Joanna Penn Archives

Optimizing Your Creative Energy — Starting, Focusing, Finishing: Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

As you write, produce, and market a book, you’ll draw on different aspects of your creative energy along the way. In this month's Advanced Self-Publishing Salon, Orna Ross and Joanna Penn explore the difference between starting, pushing through, and finishing energies, and how to harness yours for optimal flow through the creative cycle

AI for Authors Update: Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

In this month’s Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast, ALLi Director Orna Ross and Enterprise Adviser Joanna Penn give an update on AI for authors. Generative AI is improving rapidly, almost day by day, giving authors unprecedented assistance in writing and publishing books. Orna and Joanna give an overview of recent advances in generative AI for words, images, and audio, including Alliance of Independent Authors guidelines on copyright and ethical usage and how to use AI tools to improve quality and output.

Insights from 20Books Seville and the London Book Fair: Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

In this month’s Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast ALLi Director Orna Ross and Enterprise Adviser Joanna Penn discuss insights gleaned from their visits to the 2023 London Book Fair and 20Books to 50K conference in Spain. They share what they consider to be the most important trends, tools and technologies emerging for authors, with advice on how to make these work for you, and their personal lessons learned.

Crowdfunding for Authors: Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

In this month’s Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast ALLi Director Orna Ross and Enterprise Adviser Joanna Penn discuss crowdfunding for authors. They share their own experiences and upcoming plans while providing insights into how to set up a successful crowdfunding campaign, engage your reader community, and smash your funding goals.

How to Make More Money Than the Average Author: Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

In this month’s Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast ALLi Director Orna Ross and Enterprise Adviser Joanna Penn discuss how to make more money than the average author. Anecdotal evidence indicates that authors who take self-publishing seriously earn more, on average, than authors who are exclusively trade-published. As ALLi conducts research into independent author income, Orna and Joanna review some initial findings, survey the landscape, and ask: What levers can you pull to make more money as an indie author?

Opportunities for Indie Authors in 2023: Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

In this month’s Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast ALLi Director Orna Ross and Enterprise Adviser Joanna Penn discuss opportunities for indie authors in 2023. The rise of AI tools, the growth of the creator economy, and the emergence of previously underrepresented writers and genres mean 2023 looks set to be an exciting year to be writing and publishing books. In this AskALLi Podcast, Orna and Joanna survey the opportunities and challenges for indie authors aiming to make better books and reach more readers in the year ahead.

When to Quit Writing and Publishing: Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

In this month’s Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast ALLi Director Orna Ross and Enterprise Adviser Joanna Penn discuss when to quit writing and publishing. Should you just keep writing and publishing even if it’s not going anywhere? Should you persist with the creative and business choices you have invested in for so long–or could you just walk away? Orna and Joanna talk about the times in our lives when we might need to consider quitting aspects of our writing, publishing, marketing, and business.

Self-Publishing Values: Exploring Craft, Engagement, and Volume Publishing for Authors — Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

In this month’s Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast ALLi Director Orna Ross and Enterprise Adviser Joanna Penn discuss publishing values. All publishers care about craft, engage with readers, and harness the power of book retailer algorithms—but each publisher must also decide whether they are primarily a craft publisher (focus: creative excellence) an engagement publisher (focus: responsive to readers) or a volume publisher (focus: driving algorithms). Orna and Joanna address the differences between these publishing approaches, how they’ve shown up in their own work, and the difference it makes when you know which approach best suits your books.

Stepping Back to Step Forward: Creative Rest for Indie Authors — Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

In this month’s Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast ALLi Director Orna Ross and Enterprise Adviser Joanna Penn talk about the importance of creative rest for indie authors and how it is a core part of the writing and publishing process. They share advice on different ways to give yourself a break while and lessons learned from their own recent downtimes.

Endings, Transitions, and New Beginnings: Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

The indie author’s life is full of creative transitions and transformations, which means closing one phase and beginning another. In this session, Orna Ross and Joanna Penn discuss their current transitions, lessons learned from years of growth, and the projects and approaches they left behind along the way.

Developing Your Personal Brand as an Author: Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast With Orna Ross and Joanna Penn

Does your personal brand as an author match your books? When we’ve been publishing for a while, we can sometimes lose sight of our author brand and what it’s saying to our readers. In this Advanced Self-Publishing Podcast episode, Orna Ross and Joanna Penn talk about pivots they needed to make to their author branding to make it more relevant and personal—and the lessons learned along the way.

Indie Publishing is a Great News Story: Self-Publishing News Podcast with Howard Lovy

Today on Self-Publishing News: Indie publishing is a great news story! I've given ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway the month off while I focus on the 10th anniversary of the Alliance of Independent Authors. I recently flew from my hometown of Traverse City, Michigan, to London to attend the London Book Fair, where my colleagues at ALLi were celebrating a decade since our founder, Orna Ross, launched the self-publishing group at 2012's book fair. I come from a journalism background, so I did what I enjoy doing at events like this. I interviewed people. And, today, I'll feature many of their voices about where indie publishing has been, where it is today, and where it's going.