# Legal Reviews, ISBN Ownership, and Pre-Order Pitfalls: Member Q&A with Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/self-publishing-with-alli-426041/legal-reviews-isbn-ownership-and-pre-order-pitfalls-member-q-a-with-michael-la-ronn-and-sacha-black Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/self-publishing-with-alli-426041/legal-reviews-isbn-ownership-and-pre-order-pitfalls-member-q-a-with-michael-la-ronn-and-sacha-black.md Podcast: [Self-Publishing with ALLi](https://stenobird.com/podcast/self-publishing-with-alli-426041) Published: 2026-05-03T12:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://ornaross.libsyn.com/legal-reviews-isbn-ownership-and-pre-order-pitfalls-member-qa-with-michael-la-ronn-and-sacha-black Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/ornaross/Member_QA_May_2026_Final.mp3?dest-id=620973 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/self-publishing-with-alli-426041/episodes/legal-reviews-isbn-ownership-and-pre-order-pitfalls-member-q-a-with-michael-la-ronn-and-sacha-black Duration seconds: 3511 ## Resource 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 www.michaellaronn.com and his videos and books for writers at www.authorlevelup.com . 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 geniu… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/self-publishing-with-alli-426041/episodes/legal-reviews-isbn-ownership-and-pre-order-pitfalls-member-q-a-with-michael-la-ronn-and-sacha-black/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/self-publishing-with-alli-426041/legal-reviews-isbn-ownership-and-pre-order-pitfalls-member-q-a-with-michael-la-ronn-and-sacha-black.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.