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?

How possible is it to rise to the top a highly-competitive field like romance? And is it possible to succeed at all in an unpopular genre like satire?

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 original blog post

The Discoverability series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Sarah's books on Amazon

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 also take a qualitative look at how many romance tropes are fundamentally incompatible with satire.

Finally, we'll explore whether intentionally miscategorising books is an effective strategy in achieving bestsellerdom. And... could it backfire?

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:

⁠Most competitive categories on Kindle⁠

⁠Least competitive categories on Kindle⁠

Sarah's books on Amazon

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 Number Eight Crispy Chicken first!

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:

Please leave a review of ⁠Number Eight Crispy Chicken⁠

Robert Cialdini's ⁠Presuasion⁠

Listen to the ⁠most popular episode of Letters & Numbers⁠ (and don't forget to share!)

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!

Links from this episode:

Brittney the Book Guru's analysis of the word 'trigger'

If Books Could Kill's The Coddling of the American Mind episode

Your homework for this week: Read Number Eight Crispy Chicken

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!

Links from this episode:

Andrew Goodall's article on photo editing

Sarah's blog Wired Birds (with links to Lisa Cron's resources)

Leave a review for (or grab a copy of!) Sarah's novel Propaganda Wars

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

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:

Watch the Bird by Bird with Annie trailer

Lisa Cron's 9 Tips for Writing a Really Good "Shitty First Draft"

Sarah's blog Wired Birds

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!

Links from this episode:

Man Carrying Thing's review of It Ends With Us

Man Carrying Thing's review of It Starts With Us

Share your favourite books with Sarah on social media: fb, twitter, pin, insta

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!

Links from this episode:

See the Fifty Shades of Grey book fort

Links to all statistics in this episode are available on Sarah's blog

Help Sarah become a moderately-selling author!

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!

Links from this episode:

Latinx and Own Voices novels to read instead/in addition to American Dirt: USA Today, Texas Observer, The Guardian, The Young Folks

Links to all statistics in this episode are available on Sarah's blog

Read Sarah's novel dealing with immigration, international borders, and human rights

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 Languages

TV Quotas in The Conversation

Read a book in Australian English!