Legal Reviews, ISBN Ownership, and Pre-Order Pitfalls: Member Q&A with Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black

In this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Member Q&A podcast, hosts Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black discuss whether authors of memoir and creative nonfiction should invest in a legal review before publication. Other questions include: Should you agree to a publishing services contract that assigns your ISBN to the company? When is the right stage to add references in a nonfiction manuscript? Are Goodreads giveaways worth the cost compared to other marketing options? What is the simplest way to build a functional author website with email capture and reader magnets? Should you revise and republish a bestselling book with low reviews or focus on new work? What should you do if you are about to miss an Amazon pre-order deadline? And more! Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-Publishing Author Advice Center , with a huge archive of nearly 2,000 blog posts and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. About the Hosts Michael La Ronn is ALLi's Outreach Manager. He is the author of over 80 science fiction & fantasy books and self-help books for writers. He writes from the great plains of Iowa and has managed to write while raising a family, working a full-time job, and even attending law school classes in the evenings (now graduated!). You can find his fiction at and his videos and books for writers at . Sacha Black is a bestselling and competition winning author, rebel podcaster, speaker and casual rule breaker. She writes fiction under a secret pen name and other books about the art of writing. When Sacha isn't writing, she runs ALLi's blog. She lives in England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son. You can find her on her website , her podcast , and on Instagram .

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Legal Reviews, ISBN Ownership, and Pre-Order Pitfalls: Member Q&A with Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black is an episode from AskAlli: Self-Publishing Advice Podcast by Alliance of Independent Authors.

This episode is 58:31 long.

This episode was published on May 3, 2026.

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