David Gaughran is an Irish author, self-publishing strategist, and indie author advocate who turned 18 months of rejection letters into a career dismantling the gatekeeping machinery of traditional publishing. Through his 'Let's Get Publishing' series of books, a free 27-lesson course, a weekly newsletter, and relentless watchdog journalism exposing predatory vanity presses, he has helped tens of thousands of writers navigate the digital publishing revolution. A nomad by habit — Dublin, Prague, London, Lisbon, southern France — and a storyteller at heart, he writes historical adventure fiction under David M. Gaughran and was awarded the 2020 Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award by SFWA for distinguished contributions to the science fiction and fantasy community.
Joanna Penn is a British author, podcaster, and entrepreneur who turned a miserable IT consulting career into a multi-six-figure independent publishing empire. Writing thrillers as J.F. Penn and teaching the business of writing as Joanna Penn, she has sold over a million books across 176 countries, runs one of the world's top 1% podcasts (10.6M+ downloads), and is among the most prominent voices on ethical AI adoption in the creative community. Based in Bath, England, she competes in powerlifting, pursues a Masters in Death, Religion and Culture, and embodies her own mantra: measure your life by what you create.
Stephanie Chandler is an American author, entrepreneur, and community builder who traded a Silicon Valley software career for a bookstore, stumbled into publishing, and ended up founding the Nonfiction Authors Association — a membership community helping writers publish, market, and monetize nonfiction books. Author of ten books and founder of Authority Publishing, she runs the annual Nonfiction Writers Conference (since 2010) and advocates openly for suicide loss survivors.