Self-Publishing with ALLi

Alliance of Independent Authors

The Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors provides a comprehensive guide for indie authors.

  1. 8 hr ago

    Inspirational Indie Author Interview #214: Michelle M. Pillow Builds a Lasting Career Through Romance and Reader Connection

    My guest this episode is Michelle M. Pillow, a bestselling romance author who has published more than one hundred books during a career spanning more than twenty years. She talks about her early love of reading, the unexpected path that led her to indie publishing, the fictional worlds she has built, and the challenge of managing a large backlist while staying connected to her readers. Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of 2,000+ blog posts, and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. We invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. Bookstore You can find Michelle M. Pillow's books in the Indie Author Bookstore. About the Host Howard Lovy is an author, developmental editor, and writing coach with a long career in journalism and publishing. He works with writers at many stages of their careers, with a focus on helping them develop their ideas and strengthen their work while preserving their unique voices. He lives in Northern Michigan. About the Guest Michelle M. Pillow is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has published more than one hundred novels over a career spanning more than twenty years. She writes romance, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and paranormal women's fiction. She is best known for her Qurilixen World and Warlocks MacGregor series. You can find Michelle M. Pillow on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, visit her website, or view her ALLi author profile.

    Inspirational Indie Author Interview #214: Michelle M. Pillow Builds a Lasting Career Through Romance and Reader Connection
  2. 4 days ago

    Interview: How AI Is Changing Book Cover Design, with Howard Lovy and Pablo Yáñez

    On the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, host Howard Lovy talks to Pablo Yáñez, founder of BeYourCover, about how artificial intelligence is changing book cover design. A professional book cover photographer for more than fifteen years before building AI tools, Yáñez explains where AI can help authors create marketable covers, where it still falls short, and why genre conventions matter more than many writers realize. He also discusses the ethics of AI, the continuing value of human designers, and how authors can decide which approach is right for their books. Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of 2,000+ blog posts, and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. We invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. Further Reading The Alliance of Independent Authors' AI Policy ALLi also has a sample template AI policy for members to use on their websites, which can be downloaded in the member zone. About the Host Howard Lovy is an author, developmental editor, and writing coach with a long career in journalism and publishing. He works with writers at many stages of their careers, with a focus on helping them develop their ideas and strengthen their work while preserving their unique voices. He lives in Northern Michigan. About the Guest Pablo Yáñez spent fifteen years as a photographer, many of them shooting book covers for authors and publishers, before founding BeYourCover, an AI book cover generator built for indie authors. Frustrated by generic AI output that ignores how covers actually work, he developed BeYourCover's AI book cover generator, a tool that respects genre conventions, survives the thumbnail test, and produces print-ready files—with the author directing the design rather than rolling the dice on a prompt. He works from Madrid, where he also shoots street photography. Learn more at BeYourCover or contact Pablo.

    Interview: How AI Is Changing Book Cover Design, with Howard Lovy and Pablo Yáñez
  3. 5 Jul

    Inspirational Indie Author Interview #213: Diane Hatz on Turning Music Industry Chaos into Fiction

    My guest this episode is Diane Hatz. Diane spent years in the music industry, working at major and indie record companies, managing a band, and co-founding a fanzine on The Who that ended up in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Years later, she drew on those surreal experiences and turned them into fiction. After decades of putting off her dream of being an author, she published a four-book series in five years. Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of 2,000+ blog posts, and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. We invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. Bookstore You can find Diane Hatz's books in the Indie Author Bookstore. About the Host Howard Lovy is an author, developmental editor, and writing coach with a long career in journalism and publishing. He works with writers at many stages of their careers, with a focus on helping them develop their ideas and strengthen their work while preserving their unique voices. He lives in Northern Michigan. About the Guest Diane Hatz is an award-winning author, organizer, and inner activist. Her debut novel, Rock Gods & Messy Monsters, earned numerous honors, including first runner-up for the 2024 Eric Hoffer Award and No. 1 Amazon Hot New Release in three categories. She has since written three additional novels, completing the Mind Monsters series. When not working on her next book, she can be found wandering the desert in New Mexico, road-tripping through the Southwest, or helping abandoned puppies find homes. You can find her on her website, subscribe to her newsletter, read her Substack, A Writer's Life, and listen to her YouTube podcast. You can also check out the Mind Monsters series on Amazon and Amazon UK, and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

    Inspirational Indie Author Interview #213: Diane Hatz on Turning Music Industry Chaos into Fiction
  4. 3 Jul

    News: Rakuten Kobo Took a "Book Community First" Approach to AI — and Rejected 45 Percent of Submissions

    On this episode of Self-Publishing with ALLi, Dan Holloway reports on a revealing piece by Rakuten Kobo CEO Michael Tamblyn, who explains why Kobo rejected 45 percent of self-published submissions in 2025 — most of them suspected AI-generated — and frames the decision as a "book community first" choice over a "readers first" approach. Dan also returns to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize controversy, where organizers have taken a strikingly different and very human approach to AI detection: gathering notes, drafts, and timestamped evidence from authors rather than relying on AI detection tools. He closes with news of a BISG and BookNet Canada survey on AI in publishing that indie authors in the US and Canada are encouraged to take part in. Show Notes Book Industry Study Group Survey Sponsor Self-Publishing News is proudly sponsored by PublishMe—helping indie authors succeed globally with expert translation, tailored marketing, and publishing support. From first draft to international launch, PublishMe ensures your book reaches readers everywhere. Visit publishme.me. Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of nearly 2,000 blog posts and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. About the Host Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet, and spoken word artist. He is the MC of the performance arts show The New Libertines, He competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Royal Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is  available on Kindle.

    News: Rakuten Kobo Took a "Book Community First" Approach to AI — and Rejected 45 Percent of Submissions

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The Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors provides a comprehensive guide for indie authors.

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