In this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Member Q&A podcast, hosts Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black discuss whether AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT can run an author's book marketing, from managing Amazon ads to updating metadata and delivering weekly trend reports.

Other questions include:

• Should authors get an EIN, a DBA, and a separate business bank account?
• Is hiring an accountant worth the cost for a writing business?
• Are Goodreads giveaways worth the money?
• How long should authors market a book before publication?
• How do ALLi members list their books in the ALLi bookstore?
• Why do so many writers stop writing in the summer, and what is the "time of great forgetting"?

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.

On this week's Self-Publishing News podcast, ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway digs into Audible's new Nielsen IQ study of 18,000 listeners, which finds audiobook fans buying the same books in multiple formats — and still seeking out human narrators. He also covers Smashwords adding pre-orders and pre-sales through Draft2Digital, and a Bookseller report on how AI is splitting the ghostwriting market in two.

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.

My guest this episode is Liz Harris, a historical romance author whose path to publication took her from a lifelong love of reading and writing through teaching, travel, traditional publishing, and eventually self-publishing. She talks about how history and place shape her fiction, the freedom she found as an indie author, the importance of treating publishing as a business, and why she chose to remain indie even after returning to traditional publishing.

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

Liz Harris is an award-winning author of 30 novels, most of them historical. Her latest series, set in Scotland in the 1880s, was a joy to research for someone who loves to travel, as Liz does, and took her to Scotland for several weeks.

After graduating with a law degree in the UK, Liz moved to California, where she led a varied life—from cocktail waitressing on the Sunset Strip to working as secretary to the CEO of a large Japanese trading company. Upon returning to England, she earned a degree in English and taught at a secondary school for a number of years before developing her writing career.

Liz now lives in Windsor, Berkshire. Her two sons have left the nest and now have families of their own. In what little free time she has, she loves to travel, go to the theater and cinema, do cryptic crosswords, and, above all, lose herself in a novel.

To learn more about Liz, visit her website. Sign up for her newsletter to receive a free full-length novel.

On this week's Self-Publishing News podcast, ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway previews SelfPubCon 2026, running free over the weekend of October 17–18 with a Jane Friedman keynote, sessions on Kickstarter crowdfunding and local marketing, and an indie author lab for pass holders. He also opens the Written Word Media Indie Author Survey — whose past results tied higher earnings to bigger backlists — and reports on OpenAI's bid to have a key market dilution study thrown out of court.

Show Notes

• Written Word Media Indie Author Survey
• SelfPubCon26

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 poet and editor Anna Davidson about the art of editing poetry. They discuss what editors look for in a poem, why every word, line break, sound, and even blank space matters, and how editors can help poets strengthen their work without losing their individual voice. Anna also explains why trust between poet and editor is so important and how indie poets can find the editorial support that best fits their work.

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

Anna Davidson is an editor, editorial trainer, writer, and poet who publishes under the name A. K. Davidson. She studied modern languages at the University of Oxford and has worked in trade book publishing for three decades. Her past in-house roles include head of editorial management at Faber & Faber and publishing manager at DK Books.

Anna writes poetry and fiction as A. K. Davidson. Her poems have appeared in Good Housekeeping, Pennine Platform, and other magazines, and her debut collection, Poetry for Life and Other Chronic Conditions, is available from all good bookshops.

Anna is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading and a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors and the Society of Authors. She runs the Writer Meet Editor community on Substack, which offers information and connection for writers and book editors across traditional and indie publishing.

For more information, visit Writer Meet Editor or The Right Word.

On this week's Self-Publishing News podcast, a hoarse ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway covers Amazon's new KDP limit of two titles per week per format — down from ten, and another move aimed at the flood of AI-generated content. He also looks at a study suggesting AI detector Pangram may be more accurate than its critics claim, and at the SCBWI's tightened AI policy, which will ask award entrants to document the human creative process behind their work.

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 special episode of Self-Publishing with ALLi, Howard Lovy interviews Kayleigh Brindley, ALLi's conference and communications manager, about what authors can expect from SelfPubCon26, taking place online October 17–18. Kayleigh discusses this year's theme, "The Future of Self-Publishing: What's Working Now & What's Next," and highlights sessions on AI, book marketing, crowdfunding, European markets, and building an author team. She also explains the conference's expanded networking opportunities, this year's prize draw, and the Indie Author Lab workshop with Orna Ross following the conference on October 19.

Show Notes

• Register for SelfPubCon26
• Enter the SelfPubCon Prize Draw
• Purchase a SelfPubCon access pass — scroll to the bottom of the page
• Learn more about Orna Ross's Indie Author Lab
• Join the Alliance of Independent Authors

About the Host

Author 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

Kayleigh Brindley is a virtual assistant who started Admin Angels UK in 2013 with the aim of helping small business owners and authors achieve a better work-life balance. Kayleigh joined the ALLi team in 2018 as a social media administrator. She now works on ALLi comms and the annual Self-Publishing Advice Conference. When she's not working or spending time with her family, Kayleigh spends most of her time reading, running Dungeons and Dragons games, and writing stories about magic.