Letters and Numbers

Is the unauthorised copying of media, more commonly referred to as 'piracy' really one of the biggest threats to authors and other creatives? Or are there far more important things to be concerned about? In this final episode of season 1 of Letters & Numbers, we look at the actual financial impacts of piracy, the statistics which show how being overly worried about piracy can actually...

The previous two episodes shone a light on some of the subtle forms of #bookbigotry in publishing: writers may show prejudices for or against books depending on their format (physical vs. ebook), and their platform (Amazon vs. 'the rest'). In this episode, we turn to explore prejudices based on location (i.e. US vs. 'international'). Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-...

The previous episode shone a light on three subtle forms of #bookbigotry in publishing: writers may show prejudices for or against books depending on their format, platform, and location of origin - starting with a focus on format (physical vs. ebooks). In this episode, we turn to explore prejudices based on platform (i.e. Amazon vs. 'the rest'). Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in...

Carolyn Howard-Johnson uses the term #bookbigotry to describe snap judgements about a book on the basis that it is independently published - without so much as looking at the description, the author's bio, or even glimpsing the cover. Over three episodes, we'll examine how readers, reviewers, publishing professionals, and even writers may show prejudices for or against books depending on t...

As much as I love books, I’ve never been a big fan of book-related merchandise, either as a reader or as a writer. This is a rant about literacy, capitalism… and foul-tasting beans. Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers! Links from this episode: Harry Potter Wiki exchange rate , bean flavours Dempster et...

Don't worry, I don't mean how many books you should be allowed to buy, borrow or steal! Rather, in this episode we ask what is a reasonable limit when it comes to book hauls from conferences and giveaways. Should YouTubers be obligated to review the books they take for free? Should bookstagram accounts actually read the books they promote? Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-ma...

For anyone aiming to become an author, the statistics on what happens to books once they hit the shelves aren't all that rosy. Around a third of all traditionally-published books that make it to bookstore shelves are returned to the publishers - then remaindered, or shredded. In this episode, we take a look at Carolyn Howard-Johnson's tips on how to avoid our own books landing in the wareh...

In the last episode, we looked at how online traditionally-published authors are via an examination of 12 bestselling authors. A lack of a social media platform doesn't seem to hamper these authors - but what about indies who don't have the same marketing power? This time, we examine a dozen indie indie authors to see how important social media is for them. Join author, linguist, and mathe...

Low-effort ghost-written books 'by' celebrities have long been a thing, but this type of publication exploded in popularity with the rise of internet celebrities who have amassed large followings. Meanwhile, as we saw in the previous episode, publishers themselves can hardly be said to have leveraged social media to the same extent. So is making popular videos a viable path to 'literar...

In this episode, we begin the final mini-series in this first season of Letters and Numbers, turning our attention to the promotion of creative works. The real intersection between letters and numbers: where words meet money. Authors are often advised that social media is 'key' to success. But very rarely is any evidence provided to back up this assertion. As readers, I suspect most of us...

Have you ever wondered what Paris Hilton's The Hottie & The Nottie and Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas have in common? Well, if loglines are so crucial in convincing film studios to finance a film, then surely the films which attract the most funding (regardless of how poorly received the resulting film is) must have stellar loglines... right? And the movies which attract the least fun...

Loglines were originally designed more for the busy Hollywood executive than for the final audience of a movie - or the readers of a book. So why might they be useful for creative indies, like writers and filmmakers? Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers! Links from this episode: Sample Smashwords descrip...

A strong tagline was the one thing all of the New York Times bestsellers examined in the previous episode had in common. Yet, just one third of less successful novels include a tagline in their descriptions. Of all of the ingredients of a book description, the tagline has to be one of the most accessible. Your book doesn’t need to have won a major prize or sold a million copies or had a celebrity...

Now that more books are purchased online, including print books, it’s vital that we understand how the best book descriptions work, and what role blurbs play. Each book has its own distinct flavour, but the professionalism with which it is presented, and the quality of its ingredients – cover, spine, blurb, formatting – do not differ wildly from book to book. So it is perhaps unsurprising that the...

Summarising all of the lessons we've learned about blurbs over the past few episodes, here are nine rules it's worth keeping in mind when writing your own - or wanting to understand why a blurb you're reading doesn't quite work! What kind of blurb makes you start reading? Let me know! Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world throug...

Over the last two episodes, we've explored what makes a successful - and an unsuccessful - blurb. In this episode, we update the numbers, to see whether these patterns still hold! Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers! Links from this episode: Sarah's post on the definition of satire ⁠⁠Download Sa...

The previous episode of Letters and Numbers focused on the patterns in successful blurbs, so it’s only fitting that this time, we take a look at unsuccessful blurbs. After all, sometimes we learn more from examining (our and others’) mistakes than we do by only looking at examples of best practice. Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through...

We all know that we’re not supposed to to judge a book by its cover. But can blurbs give us readers a clue as to whether a book is worth reading… or give us writers a hint as to whether it will sell? In this episode, we’ll take a look at what features the blurbs of successful books have in common. Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through t...

Over the previous two episodes, we've looked at the features that the titles of best-selling - and least-selling - novels have in common. But what about non-fiction books? In this episode, we undertake a similar analysis of non-fiction books - and you'll get an exclusive audio preview of Sarah Neofield's latest novel, AutoCEO! Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sara...

If the most important ingredient of any book's cover is the title, what effect does a bad title have? In the previous episode, we looked at what factors the titles of best-selling books have in common. In this episode, we crunch the numbers to find out whether the titles of least-selling books follow a similar pattern - or whether they have their own 'trash title' DNA. Join author, lin...

Perhaps the most important ingredient of any book's cover is the title. What do the titles of best-selling novels have in common? In this episode, we crunch the numbers to find out! Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers! Links from this episode: ⁠Sarah's blog⁠ ⁠Sarah's YouTube channel⁠ ⁠Sarah&...

Having examined what makes a good front, back, and spine, our next question has to be - how do we tie all of these elements together. In this episode, we talk about how to continue the narrative of the front cover by ensuring the spine and back tell the same story. Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers! L...

If back covers are an after-thought, then the spine is often an after-after-thought. Yet, the spine of a book really is, as the name suggests, the backbone of any printed book. In this very special 30th episode, we explore the two reasons that the spine of a book deserves our special attention. Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the...

In the last two episodes, we discussed what distinguishes a good book cover from one of the three 'bad' kinds of covers. But so far, we've only talked about the front. What about that after-thought - the back cover? Why do so many books come have back covers that looked like they were tacked on by a completely different designer? And how important is it, anyway? Join author, linguist,...

Having explored firmly established that, whether or not we should, we do judge books by their covers, in this episode, we take a look at how (some) 'bad' covers... might actually be good. I identify three types of 'bad' book covers: the ugly-but-honest cover, the 'pretty little liar' cover, and the worst cover of all. Learn how to identify each of them - and why one of thes...