BAIPA logo
7 01, 2026

IngramSpark Account Suspension Warnings: What Authors Need to Know

By |2026-01-07T12:18:18-08:00January 7, 2026|BAIPA News, IngramSpark, Legal Issues, self-publishing|Comments Off on IngramSpark Account Suspension Warnings: What Authors Need to Know

Several authors have recently received emails warning that their IngramSpark accounts will be suspended unless they agree to updated terms and conditions. The emails feel urgent—and for authors who rely on IngramSpark for bookstore and library distribution, understandably alarming. Here’s the key point up front: The email many authors received is not legitimate. The Email Is Not from IngramSpark The warning emails are coming from: info@ingramspark.com That is not an official IngramSpark email address. When I asked the IngramSpark virtual assistant directly, this was the response: “The email info@ingramspark.com is not a legitimate IngramSpark email. Official emails from us use the domain @ingramcontent.com. Please treat any message from info@ingramspark.com with caution, as it is not affiliated with our company.” Translation: This is almost certainly a spoofed or phishing email. Do not click links. Do not log in through the message. How IngramSpark Actually Handles Agreement Updates Like all major publishing [...]

Read More
13 12, 2025

Amazon DRM Changes, AI, and Author Fear: What’s Really Going On—and What Actually Matters

By |2025-12-29T10:53:05-08:00December 13, 2025|BAIPA News|Comments Off on Amazon DRM Changes, AI, and Author Fear: What’s Really Going On—and What Actually Matters

FULL DISCLOSURE: I did get some help from ChatGPT for this article. However, I reviewed the content in detail, edited it some, and I think this is valid and useful information. There’s been a growing ripple of concern in author circles about upcoming changes to Amazon’s Kindle DRM system, reportedly taking effect in January 2026. Alongside that has come a more alarming claim: that if authors choose to make their ebooks DRM-free, readers could upload those books into AI systems like ChatGPT—and the content would then be absorbed into large language models. That fear sounds plausible at first glance. It’s also largely based on misunderstandings. Let’s separate what’s actually changing from what’s being speculated—and talk about what authors should realistically care about. What Amazon Is (and Isn’t) Changing Amazon is not eliminating DRM. Authors will still be able to choose whether DRM is enabled or disabled for Kindle ebooks, just [...]

Read More
13 12, 2025

Congratulations to Book Cover Contest Winners

By |2025-12-13T14:12:08-08:00December 13, 2025|BAIPA News, book design, Contests|Comments Off on Congratulations to Book Cover Contest Winners

by John Byrne Barry Thanks to all of you who submitted your book cover to the 2025 BAIPA Book Cover Design Contest and congratulations to the winners:  Memoir: Beyond Childhood Trauma, Carolyn CJ Jones,   Fiction: Far From Home, Marylee MacDonald Nonfiction: How to Have Better Relationships, Stephen Kessler Children's/YA: The Calico Cat With No Name, Rose Marie Love (a.k.a. Rosina Wilson) Thank you also the brave souls who agreed to have your books critiqued in front of everyone else. We hope that was useful. We’ll probably do this again next December. 

Read More
13 12, 2025

Help BAIPA Spread the Word About Your Books

By |2025-12-13T13:50:50-08:00December 13, 2025|Author Platform, BAIPA News, Book Promotion|Comments Off on Help BAIPA Spread the Word About Your Books

by Karin Fisher-Golton We’re increasing our social media presence for BAIPA, and that will include showing off the work of our members. Make sure that your books are included on the two websites that list BAIPA books so that readers can be find them there. If you haven’t yet, fill out the form for each book you’d like to appear on each website. Those websites are: 1. BAIPA Authors' Published Books page on the BAIPA website: Any published and available book by a BAIPA author can be listed there with links to sales sites of your choosing. Use the form below to upload them or go to baipa.org/baipa-author-book-submission/ 2. BAIPA’s Bookshop.org Shop: Any books that are available through Ingram can appear there. (Most likely that means you’ve published them through IngramSpark.) These books will be available for purchase via Bookshop.org with a percentage sales going to BAIPA. Fill [...]

Read More
13 12, 2025

Thank You to Our Wonderful Volunteers + Photos from December Meeting

By |2025-12-13T13:23:34-08:00December 13, 2025|BAIPA News, Book Events, volunteer|Comments Off on Thank You to Our Wonderful Volunteers + Photos from December Meeting

Thanks to all the volunteers who raised their hand to make our second in-real-life/online meeting of 2025 a success. About 40 BAIPA members and friends gathered in person on December 6 in the brand-spanking-new meeting room at the Key Center in Novato and another dozen joined us online. Thank you to Tricia Sullivan, David Kudler, Bob Heyman, Pam Fenner, Lynn Fraley, Val Sherer, Eloise Hamman, Carol Jacobsen, Christina Gerber, Charylu Roberts, Steve Rustad, Judy Baker, Becky Parker Geist, and Ruth Schwartz for volunteering, and special thanks to Tricia for coordinating and following up with the volunteers. To show our appreciation for volunteers, we are offering valuable prizes — a book by a BAIPA author. The volunteers choose the book they want and BAIPA purchases it for them and ships it to them. It’s win-win: The deserving volunteers get a “free” book and one of our BAIPA authors gets a sale. [...]

Read More
13 12, 2025

Library of Congress #s are now automatically issued once you hit the Submit button

By |2025-12-13T17:35:18-08:00December 13, 2025|libraries, self-publishing|Comments Off on Library of Congress #s are now automatically issued once you hit the Submit button

This is a delightful turn of events, given that it used to take from a few days to a couple of weeks to get a LOC# assigned once requested. What this means is that you can immediately apply for a PCIP data block (my recommendation is Cassidy Cataloguing Services).  One more note about LOC#: The Pre-Pub Book Link system is designed for requesting LOC# at least one month before publication.

Read More
10 12, 2025

12/6/25 RECORDING: Cover Design Best Practices

By |2025-12-10T20:39:06-08:00December 10, 2025|book design, Contests, marketing, Member Only Resources, self-publishing|Comments Off on 12/6/25 RECORDING: Cover Design Best Practices

People judge books by their covers every day. Your cover has a very important job to do, so are you sure it’s up to the job? For this year’s annual cover design event, we  invited Steve Rustad, long time graphic designer and illustrator. We had our usual cover design contest, and there was a panel of Steve Rustad, John Byrne Barry, and David Kudler who provided live feedback of over six BAIPA authors’ book covers. The panel was moderated by Ruth Schwartz. Here are Steve's presentation slides. Here is the chat. About Our Speaker: Steve Rustad Steve Rustad is a Creative Director, Graphic Designer, Filmmaker, Copywriter, Cartoonist, Veteran, and former Sky Marshal. He had the good fortune to be mentored in graphic design by some legitimate “Mad Men & Women” and he enjoys passing on that knowledge. He is passionate about graphic design, branding, and applying these skills to author’s [...]

Read More
29 11, 2025

Here‘s a Preview of the Book Cover Contest Entries

By |2025-11-29T08:09:56-08:00November 29, 2025|book design, Contests, Design|Comments Off on Here‘s a Preview of the Book Cover Contest Entries

At next Saturday's in-person/zoom hybrid meeting, we'll end the meeting with our annual book cover contest. Everyone in attendance and on zoom will be eligible to vote, and we'll have winners in four categories: fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and children's. Below are the entries. (To see the slides full screen, click on the vertical line of three dots in the lower left corner.) 

Read More
22 11, 2025

Last Call to Submit Your Book Cover for BAIPA Book Cover Contest

By |2025-11-24T17:02:46-08:00November 22, 2025|Author Platform, book design, Contests, Print books|Comments Off on Last Call to Submit Your Book Cover for BAIPA Book Cover Contest

Monday, November 24, is the deadline to submit your book cover for our annual cover contest at the December 6 hybrid meeting. We only have 14 submissions so far, so don't dilly-dally. You can submit a finished cover or a work in progress that you're seeking feedback on. Next Sunday morning, November 30, we will share a slide show of the contenders so you can review them in advance of the meeting. Instructions: The contest is open to any book authored by a current BAIPA member, whether you worked with a designer on the cover or you designed it yourself. Any year of publication is fine. (Even if it's not published yet.) You can submit a cover you've submitted before, unless you won. Only one entry per author. Deadline is November 24, and you must be a current BAIPA member on that date. If you are not yet a member, [...]

Read More
15 11, 2025

Do You Want Your Book Cover Critiqued at our December Hybrid Meeting? And/Or You Can Submit Your Cover for Our Annual Cover Contest

By |2025-11-15T16:34:52-08:00November 15, 2025|Author Platform, book design, Contests, Print books|Comments Off on Do You Want Your Book Cover Critiqued at our December Hybrid Meeting? And/Or You Can Submit Your Cover for Our Annual Cover Contest

The deadline to submit your book cover for our December 6 hybrid meeting is November 24. There are two reasons to submit your cover. One is that after Stephen Rustad gives an overview of cover design, we'll have a panel of designers giving live critiques of six book covers. We'll ask for feedback from members and guests as well.  Whether you chose to submit your book for that or not, you can submit your book for our annual cover contest. We'll vote on the best covers after the presentation and critiques. You can submit a finished cover or a work in progress that you're seeking feedback on. Instructions: The contest is open to any book authored by a current BAIPA member, whether you worked with a designer on the cover or you designed it yourself. Any year of publication is fine. (Even if it's not published yet.) You can submit [...]

Read More

Report

Block Member?

Please confirm you want to block this member.

You will no longer be able to:

  • See blocked member's posts
  • Mention this member in posts
  • Invite this member to groups
  • Message this member
  • Add this member as a connection

Please note: This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.

Report

You have already reported this .
Go to Top