indie authors Archives

Spotify Audiobooks for Authors Earn Industry Innovator Award: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

It won’t have escaped your notice that Spotify audiobooks for authors have become a growing focus lately. Having started their audiobook journey quietly, they are now not only making audiobooks central to their listening offer, they are building more and more tools for authors to work with them directly.

How Indie Authors Are Embracing Short-Form Audio

Short-form audio is becoming a meaningful new outlet for authors. As listening habits shift—and as tools for production become more accessible through human and AI narration—short audiobooks are gaining ground with both readers and platforms. From Spotify’s recent launch of a short-form program for independent authors to new experiments among ALLi members, this format is quickly finding its place in the indie publishing toolkit.

April 21, 2025
ALLi Editorial
Process 3 & 4: Production & Distribution
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Ingram Mediascout Offers Film Rights Exposure for Indie Authors: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

In my day job in higher education, I am, like many others, winding down for the holiday season. But in the book world, we seem to have stumbled into a particularly busy time for news. So expect more than one story from each column this week. I begin with particularly exciting news for indie authors looking to extract the maximum return from all of the rights they own in their work. Ingram has just gone live with its Mediascout program.

Canva Unveils AI Tools, Including Image Generation; Law Professors Challenge Meta’s Copyright Use: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

This week’s AI news focuses on two issues of great interest to indie authors. I will start with Canva. In part because I haven’t talked about them for a while. And partly because this news picks up from the last time I did talk about them. Which was last year, when they made a lot of people unhappy by increasing the price of its Pro offering from a flat $120 per year for a team license to $10 a month per team member.

How Trump’s Tariffs Affect Indie Authors and Self-Publishers: A US and Global Perspective

Are Trump’s new tariffs going to raise your book printing costs? Here’s what self-publishing authors around the world need to know about how Trump-era and future US tariffs impact indie authors and book printing. Learn about current exemptions for books, global risks for self-publishers, and ALLi's advice for protecting your publishing business.

How AI in Publishing Is Changing Audiobooks and Author Opportunities: Self-Publishing with ALLi Featuring Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

On the Creative Self-Publishing stream of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast, Orna Ross and Joanna Penn discuss their latest creative projects, insights from the London Book Fair, and the evolving role of AI in publishing. Orna shares her thoughts on how the fair is shifting away from being author-centric, while Joanna explores AI narration and its growing impact on audiobooks, including new developments from ElevenLabs and Amazon’s Audible Virtual Voice.

ALLi Condemns Meta’s Use of Indie Authors’ Books to Train AI Without Permission, Calls for Clarity and Compensation

The work of Orna Ross, founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors, and thousands of other independent authors and ALLi members have been identified as part of the vast collection of books used—without permission or payment—to train Meta’s AI models.

Spotify Launches New Program for Short Audiobooks: Self-Publishing with ALLi Featuring Dan Holloway

On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, Dan Holloway covers Spotify’s new publishing program for indie authors, which focuses on short audiobooks in popular genres like romance, mystery, and sci-fi. He also discusses the latest AI-generated fiction making waves in the literary world, including reactions from authors and critics to OpenAI’s new model.

The Practical Side of Book Production and Distribution: The Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast Featuring Anna Featherstone

On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, host Anna Featherstone talks with USA Today bestselling author Phillipa Nefri Clark about the practical side of book production and distribution. Phillipa shares her experiences with different publishing methods, from KDP and Kobo to direct sales and working with a digital-first publisher. She discusses hiring a well-known TV actor for her audiobook, handling production challenges, navigating translations, and managing finances with the help of a specialist accountant.

Spotify for Authors Expands with New Short Audiobook Program: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Spotify has launched a new program aimed directly at indie authors. For a few months, I’ve been reporting on Spotify’s increasing appetite for courting indie authors. The Spotify for Authors platform has been adding tools. And recently, the streaming giant announced a deal with ElevenLabs to allow the firm’s AI-generated narration to be used for audiobooks, which indie authors could then upload through Spotify for Authors.

ALLi Authors Win Big at the Selfies Awards 2025: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

It feels like just yesterday that I reported on the very first Selfies Awards, won by Jane Davis’s Smash All the Windows. It turns out it was more than half a decade ago, during which time the award dedicated to finding the very best books by indie authors has expanded into three categories: fiction, children’s fiction, and general nonfiction.

Howard Lovy Interviews Maggie Marr on How Indie Authors Can Get Their Books Adapted for Film and TV

In this interview, Howard Lovy speaks with Maggie Marr, ALLi’s book-to-screen advisor, a former ICM motion picture literary agent, entertainment attorney, and USA Today bestselling author, about how indie authors can get their books adapted for film and TV. Marr, who has worked on major book-to-screen projects, shares industry insights on what makes a book appealing for adaptation, the role of agents and attorneys, and common pitfalls to avoid. She is also the author of Books to Film and TV: What Every Author Needs to Know, a resource for writers navigating the adaptation process.