26Jun 26
News Podcast: BookFunnel Launches WooCommerce Plugin; Substack Opens Sponsorships; New Book Carbon Calculator; Kindle's Story So Far Goes Live
On this episode of Self-Publishing with ALLi, Dan Holloway covers a week dominated by new tools for authors and readers alike. He reports on BookFunnel's new WooCommerce plugin for self-hosted WordPress sites, Substack's rollout of paid sponsorships for writers with 100 or more paid subscribers, and the launch of the Book Carbon Calculator, which lets print-focused authors generate a certified carbon footprint for their titles. He closes with the long-awaited launch of Kindle's Story So Far feature, an AI-generated recap tool that raises familiar questions about training data and copyright.
25Jun 26
News Summary: Green Book Alliance Launches Book Carbon Calculator for Publishers and Authors
The news for the past week or so seems to have been primarily about useful tools for writers. We've had decreased friction from BookFunnel and increased revenue opportunities from Substack. Now we have a tool that really helps to connect creators with their audience's values. It won't, of course, be for everyone or all audiences. But for some it may be incredibly valuable as "proof of value." The Green Book Alliance has just launched the Book Carbon Calculator.
24Jun 26
Pop-Up Books: The Production Reality Behind Books That Move, Fold, and Function, with Anna Featherstone and Kelli Anderson
Most indie authors know print-on-demand. Pop-up and movable books inhabit a very different world — one of hand-assembly, specialist printers, and minimum print runs that make the economics unlike anything in standard publishing. In this episode, Anna Featherstone talks with Kelli Anderson, paper engineer and author of Alphabet in Motion, about what it actually takes to bring a movable book to life. They cover the manufacturing process, working with printers, using Kickstarter to fund a 25,000-copy print run, and where a curious author might begin if this form is calling to them.
23Jun 26
News Summary: Tim Ferriss Warns AI Is Killing Nonfiction Sales; Substack Launches Creator Sponsorship Program
Before I get to Substack, I'll start with another story signposted by Jane Friedman this week. Be patient, it's relevant. Tim Ferriss is one of those "public thinkers" most of us will know from somewhere, whether that's the game-changing and hugely successful book The 4-Hour Workweek (and subsequent "Four Hour" titles) whose wisdoms many of us have spent so many more than four hours a week trying to implement in our lives, or his equally influential productivity and lifestyle podcast. If anyone is going to make a success of self-help writing, it's Tim.
22Jun 26
Which Type of Indie Author Are You? (Or Would You Be?)
Which Type of Indie Author Are You? (Or Would You Be?) Adapted from Creative Self-Publishing by Orna Ross, featured in the May 2026 edition of ALLi's member magazine, The Indie…
21Jun 26
Inspirational Indie Author Interview: Annabel Youens on Midlife Reinvention and Creative Independence
My ALLi author guest this episode is Annabel Youens, a novelist who left a long career in tech to return to her first love: writing fiction. Her work explores midlife reinvention, creativity, nature, and the courage it takes to stop putting off the life you meant to live. She also brings a business founder’s discipline to indie publishing, treating authorship not just as a creative act but as a serious enterprise.
20Jun 26
News Summary: BookFunnel Launches WooCommerce Plugin; Amazon Rolls Out “Story So Far” Kindle Feature
Thank you to Nate Hoffelder, whose Morning Coffee newsletter pointed me to the week's closing stories. I am particularly grateful to him for picking up news from BookFunnel that I would otherwise have missed. BookFunnel is one of those tools I know many authors use as part of their marketing and fulfillment service, and one that is perennially on my list of things I really must get around to spending the time to understand and start using.
19Jun 26
News Podcast: Audiobook Growth Returns to Double Digits; Title Glut Shrinks Author Slices; How Many Readers Actually Pay?
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.
17Jun 26
Audio Interview: Writing and Editing Books for Young Readers with Howard Lovy and Amelia Ross
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.
16Jun 26
News Summary: Authors Guild Report Finds Only 25% of Readers Paid for Their Last Book
A new Authors Guild report has reached a stark conclusion: most readers are not paying for the books they read. To put it bluntly, that would seem to be the conclusion of a report from the Authors Guild. The report is dated December 2025, but the press release only came out in the last week, suggesting that some crunching and considering has been going on in the interim. I'll have a look at the more noteworthy findings and what they suggest for us as authors (Publishers Weekly's headline on the piece clearly cites a connection to declining author incomes), but first I want to situate this somewhat.
15Jun 26
What the Draft2Digital Fee Changes Mean for You in 2026
There's been a lot of discussion online about Draft2Digital's recent fee changes, and not all of it has been accurate. Last week, ALLi hosted a webinar with D2D co-founder and…
14Jun 26
Self-Publishing a Book in German, with Orna Ross and Skye MacKinnon
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.
