We at Kobo Writing Life read a lot about what’s going on in the indie author community and thought we’d share some of our favourite blogs (in no particular order) for self-publishing tips, writing advice, industry news and more. It might be worth your while bookmarking some of these. This list is in no way definitive and we’d love to hear what blogs you’re reading too!

Publishers Weekly, familiarly known in the book world as PW and “the bible of the book business,” is a weekly news magazine focused on the international book publishing business. It is targeted at publishers, booksellers, librarians, literary agents, authors and the media. It offers feature articles and news on all aspects of the book business, bestsellers lists in a number of categories, and industry statistics, but its best known service is pre-publication book reviews, publishing some 8,000 per year.

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The Bookseller has been the business magazine of the book industry since 1858; incorporating the even earlier Bent’s Literary Advertiser, established in 1802. It is one of the UK’s longest-standing magazines. The Bookseller has reported on every significant book trade event from the launch of George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss in 1860, Allen Lane’s launch of the paperback, the demise of the Net Book Agreement in 1995 and today’s Amazon-led competitive struggles. It’s based in London.…

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Founded in 2012 by Orna Ross, The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) is a non-profit,  association for author-publishers. Their global team of advisors and industry professionals offer a range of benefits, encourage ethics and excellence, advocate and campaign for indie authors and forge relationships with the wider industry. Their mission is to foster the democratisation of publishing through community, partnership and author empowerment.

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J.F.Penn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers on the edge, as well as bestselling non-fiction for authors published under Joanna Penn. Joanna’s site for writers, The Creative Penn has been voted one of the Top 10 sites for writers three years running. She is a professional speaker on creative entrepreneurship, digital publishing and internet marketing, and was voted one of The Guardian UK Top 100 creative professionals 2013.

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Jane Friedman has more than 15 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in digital media strategy for authors and publishers. Jane specializes in educating authors about the publishing industry (without drama or hype) to help them make the best long-term decisions for their careers. She is known for thought-provoking talks on the future of authorship.

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David Gaughran is an Irish writer, living in Prague who spends most of his time travelling the world, collecting stories. He runs the publishing blog Let’s Get Digital which offers great insight into the self publishing world. His work has been featured in the Huffington Post, The Sunday Times, and the Irish Times.

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Joel Friedland is an award-winning book designer, a blogger, and author. His  popular blog, The Book Designer, offers advice on book design, book marketing and discusses the future of books. He is also the creator of the new online training course, The Self-Publishing Roadmap.

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Passive Guy is an attorney, entrepreneur, former tech executive and writer. He started The Passive Voice as an anonymous blog so his snarky remarks would not show up when opposing counsel performed a Google search. He offers an interesting view on authors, self-publishing and traditional publishing.

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The Author Marketing Institute (AMI) mission is to advance the practice of author marketing for writers of any kind, in any genre, in any part of the world. They strive to provide a network of tools, training, data, learning and helpful insight and advice from today’s top selling authors and author services providers.

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Mike Shatzkin is the Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company and a widely-acknowledged thought leader about digital change in the book publishing industry.  In his nearly 50 years in publishing, he has played almost all the roles: bookseller, author, agent, production director, sales and marketing director, and, for the past 30 years, consultant. His insights about how the industry functions are outlined in his blog, The Shatzkin Files.

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Porter Anderson is a professional journalist, critic, producer, editor, writer and consultant. His articles on the Porter Anderson blog are acclaimed by publishing thought-leaders and authors alike for its keen insights into the publishing industry’s digital transformation. Anderson also is a regular contributor to Writer Unboxed and a member of the expert bloggers team at Digital Book World.

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JA Konrath has sold more than three million books in twenty countries. He’s considered a pioneer in self-publishing. His blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, gets several million hits per year, and Konrath has been featured in Forbes, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Playboy, USA Today, Time, Woman’s World, the LA Times, and the NY Times among many other periodicals. He also blogs for the Huffington Post.

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Nathan Bransford is the author of a helpful book for authors, How To Write A Novel, and has also written several books in the popular kid’s series, Jacob Wonderbar. He was formerly a literary agent with Curtis Brown Ltd. and now works in finance. His blog offers great advice on publishing and also tips on the craft of writing.

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Writer Beware are concerned not just with issues that affect professional authors, but with the problems and pitfalls that face aspiring writers. Their website addresses these concerns and provides warnings about literary schemes and scams, along with information about how writers can protect themselves. Their blog covers schemes and scams in real time along with publishing industry news and advice for writers. It also provides a forum for discussion.

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The KBoards is a forum that contains a great section for authors.  The Writers’ Cafe forum offers advice on writing, formatting, publishing, marketing and much more. It is a great way of gauging opinions on the many changes faced for self published authors. It’s also a really good way of meeting other independent authors and getting advice directly from them about publishing on all independent platforms, not just Amazon.