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I love talking shop with other story tellers.
Especially ones that work in different formats—comic book artists, screenwriters, podcasters... We're all telling stories, but in different mediums. Which means we're thinking about it in slightly different ways.
Those conversations are the best! An hour will flash by in an instant.
Which is what happened when I sat down with audiobook narrator Todd Eflin last week.
I went in planning to ask him about audiobook narration for nonfiction authors—why it matters, the studio setup, the mic, whether you need a Voice of Gold.*
And we covered all of that.
But when Todd started asking me questions back, we went off on a delightful tangent about selling stories versus regular stories, why telling tell things in chronological order is the fastest way to lose a reader, and the fifth-grade teacher who read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH aloud to him and basically wired his whole career.
(Who else loved Mrs. Frisby!!!)
Anyway—two ways to take it in:
🎥 The full video has the whole conversation, including all the sidebars about storytelling, dictation, and why human voice matters more in an AI-saturated world.
📄 The Q&A blog post is the faster version if you just want the audiobook narration and dictation parts, cleanly written up.
You'll find them both here.
And if narrating your own audiobook is on your radar, don't miss Todd's 3-Step Guide to Create Your Own Audiobook, which he's giving away to my readers. :)
Talk soon,
Jessie
P.S. If you've been thinking about narrating your own audiobook and you've been Googling $1,500 microphones — please read Todd's section on equipment first. Your guest bathroom is probably already most of what you need.
P.P.S. *You don't need a Voice of Gold, but Todd certainly has one! Go give it a listen.
🏋️♂️ This thoughtful survey of the evolution of "female ambition memoir" by Katie Gatti Tassin was fascinating. She traces the subgenre's path from "women can have it all!" to "we are burned out af," digging into the subtleties of how women in general are seen in society—and what society has to say about womens' stories.
(Katie's "Money with Katie" newsletter is always a must-read for me—I love her cultural analysis.)
She writes,
The resulting morass is one of circular arguments and shouting past one another into a seemingly endless void. We’re struggling through a post-coup power vacuum, our old #bossbabe toppled but her replacement figurehead nowhere to be found. We exist now in the gap between widespread recognition of what needs to change and the change itself, where we are aware of structural shortcomings but still forced to live inside them.
This is an intensely frustrating position, a frustration that permeates both “sides” of the ambition/anti-ambition conversation. While the average 30-year-old woman may recognize much of her anxiety about being a working mother is a byproduct of structural failure and social conditioning, this awareness does little to improve her reality, where she must confront that anxiety anew every morning when her alarm goes off and commit to a plan for the day despite it.
Just lean in. Just prioritize self care. Just be responsible for everyone aroud you. Just take care of yourself.
Hashtag feeling seen.
🧙🏻♀️ People who understand SEO are wizards. And those who understand where search is heading in the age of AI are some kind of next-level supernatural beings. I had the pleasure of chatting with Meg Casebolt at Love @ First Search earlier this week about the work she does with authors and entrepreneurs trying to be found in AI search, and I was so impressed by how she simplified it.
I'm scheming to bring her in for a training with you all soon, but for now I recommend perusing her website. Her BEACON Framework is a great plate to start.
❓I loved this take from Kate McKean on Agents + Books: "Should You Just Get Your Book Out There?" There's not one true path to publishing. There's not a "right way." There's only the way that serves you and your book, and gets you closest to meeting your goals.
And maybe just "getting your book out there" is all you want. But it's worth examining your goals to figure out what's the right path for you. (That's one of the things people use my Story Clarity Call to get coaching on.)
🤓 Looking for research catalogs? I stumbled on this Note the other day and gasped out loud to see that you can now access JSTOR without a university login. This list of 6 free tools for the kind of research that used to require a university login is worth bookmarking.
✏️ Speaking of Notes—are you using Notes on Substack? I've been posting there more, so I was glad to come across this article by Carrie Loranger about how she's using Substack Notes to grow her audience. As always, I recommend picking one main social media channel and using that, rather than flailing on all of them (*she says patiently to herself, yet again.*). But if your audience is on Substack, this is worth a read.
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🤯 OK, this is just the best idea for a nonfiction pre-order bonus.
Erin Weed (my client whose book I've been shouting about!) will be leading a 1-day virtual workshop next week, teaching her book's content to anyone who buys it. She writes:
I know a lot of authors might think I'm crazy to do this. It's common to turn book content into courses you can charge $$ for later. But that's not what I want to do. I want to reach as many people as possible with my unconventional method, The Dig. Access is a huge value for me. The book, Just One Word, is amazing. (I know I'm biased. 😘) But Erin's presence is just so dynamic. Please don't miss this chance to watch her teach this life-changing method live. (Replay is available.)
Register here.
👻 Are you a ghostwriter, or working with one? The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and Gotham Ghostwriters are presenting a panel on expert tips from ghostwriters on May 20th. They'll also be talking about how to enter the Andy Awards, which are especially for books written with a paid collaborator. Learn more and register here.
🍃 Are you stuck in your book? Never fear, I've got a new (free!) training coming up that should help.
By popular demand (thanks to everyone who voted in the poll a couple of weeks ago), I'm running a 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.
In just 72 hours, we’ll get that momentum rolling by nailing down your book’s central promise, re-centering on your audience, and identifying your book’s spine.
You’ll get a polished compass to guide you forward to a finished manuscript—and go from spinning your wheels to making progress.
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.
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Talk soon,
Jessie
P.S. I'd love to see you in the Book Strategy Sprint in June! Here's that link again.
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