Seasons Greetings from the Alliance of Independent Authors

Big news for midweek. And it's also very succinct news. Amazon has made another adjustment to the number of permitted titles you can upload through KDP. As Jane Friedman helpfully reminded in the latest edition of The Bottom Line, the first such limiting move came as far back as 2023. The previous limit of ten titles came into effect just last year.

In this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, internationally renowned glass artist Mark Eliott joins Anna Featherstone to show how a published book doesn't need to stay in a fixed format over the years. Mark's Essence of Cloud project began as improvised glass cloud sculptures, grew into a novel and an art exhibition, and now, years later, has taken on a new form as a special-edition e-book with new nonfiction and visual elements. You'll hear about working with artistic collaborators and about flexibility and fluidity in production and distribution decisions.

The Speakies are the newer UK-based relative (technically the British Audio Awards) of the US' Audies Awards, celebrating the best of the year's audiobooks. Like the Audies, the Speakies are open to indie titles, which is why I make sure to spend some time scouring the shortlists and winners when they appear. And this past week the shortlist came out.