Letters and Numbers

Having explored the role of publishers and platforms, authors, and writing and genre, in this episode we dive into a new theme - book covers! This mini-series adds a visual element to our usual focus on letters and numbers, so you might want to follow the links below to feast your eyes on all of the gorgeous - and not-so-gorgeous! - covers mentioned in each episode. Join author, linguist, and math...

Everybody agrees - originals are always better than sequels, aren't they? Then why do readers and audiences tend to rate the later parts in the most successful book, movie, and TV series so much higher than the first installment? In this episode, we'll take a deep dive into readers' and audience responses to series - and what the numbers really mean. Join author, linguist, and mathemat...

A lot of what goes into determining whether you becoming a mega bestselling author comes down to chance: being born in the right place at the right time. Other factors relate to what you write - and importantly, how much. But there is one other important factor: character. In this episode, we break down the common characteristics of the characters crafted by authors whose books have sold more than...

Having explored how long a chapter should be, we add these all together and ask how long should a book be? Is there a magic number that will make your debut book an instant bestseller? A bestselling author who can serve as a model for first-time writers? The answer isn't as simple as you might think. For one thing, whether you're a first-time or already successful author has a big impact o...

In this episode of Letters and Numbers, we answer one of the most commonly-asked questions from first-time authors: how long should each chapter be? Taking a look at the bestselling books of the last couple of years, we graph the numbers to come up with a suggested range of words - and explain why there is no "magic number". Listen on to discover who writes long chapters - who writes sho...

In the last episode of Letters and Numbers, we asked why 85% of the top 100 "satires" on Amazon are actually romance novels. In this episode, we'll take a look at the other surprising thing those 85 books have in common: They were all published by indie authors. What are the factors that make an independently-published book "successful"? And how big a role does genre play?...

In this episode of Letters and Numbers, we'll continue our discussion of genre by exploring the weirdly relationship between political satires and erotic romance. We'll crunch the numbers to examine why writers of the most successful genre in modern history (romance) have decided to list their novels a category that doesn't fit, and why satire in particular has been targeted. We'll...

In this 20th episode of Letters and Numbers, we'll continue our discussion about trigger warnings, asking what healthier, more nuanced ways there are for writers, publishers, booksellers, and online communities to guide readers. We'll also take a look at what makes the treatment of contentious topics satirical... versus just plain mean! *Make sure you've listened to episode 19 and read...

In this episode of Letters and Numbers, we’re starting a new topic: writing and genre. The actual meat of what you’ll find inside a book. And we're going to begin with something you’re increasingly likely to find when you open a book: a trigger warning. Don’t worry, this podcast episode itself requires no trigger warning. Instead, we'll take a look at trigger warnings from an evidence-base...

In this episode of Letters and Numbers, we tackle the all-important question of plot: specifically, how important is plotting? This is the second installment of our double-episode on writing guides, and the final episode in our mini-series on writers and writing, before we dive into the murky waters of genre. The question of plotting vs. 'pantsing' is the subject of a long debate among wri...

One of the joys connected to reading and writing is reading books about the craft of writing. Lisa Cron’s Wired for Story and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird in many ways represent two opposite ends of the spectrum of writing guides. In this episode of Letters and Numbers, we'll discuss the differences between a writing bible and a writing Bible with a capital B, and what we can learn from these tw...

Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us took the book world by storm. In this deep-dive episode of Letters and Numbers, we ask, if It Ends with Us ... where did it all start? No, we're not discussing prequels or sequels to this runaway bestseller. We're running the microscope over Hoover's career, and taking a look at how an indie author can hit the New York Times bestseller list - as a d...

In this fifteenth episode of Letters and Numbers, we crunch the numbers and work out what it takes to become a seriously bestselling author. Not what it takes to write a bestselling book - what it takes to become a bestselling author. Yes, there's a difference! Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers! L...

Who is 'Brown' enough to write a novel? 'Female' enough? 'Gay' enough? Do these questions even matter? In this episode of Letters and Numbers, we ask what an author's identity and politics have to do with their writing, how the numbers stack up regarding representations of the US and Mexico in American Dirt , and how we, as readers, can expand our horizons. Join author,...

If you primarily read novels written in English, have you ever wondered how writers decide which English to use? What does 'which' English even mean? Find out in this week's episode of Letters and Numbers! 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: The BBC on The Death of...

"Anonymous was a woman" wrote Virginia Woolf. And indeed, many authors who wrote anonymously, or under pen names, have been. But there are many reasons to write under a name other than that bestowed upon you by your parents - and in this week's episode, the second in our mini-series on authors, we'll crunch the numbers and break down those collections of letters most closely refl...

This week, we begin our mini-series on authors. But it's a mini-series with a twist: we're not going to talk about the big name authors, but the little name authors, what I call "with" authors. Those authors who write "with" the big names. Do readers even notice these writers' names? And does writing with a Clive Cussler or a James Patterson make a notable difference to writers' careers? Listen as...

In the last episode of Letters & Numbers,  we asked what’s going on with book prices. In this week’s episode we’re looking at ebookonomics, to answer the question what’s going on with electronic books specifically - and why often, they're more expensive than print copies. Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an  exploration of the world through the lens of...

Continuing our deep-dive into book pricing, this week we ask what -if anything - production costs have to do with it. Welcome, to the nonsensical world of Amazon book pricing! 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 posts on cover design Propaganda Wars AutoCEO

Over the first few episodes of this podcast, we took a look at how the publishing industry is dominated by five big publishers. Over the next few episodes, we looked at how it is dominated by one big platform – Amazon. And now, over the last few episodes in this mini series – before we move on to a focus on authors – we’ll take a deep-dive into the pricing of books. This week, we're asking why boo...

In the previous episode of Letters & Numbers, I answered the question of whether indie authors are truly independent if they're getting 80-100% of their sales from a single platform, with a big 'NO'. In this episode, we look at the independence of readers, specifically, whether we actually own the books we read. You may already be aware of some of the ways that publishers and platforms are usi...

This episode of Numbers & Letters is the biggest yet! Rather than our regular 15 min broadcast, today's is a double feature, to answer a simply enormous question, are indie authors truly independent? In this episode, number six, you'll discover where indies make most of their sales, the similarities between publishing and investing, why free books hardly ever get read, and why Amazon isn't a m...

We're halfway through our mini-series on publishers in this first season of Letters & Numbers, focusing on books. We've talked mostly about the big publishers - so today, I want to tell you a story about independent and small publishers. It's a story about numbers - specifically, ISBNs.  Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an   exploration of the worl...

Over the first three episodes of Letters & Numbers, we've seen how the publishing industry is dominated by the Big Five publishers, and what this means for readers and writers. In this episode, we dig beneath the outward appearance of 'diversity' in publishing - both in content and perspective - and take a look at what is really going on, by taking an uncommonly numerical approach. Join author...

Last episode, we looked at one how one of the Big Five publishers introduced in episode one took legal action against a group of literary archivists - and prevented one of its own smaller imprints from publishing DRM-free books. In episode three, we take a look at another legal case and ask our most controversial question yet: why another of the Big Five handed over more than a quarter of a millio...