Self Publishing Insiders

Self Publishing Insiders is Draft2Digital's official weekly podcast, active since 2020 and now at 274+ episodes (latest EP265 "Building Your Author Brand: Share Your Books with the World" published March 5, 2026; Apple feed total 274 as of May 2026). Hosted by D2D veterans Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Jim Azevedo with Lexi Greene now appearing as a regular host on recent episodes, the show features weekly interviews with authors and publishing professionals on topics including wide distribution, writing craft, marketing, and building a sustainable author business.

The show's format is distinctive among platform-backed podcasts: episodes are sourced from live D2D Spotlight events broadcast on YouTube and Facebook, then published as audio. This means guests are often speaking to a live community audience, not just a recording setup — which produces more interactive conversations than typical studio interviews.

What You Get#

• Weekly author interviews: 45–60 minute conversations with indie authors and publishing professionals. Guests are drawn from across genres and career stages, with a consistent emphasis on wide publishing across multiple platforms.
• Ask D2D Anything (AUA) episodes: Quarterly Q&A panels where D2D team members — including operations and technology staff — take live questions from the author community on platform features, distribution strategy, and best practices.
• Wide-distribution perspective: Unlike Amazon-centric podcasts, Self Publishing Insiders consistently features authors who publish across platforms. Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Press, Google Play, and library channels appear regularly as topics.
• D2D platform updates: Because the hosts are D2D staff, episodes often include early or first-person information about platform changes, new distribution partnerships, and feature developments.

Who It's For#

• Authors publishing wide or considering it: The show is the most direct audio resource for understanding how Draft2Digital's platform works, what wide publishing looks like in practice, and how working authors navigate publishing across multiple storefronts.
• Authors new to non-Amazon distribution: The AUA episodes are particularly useful for authors with platform-specific questions about D2D's systems that they can't easily find answered elsewhere.
• Authors interested in international and library distribution: D2D's focus on OverDrive, library channels, and international platforms comes up more frequently here than in most indie author podcasts.

Pricing: Free. Available on Apple Podcasts (4.6/5, 28 ratings — count dropped from 33 in the prior cycle, likely Apple recalculation), Spotify, YouTube, and via the Draft2Digital blog.

Strengths#

• Insider access: Mark Lefebvre (former Kobo Director of Self-Publishing) and Jim Azevedo bring decades of combined publishing platform experience — context that pure author-hosted shows can't replicate.
• AUA format is genuinely useful: The quarterly community Q&A episodes produce direct answers to operational questions that generic publishing advice misses.
• Active and consistent: Weekly output since 2020 with no hiatuses; 274+ episodes with a searchable back catalog on the D2D blog.

Limitations#

• Platform-backed perspective: Produced by Draft2Digital, the show won't critically evaluate D2D's weaknesses versus competitors like Smashwords (now D2D-owned), IngramSpark, or PublishDrive. Distribution decisions are framed from a D2D standpoint.
• Smaller audience than independent shows: With 28 Apple ratings, this show's listener community is much smaller than established independent podcasts — fewer places to discuss episodes or find community around the content.
• Limited episode discovery: The D2D blog archive is the main search tool; the show lacks a dedicated standalone website with full search capability.

Alternatives#

The Kobo Writing Life Podcast covers similar wide-publishing territory with a longer-running archive (425+ episodes) and bi-weekly long-form interviews. For a podcast that addresses both KDP-exclusive and wide-publishing strategies, the 6 Figure Authors podcast covers both approaches.