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

On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway explores whether Apple cut jobs at Apple Books because e-books aren’t generating enough profit. He also covers OpenAI’s $100 billion valuation, the Grammys allowing AI-generated content, and Bookshop.org’s plan to pay royalties to authors from second-hand book sales.

Apple has always felt like a strange player in the digital book market. They turned the music industry upside down with the iTunes Store, and when they introduced Apple Books, they might have thought they would do the same to the publishing industry. Kindle books had already made the major disruption, but the introduction of the iPad held out the promise of being the market-winning book replacement. But it wasn’t to be.

In this episode of the Advice on Editing & Design stream of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast, Campaigns Manager Matty Dalrymple talks with Michael Johnson of Benetech about the importance of accessibility for authors and visually impaired readers, emphasizing ethical self-publishing and the potential market share missed if authors do not make their content accessible. Michael provides practical tips for indie authors on how to ensure their books are accessible, including the use of technology and proper formatting.