🌈 I have been obsessed with how colors get their names, ever since reading Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay back in college.

So you can imagine my delight when I came across the website Storied Colors, which aims to tell the story of every color in existence.

From their site:

I'm obsessed.

👩‍🦯 Is your content reaching all of your audience? Alt text, subtitles, color contrast—digital accessibility is a big topic that can feel super complicated. If you run an online business, it's super important to make sure you website and content is accessible. Both so people can access your content, and for reasons of rankings and performance.

But where do you even start?

Well, that's why I so appreciate my friend Jeff Adams.

Jeff is a fellow author who works in accessibility. He's co-written a book on the topic (Content for Everyone), and just started a Substack that breaks down big concepts into actionable ideas.

Here are two posts I found super useful:

• ​Five Accessibility Things You Can Fix Today
• ​Four Questions to Help You Write Meaningful Alt Text​

🤖 I've been having a number of conversations about AI lately, both with other ghostwriters/coaches and with my clients. It's a useful tool—and I use it for a lot of things. But I'm also nervous about how many of us seem to be outsourcing out thinking to AI, and how it's dulling the world around us as a result.

(For a couple of sciency papers tracking this trend, check out this recent study on how LLMs are homogenizing human creativity, and this one that analyzes the stylistic idiosyncrasies in AI-generated fiction.)

So I figured it was time to formalize my thoughts and create an AI policy that explains to current and prospective clients exactly how I use AI, and what I need to know about their AI use. You can read about my AI policy here. (And see a photo of my cyborg fun eye—it seemed like the right illustration for the post!)

📚 How long should your book be? Kevin Anderson & Associates has just released a handy guide that breaks book wordcount down by genre.

🦖 My husband shared this news story with me last night, and I can't stop thinking about it. Who on earth own a $70,000 dino statue to begin with? Who was riding around with a look-alike of the stolen statue in their SUV, and why? Why did we need the tow trucks? Netflix, I'm gonna need a true crime documentary on this, stat.

🍃 We start next Wednesday! If you're working on a book, I'm running a new (free!) training next week.

It's a live, free three-day sprint to help you identify your book's audience and problem, use that to shape your book's outline, and draft polished back cover copy that you can use to guide you.

This sprint is perfect for:

• 💫 Before you begin your book—so you start out strong
• 💫 When you feel stuck in the middle of your draft—to get you back on track
• 💫 During revisions—clarify your idea and know what you’re revising toward
• 💫 Writing a book proposal—nail the language you’ll use to pitch and sell your book

This training will be open to all writers, though primarily aimed at nonfiction writers who are working on business books, self help, and other commercial nonfiction.

We start June 3rd.

Save your free seat here!

🍕 Do you have any young readers in your life? Pizza Hut's BOOK IT! program is back! I still have visceral memories of checking out armloads of books from the library and earning that personal pan pizza each summer.

The program is totally free, and starts June 1.

🏳️‍🌈 ProWritingAid is celebrating Pride Month with a free, month-long event celebrating LGBTQIA+ voices and stories. They're hosting live craft sessions and running daily challenges, book clubs, and networking events. It looks like a fantastic event! Join Write With Pride here.