Electric Speed is a biweekly newsletter that shares resources for creative people (since 2009!), brought to you by Jane Friedman. Sign up here.​

A note from Jane

My husband and I just finished the third season of the Apple TV drama For All Mankind. It’s an alternate history that asks: What would have happened if Russia had landed on the moon first?

The show has countless scenes of genius engineers sitting around a table, discussing solutions to impossible problems. In one crisis, a Mars landslide has not only buried a human habitat with astronauts alive inside, it has also buried the only transport vehicle to their orbiting ship.

An engineer, exhibiting some despair, says, “We can’t bring any more personnel or supplies down [to Mars]. … Everyone on the surface is stranded.”

NASA’s director, perhaps the most cool-headed and fast-thinking of them all, says, “That’s a problem for downstream. Time is our enemy right now. ... Our first task is to find the missing people.”

I keep thinking back to that phrase, “a problem for downstream.” It makes me reflect on my lifelong tendency to ignore downstream problems. I’d rather solve for problems as they arise, not sit down and consider every one in advance. Conversely, my husband’s talent is for anticipating downstream problems, because he wants to eliminate the chance they will occur at all.

Somehow we have managed to remain together.

Jane

P.S. I am teaching a rare, in-person workshop in Boston! I’d love to see you there.

​Bob Eckstein​

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Jane’s Electric Speed List

Here are some of the latest things I’ve discovered. (I am not paid to mention any of these resources; there are no affiliate links.)

Newsletter recommendation: The Whippet

I love reading The Whippet by McKinley Valentine. You will learn things. And you will get in touch with your humanity in the process. It’s outstanding.

A database of freelance and consultant rates

​Contract Rates is a crowdsourced site for researching rates for freelancers, consultants and other people who do contract work. You can submit your rates and view others’ rates. The site leans strongly toward tech fields, so it will be most useful if you’re offering or hiring tech help—e.g., digital marketing, copywriting and SEO, website help, and more. The database notes years of experience and geographic location next to the rate, plus a big-picture analysis of all rates submitted.

Research old newspaper articles

The American Stories dataset allows you to search 400 million newspaper articles, extracted from public domain scans in the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America project. The dataset includes the newspaper name, edition number, date of publication (most published in the 1800s–1920s), and article text. H/t Data Is Plural​

Shout out to the Great Midwest Book Group!

While speaking at the Midwest Writers Workshop this past summer, I discovered a pair of writers who have founded a new book club that reads books that celebrate the Midwest. First guests have included J. Ryan Stradal, author of Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, and Christina Clancy, author of The Second Home and Shoulder Season. The group meets on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Central Time. Learn more.​

NEXT ONLINE CLASS

Oct. 4: Start on Substack with Power & Purpose with Dan Blank

Substack has become a powerful newsletter platform attracting both writers and readers. It is not uncommon to hear success stories of writers who found incredible growth in their readership due to their Substack newsletter. Dan Blank has helped many writers navigate Substack successfully, and in this session he will share important principles for getting started.

Your turn: favorite audiobooks

In the last issue, I asked you to share which books were even better in audio than print. The response was incredible, so I’m listing only the most popular suggestions in the newsletter. Browse the full list here.​

• I think many celebrity memoirs are better experienced in audiobook form when the celebrity author narrates it, specifically Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights. Of course, you have to be someone who appreciates his acting style (his voice, inflections, etc) in order to thoroughly enjoy his memoir. I couldn’t get over how highly entertaining it was, and I loved his storytelling ability. —Angela L Eckhart
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders has 166 narrators, including Nick Offerman and David Sedaris as two of the main voices, but also Megan Mullally, Carrie Brownstein, Don Cheadle, Bill Hader, Ben Stiller, Keegan-Michael Key, and on and on. It feels like a play. It’s a beautiful book in print, too, but the audiobook is a unique and immersive way to experience it. —Leah Tracosas
• I have listened to all of the many Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon for the wonderful voice actors. ... The Scottish, British, Irish, American, Native American, French, etc. characters are wonderfully filled out by the voice actors in these books. Reading them is lovely, but hearing their voices and accents/dialects adds so very much to the already fantastic relationships and adventures in the books. I would definitely recommend listening to them. —Heidi Heiby
• Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is phenomenal as an audiobook while the print version is cumbersome. It employs a cast of actors who each has their own speech quirks and expressions. —Martha Grant
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This is due to the additional sound design that was created to accompany the storytelling alongside Ray Porter’s performance. It was unexpected, and far better than its print version. Explaining it any further may ruin a surprise in the story. Highly recommended! —Rodney
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Fabulous performance by the author. He does so many accents! Scottish, Malyalam (from South India), Southern American, British. Clear delivery. His performance matches his writing—beautiful. You’ll want to read it in print and own it as well. Plotting is brilliant, descriptions of settings and surgeries are detailed but just enough to further the plot. I was sorry when it ended. May Verghese win many prizes. —Shauna Singh Baldwin

Next question: Do you have any grief resources to recommend? This question comes to me from a reader who is actively looking. Hit reply to this message, or head over to Discord to share.

Free resources featuring Jane

• Video: Negotiating Book Contracts with Suzanne Lucas Gosson
• Hungry Authors podcast: Navigating the Publishing Industry​
• This Is Small Business podcast: How to Self-Publish a Book​
• Business Clinic (Oct. 27): Attracting Students to Online Classes​
• Velocity of Content podcast: A Good Name on Bad Books ​
• Slate ICYMI podcast: AI Generated Books Tarnish Author’s Reputation​

Upcoming online classes

• ​Start on Substack with Power & Purpose with Dan Blank, Oct. 4
• ​Master the Flashback with Tiffany Yates Martin, Oct. 18
• ​Social Media Bliss with Jane Friedman, Oct. 19
• ​10 Steps to a Nonfiction Book Proposal with Jane Friedman, Oct. 25
• ​The Psychology of Memoir (Part 3: Complete) with Lisa Ellison, Oct. 26
• ​Build Your Dev. Editing Business with Allison K Williams, starts Nov. 1
• ​Create an Author Website with Jane Friedman, Nov. 16

Meet Jane at an event

• ​​Writing in the Ozarks (Eureka Springs, Ark.), Oct. 12–14, 2023
• ​AI Governance Global (Boston, Mass.), Nov. 2–3, 2023
• ​Author Platform Audit & Workshop (Boston, Mass.), Nov. 3, 2023
• ​Craft & Publishing Voyage (cruise ship!), April 28–May 5, 2024

“At electric speed, all forms are pushed to the limits of their potential.”
—Marshall McLuhan

Created by Jane Friedman I report on the publishing industry and help authors understand the business of writing. Connect on LinkedIn | Instagram | Discord​ P.S. I have a paid newsletter, too.

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