Letters & Numbers

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-based perspective, and open up a discussion about how we can or should use them as readers and writers.

Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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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 writers. In this ambitious episode, we'll settle that question once and for all (!) Don't know what 'pantsing' even is? Come find out!

Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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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 two influential guides.

Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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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 debut author, nonetheless - by the numbers. Most importantly, we'll quantify how long it really takes to become an 'overnight success'.

Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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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!

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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, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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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!

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"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 reflecting our identity - our names.

Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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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 we crunch the numbers!

Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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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 letters and numbers!

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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!

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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 books don't cost the same worldwide... and I'd love to hear your views.

Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an  exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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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 using technology to restrict the rights of readers - but did you know that before ebooks took off, publishers and big-name authors were using the courts to achieve the same thing?

Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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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 monopoly (and what it actually is instead).

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 world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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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, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an  exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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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 million dollars to a 'writer' who didn't even write his own book, in a deal which resulted in enormous backlash, costing the publisher another author, and important review opportunities for their other writers. Want to know why garbage gets published? Follow the numbers.

Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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After asking the deceptively simple question, how many publishers are there - really? in episode one, our next installment in this mini-series on publishers and platforms asks why the Big Five are such a big deal. 

Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers! 

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In the first season of Letters & Numbers, our focus is on books, starting with a mini-series on publishers and platforms. In this first episode, we answer the deceptively simple question, how many publishers are there - really? Hundreds? Thousands? The answer may surprise - and alarm - you.

Join author, linguist, and mathematician-in-the-making Sarah on an exploration of the world through the lens of letters and numbers!

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