Foundations for Publishing Success: Meet the Speakers

Russell Nohelty

USA Today Bestselling Author Russell Nohelty

Russell Nohelty is a USA Today bestselling fantasy and non-fiction author who has written over 75 novels, graphic novels, and non-fiction books including The Godsverse Chronicles, The Obsidian Spindle Saga, Dragon Strife, Author Stack, and Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter series. He is the publisher of Wannabe Press, co-host of the Six Figure Author Experiment podcast, and founder of Hapitalist. You can find most of his writing at hapitalist.com. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and dogs.

DIAGNOSE REAL SOLUTIONS

Stephanie Pajonas

Steph Pajonas is a sci-fi romance and cozy mystery author and the co-founder of the Future Fiction Academy, teaching authors how to use AI in any part of their process. She also co-hosts the Brave New Bookshelf podcast with Danica Favorite.

HOW AI FITS YOUR BUSINESS

Sarah Bean

Head of Marketing & Partnerships at Book launchers

Sarah Bean is Book Launchers’ marketing expert, a self-publishing book service. With over 20 years of publishing and entertainment industry experience, Sarah has helped over 800 authors launch and market their books. From best-seller strategies to leveraging stages for sales, she works with authors to identify their brand, develop marketing strategy and set themselves apart in the crowded creator market. Sarah started her career in the literary department of a global booking agency, before becoming a speaking agent with a roster of best-selling authors, celebrities, athletes and business leaders. She’s managed NY Times best-selling authors, produced live events like TEDx and was an entertainment journalist covering TV/film news and red carpet interviews for leading entertainment websites. Learn more about Book Launchers at BookLaunchers.com.

AUTHOR DISCOVERABILITY SYSTEM

Christopher Locke

IBPA Director of Membership & Member Services

Christopher Locke is the Director of Membership & Member Services at the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), where he leads and scales membership strategy for a global community of more than 4,000 independent publishers, author-publishers, and other book publishing professionals. An author-publisher himself, with two novels published in his YA trilogy The Enlightenment Adventures, he brings both strategic expertise and lived experience to his work, championing independent publishers at every stage of their journey.

Chelle Honiker

Publisher, Indie Author Magazine

Chelle Honiker is an advocate for the empowerment of authorpreneurs, recognizing the importance of authors taking charge of both their craft and careers. In response to this need, she founded a media and training company dedicated to supporting these creative professionals which now includes Indie Author Magazine, Indie Author Training, Wide for the Win, and Direct2Readers.com.

Kerrie Flanagan

Author and Content & Community Manager for Booklinker

With over 25 years in the publishing industry, Kerrie Flanagan serves as Content & Community Manager for Booklinker, where she works with authors and publishers to strengthen book marketing strategies. She is the author of The Writer’s Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing and has published hundreds of magazine articles in publications including The Writer, Writer’s Digest, Alaska Magazine, and six Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Kerrie has published 25 books+ across multiple genres and coauthors sci-fi and fantasy under the pen name C.G. Harris. Kerrie has taught for Stanford Continuing Studies and presents nationwide on publishing and marketing.

DON'T START FROM SCRATCH

Phil Marshall

Spoken Founder and CEO

Phil Marshall is a technologist, entrepreneur, and storyteller who thrives at the intersection of imagination and execution. He is the founder and CEO of Spoken, The AI Audiobook Company™ empowering authors to create immersive single, dual, and multi-voice audiobooks using digital narration. Before founding Spoken, Phil trained as a physician, earning his MD from Indiana University School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health from Oregon Health & Science University. He later pivoted from surgery to technology entrepreneurship, co-founding Conversa Health, a pioneering conversational AI platform that became one of the most trusted names in digital health before being acquired in 2021. Phil is also a hard science fiction author. His debut novel, Taming the Perilous Skies, explores the consequences of his original Theory of Persistence, a speculative physics framework linking quantum mechanics, gravity, and time. Whether building AI systems, exploring physics through fiction, or amplifying the voices of independent authors, Phil is driven by the belief that the most fantastic world is the one we dare to imagine and create together. He divides his time between Sauvie Island and Oceanside, Oregon.

WHAT DO AUDIOBOOK LISTENERS WANT?

Alexa Bigwarfe

CEO & Founder, Write|Publish|Sell & Women in Publishing Summit

Alexa Bigwarfe is a book marketing strategist, publishing consultant, and founder of Write|Publish|Sell and the Women in Publishing Summit. She helps authors build engaged reader audiences and launch with confidence (and actually have fun doing it).

Jill Cooper

Co-founder of The Writing Wives

Jill Cooper believes in frameworks to keep things simple so your creativity is used in creating new books and embraces unhinged marketing.

GET THE FRAMEWORKS

Malorie Cooper

Mistress of FB Ads for Authors

Malorie Cooper is a NYT-Best selling author and the leading master in FB Ads for Authors. She manages ads for high 6 and 7 figure authors, publishes Science Fiction, and is living the author's dream.

AI POWERED FB ADS

Dana Sacco

Indie Author, Business Strategist, and Founder of Books & Biz and AI Writing Easy AF for Authors

Dana Sacco is an indie author, business strategist, and the founder of Books & Biz and AI Writing Easy AF for Authors (AIWEAF). She builds practical AI-assisted writing, publishing, and marketing systems that help fiction authors finish better books and run sustainable author businesses.

BUILD A PUBLISHING BUSINESS

Topics You Can Look Forward to

A final schedule will be posted before the online event and sent to all registered attendees. For now, take a look at some of the topics that will be covered.

Calibrating Your HAPI Compass

Russell Nohelty

The HAPI Compass is a four-point system designed to help you find alignment and direction in your career, giving you a guide to triangulate yourself and solve the right problem with the right solution. Join USA Today bestselling Author Russell Nohelty as he walks you through this powerful framework that can help you break the toughest blocks in your business.

Key Takeaways

• How to diagnose the REAL solutions to your ACTUAL problems
• How to break through blocks faster than ever before
• How to stop beating yourself up when you're not having the progress you think you need

Determining How AI Fits Into Your Author Business

Stephanie Pajonas

We'll go over the myriad of ways AI can be a part of an author business, not just for writing or editing. 

Key Takeaways

• The possible different uses of AI in an author business.
• The confidence to make your first choice by identifying the pain point in your process.
• The resources to look beyond the major AI providers.

The Author Discoverability System

Sarah Bean

Most authors don't have a marketing problem—they have a discoverability problem.

In today's AI-driven world, readers discover books through search, recommendations, podcasts, media, and increasingly through AI tools like ChatGPT and Google's AI search. Yet many authors focus on individual marketing tactics instead of building the infrastructure that makes them easy to find and trust.

In this session, you'll learn the five pillars of an Author Discoverability System and how each one contributes to long-term visibility. You'll discover why some authors become the obvious recommendation while others remain invisible, and how to identify the biggest gap in your own discoverability ecosystem.

You'll leave with a practical framework for creating assets that work together, strengthen your authority, and continue driving discoverability long after they're published. Instead of constantly asking, "What should I market next?" you'll know how to build a system that compounds your visibility over time.

Key Takeaways

• Build a discoverability system that helps readers, search engines, and AI understand, trust, and recommend you.
• Identify the biggest gap in your author platform and what to prioritize next for the greatest long-term impact.
• Get the framework that turns your book, content, media and more into an ecosystem that keeps growing visibility over time. 

One Book, Endless Content: How to Stop Starting from Scratch

Kerrie Flanagan

Authors often believe: if you write it, they will come. They won’t. Promotion is the bridge between writing and selling, and the good news is you already have everything you need to build it.

Kerrie Flanagan breaks down a practical content repurposing system that turns what you’ve already created, including your book, newsletters, blog posts, podcast appearances, and reader reviews, into weeks of book promotion. Attendees leave with a ready-to-use checklist that maps existing content to multiple promotion opportunities across formats and platforms.

Key Takeaways

• Why repetition isn’t redundancy; it’s how book promotion actually works
• How to pull multiple posts, graphics, and videos from a single source
• A repurposing system built specifically for authors

What Today's Audiobook Listeners Want

Phil Marshall

Ready to give audiobook listeners what they want? Join Spoken Founder and CEO Phil Marshall for a deep dive into the data and reader experience that's turning heads (and ears). Learn how Spoken Multi-Cast™ provides a foundation for audio publishing success and what the recent national Edison study revealed about listener preferences and digital narration. Enjoy a demo of Spoken Studio and witness a manuscript come to life with voices designed around every character. Get a behind-the-scenes look at affordable multi-cast narration that's giving authors the control and the chance to deliver immersive audio storytelling readers want. Want a sneak peek at Spoken before you join? Visit www.spoken.press.

Key Takeaways

• Up-to-date data on reader preferences sourced from Edison Research’s national survey of 1,000 audiobook listeners of fiction
• Demo of how a manuscript can be transformed into a multi-cast audio performance in a single click
• Where the future of audiobook publishing is headed

A Year of Frameworks and the Storm Protocol: Weather Storm and soar to New Heights

Jill Cooper

How to use Framework to weather storm, Get the Claude Skill, A Spreadsheet, and an interactive dashboard

AI Powered FB Ads: How Authors Succeed in 2027

Malorie Cooper

Learn to use AI for FB Ad Creative ad copy to soar to new heights and take the pressure off.

Key Takeaways

• How to use AI to write your ads, create images, and key metric monitoring

From Writer to Author CEO: Build a Publishing Business That Supports Your Creativity

Dana Sacco

Writing books is creative work, but building a sustainable author career requires business thinking. In this practical session, Dana Sacco shows authors how to move from project-to-project chaos to a simple, repeatable publishing operation. Attendees will learn how to connect their creative goals with production schedules, marketing, catalog strategy, and revenue—without drowning in spreadsheets or hustle-culture advice. Dana will share a straightforward framework for deciding what to write, identifying the work that genuinely grows an author business, and using systems and AI to reduce repetitive tasks while keeping the author firmly in creative control. Whether attendees are publishing their first book or managing a growing backlist, they’ll leave with a clearer way to operate like an Author CEO without losing the joy of writing.

Key Takeaways

• Build a simple Author CEO plan that connects writing, publishing, marketing, and revenue goals.
• Identify the few numbers and activities that reveal what is—and isn’t—growing your author business.
• Turn repetitive work into practical systems, using AI and automation without sacrificing your voice or creative control.

Interested in meeting in person?

We're exploring future opportunities to bring members of the PublishDrive community together in Budapest, Hungary in June 2027 for in-person author gatherings focused on learning, networking, and meaningful connections. If you'd like to help shape a future event, we'd love your input.

LEARN MORE

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Is the conference really free?

Yes. The conference is completely free to attend, and all replays will be free on our YouTube channel.

Do I need to be a PublishDrive user?

No. The conference is open to authors, publishers, and publishing professionals regardless of where or how they publish.

Will sessions be recorded?

Yes. All sessions will be recorded and made available for free on YouTube after the conference.

How will I attend?

The conference will be hosted online. Registered attendees will receive access information before the event.

Hosted by PublishDrive

PublishDrive helps authors and publishers distribute, manage, and grow their publishing businesses globally. From metadata optimization and distribution to royalty management and marketing tools, PublishDrive supports publishing success at every stage of the journey.