The PublishDrive Market Intelligence Report 2026 revealed one clear truth:

Independent publishing is evolving fast.

Growth is expanding across formats, genres, regions, and business models. Print is accelerating. Non-fiction is outpacing fiction in growth. Audiobooks are diversifying. International markets like Germany are scaling rapidly.

But insight alone does not create growth.

This live webinar with our Customer Success Manager will show you how to interpret the data and apply it directly inside your PublishDrive dashboard. You will learn how to analyze your own performance, identify opportunities in your catalog, and take practical steps to expand your revenue.

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What the Data in the Report Tells Us

What You Will Learn in This Webinar

In this session, we will walk you through:

How to Analyze Your Own Sales Data

• Understanding format-level performance
• Comparing store performance
• Identifying breakout territories
• Tracking genre momentum within your own catalog

How to Optimize Your Format Strategy

• When to add print if you are ebook-only
• When to expand into audio
• Evaluating AI narration vs human narration
• Assessing format gaps in your portfolio

How to Choose and Expand into Additional Stores

• Understanding retail vs subscription dynamics
• Leveraging regional store ecosystems
• Using data to guide international expansion

How to Update and Strengthen Your Catalog

• Converting existing titles into additional formats
• Revisiting metadata and categorization
• Identifying underperforming titles with upside potential
• Using market trends to inform future releases

This is a practical session focused on implementation inside PublishDrive.

How You Can Take Action Immediately

Don't Miss It

If you have downloaded the Market Intelligence Report, this webinar is your next step. If you have not yet explored the data, this session will give you a guided walkthrough of the most important insights and how to use them.

Whether you are an independent author or a growing publisher, understanding how to interpret market signals and act on them is now essential. Seats are limited for the live session. Reserve your spot now and learn how to turn insight into structured growth.

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In this episode of Brave New Bookshelf, Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite explore what happens when artistic skill meets artificial intelligence.

Their guest, epic fantasy author Melinda Kucsera, shares how she blends traditional digital painting with AI tools to create stunning covers, immersive illustrated editions, and highly successful Kickstarter campaigns. From technical publishing setbacks to six crowdfunding launches, Melinda’s story proves that authors can build powerful careers beyond a single retailer.

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From Scientific Publishing to Epic Fantasy

Melinda brings a rare combination of experiences. With 16 years in science journal publishing and a thriving indie fantasy career, she bridges structured non-fiction workflows with imaginative worldbuilding.

She is best known for her Curse Breaker series and Rogue Gods trilogy, and she has become known for producing richly illustrated editions that would once have been financially out of reach for independent authors.

After losing her Amazon KDP account due to a technical glitch, Melinda pivoted. She embraced wide distribution and crowdfunding, demonstrating that platform independence is not just possible, but profitable.

Hybrid AI Cover Design: Art First, AI Second

Before AI art tools existed, Melinda relied heavily on Daz 3D to create character renders. The process was time-intensive. High-resolution renders could take up to 48 hours and were vulnerable to crashes or system updates.

Today, her workflow combines:

• AI-generated backgrounds and textures
• 3D character bases from Daz
• Heavy post-production work in Adobe Photoshop

She treats AI as a starting layer, not a finished product. Hours are spent correcting anatomy, repainting details, and compositing multiple images into one cohesive cover. The result feels polished and intentional, not automated.

Her golden rule: Never let AI handle your typography.

Text should always be added separately in a design program to maintain consistency, meet print margins, and ensure licensing compliance.

AI Inside Kickstarter Campaigns

Melinda has run six Kickstarter campaigns, and AI plays a role in nearly every stage.

For her Rogue Gods trilogy, she created more than 300 interior illustrations using AI-assisted workflows. This allowed her to offer premium illustrated editions that would otherwise have required a prohibitive art budget.

Beyond visuals, she uses LLMs such as Claude and Gemini. These tools help her:

• Identify marketable tropes
• Distill 500-page novels into tight sales copy
• Craft Kickstarter campaign descriptions
• Analyze positioning for epic fantasy audiences

Transparency is key. Kickstarter requires AI disclosure, and Melinda openly shares her hybrid process to maintain reader trust.

Practical Cover Design Advice

Melinda shared several actionable tips for authors experimenting with AI:

• Separate typography from art
• Use reverse font search tools if you love an AI-generated font style
• Use Photoshop’s “Remove” and “Generative Fill” tools to clean artifacts
• When struggling with hands, prompt characters to hold an object like a sword or staff to improve rendering accuracy

AI reduces production time, but professional results still require human judgment.

Publishing Wide and Building Resilience

After her Amazon setback, Melinda doubled down on diversified distribution. She now distributes widely using PublishDrive and produces special print editions through BookVault.

Her success highlights a critical lesson: A loyal audience matters more than any single sales platform.

Crowdfunding has become a powerful revenue stream and a way to deepen reader relationships.

Tools Mentioned in This Episode

• NightCafe Creator
• Ideogram
• Daz 3D
• Adobe Photoshop
• Affinity Photo
• Claude
• Gemini

Key Takeaways

• AI works best as a hybrid creative tool
• Kickstarter can fund premium illustrated editions
• Professional typography should never be AI-generated
• Wide distribution builds long-term stability
• Transparency about AI builds trust

In this episode, Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite take a thoughtful look at the real conversations surrounding AI. From media headlines to medical literacy, from writing workflows to “brain atrophy” myths, this discussion explores what actually happens when humans and AI work together.

This is not a hype episode. And it’s not a fear episode either. It’s about critical thinking.

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Meet Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite

Steph Pajonas is the CTO of Future Fiction Academy and Future Fiction Press, where she teaches authors how to integrate AI across writing, editing, and publishing workflows.

Danica Favorite is the Community Manager at PublishDrive, helping authors navigate metadata, distribution, and royalties so their books reach readers worldwide.

Together, they connect creativity and infrastructure, showing how AI fits into a modern publishing ecosystem without replacing the human core of storytelling.

AI as Support, Not Replacement

Danica shares her experience in a year-long RIM (Regenrating Images in Memory) training program, where human intuition is essential. Yet even in deeply personal work, AI has found a place.

Instructors use it to:

• Create memorable theme songs for concepts
• Generate worksheets and coloring pages
• Support students with quick answers through expert bots

The key insight is simple: when AI handles repetitive or administrative tasks, humans have more space for meaningful connection.

Steph reinforces this idea throughout the episode. AI is not the main character. It is an auxiliary tool that clears the runway for deeper work.

The “Brain Atrophy” Narrative

One of the biggest talking points comes from a widely discussed MIT study that many headlines framed as proof that AI harms critical thinking.

Steph breaks this down carefully.

The original study measured cognitive load, not intelligence. The researcher later clarified that the findings did not mean people were becoming less intelligent or experiencing “brain rot.”

Instead, the question is how we use AI.

When an AI suggests unexpected plot points or angles, it can expand the thinking process. Rather than replacing thought, it introduces more variables. The creator still evaluates, selects, rejects, and refines.

As Steph puts it, AI does not stop you from thinking. It gives you more to think about.

Media Bias and the Rage-Click Economy

Why do so many AI headlines feel dramatic?

Steph and Danica explore how negative framing often drives engagement. Sensational claims travel faster than nuance.

They encourage listeners to pause and ask:

• Who benefits from this headline?
• Is the summary accurate to the full study?
• Am I reacting because it confirms a fear?

Danica shares an example of a meteorologist criticized for using AI imagery despite decades of expertise. The backlash said more about public anxiety than about his actual knowledge.

The broader takeaway is not about defending AI. It is about defending critical thinking.

AI in Everyday Life

The conversation moves beyond publishing into daily life.

Steph uses AI to:

• Design fitness progressions
• Break down complex grammar rules from Duolingo lessons
• Compare products and research purchases

Danica uses AI to:

• Interpret medical lab results before appointments
• Reduce anxiety through clearer understanding of technical data
• Explore lifestyle questions in a structured way

Both emphasize the same boundary: AI is not a doctor, a lawyer, or a replacement for expertise. It is preparation. It is literacy. It is clarity.

And clarity reduces fear.

The “Stolen Data” Debate

The episode also addresses one of the most emotionally charged AI discussions: training data.

Steph and Danica reference the Anthropic settlement and highlight a detail often overlooked in media coverage. Court documents indicated that certain pirated books were stored on servers but were not part of the training corpus for released models.

They also discuss a broader philosophical point.

Human authors are shaped by everything they read. Styles evolve from exposure to language patterns. AI systems learn patterns at scale in a similar way.

The conversation does not dismiss ethical concerns. Instead, it asks for consistency. If someone rejects AI on principle, that is a position. But selectively using it for marketing while condemning it elsewhere creates tension.

The core theme returns again: think critically. Stay consistent. Stay informed.

Tools Mentioned in This Episode

• Gemini for research, shopping comparisons, and lifestyle support
• ChatGPT for explaining complex data and technical concepts
• Claude for its constitution-based model structure
• Duolingo for language learning
• Dragon Dictation as an early example of AI-driven workflow support

Key Takeaways

• AI works best as a junior collaborator.
• Sensational headlines deserve scrutiny.
• Using AI does not eliminate critical thinking.
• Clarity reduces fear.
• Human connection remains the point.

This episode invites you to step back from the noise and examine your own relationship with AI. Not through hype. Not through panic. But through thoughtful evaluation.

AI can feel overwhelming when you’re just starting out as an author. New tools. New terminology. New expectations.

In this episode of Brave New Bookshelf, Steph and Danica sit down with Jessica Waldron, also known as Connie Clark, romance author, multi-pen-name powerhouse, and founder of The Invisible Pen, to talk about what AI actually looks like for beginners.

This conversation is not about hype. It’s about practicality.

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Meet Jessica Waldron

Jessica writes romance across six pen names, from Regency to Mafia Dark Romance. Through The Invisible Pen, she helps new authors, especially those who feel intimidated by technology, navigate AI in a way that feels accessible and empowering.

Her journey into AI started with writer’s block on a manuscript called Wild Reckoning. With 30,000 words written but momentum stalled, she experimented by feeding her draft and outline into ChatGPT. The results surprised her. That moment opened the door to deeper experimentation with models like Gemini, Claude, and Grok.

What followed was not automation. It was transformation.

AI for Authors Over 40, 50, and Beyond

Jessica originally set out to help authors over 50 adopt AI tools with confidence. After some friendly protests from her Gen X peers, she widened her focus. Her core belief remains the same:

AI is not replacing authors. It is supporting them.

For writers navigating life changes, shifting energy levels, or simply the intimidation of new technology, AI can become a steady creative partner. It can help with momentum, structure, brainstorming, and even clarity when brain fog strikes.

Age is not a barrier. Curiosity is the key.

Jessica’s Practical AI Writing Workflow

Jessica shares a clear, structured workflow that turns AI from a mystery into a manageable system:

1. Idea and Tropes

Start with a clear concept and define 3 to 4 tropes that will anchor the story and potentially evolve across a series.

2. Character Development

Name your characters. Define their individual tropes and emotional dynamics. Grumpy sunshine. Big bear energy. Hidden vulnerability.

3. Setting

Ground the story in a world that aligns with your genre expectations.

4. Premise and Codex

Using Claude or another model, establish a codex. This includes character profiles, setting notes, tone guidance, and a structured book map.

5. Outline

Generate a 25-chapter outline. Then adjust it. Refine it. Make it yours.

6. Prompt Creation

Have the model generate writing prompts specific to your story. This shifts AI from generic assistant to guided collaborator.

7. Writing and Feedback

Review the output closely. Correct inconsistencies. Challenge tone mistakes. If the heroine shows up downstairs in her nightgown in a Regency romance, you fix it. Then you ask for revisions.

The key point: this is not push-button publishing. It is directed collaboration.

Collaboration Requires Critical Thinking

Steph and Danica emphasize that strong AI use depends on strong author input.

AI responds to direction. It improves with feedback. It reflects the quality of your thinking.

Writers who approach AI as a co-creator rather than a shortcut tend to produce stronger results. The process can even sharpen analytical skills by forcing authors to articulate tone, pacing, and character logic more clearly.

Exploring Different AI Models

Jessica also discusses how different models behave differently depending on genre and content:

• Gemini performs well with Regency nuance and structured storytelling.
• Claude works effectively for premise building and structural planning.
• Grok has been more permissive with explicit or spicy content.
• ChatGPT has evolved over time, with shifting capabilities around certain content types.

The takeaway is simple: there is no universal best model. Testing matters.

Custom GPTs or tailored setups can also be useful, especially for recurring tasks or genre-specific tone.

Advice for Newbie Authors

For beginners, Jessica recommends starting with Gemini, especially for authors already using Google services. It balances affordability with strong capability.

Her broader advice:

• Start simple.
• Experiment carefully.
• Stay in control of your voice.
• Treat AI as a tool, not a replacement.

There is no single right way to integrate AI into your writing process. What matters is finding a workflow that supports your creativity instead of overwhelming it.

Key Takeaways

• AI is a powerful support tool when guided intentionally.
• Direction, editing, and oversight are essential.
• Different models serve different creative needs.
• Collaboration and critical thinking remain central to quality writing.
• AI can expand productivity without diminishing author ownership.

Publishing today is not a single path. For many authors, the decision between traditional publishing and self-publishing is a practical one about control, speed, and ownership.

Once self-publishing is in play, another question follows naturally. How do your books enter the market?

For many, the answer is Amazon. It is familiar, accessible, and central to much of the self-publishing conversation. As a result, it often becomes the primary reference for understanding performance and potential.

Amazon is a major force in digital publishing, especially for ebooks. But it is not the entire market. The global book ecosystem is broader, more fragmented, and more multi-channel than a single platform can show. Understanding that structure is what makes publishing strategies more resilient, scalable, and sustainable over time.

Amazon’s role within self-publishing

Amazon sits at the center of the self-publishing conversation for a reason. It has scale, strong reader adoption, and a low barrier to entry. In many major markets, it accounts for a large share of ebook sales, and it lets authors get books live quickly with minimal friction. For someone publishing their first book, Amazon is often the most obvious place to begin.

That starting point shapes a lot of what follows. Many self-publishing businesses grow up around Amazon as their main channel. Prices are set with Amazon in mind. Launch timing is planned around Amazon’s mechanics. Promotions are judged by how they perform on Amazon’s dashboards. The feedback is immediate, visible, and easy to react to.

And that can work, especially early on.

The limitation shows up when Amazon stops being a starting point and starts being treated as the market itself. When that happens, performance inside one platform begins to stand in for overall demand. What readers are doing elsewhere, in other formats, in other regions, or through other channels, quietly drops out of the picture, even though the global book market is doing far more than one dashboard can show.

The global book market is not centralized

The global book market does not live in a single storefront.

Readers around the world find and consume books in very different ways, shaped by format preferences, access to local stores, language, and even how they pay. Some readers buy ebooks one at a time. Others read through subscription services. Many rely on libraries. Audiobook listeners often engage through mobile apps during commutes or daily routines. In some regions, print remains the dominant format, while in others digital access is key.

Formats matter because readers move between them. A reader might discover a title as an ebook, continue the series in audio, and later buy a print edition. Treating formats as isolated channels misses how real reading habits work.

Access matters just as much. In many countries, global platforms are not the primary place readers shop. Local and regional retailers play a huge role, especially where language, pricing, and availability differ from market to market. Payment options also shape behavior. Credit cards are not universal. In some regions, local wallets, invoices, or carrier billing are the norm. If a book is not available in a way readers can easily buy or access, demand never has a chance to appear.

Language adds another layer. The global book market is multilingual by default. Readers overwhelmingly prefer to read in their native language, and discovery behaves differently across markets. What works in one territory often does not translate directly to another.

This is why no single platform can reflect the full picture of reader demand. Data from any one channel shows what happens inside that ecosystem, not what is happening globally. When publishing strategies rely on one source of data, entire segments of readers, formats, and markets remain invisible, even though they may represent meaningful long-term opportunity.

Self-publishing as an operating model

Traditional publishing is built around centralized infrastructure. Distribution, metadata standards, accessibility requirements, reporting, and institutional access are handled by the publisher. In return, authors give up a degree of control in exchange for scale and reach.

Self-publishing flips that structure. Authors and independent publishers keep control, but they also decide how their books are produced, distributed, and grown over time. That control is not just about speed or ownership. It is about designing how a publishing business actually operates.

Seen this way, self-publishing is not simply a faster way to release a book. It is an operating model. One that allows authors to make intentional choices about formats, markets, pricing, and channels, and to adjust those choices as reader behavior changes.

The self-publishers who build lasting careers tend to think beyond individual launches. They build catalogs, not one-off titles. They look at cumulative reach across formats and markets rather than performance in a single store. Books become long-term assets, and publishing workflows are built to support growth, experimentation, and scale.

From self-publishing to wide distribution

Once self-publishing is treated as an operating model rather than a shortcut, the next logical step is to think beyond a single storefront.

Wide distribution simply means making books available wherever readers already are. Not just on Amazon, but across other major retailers like Apple Books, Google Play Books, and Kobo. It also means reaching readers through library platforms such as OverDrive and hoopla, where discovery often happens before purchase. And it increasingly means publishing in audio, through both traditional audiobook retailers and newer listening environments such as ElevenReader.

The benefit of wide distribution is reach, but the value goes deeper than that.

Being present across multiple stores, formats, and channels gives authors a clearer picture of how readers actually behave. It reveals where books are discovered, which formats resonate, and how demand differs by region or platform. Patterns emerge that are invisible when everything is judged through a single dashboard.

Wide distribution also changes how performance is interpreted. Instead of tying success to one store or one launch moment, authors can see how books perform over time and across channels. A title that grows slowly in retail may find steady traction in libraries. A series that underperforms in one format may thrive in audio. These signals help authors make calmer, more informed decisions about pricing, formats, and future releases.

This is why many self-publishers choose to distribute widely even when one platform performs well. It is not about abandoning what works. It is about understanding the full market and building a strategy that reflects how readers actually find and consume books.

What wide distribution starts to reveal

Once books are available across multiple stores, formats, and regions, the picture of the market changes. Patterns appear that are impossible to see from a single platform. Some retailers drive discovery, while others convert later. Certain formats perform better in specific regions. Libraries surface steady, long-tail interest that never shows up in launch-day metrics. Audiobooks reveal a different kind of engagement altogether. Wide distribution does more than increase reach. It exposes how readers actually behave across the market. For many authors and publishers, this is the first time performance stops being defined by one store or one moment. Instead, it becomes something that unfolds over time and across channels.

What authors and publishers need to manage

Seeing the full market means managing more variables.

Books are published in multiple formats: ebooks, print, and audio. They appear in different retail ecosystems, library platforms, and listening environments. They may be available in multiple languages. Pricing and availability can vary by territory. Accessibility requirements increasingly apply across catalogs.

Each of these elements adds information about how the market responds. But each one also adds operational work.

To actually learn from wide distribution, authors and publishers need to track performance across stores and channels, compare formats without treating them as separate products, understand regional and language differences, keep accessibility and compliance consistent, and update metadata, pricing, and presentation as patterns emerge.

None of this is conceptually complex. It simply adds up over time.

Where friction usually appears

In practice, wide distribution often means working across multiple systems.

Sales data comes from different dashboards and arrives on different schedules. Some channels report daily, others monthly or quarterly. Libraries behave differently from retail. Subscription platforms tell a different story again. Pulling those signals together takes time and attention.

The same is true on the operational side. Updating metadata, prices, or availability across multiple stores can become repetitive. Expanding into new formats or languages often means adding new workflows. Accessibility requirements introduce another layer of checks and processes.

The insight is there. The challenge is using it consistently without the overhead becoming the main focus.

Reducing complexity without reducing insight

This is where platforms like PublishDrive come in.

PublishDrive does not change what wide distribution reveals about the market. It changes how efficiently authors and publishers can work with that information. Store reach, multi-format publishing, language support, and accessibility are handled through a single workflow, reducing the need to repeat the same work across systems.

Sales and performance data from different channels is brought together so trends are easier to spot. Authors can compare how titles perform across formats and regions without stitching together reports manually. Long-term patterns become clearer because they are visible in one place.

Tools like PublishDrive’s Publishing Assistant support the next step. When data shows that something needs adjusting, metadata, categories, and covers can be optimized faster, making it easier to act on what the market is telling you rather than just observe it.

Accessibility fits into this same model. Automating compliance does not change the value of accessible publishing. It simply removes friction, allowing authors and publishers to include accessibility as a standard part of their catalog rather than a separate project.

Using wide distribution as a feedback loop

The real advantage of wide distribution is not just being present in more places. It is learning faster and with more context.

When operational effort is reduced, authors are more likely to engage with the data. They can test formats, explore new markets, and refine their approach without everything feeling heavy. Wide distribution becomes a feedback loop, not a reporting exercise.

That is when self-publishing starts to feel less like reacting to dashboards and more like understanding a market.

And that is the point where wide distribution stops being a tactic and becomes a practical, long-term advantage.

Publishing beyond a single platform

Publishing beyond Amazon does not mean excluding Amazon. It means putting it in context.

In a multi-channel strategy, Amazon remains an important retailer and discovery engine. It just no longer defines the boundaries of the business. Performance is viewed across the whole catalog and over time, not through one store or one moment. Short-term fluctuations make more sense when they sit alongside longer-term trends, library performance, audio growth, and regional demand.

This is how publishing becomes more stable. Reach replaces reliance. Patterns matter more than spikes. Growth is measured by durability rather than dominance inside a single ecosystem.

It is also how professional publishing has always worked. What has changed is that independent authors now have access to the same kind of global reach and market visibility, if they choose to use it.

Seeing the market clearly

The real question in self-publishing is not whether Amazon should be part of the strategy. It almost always is.

The question is whether publishing decisions are shaped by one platform, or by the realities of the global book market.

That market is multi-channel, multi-format, and global by default. Readers behave differently across regions, languages, formats, and access points. Understanding those differences leads to better decisions, calmer planning, and more sustainable growth.

Publishing beyond Amazon is not about moving away from a platform. It is about building a publishing model that reflects how the market actually works.

A natural next step

If you are self-publishing today, it is worth taking a step back and asking a simple question: Is my publishing strategy built around a single platform, or around the market my readers actually live in?

At PublishDrive, we work with authors and publishers who are building catalogs for the long term across stores, formats, and regions. If you are exploring what wide distribution looks like in practice, or how to make it more manageable, we are always happy to be part of that conversation. Because understanding the real shape of the global book market tends to change the decisions you make next.

AI in publishing is no longer just about prompts and rewrites. In this episode of Brave New Bookshelf, hosts Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite explore the next phase of AI-assisted authorship: agentic tools, context-aware workflows, and how writers can use AI as a true creative partner rather than a shortcut.

The conversation looks at how AI is shifting from a reactive assistant into an active collaborator, capable of research, organization, and intelligent editorial support, while still leaving creative decisions firmly in human hands.

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Empowerment Over Replacement

Steph Pajonas is the CTO of Future Fiction Academy and Future Fiction Press. She works closely with authors to help them integrate AI into their writing and publishing workflows in practical, ethical, and sustainable ways.

Danica Favorite is the Community Manager at PublishDrive, where she supports authors across every stage of the publishing journey, from AI-assisted covers and metadata to manuscript preparation and global distribution.

Together, Steph and Danica bring both technical depth and real-world publishing experience to the discussion, offering a grounded view of where AI fits into modern authorship.

The Rise of Agentic AI Tools

Steph and Danica discuss how AI tools are becoming increasingly agentic, meaning they can take initiative and complete multi-step tasks with minimal guidance.

Danica shares her experience with Notion AI, which can now generate entire writing hubs complete with pages, structure, and workflows from a single prompt. Steph expands on this by explaining how these tools can reference uploaded documents, making precise, context-aware edits rather than broad rewrites.

The focus is moving away from rewriting text and toward making targeted improvements that preserve an author’s voice, tone, and intent.

Vibe Coding and Context-Driven Writing

The conversation introduces the idea of “vibe coding,” a concept borrowed from software development where creators describe what they want to achieve rather than outlining every step.

Steph explains how this approach is now being applied to writing tools, allowing authors to ask AI to research topics, analyze markets, or create outlines using general direction instead of rigid instructions.

She highlights Google’s Antigravity, an IDE originally built for coding that is now being used for writing. By uploading existing chapters or series files, authors can ask the AI to generate new content while maintaining narrative consistency and contextual awareness.

Danica shares a practical example of using Antigravity to research and plot an octopus romance novel. The tool quickly gathered market data and identified popular tropes, while the final creative direction remained driven by the author’s taste and judgment.

Favorite AI Tools and Workflows

Steph and Danica share the tools they rely on most for AI-assisted writing and publishing:

• Antigravity for agentic workflows, research, and file-aware writing
• Notion AI for brainstorming, organization, and context-based editing
• Gemini for general conversation and ideation
• Typing Mind for focused business and work-related tasks

Their advice is to understand each tool’s strengths and use them intentionally, rather than searching for a single all-purpose solution.

Progress Over Perfection

Both Steph and Danica reflect on personal challenges that temporarily pulled them away from creative work, including grief and major life changes. They discuss how those experiences reshaped their relationship with productivity and long-term goals.

They encourage authors to prioritize progress over perfection, work with their natural energy rhythms, and allow themselves breaks when needed. AI tools continue to improve rapidly, and there is no disadvantage to starting when it feels sustainable.

Resources for AI-Focused Authors

Steph recommends The Creative Penn Podcast as a long-standing resource for authors exploring AI and publishing. She also points listeners toward Future Fiction Academy, including its educational programs and the AI Writing for Authors Facebook group.

Steph and Danica discuss the broader shift from what was once described as a flood of low-quality AI content toward a rising standard of excellence, driven by authors who are learning how to use these tools thoughtfully.

Debunking the “Easy Button” Myth

The episode challenges the idea that AI provides an instant path to publishing success. Steph and Danica emphasize that strong stories still require craft, taste, and revision.

While some tools streamline workflows, those tools exist because of intentional design and deep understanding of the creative process. Authors are encouraged to be skeptical of platforms promising effortless results without requiring critical thinking or skill.

Key Takeaways

• AI writing tools are becoming agentic and context-aware
• Vibe coding principles are shaping modern writing workflows
• Tools like Antigravity and Notion AI enable deeper research, organization, and editing
• Progress matters more than perfection
• Learning AI tools is essential for staying competitive in publishing

Resources Mentioned

• Antigravity by Google
• Notion AI
• Gemini by Google
• Typing Mind
• The Creative Penn
• Future Fiction Academy
• YourFirstDraft.ai

When publishing books globally, copyright compliance isn’t optional — it’s foundational. Yet copyright and rights-related issues remain one of the most common reasons books are delayed, rejected, or removed from retailers.

Understanding what’s required before publishing can save publishers time, revenue, and serious legal headaches.

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Why copyright compliance matters

• Distribution delays
• Temporary or permanent takedowns
• Blocked territories
• Loss of trust with retailers

What publishers must have before publishing

To distribute books via PublishDrive, publishers must be able to confirm:

• Clear copyright ownership
  You must own the rights to the content or have explicit permission to publish it. This applies to text, images, illustrations, and any supplementary materials.
• Rights to third-party content
  Quotes, song lyrics, images, charts, translations, and AI-assisted material all require careful review. Retailers expect documented permission where applicable.
• Territorial and language rights clarity
  You can only distribute content in territories and languages for which you hold rights. Misrepresentation here is a common — and avoidable — issue.

Common mistakes that lead to problems

• Publishing translated works without documented translation rights
• Mislabeling public-domain content
• Using copyrighted images found online without permission
• Assuming AI-generated content is automatically copyright-safe
• Listing content under the wrong rights holder

These mistakes are often unintentional — but retailers still enforce their policies strictly.

How to reduce risk before publishing

• Review ownership and licensing agreements
• Confirm permissions for all third-party material
• Ensure metadata accurately reflects rights and authorship
• Prepare documentation in case retailers request verification

Taking these steps upfront helps ensure smoother distribution and long-term catalog stability.

Learn more in our upcoming webinar

To help publishers navigate these requirements, we’re hosting a dedicated webinar: Copyright, Rights, and Compliance - What You Must Have Before Publishing

The session will walk through real-world examples, common pitfalls, and practical steps to ensure your books meet copyright and rights standards before distribution.

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What actually moves the needle with author newsletters in 2026.

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What is this webinar about?

Join PublishDrive for a candid conversation with Bad Evan, a six-figure author with 17+ active pen names and decades of publishing experience. From launching a first publishing business in 1998 to rebuilding after the 2008 recession and scaling again starting in 2015, Evan brings a long-view perspective on what’s changed, what hasn’t, and what’s working right now. He’s also been incorporating AI tools into his publishing workflow since 2021, and will share practical ways authors can use AI to support newsletter creation without losing their voice.

Who it's for?

Indie authors and publishers who want a clearer, repeatable newsletter strategy they can stick with.

You’ll leave with actionable ideas you can implement immediately, whether you’re building your first list or managing multiple pen names at scale.

Why attend?

It is not often you can hear direct from someone with so much experience. Don't miss this chance to learn from one of the best.

Don’t miss it! Reserve your spot and hear tips and tricks direct from Bad Evan.

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Ten years ago, we founded PublishDrive on a simple premise: authors and publishers deserved better infrastructure to reach readers globally. In 2025, that premise was tested in ways we couldn't have imagined a decade ago.

This was the year AI stopped being a theoretical disruption and became an actual workflow. The year European accessibility regulations moved from "eventually" to "immediately." The year distribution partners we'd relied on for years simply shut down. The year fraud became sophisticated enough to require machine learning to combat it.

Here's what actually happened in 2025, what we learned, and what it means for professional publishing.

The Audio Revolution Hit Critical Mass

The US audiobook market generated $1.1 billion in 2024, growing nearly 24% year-over-year. Digital audio now commands 11.3% of the US trade market—decisively surpassing ebooks. At PublishDrive, our audiobook distribution revenue quadrupled in 2024, and 2025 maintained that momentum.

Our ElevenLabs partnership wasn't just a tactical integration—it was a strategic commitment to helping publishers build new revenue streams through AI technology. We developed the 70-20-10 framework: 70% of backlist converted with AI narration, 20% hybrid production, and 10% premium human narration for frontlist and key titles.

On the PublishDrive platform, the number of audiobook titles, spanning various languages, surged by over 80%. We anticipate that this strong growth will persist in 2026.

What's remarkable isn't just adoption rates—it's sophistication. Publishers quickly learned strategic deployment. One romance publisher told us they'd spent years watching ebook sales stagnate while knowing audio was the growth format, but human narration quotes of $2,000-5,000 per title meant their $4.99 backlist would never break even. With AI narration, they converted dozens of titles in a few months and added substantial new monthly income from audiobooks.

That's not replacing human narrators. That's creating economic viability where none existed before. The publishers who thrived understood AI narration as a tool for backlist monetization while maintaining human narration for premium frontlist titles where voice performance drives value.

Our ElevenLabs partnership extends beyond production to reader experience technology—publishers can now offer AI-narrated previews and full audiobook experiences directly through retail channels, improving discoverability and conversion.

The publishers who won in 2025 weren't using AI for everything or avoiding it entirely. They were strategic, testing, and making data-driven decisions about which titles deserved complete human treatment and which benefited from faster, cheaper AI production.

Amazon's 2025: Platform Risk Crystallized

Amazon didn't just adjust print royalties in June 2025—they increased both prices AND royalties, opened Kindle Unlimited to libraries, and launched a translation tool in beta. Also, at the end of the year, they announced that readers can chat with AI agents about the books, plus readers can download epubs and PDF versions of the books (without digital right management). Each change, whether beneficial or not, reminded publishers of a fundamental truth: when one company controls your distribution, you're not running a business—you're renting one.

But Amazon wasn't the only major player changing terms. Ingram introduced new terms and conditions across IngramSpark and other services, such as CoreSource, affecting print-on-demand economics for thousands of publishers. The changes affected setup fees and distribution terms, shifting costs back to publishers. For small presses and independent authors who'd built their print strategy around Ingram's infrastructure, this represented yet another reminder that platform terms are always subject to change.

We saw immediate spikes in inquiries from a wide distribution perspective after each announcement. Publishers who'd been KDP-exclusive for years suddenly wanted options.

When Distribution Partners Disappear

Baker & Taylor's shutdown sent shockwaves through the library distribution industry. Ciando's closure affected European ebook publishers. Both reminded us that even established players aren't permanent.

PublishDrive's multi-channel approach meant our publishers had backup routes to the same retailers and libraries. When one partner shut down, complexity became resilience.

AI's Double-Edged Sword

The Disney v. Midjourney lawsuit crystallized everything uncertain about AI and copyright. As the case proceeds, it's already changed conversations about training data and author rights.

Meanwhile, AI simultaneously became a normalized production workflow AND a fraud vector. Publishers used AI for narration, cover design iterations, metadata optimization, and marketing copy. But AI also enabled content spam flooding retailers, the generation of fake reviews, and sophisticated rights fraud.

At PublishDrive, we turned AI promises into publishing reality by strategically addressing the challenges and opportunities of AI. We prioritized robust fraud detection to combat AI-generated spam while actively supporting legitimate AI use. This commitment involved significant investment in both development resources and human processes to ensure we could fairly mitigate the flood of low-quality, AI-generated content, protecting the integrity of the market.

The challenge isn't AI itself—it's that AI amplifies both efficiency and malicious fraud. Our position remains clear: authors own their work, and platforms must protect that ownership while enabling beneficial AI applications.

Platform Evolution: Features That Mattered

EAA Compliance Automation: The European Accessibility Act requires digital publications to meet accessibility standards, with enforcement ramping up through 2027. For publishers with extensive backlists, manual redesign would cost thousands of hours and be a significant expense. We built full automation—upload existing files, and our tool handles compliance conversion automatically. No manual redesign. No specialized designers. No panicking about EU regulations. Since the end of June 2025, all books uploaded and distributed through PublishDrive have been fully EAA-compliant. 

This isn't just a feature—it's a strategic moat. Every publisher with EU distribution will need to republish their backlist to comply within the next 2-3 years. When they do, PublishDrive becomes the obvious solution. This is essential infrastructure disguised as compliance tooling.

Fraud Prevention: We implemented advanced fraud detection as a core platform capability to combat AI-generated spam content. Clean data protects publisher reputations, maintains retailer trust, and ensures platform integrity. In an industry plagued by fraud that erodes trust between platforms, publishers, and retailers, this essential infrastructure took years to build correctly.

AI-Powered Metadata Optimization: Our tool analyzes manuscripts and suggests optimal BISAC codes and keywords across retailers. Remember when optimizing categories felt like reading tea leaves? We solved that.

Team Royalties: We reduced pricing to a flat $20 fee for unlimited contributors (down from $20 per contributor) and automated split payments for publishing houses managing multiple authors. The price reduction made this function for smaller houses more accessible, since they needed it most.

Building Community Beyond Software

In 2025, PublishDrive affirmed a core belief: community, not just software, is the foundation of a sustainable business. We deepened our commitment to the publishing industry by engaging with key organizations, including the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).

Substantive Community Contributions

Our dedication went beyond marketing. The Brave New Bookshelf podcast, hosted by Danica Favorite with Steph Pajonas, grew into a significant industry resource, exceeding 59 episodes and 94,000+ listens, and earning recognition at different conferences. Some of the episodes cover writing with AI or industry impact of using AI. This podcast is far from being a mere lead-generation tool, the podcast offered substantive conversations with authors, publishers, and experts, helping the community make better decisions. The fact that it aids in PublishDrive's discoverability is a secondary benefit, not the main objective.

Additionally, we hosted 12 webinars for our clients and prospects, aimed at maximizing their understanding and use of our platform's capabilities.

Active Conference Presence: Embedded in the Industry

We significantly boosted our conference presence in 2025, prioritizing active participation, speaking, and learning over simple attendance. Our attendance included a first-time appearance at the U.S. Book Show (USBS) in New York and participation in the Sharjah Publishers Conference.

• At USBS: Discussions about AI, discoverability, and the future of audiobooks directly reinforced our internal focus areas, giving us real-time insights from publishers navigating these challenges.
• At Sharjah: Engaging with sophisticated conversations on Arabic-language publishing, translation rights, and global distribution challenges solidified our view: the future of publishing is global, extending beyond the Anglo-American market.
• At IBPA conference: PublishDrive was able to meet small and indie publishers from the US market and showcase how digital publishing is moving forward.
• At Author Nation: Danica Favorite had several speaking engagements about PublishDrive and how AI is shaping the industry.

This active involvement is critical because PublishDrive is not an external "disruptor." We are embedded in publishing, constantly learning from industry professionals. Every conference provided valuable lessons that directly influenced our 2025 roadmap, every podcast conversation surfaced actionable pain points, and every community interaction reinforced the foundational mission of PublishDrive.

Internal Milestones: Our 10th Anniversary

PublishDrive turned 10 in 2025. A decade in publishing technology is an eternity—think about how much has changed since 2014. The fact that we're still here, still independent, still growing, and still focused on our original mission feels significant. Ten years taught us that sustainability beats viral growth, that publisher relationships matter more than vanity metrics, and that boring infrastructure work often delivers more value than flashy features.

We underwent a brand refresh in the last quarter of the year to reflect who we'd become: not a scrappy startup, but a mature platform serving professional publishers globally. Rebrands are risky, expensive, and potentially confusing to existing customers—but after 6 years of our last brand identity change, our visual identity needed to match our capabilities. 

The website rebranding significantly improved the user experience, with the pages that matter most converting better: Traffic to sign-up rate grew by about 5%; Registration page views increased by 120.55%; and Pricing page views by 16.45%.

Prioritizing Decisions That Benefit the Customer

We made the controversial decision to offer actual support to free-tier users, not just paid customers. Most SaaS companies reserve support for paying customers—it's economically rational. But we kept hearing from authors just starting out who needed guidance, from publishers testing the platform who had questions, from creators who would become paying customers if they understood how to use the system effectively. Did it strain our support team? Yes. Did it convert more free users to paid plans? Yes. Was it the right thing to do for the publishing community? Absolutely.

We introduced hybrid pricing plans mixing royalty-share and subscription models, acknowledging that a publisher with 500 backlist titles has different economics than one releasing 20 frontlist titles annually. We negotiated a 12-month Ingram fee waiver for our publishers. We integrated ElevenLabs Reader technology, enabling AI-narrated previews directly through retail channels, improving audiobook discovery and conversion.

Partner and Publisher Success

Here's the thing about running a platform business: our success is entirely derivative. If our publishers don't succeed, we don't succeed. It's that simple.

So while I've spent much of this article discussing PublishDrive's features and growth, what actually matters most is what our partners and clients achieved in 2025 because they're the ones doing the hard work of writing, editing, publishing, and connecting with readers.

Let me just mention one specific example, Defiance Press. They moved their catalog to PublishDrive in 2025, and their audiobook business is already about 15% of their overall revenue this year. As Lisa Woodward from Defiance Press stated: ‘Moving the Defiance Press catalog to PublishDrive in 2025 was the best thing we could do for our company and authors.‘

PublishDrive's 2025 Growth Highlights

PublishDrive and its network of publishers achieved significant platform-wide growth in 2025 (based on strong current projections):

• Sales and Royalties: Book sales increased by approximately 20% over 2024, resulting in a 35% rise in total royalties earned.
• Platform Adoption: We saw a 25% increase in new publishers and authors joining the platform. The majority (around 60%) of new users came from the US and the UK, with the remainder from various countries, including Australia, Canada, Italy, China, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Germany, and Switzerland.
• Format Expansion: Growth was strongest in new formats, demonstrating publishers' willingness to utilize the platform beyond ebooks:
  • Audiobooks published increased by over 80%.
  • Print-on-demand books added increased by more than 70%.
• Distribution Network: Elevenlabs, with their Elevenreader store, was added as a key distribution partner, continually expanding ways to sell more books.
• Sales Channel Performance:
  • Regional stores showed the highest growth (52%).
  • Retail models grew by 44%.
  • Library sales saw a 26% increase, with stronger growth anticipated in 2026 following KU's opening to library sales.

Genre Performance Snapshot

Several genres experienced exceptional growth in 2025:

Why This Matters for the Industry

PublishDrive has built sustainable competitive advantages over a decade:

Distribution Infrastructure: Building relationships with 400+ retailers and 240,000 libraries took ten years of partnership development, technical integration, and trust-building. This network isn't easily replicated—it represents accumulated relationship capital and technical infrastructure that competitors would need years to match.

EAA Compliance Automation: We've solved the European Accessibility Act compliance challenge that will force every EU-facing publisher to redesign their catalog in the next 2-3 years. Our automated, full-stack solution positions us to capture significant catalog migrations as compliance deadlines approach, and publishers face the choice between expensive manual redesign or switching to PublishDrive's automated solution.

Fraud Prevention Infrastructure: Our advanced fraud detection protects publisher reputations, maintains retailer trust, and ensures data integrity. In an industry plagued by click farms, review manipulation, and AI-generated spam, this infrastructure took years to build correctly and represents essential platform integrity that can't be bolted on later.

Strategic AI Partnerships: Our ElevenLabs integration isn't just a feature—it's a long-term partnership positioning us at the forefront of AI narration technology evolution. We're helping publishers build new revenue streams through strategic AI deployment, not chasing hype cycles. This partnership model demonstrates our approach: integrate deeply with best-in-class AI providers while maintaining platform independence and publisher control.

Publisher Trust and Retention: We have more and more publishers joining our platform because we solve real problems, not because of lock-in contracts. Our zero-commission subscription model aligns our interests with publisher success—we succeed when they succeed. This alignment creates sustainable growth rather than extractive relationships.

Community Engagement: Through Brave New Bookshelf (59 episodes, 94,000+ listens), expanded global conference presence (USBS, Sharjah, Frankfurt, Author Nation, NINC), and consistent educational content, we've built trust and brand recognition beyond feature comparisons. Publishers choose platforms they trust, and trust is built through consistent community contribution, not just marketing spend.

As the market evolves—traditional publishers building technology capabilities, technology companies exploring publishing—PublishDrive represents something increasingly rare: mature technology infrastructure combined with real publishing expertise, established distribution networks, and sustainable business models. We're one of the few scaled independents in an increasingly consolidated market.

2026: What's Next

We're watching AI voice personalization (letting readers choose voice, accent, and pacing), multilingual expansion enabled by AI translation plus narration, direct-to-reader infrastructure as subscription services squeeze margins, and expanded fraud prevention.

EAA compliance becomes our competitive advantage as enforcement accelerates. We're doubling down on data-driven publishing decisions, making our sales intelligence across 400+ retailers more actionable. Our 2026 goal is to make sure we give the best support for our clients who go wide with all the tools we already built and to offer the best customer experience to empower their publishing journey.

2026 Publishing Predictions

Want to know where the industry is moving in 2026? Check out my Publishing Predictions article with insights from many of the industry's top voices.

As we head into 2026, the publishing industry stands at a fascinating crossroads. After years of chasing every new platform, trend, and technology, we're seeing a fundamental shift toward strategic focus, catalog optimization, and—perhaps most importantly—authentic human connection in an increasingly AI-powered world.

READ IT NOW

The Publishing Industry in 2025: Final Thoughts

Barriers to entry have collapsed—anyone can publish now. This is wonderful for creative expression and terrifying for discoverability. But quality still matters. Readers remain discerning, and algorithms have improved at surfacing quality content.

The relationship between authors and publishers continues evolving. Traditional publishing's value proposition faces pressure. Self-publishing is increasingly professional. Hybrid models proliferate. There's no single "right" path anymore.

Copyright and IP rights will define the next decade. How we resolve AI training debates will determine whether individual creators can make sustainable livings or whether content becomes a commodity.

Community matters more than ever. BookTok, reading challenges, subscription boxes, and direct author-reader relationships drive discovery and sales. Publishers who understand community building will outperform those who only understand distribution.

Thank You

What kept me going: every time a publisher messaged us to say they'd just had their best month ever, or that PublishDrive's distribution helped them reach readers in a country they'd never imagined, or that our AI narration integration let them finally afford to convert their backlist to audio.

This is why we built PublishDrive. Not to be the biggest or the flashiest, but to genuinely help authors and publishers build sustainable businesses.

To our publishers: Thank you for trusting us with your work. We don't take that lightly.

To Danica Favorite: Building Brave New Bookshelf into something mentioned at Sharjah—that's the kind of team win that reminds you why you started a company.

To our incredible PublishDrive team from 9 countries globally who shipped more in 2025 than in 2024. Thank you for working hard for our customers.

To our retail partners and readers: None of this exists without you.

The publishing industry is messy, complicated, and beautiful. AI is making it messier and more complicated, but also more accessible and potentially more beautiful.

PublishDrive isn't trying to "disrupt" publishing. We're trying to empower the people who make it work—the authors, publishers, and readers who care about stories.

That was true when we started. It was true in 2025. It'll be true in 2035.

Thanks for being part of this journey.

Kinga Jentetics is CEO and co-founder of PublishDrive, a global book distribution platform serving publishers and authors in over 100 countries. Connect with her or subscribe to her newsletter "Wide Margins" on Substack.

CONNECT ON LINKEDIN

AI is everywhere in publishing right now. But the real question is not what AI can replace — it’s what it can unlock.

In this episode of Brave New Bookshelf, we welcome back Russell Nohelty, USA Today bestselling author, entrepreneur, and long-time AI experimenter, for a grounded, practical conversation about how authors can use AI to extend their creativity instead of outsourcing it.

Russell brings a refreshingly human perspective to a topic often dominated by extremes. AI, he argues, is not here to erase authorship. It’s here to remove friction, surface blind spots, and give creators more room to do the work only humans can do.

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Empowerment Over Replacement

A central theme of this conversation is reframing the AI debate. Rather than asking whether AI will replace authors, Russell encourages writers to ask how AI can support their creative intent.

AI works best when it complements human judgment, taste, and emotional intelligence. The more human the goal, the more important the human becomes. Used intentionally, AI amplifies creative decision-making rather than diminishing it.

The Russell Bot and the Hapitalist Model

Russell shares how he built the “Russell Bot,” a personalized AI trained on over 2.3 million words of his own work. Designed for members of Hapitalist, the bot offers guidance, answers questions, and reinforces Russell’s frameworks around creative and professional sustainability.

The key point: the bot doesn’t replace Russell. It scales access to his thinking, freeing him to focus on higher-level strategy, mentorship, and creative leadership.

Breaking Writer’s Block with Plot Drive

Russell also dives into Plot Drive, a writing platform built to help authors move past creative paralysis, with or without AI.

Plot Drive allows authors to selectively control how AI interacts with their work, even down to chapter-level context. This makes it possible to keep fiction and nonfiction separate, make narrow creative decisions, and stay firmly in control of voice and direction.

The result is a workflow that supports momentum instead of overwhelming it.

Practical AI Workflows Authors Can Use Today

Throughout the episode, Russell shares concrete, low-hype ways authors can integrate AI into their process:

• Find blind spots by asking AI what’s missing from a chapter or article
• Strengthen weak areas like description, structure, or pacing
• Handle genre obligations you don’t enjoy writing, without losing creative ownership

In every case, AI acts as an assistant, not an author.

Key Takeaways

• AI should empower creativity, not replace it
• Use AI where friction exists, not where meaning lives
• Stay in your zone of genius and let AI handle the rest
• You are still the author — AI is just a tool

Resources Mentioned

• The Author Stack
• The Six Figure Author Experiment
• Hapitalist
• Russell Nohelty AI
• Plot Drive