Inclusive Authorship, Banned Books, and New Ambassadors: 2024 ALLi Campaigns Update

One of our roles here at the Alliance of Independent Authors is to run our own campaigns to inform or support developments in the self-publishing community, as well as collaborate on the great campaigns run by others that share our values and goals. This week AskALLi gives you a rundown of all the current campaigns and how you can help. 

We have divided our current activity into our ongoing core campaigns, our agile campaigns that react to emerging issues for indie authors, and finally those we run in collaboration with others across the sector. However we campaign, ALLi advocates for the equitable treatment of the independent author.

If you know of a writing-related campaign that you think we would be well placed to support, let our campaign lead, Melissa Addey, know and we will take a look. Together we are stronger!

1. Core campaigns

Our core campaigns are longer-term activities that we are committed to for the benefit of our community. We have highlighted two below, but you can find out all about the full campaign list here: ALLi Campaigns.

SelfPub3: Author Business Campaign

This Author Business Campaign aims to raise the average income for authors and poets through good publishing business practice. The campaign also lobbies and supports the literary and creative industries in providing more publishing skills' support and education for authors. ALLi is leading a range of activities to support the community through the SelfPub3 era, including gathering and sharing industry data to inform author decisions.

How you can help: share our industry data with those who ask you about the self-publishing model. It can be a great way to educate others on the opportunities and successes that indie publishing can offer: Self-Publishing Facts and Figures.

Inclusive Authorship: Self-Publishing For All

It is very important to us at ALLi that any author who wishes to publish a book has the opportunity to do so. If you can't self-publish through a lack of money, or because you cannot access the necessary knowledge, then we cannot claim that anyone can self-publish.

Society needs all stories to be told, not just those of a select few, and therefore we want all authors to use self-publishing to put their stories out into the world. This campaign allows us to  work with our members, ambassadors, and networks of other organizations to make self-publishing more accessible, and we are committed to continuous improvement in this area.

How you can help: Access (and share!) our Knowledge Base, filled with honest, high quality knowledge on all possible aspects of self-publishing. This includes:

2. Agile Campaigns

We are always alive to the changing landscape of self-publishing, and remain agile to respond as the sector develops, or new data is released. Two top priorities at present relate to student needs and diversity and inclusion.

Student Needs: Providing Self-Publishing Information to MA students

ALLi is aware that very few Creative Writing MA courses include any reference to, let alone practical details on how to self-publish, which we feel is very poor when MA students are spending considerable time and money on their writing. We are delighted that the University of Derby in the UK have joined us as Organization Members, so that their students will receive resources and a webinar from ALLi to support them in learning about self-publishing, both in general content and in practical ‘how to' steps. We've started reaching out to our wider university contacts to sign up more organisations to work with us to better inform tomorrow's writers.

How you can help: If you have a university contact who may be interested in becoming an Organization Member, please ask them to get in touch: [email protected]

Diversity & Inclusion: Sharing knowledge and appointing new Ambassadors

Here at the Alliance of Independent Authors, we are actively pushing for broader diversity and inclusivity in self-publishing, but we aren’t working alone – there are already 80+ organisations around the world encouraging diverse voices to take up indie authoring, and we have offered them a page of resources and a selection of online talks to better share our knowledge and to be, as always, an ally. We're also working to appoint ALLi Ambassadors in a wider range of nations, and have just appointed our first Ambassador for the Caribbean, Ruth Taylor, who is on a mission to increase the number of entrepreneurial authors in the Caribbean. You can meet all our ambassadors here: ALLi Ambassadors.

How you can help: If you, or someone you know, would like to become an Ambassador, particularly in a country we have yet to reach, we would love to hear more: [email protected]

If you know anyone who would benefit from our knowledge to share with new and diverse author audiences; please share the following link: Writing Resources.

3. Campaigns in collaboration:

Support for Indie Authors in France

We are currently working with Caroline Lutz, a top indie author in France publishing Fantasy as Jupiter Phaeton, who is looking to lobby the French government to be more supportive of indie authors, but to gain support she needs to show that self-publishing really is a legitimate publishing mode, and is growing fast. Caroline has completed a first round of a survey which has found that France's ‘tipping point' year was 2019, so about four years behind the UK, which appeared to be about 2015. ALLi are supporting the effort by bringing in our Ambassadors in Spain, Italy and Portugal to help increase the numbers for the next round of information gathering, with a target of reaching 1000+ responses. We are delighted that Caroline is also our new ALLi Ambassador for France.

Banned Books: Supporting EveryLibrary

Since its inception in 2012, EveryLibrary has been dedicated to securing better funding and policies for libraries, with notable achievements such as the launch of the ‘Save School Librarians’ initiative in 2017. This year, EveryLibrary took bold steps to address the ongoing book ban crisis and solidify its position as a leader in library advocacy. ALLi received a list of over 12,000 banned books, including classics such as The Handmaid's Tale and 1984, and we are now talking with EveryLibrary to find out how we can support their work via our many American members.

How you can help: Find out more about EveryLibrary and spread the word amongst your contacts. You can find more information here: EveryLibrary Information.

Find out more

Listen to Campaigns Lead Melissa Addey, and ALLi Director Orna Ross, discuss the campaigns in more detail on their regular ALLi Podcast: ALLi Campaigns Podcast.

You can find out more about our Campaign Lead, Melissa Addey, who is also a self-published author, on her Inspirational Indie Author Interview with Howard Lovy.