Explore the world through language and math with a linguist/budding mathematician! In season one of Letters and Numbers, we focus on books - delving into the world of publishers and platforms, who writes (and why!), and what makes some books more successful than others.
https://sarahneofield.com
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 18 hours 19 minutes
episode 32: What do the titles of best-selling novels have in common?
Perhaps the most important ingredient of any book's cover is the title.
What do the titles of best-selling novels have in common? In this episode, we crunch the numbers to 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:
Sarah's blog
Sarah's YouTube channel
Sarah's books on Amazon
episode 31: How can we tell a story through design?
Having examined what makes a good front, back, and spine, our next question has to be - how do we tie all of these elements together.
In this episode, we talk about how to continue the narrative of the front cover by ensuring the spine and back tell the same story...
episode 30: Should the spine be an after-after-thought?
If back covers are an after-thought, then the spine is often an after-after-thought. Yet, the spine of a book really is, as the name suggests, the backbone of any printed book.
In this very special 30th episode, we explore the two reasons that the spine of a book deserves our special attention...
episode 29: Should the back cover be an after-thought?
In the last two episodes, we discussed what distinguishes a good book cover from one of the three 'bad' kinds of covers. But so far, we've only talked about the front...
episode 28: Are (some) 'bad' book covers... actually good?
Having explored firmly established that, whether or not we should, we do judge books by their covers, in this episode, we take a look at how (some) 'bad' covers... might actually be good.
I identify three types of 'bad' book covers: the ugly-but-honest cover, the 'pretty little liar' cover, and the worst cover of all. Learn how to identify each of them - and why one of these categories might not be so bad after all...
episode 27: Should we judge books by their covers?
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...
episode 26: Why are sequels always better than the original?
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...
episode 25: How can I craft a best-selling character?
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 a hundred million copies in total...
episode 24: How long should a book be?
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 on how long your book should be...
episode 23: How long should a chapter be?
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"...