Twice a year the Self-Publishing Advice Conference, #SelfPubCon, runs in association with Alliance of Independent Authors and this time out the theme is tools and tech. As we enter the last 24 hours of conference access, some of the ALLi team talk about highlights.
What is The Conference About?
Twice a year, in March and October this online author conference offers 24 sessions over 24 hours, an extravaganza of excellent self-publishing webinars and presentations.
The event attracts the foremost self-publishing speakers, sponsors and followers. Competitions and giveaways, as well as interviews, panel sessions, debates, round tables, and live-tweeting all add to the excitement on conference days. The 24-hour running order means the event is live for you, wherever you may be in the world.
Sessions are open to all for three free days
#SelfPubCon Oct 2020 features the best self-publishing tools and technology for indie authors, as chosen by the Alliance of Independent Authors advisors and team. Tools that save authors to save time and money, to write and make better books, to reach more readers, and to run a better author-publishing business.
You can still watch the October 2020 SelfPubCon for FREE!
There are just 24-hours left to watch the Self-Publishing Advice Conference for free — so do make time today to hop over and catch as many of the sessions as you can.
After tomorrow, you'll need an access pass—available for six-month or lifetime access—in order to watch the conference.
These passes are good value, in that you don't just get access to this conference… you get access to all the conferences since 2018 and, in the case of the lifetime pass, all the conferences to come.
You can find out more about Access Passes here.
(ALLi members have free six-month access passes for the lifetime of their membership. Members: log in to allianceindependentauthors.org and navigate to ADVICE > CONFERENCE and follow the instructions).
Why Tools and Technology?
It's hard to function without technology today — but on the other hand, there's so much of it. And it changes so frequently, it's hard to know what to invest your time in learning and studying because it's here to stay and what you should just glance at as it powers down into oblivion.
There are some pieces of technology, like Vellum, that have radically changed the face of publishing for indie authors across the globe. Before the invention of Vellum formatting software, the AskALLi team either spent hours sweating over formatting themselves or forked out to pay someone else to do it. Vellum is an example of tech that has shaved hours of time, frustration and sweat out of our lives. And that's just one piece of software.
If you haven't caught it yet, then the conference has two sessions running down the top 100 tools and tech for indie authors. In the first post, ALLi's Director, Orna Ross and Tim Lewis run through the first 50 tools. These tools are useful for the earlier stages of your publishing process. The second post looks at the later part of the process and the tools that will help you get that book over the publishing line.
Watch the first 50 tools here: writing, editorial, design, production, distribution
We've organized the nominations as tweets you can use on Twitter to give a shoutout to your favorite tool.
Conference Competitions and Giveaways
Our sponsors have offered some fabulous prizes discounts and deals this time.
Discounts for All
- From IngramSpark: free title setup on print books and ebooks just use promo code: SELFPUB
- From Pro Writing Aid and Fictionary: use SELFPUBCON40 for a deep discount of 40%
- From Prestozon: All Self-PubCon attendees are eligible for a 30-Day Free Trial. Write to [email protected]
Competitions:
- From BetaBooks: Three people can win a free 2-month standard subscription to BetaBooks. Enter here
- From Chatables: win an Amazon Echo Dot Enter here
- From Emperitas: Win a consulting package to design and program an author survey. Enter here
- From LitRing: Win an All-Access Pass to “Your Author Engine” Courses. Enter here
- From PubVendo: win the use of Pubvendo's new strategy/training/coaching service. Enter here
Conference Highlights
With the conference complete, the AskALLi team are sharing their highlights from the weekend.
Orna Ross, Director of ALLi
Orna's highlight of the conference was:
pulling together the top 100 tools chosen by our members, team and advisors. It was eye-opening for me, there were a few really choice tools on the list, like Krisp, noise-cancelling technology recommended by Sacha, which cuts out background audio if you're doing a podcast or recording an audiobook. I hadn't heard of http://OneLook.comj which as John Doppler says is a set of “power tools for wordsmiths [and] the versatility of its conceptual thesaurus puts Roget to shame.” Also loving The Noun Project recommended by Sarah Begley, a superb collection of iconography for any kins of communication – email, newsletter, book – and a visual diversity and inclusion mission. They're “building a global visual language that unites us”, they say. Marvellous!
I also want to give a shoutout to our sponsors. Gold sponsor Ingram Spark, announced a new global tool and improvements to their dashboard. Prestozon, a tool for managing Amazon ads, was joint silver sponsor with ProWritingAid and Fictionary (both mentioned below and in the deep discounts list). And we also adore BetaBooks (for managing your beta readers), Kobo (for their global reach and excellent publishing platform), Litring (for using giveaways to grow readers), Payhip (for selling direct), Plottr (for planning your novel), PubVendo (for managing your social media) and Written Word Media for promoting your books.
You can find out more about all of them, and their great discounts and giveaways, here.
Kayleigh Brindley
Kayleigh's highlight of the conference was:
The session that’s really stood out to me so far is Social Media Follower Growth Tools and Techniques by Joshua Schwartz. I loved Joshua’s up-beat, fun delivery! It’s a fantastic, in-depth session about building your social following starting with who you should target (and why) all the way through to a step-by-step guide to creating social content using free tools. I even picked up some new tips myself, including the helpful Chrome extension to make Facebook page invites much simpler and some fantastic tips for creating free social graphics on Canva.
Sacha Black, ALLi Blog Editor
Sacha's highlight of the conference was:
My conference highlight was “Two Tools to Aid Self-Editing: Pro Writing Aid and Fictionary ” I'm a huge fan of both ProWritingAid and Fictionary.co. Every time I open their programs or listen to them talk I learn something new about writing and how I can use their software to make my stories better. They've also offered a fantastic discount to SelfPubCon attendees: Just use
Debbie Young
Debbie's highlight of the conference was
“Clayton Noblit's session on Marketing Plans was life-changing for me as it not only “puts you back in the driving seat”, as he put it, but also reignited my enthusiasm for marketing with an incredibly simple formula that I began to apply the minute his talk finished!”
Tim Lewis, ALLi Author Member and Twitter chat host
Tim's highlight of the conference was
“My favourite session was the one with Fictionary and ProWritingAid – I had no idea that story editing software had got to such a level of sophistication and I’ll definitely be using them the next time I edit fiction.”
A quick final reminder that there are just 24-hours left to watch the Self-Publishing Advice Conference for free — so make sure you catch as many of the sessions as you can. Oh, and if you haven't already, you will need to register to receive your FREE three-day pass, and you can register here.
