This Week’s News in Self-publishing

Kick off your sneakers, find a comfy spot,  and follow up on what's making news with our ALLi partners and friends. Valerie Shanley reports …

Follow-up with your Followers … The Follow button, just under your profile on your Amazon Author page, now lets you share with followers when you have a new release. Amazon asks you via email if you want to share your news, you can then type in a message and  it gets sent to people who have followed you. Thanks to ALLi’s  Joanna Penn, who alerted us to this function, which as yet, is available only in the US. Lets hope other retailers follow suit.

Oz Women Count in Lit Prizes – If Not in Reviews … The Stella Prize, Australia’s all-female literary competition is now open for submissions with a $50,000 prize for the best work of literature, fiction or nonfiction, published in 2015. Entrants must be Australian women, and self-published books are eligible for entry too (thanks ALLi Darcey Conroy for the tip).  If entering, also check out the The Stella Count, an analysis of books reviewed  down under in 2014, with nuanced detail on gender patterns. It seems the days when Mary Ann Evans had to become George Eliot are not so distant after all, as Aviva Tuffield, Executive Director of the Stella Prize, commented:   “Overall the 2014 Stella Count reveals, once again, that books by men are reviewed more often in the mainstream media than books by women, and confirms a pattern identified last year that male reviewers are much more likely to review books written by male authors.” Elsewhere, writer Catherine Nichols tells how she experimented on gaining attention using a male name in the traditional publishing field.  Indies don’t need to resort to a pseudo MR  for better MS recognition… do they?

Image, Chris West, Creative Future

What are the barriers for disabled writers?  That’s what Creative Future, a UK-based organisation providing support, mentoring and training for marginalised or disabled writers and artists, wants to find out. Their survey will assess those barriers that come up when accessing arts opportunities. Anyone completing the survey by 11th September 2015  is in with a chance to win £60. The survey has 24 questions (mostly tick boxes and can be completed in around 15 minutes).

Rachel Abbott, self-publishing superstar

High Five To KDP and Indie Rachel ….   Indie authors continue doing nicely in the eBook bestseller lists says The Guardian quoting Amazon UK’s report marking five years since opening its Kindle UK store. ALLi member  Rachel Abbott is currently the most popular indie on the list with her novel Stranger Child from her series of psychological thrillers. Social media marketing has been key to Rachel's success in getting the books out there since she began writing in 2011,  as has self-publishing, so, natch,  she has no plans to do down the traditional publishing route. “Whatever it is I’m doing, it seems to be working, so while it continues to work, and so well, let’s keep doing it. I have nothing against traditional publishing. I’m open to all kinds of ideas, but at the moment, this is working, so I don’t want to fix it.”

Alternate history author Alison Morton is rather happy with her HNS accolade

ALLi Making History … Another ‘Whoop Whoop’, this time  to ALLi author Alison Morton on her novel Aurelia being selected as an Indie Editor’s Choice by the Historical Novel Society, and now also longlisted for the 2016 HNS Indie Novel of The Year Award.  The latest thriller in her Roma Nova series of alternate history novels, which sees the Roman Empire surviving into the 20th Century, and with woman rulers, Aurelia was described by the HNS as ‘stunning’. And no-one is more stunned than Alison: “To be chosen for an HNS review is the first step; not every book gets past this stage. To receive a good review from this well-respected society is wonderful. To be selected as an Editor’s Choice means a rush for the champagne bottle.”