Our cover star this month is Selina Brown, founder of the Black British Book Festival (BBBF), which has grown in just a few years into Europe’s largest celebration of Black literature. In conversation with TIA editor-in-chief Roz Morris, Selina shares how BBBF began with her own experience as an indie author finding her way alone, and why the festival is as much about helping authors build sustainable careers and creating fair links with the publishing industry as it is about celebrating readers and writers.
Also in this issue: we hear from industry analyst Jane Friedman, keynote speaker at SelfPubCon 2026, on modern author strategies, emerging specialty markets and running an author business in the age of AI. We explore holiday titles and seasonal sales, including whether they pay off, how promotions work, and how to position non-holiday books to benefit from the gift-giving season. We also launch Authors + The Machine, a new section bringing clear-eyed reporting on AI in publishing, with our member survey results, Melissa Addey on using AI as a marketing assistant, and a hard look at AI detection tools.
Plus: discover our new “genre bonding” spaces in SelfPubConnect, get advice from Watchdog John Doppler on choosing self-publishing services in a changing marketplace, and find out where to meet ALLi at Author Nation in Las Vegas.
