Melissa Addey

Melissa Addey, award-winning historical fiction author with a PhD in creative writing, talks scholarly research techniques for indie writers. She explains using primary sources, sensory fieldwork and organised notes to enrich fiction. She also explores avoiding accidental plagiarism, when to stop researching, and how AI can accelerate research without replacing your voice.

In today's Beginners Self-Publishing Podcast: creating superfans. Studies suggest that readers must read 4.5 books on average from the same author before they even remember their name. But that's without author intervention. Use a few tricks, and you can engage fans far earlier in the process. In this episode, ALLi Product Marketing Manager Dan Parsons and Campaigns Manager Melissa Addey explore a range of strategies any author can deploy to warm readers who enter their ecosystem. Together, they cover sales funnels, online communities, a quest to deliver extra value, and more. Follow their tips, and you, too, can turn casual readers into superfans. Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our self-publishing advice center, http://selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at allianceindependentauthors.org. Now, go write and publish! About the Hosts Dan Parsons writes the Creative Business series for authors, bestselling fantasy and horror novels (under Daniel Parsons), and a weekly blog for The Self-Publishing Formula. In the past, he has worked for three trad publishers, managed two bookstores and listened to an unhealthy number of podcasts. Now he's ALLi's product marketing manager. Melissa Addey has a PhD in creative writing and writes historical fiction set in first-century Rome, eleventh-century Morocco and eighteenth-century China. She runs writing workshops covering both craft and entrepreneurship, most frequently for the British Library. She's also ALLi's campaigns manager, a role in which she loves observing and supporting the vast diversity of self-published authors. Visit her at her website and pick up a free novella.

Melissa Addey, Campaigns Manager and Bookstore Lead at the Alliance of Independent Authors, explains the new Big Indie Author Bookstore and how it boosts indie discoverability. They cover why a searchable, trustworthy indie storefront was needed. Conversation touches on outreach to readers, librarians and reviewers, marketing links and bulk upload support for member backlists.