Top Indie Author Advice Panel: JOANNA PENN, RACHEL ABBOTT, MARK DAWSON, STEENA HOLMES, CJ LYONS, MARK MCGUINESS, NICK STEPHENSON

This year has flown by once again! As December unfolds, we’ll take a look back at the top posts from the Alliance of Independent Authors blog over the past year. If you missed any of our weekly insights, advice, or case studies, don’t worry—we’ll be rounding up the highlights throughout the month. To start things off, here’s a selection of the best self-publishing business and planning advice featured on the blog in 2024.

My ALLi author guest this episode is Sylvia Bourgeois, who writes stories featuring strong, unconventional women set against the natural beauty and industry of the Pacific Northwest. A former heavy equipment operator and project manager, Sylvia uses her unique life experiences to craft compelling historical fiction. Her latest novel, Here, Now, takes readers on a journey from 1920s Seattle to a remote logging camp in British Columbia. I spoke to Sylvia about how her childhood, career, and creative process have shaped her work—and how she juggles a demanding day job with her passion for writing.

This summer, The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) surveyed more than 13,500 writers asking for their opinions and worries about AI. This week, the organization, which is best known for collecting fees on behalf of authors for books lent out by libraries, published the findings in a forty-page report.