Askalli: Self-publishing Advice Podcast

Ep#27: Orna Ross and Joanna Penn answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books. Here’s the questions posed to Orna and Joanna this month: Here’s the questions posed to Orna and Joanna this month: Q: I write Fantasy. How can I show my character’s mind-speak (i.e. what they’re thinking)? Q. I’ve released my first non-fiction e-book, and I’m struggling with reads let alone sales, and I’d really like to get some book reviews. Q: “My Publisher” wants 8 books for 10 years. Do I have to accept these terms, or can I have it reduced? Q: I’m a YA Writer. How should I market and promote for this segment? Q: Is it a problem that I have a separate ISBN for my e-book and POD, and my reviews and sales rank from my e-book won’t transfer over to my POD listing on Amazon. Q: On book covers when you see “perfect for fans of ” .. do you need permission from the author to use their name? Q: What is the best way to promote books to an Indian market? Q: I have questions about my fixed-pub layout kids book, a

Ep#26: Orna Ross presents a new episode of ALLI Insights: NaNoWriMo is Over, Now Publish Your Novel Did you take part in NaNoWriMo last year, and now have a finished draft in front of you, and are thinking "Now What?" You're not alone. Did you know that nearly half a million writers signed up for NaNo in 2015? That's quite a jump from 1999, when Chris (the founder of National Novel Writing Month) and 21 of his friends set themselves a target of 50,000 words in 30 days. In January and February, NaNoWriMo support the revision and publishing process. It’s an extension of their November writing frenzy, and a much-deserved author break in December. The goal of this period is to help fulfil your novel's potential by getting it from it's rough first draft stage and see it through the publishing process into the hands of readers. There's a natural synergy between National Novel Writing Month's focus on writing and ALLi's continued focus on self-publishing, and this month's ALLi Insights features Orna Ross and Grant F

Ep#25: Orna Ross and Joanna Penn answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books. Here’s the questions posed to Orna and Joanna this month: Q: Is ALLi continuing to work with Ingram Spark this year and are they offering a self-publishing discount to ALLi Members? Q: Do you have Insights about iUniverse Services? Q: What are the legal issues about setting up your publisher imprint? Q: What are the differences between CreateSpace and Ingram Spark POD distribution services? Q: Should authors release their books in Hardback? Q: Do ALLi maintain a list of reputable book Editors? Q: Is there such a thing as a "Book Shepherd" who could help an aspiring author publish their first book? Q: Is there any recourse if my publisher won't take my book off Amazon or Barnes and Noble? Q: I'm publishing my book via Lightening Source, but on CreateSpace it shows that it has a long lead time for delivery. Is there anything I can do about this? And why is this happening to a POD version of my book? Q: Where

Ep#24: Orna Ross chats with Toby Mundy about How Authors Sell rights. The writer’s path to publication has grown more complex, as new choices emerge. What once was a one-track pathway to print in now a maze of formats, platforms, apps, films, broadcast, foreign, translation, audio and more. Each of these markets offers different opportunities and operates by different rules. How are writers to find their way without a team of experts and lawyers? The Alliance of Independent Authors is releasing How Authors Sell Rights to help authors navigate today’s complex rights marketplace. A compilation of advice from publishing and legal experts, How Authors Sell Rights shows writers the best ways to reach decision-makers in various industries, what these rights-buyers are looking for, and what to expect in negotiating a license or sale of rights. Covering both business and legal aspects, and focussing particularly on audiobooks, TV & film and translation, How Authors Sell Rights shows how the rights landscape for a

Ep#23: Orna Ross and Joanna Penn answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books. Here’s the questions posed to Orna and Joanna this month: Q: If I get a Bookbub, what other promotional activity should I be doing? Q: Has anyone had experience with Kirkus Reviews or other paid review sites? Q: Is 2 books enough for a box set? Q: “Translating is the new black” but how do you assess the final work? Q: How can I copyright protect the short stories that I’m selling directly from my website? Q: Where should I start with publishing a printed illustrated children’s book? Q: How do you make your characters seem unique? Q: What’s the best way to get Amazon Reviews, and how many reviews should I aim for? Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Member Self-Publishing Q&A is one of four regular shows, which include a more advanced salon, a beginners' salon and a special guest highlight presentation from the Indie Author Fri

Ep#22: Orna Ross and Joanna Penn answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books. Here’s the questions posed to Orna and Joanna this month: Q: I’m writing my first book and I’m overwhelmed by all the other self-publishing and indie author tasks I should be doing like blogging and marketing. What should I focus on? Q: I’ve never written a book before, and wanted to know if I needed to hire a lawyer to look over the self-publishing contracts from IngramSpark and CreateSpace? Q: What are the pros and cons of using ACX? Q: What are the pitfalls of creating a 2nd Edition version of a currently published novel? Q: I’ve marketed my book in the UK and the US in the same way, but have had minimal sales success in the US. Is this market a harder nut to crack? Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Member Self-Publishing Q&A is one of four regular shows, which include a more advanced salon, a beginners' salon and a speci

Ep#21: Orna Ross chats with mystery writer Elizabeth Spann Craig to discover how she’s using Wattpad to expand her reader demographic. If you’re looking for an uncomplicated and free way of reaching more readers, Wattpad could be the option you’re looking for. This month’s ALLi Insights event was full of information and inspiration about why and how you can leverage your existing content to reach a broader audience. Here’s Wattpad Insights to whet your appetite: Wattpad users are very mobile savvy and skew towards a younger demographic. Authors don’t have to write serially, they just need to publish serially. The Wattpad mobile app for free, and a Wattpad account is also free. Set a consistent publishing schedule for your chapter releases. If you already have a free book, it makes sense to leverage it on Wattpad. Use it as a funnel to your other books. At the end of each Wattpad chapter you can add an author call to action (e.g. sign up to the author’s mailing list, or letting your readers know where to buy

Ep#20: Joanna Penn and David Penny answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books. Here’s the questions posed to David and Joanna this month: Q: Is there an Indie Book Fair event planned in Australia? Q: The Legal Deposits Library has requested 5 copies of my book, do I need to send them? Q: I’ve written 5 short stories, how many should I have in a Collection? Q: What is the typical length of a book blurb? Q: What Writing Craft Resources would you recommend? Q: How should Authors leverage a Mailing List? Q: I’m a new author and published my book 3 weeks ago. How long does it take to see Kindle Sales on Amazon? Q: When is the Showcase up and running again? Q: When should you start thinking about promoting and marketing your book? Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Member Self-Publishing Q&A is one of four regular shows, which include a more advanced salon, a beginners' salon and a special guest highlight p

Ep#19: Orna Ross chats with Katie Donelan from BookBub to reveal how to increase your chances of getting your book selected for a BookBub Promotion. Competition to be included in the daily BookBub email is fierce, especially in popular categories like Romance, so if you want to increase your chances of being “BookBubbed” it’s best to familiarise yourself with the selection criteria process used by the BookBub editors. Historically publishing has not been a direct to consumer market, but BookBub knows what Indie Authors have known from the outset; the most important element of marketing and promotion is reaching readers. Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.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 www.allianceindependentauthors.org. Now, go write and publ

Ep#18: Orna Ross and Joanna Penn answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books. Here’s the questions posed to Orna and Joanna this month: Q: How should authors deal with lines from songs… what is fair use? Q: For a 1st time self-publishers, how many months out should you advertise your first release Q: How can I boost my sales? Releasing a new book in January with a preorder in October. First book didn’t do well, how can I promote my second book better? Q: Why aren’t my keywords working for me? Interested in Joining ALLi? Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Member Self-Publishing Q&A is one of four regular shows, which include a more advanced salon, a beginners' salon and a special guest highlight presentation from the Indie Author Fringe, ALLi’s free online author conference. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven’t al

Ep#17: Orna Ross chats with Helen Sedwick discuss copyright to add clarity around what a writer owns vs. what they don’t. Other topics being discussed are: How authors can protect their work. How to keep others from taking more than their fair share by understanding the nuances between licenses vs. assignments, exclusive vs. non-exclusives and termination clauses. Author scams and what red flags indie authors should look out for. Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.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 www.allianceindependentauthors.org. Now, go write and publish. About your hosts 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

Ep#16: Orna Ross and Joanna Penn answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books. Here’s the questions posed to Orna and Joanna this month: Q: I’m toying with the idea of using Facebook ads for 1) collecting email subscribers by offering some free content and 2) promoting my books directly. I’ve been through Mark Dawson’s 3 free videos and probably have enough information to try this .. should I do it? Q: Google Play: What is it? Should I put my books in there or not? What royalty revenue could I expect? Q: Now that I’ve published my first book, I am getting contacted by book promoters who promise to publicise my book for a fee. How can I tell which are effective and which are not? Q: After hitting some technical problems loading my books onto Ingram Spark, I missed the promo offer (open to everyone). Can you advise when and if a new offer for Alli members will be launched soon? Q: When hiring a proofreader is it best to engage them for two sets of proofreads – digital and print or just

Ep#15: Orna Ross and Joanna Penn answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books.  Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Member Self-Publishing Q&A is one of four regular shows, which include a more advanced salon, a beginners' salon and a special guest highlight presentation from the Indie Author Fringe, ALLi’s free online author conference. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.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 www.allianceindependentauthors.org. Now, go write and publish. About your hosts Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, as well as writing non-fiction for authors. She is also a professional speaker and entrepreneur, voted as one of The Guardian UK Top 100 creative professionals 2013. She spent 13 years as a busi

Ep#14: Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) Director Orna Ross and Joanna Penn, of The Creative Penn, answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books.  Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Member Self-Publishing Q&A is one of four regular shows, which include a more advanced salon, a beginners' salon and a special guest highlight presentation from the Indie Author Fringe, ALLi’s free online author conference. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.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 www.allianceindependentauthors.org. Now, go write and publish. About your hosts Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, as well as writing non-fiction for authors. She is also a professional speaker and entrepreneur, voted as one of The Guardi

Ep#13: Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) Director Orna Ross and Joanna Penn, of The Creative Penn, answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books.  Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Member Self-Publishing Q&A is one of four regular shows, which include a more advanced salon, a beginners' salon and a special guest highlight presentation from the Indie Author Fringe, ALLi’s free online author conference. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.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 www.allianceindependentauthors.org. Now, go write and publish. About your hosts Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, as well as writing non-fiction for authors. She is also a professional speaker and entrepreneur, voted as one of The Guardi

Ep#3: Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) Director Orna Ross and Joanna Penn, of The Creative Penn, answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books.  Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Member Self-Publishing Q&A is one of four regular shows, which include a more advanced salon, a beginners' salon and a special guest highlight presentation from the Indie Author Fringe, ALLi’s free online author conference. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.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 www.allianceindependentauthors.org. Now, go write and publish. About your hosts Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, as well as writing non-fiction for authors. She is also a professional speaker and entrepreneur, voted as one of The Guardia