader trust, and real-world connection can make authors harder to replace.
Show Notes
Indie Author Lab
2026 Trends And Predictions For Indie Authors And The Book Publishing Industry with Joanna Penn
About the Hosts
Joanna Penn writes nonfiction for authors and is an award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author as J.F.Penn. She's also an award-winning podcaster, creative entrepreneur, and international professional speaker.
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.

On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, Dan Holloway reports from a literary conference setting as Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library enters the public domain. He unpacks new reporting on the Anthropic settlement, including unresolved issues for textbook authors and questions over how much claimants may ultimately receive. Dan also looks at a shift toward video in audio discovery, with Audible testing in-app video promotion and Spotify lowering the bar for podcast monetization.
Show Notes
Sage, Textbook Authors Settle Dispute Over Anthropic Settlement Guidance (Publishing Perspectives)
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.
And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally.
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 Member Q&A podcast, hosts Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black discuss whether authors who narrate their own audiobooks should file for copyright registration of the performance rights in addition to registering the text.
Other questions include:
What affordable alternatives exist to expensive PO boxes for UK authors who need a postal address for their newsletter
Should authors delay book publication if they cannot obtain a Library of Congress control number during a government shutdown
How can middle-grade authors market their books while complying with laws around children and content
What should authors do when experiencing quality control problems with Ingram Spark orders
Should authors enable or disable DRM on Amazon in light of new policies allowing readers to download epub files
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.