This week marks one month until the Wide for the Win Summit with Indie Author Training kicks off. Have you registered yet?
The two-day event takes place virtually October 9 and 10 and will include a mix of free and paid opportunities for authors. Day 1 will be free to attend and focus on the foundations of wide publishing, and day 2 will include paid workshops and resources to help you set up the strategy for yourself. Attendees will hear from several industry experts, including Chelle Honiker, Bradley Charbonneau, Paul Austin Ardoin, Kimberly Diede, Brittany Kelley, and more.
And this week, we’re thrilled to announce another name set to appear in that list: publishing industry expert Jane Friedman, in conversation with Mark Leslie Lefebvre!
The full speaker lineup is still to come, but you can look through the complete schedule, learn more about the event, and register at https://summits.indieauthortraining.com/wide-for-the-win-summit. Keep an eye out for more speaker announcements as we count down to the event over the next few weeks. We hope you’ll join us!
This Week’s Indie Author Magazine Articles
Romance is almost unequivocally the most popular book genre in the world, and much of that comes from the sense of community among its readers. Reading platforms tailored to the genre, such as Yearn, Bright Haven, and Noir Pages, are perfect examples. But these apps aren’t just for readers; for authors, they offer a chance to connect more with existing audiences and share books with new readers. IAM’s Eryka Parker explores these three platforms and the benefits of others like them for indie authors looking to market beyond social media.
Eryka Parker
Teachings from Indie Author Training
Webinar: “From Blurb to Launch Day: Build Your Book's Entire Visual Package in an Hour”
Most indie book covers fail in the first three seconds—at thumbnail size, in a crowded category, against traditionally published competition. This session is about closing that gap.
Pablo Yáñez spent years shooting book covers for design agencies and publishing professionals before building BeYourCover. He'll start with what actually makes a cover sell: how genre conventions signal to the right reader, why typography hierarchy matters more than artwork, and the thumbnail test every cover has to survive.
Then he'll build one live, start to finish. Beginning with nothing but a blurb, you'll watch a cover go from first concepts through real iteration to a finished design, then straight into everything that comes after it, the part most authors don't realize they need until launch week: a print-ready paperback wrap with correct spine width, an audiobook version, 3D mockups, Amazon A+ graphics, listing copy and keywords, and a day-by-day launch calendar.
You'll leave knowing how to judge your own cover honestly and what a complete launch package actually looks like.
Watch the replay here: https://webinars.indieauthortraining.com/talks/from-blurb-to-launch-day-build-your-books-entire-visual-package-in-an-hour.
Upcoming Webinars
September 23, 12 p.m. EDT: “From First Draft to Launch Day” with Susan Odev: Sign up at https://webinars.indieauthortraining.com/talks/from-first-draft-to-launch-day.
Indie Author Tools Directory
Have you visited Indie Author Tools lately? Our tools and services directory rounds up essential resources for indie authors at every stage of the publication process, from outlining to marketing and everything in between. Check out our listings in the following categories, or let us know which tools we’re missing at https://www.indieauthortools.com.
- Cover artists: https://indieauthortools.com/cover-artists
- Editors, from developmental through proofreading: https://indieauthortools.com/editors
- Marketing tools: https://indieauthortools.com/marketing-tools
- Audiobook production and narration: https://indieauthortools.com/sound-audio-books
More Indie Publishing News
Here’s a look beyond our pages at the latest headlines and happenings in the publishing world.
- Publisher Champ, the book sales tracking platform, now integrates with IngramSpark and Ingram Lightning Source Inc. (LSI), the platform announced Wednesday. Authors who distribute their books through IngramSpark and/or LSI can connect their accounts in Publisher Champ to view daily sales and monthly compensation reports in their dashboard and regular reports. Learn more at https://www.publisherchamp.com/whats-new.
- Among those in the audio industry, 85 percent use AI somewhere in their audio production chain, according to a new study by Dosdoce.com, released by Frankfurter Buchmesse—in English, the Frankfurt Book Fair—earlier this week. Only 17 percent of audio industry professionals have integrated AI across more than six phases of their production workflow, but the numbers suggest AI use in the audio industry is beginning to shift from experimentation to “operational infrastructure,” according to an article in Publishing Perspectives. According to the report, 86 percent of respondents expect those numbers will continue to increase over the next three years, though AI adoption in audio publishing is still slower than in gaming, music, and TV/film. Read the article in Publishing Perspectives here: https://publishingperspectives.com/2026/09/who-is-narrating-the-future-ai-and-the-audiobook-market.
Anything we’ve missed that you think we should cover? Any topics or questions you’d like our team to explore? Let us know at feedback@indieauthormagazine.com. Your suggestion may just make it into an upcoming article.
