Letters and Numbers

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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)...

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...

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!

Links from this episode:

Sarah's posts on cover design

Propaganda Wars

AutoCEO

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...

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...