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

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You can really tell when a business doesn’t care about its customer experience, and it goes far beyond poor customer service. Let me explain.

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During the summers, I spend 5–10 hours per week on a treadmill, and this year I’m training for a half-marathon. I’m using a training program available through iFIT, a subscription-based business that specializes in workout videos for treadmills, stationary bikes, etc.

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Aside from video programming, iFIT has a number of features that I like: There’s SmartAdjust, which auto-adjusts the machine speed and incline, in real time, based on your fitness level, and ActivePulse, which auto-adjusts intensity based on your heart rate during the workout.

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While this is great in theory, both features will sometimes make terrible adjustments that ought to be eliminated through better coding. E.g., there is no reason to ramp up speed as a means to increase heart rate if a major hill lurks around the corner. The hill will be more than enough to do the job.

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Anyone who’s experienced even a handful of iFIT programs would immediately recognize the fine-tuning required for these auto-adjustments to work better. And if you read Reddit message boards about iFIT, complaints about these two features have been the same for years now. Yet the problems remain unaddressed.

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I Googled around to see if I could find any information about iFIT’s plans for the future. A few puff pieces indicate iFIT is working on a new feature, AI Coach, rather than improving its existing features.

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If iFIT can’t get the simple things right, I won’t be trusting the advice of their AI Coach.

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Jane

P.S. Most popular blog post this month: The Importance of Interiority in Novels and Memoirs​

​Bob Eckstein​

ISSUE SPONSOR

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.)

For fitness enthusiasts: Morpheus heart rate strap

Tying into today’s note: I recently started using a new heart rate strap called Morpheus that can help you avoid overtraining. Every morning, you measure your HRV (heart rate variability) using the strap. Then, based on a variety of data points, the Morpheus app determines your recovery status and recommends specific heart rate zones for recovery training (known as Zone 2 training), as well as conditioning and overload training. The best part of all: no subscription fees. All you need is the strap—the app is free.

Need to conduct a copyright records search?

The Library of Congress recently offered a free webinar on how to “level up” your skills in copyright research. They show you how to navigate records using the new Copyright Public Records System (CPRS). Watch or learn more.​

I recently left my expensive cell phone plan

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been on a very traditional cell phone plan with multiple lines and multiple users. But lately, I started researching the alternatives and I have to agree with Wirecutter when they say “You should check now” for a new service because pricing has come down and there are numerous resellers.

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Everyone’s needs are different, but Wirecutter’s article on the best plans will help you get the lay of the land. Once I identified the right plan for my situation (Visible+), I was able to make the switch in less than an hour without even talking to a customer service rep.

Save every conversation, document, and email in a queryable database

​HeyDay is an AI-powered software that gets fed your conversations, your documents, every note and email—and allows you to query it. As Big Brother as that sounds, all data is encrypted and you can delete data at any time. I can imagine this tool (which is pricey) appealing primarily to coaches, consultants, and executives who are in lots of meetings.

NEXT ONLINE CLASS

Sept. 11: Start on Substack with Power & Purpose with Dan Blank

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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.

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Your turn: note-taking tools

In the last issue, I asked you to share your favorite note-taking tool, digital or analog. Here’s a selection of what you said. The most frequently recommended digital tool was Obsidian.

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• My Kindle Scribe works great for note taking. I’ve used it during my MFA as well as webinars and writers’ retreats aboard Cunard. —Brian Rendell
• At the moment I’m using the Tot app for making notes. I can type or drag links and text onto it and the macOS and iOS apps sync in a few seconds. —jvk
• My favorite note taking tool is Google Keep. When I really need to do a quick and easy brain dump, often in the car. (I use the speech to text function.) —Tracy Cordon
• I love Microsoft OneNote. It lacks the fancy features of something like Notion (which I have yet to try), but you can draw, write, type, paste, and sync to every device. —Abigail Welborn
• Leuchtturm1917 notebook (B5 size) or Scribbles That Matter notebooks. I keep a different notebook for different parts of my life (book plots and notes, marketing, etc.). For everyday notes, I use a Rhodia A4 size and the finest point pen I can find or one of my fountain pens. —Nikki Wright
• I love Obsidian because of its robust hashtag and internal linking capabilities. Some people like to make Obsidian a big thing with lots of plugins but I keep it simple. The only one I use is DataView. —Scott Gilbertson
• Joined the channel to recommend Obsidian as not just a note-taking app but as a one-stop working environment for fiction and non-fiction writing. Deceptively simple on the surface, with (thanks to both core features and plugins) functionally unlimited potential depending on your needs. … I’m in the process of creating a custom “vault” (Obsidian’s term for a collection of documents) that will replace and surpass Scrivener. Oh, and it’s free. But if you pay to support development, you get first access to new features as they roll out. Worth it. —Matthew Wayne Selznick
• About note-taking tools: I splurged on a reMarkable 2, and I love it like crazy! —Tracy Owens
• I use ColorNote. It’s easy to add new notes, arrange alphabetically or by modified date; I add numbers to the most important ones so they appear at the top of the list. Colours are useful too, but I forget which ones are which. But overall the simplest and most useful notebook for me. —Colin Buchanan
• I love Evernote so much that I started paying for it instead of just using the free version. I record everything in there like notes at the doctor, notes from courses I’m taking, an inventory of my dolls, and pretty much everything. —Michelle Kitz

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Next question: Do you have a computer mouse you recommend? (I am not a fan of Apple’s mouse that charges on the bottom.) Hit reply to this message, or head over to Discord to share.

Free resources featuring Jane

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• Video: Why Nonfiction Book Proposals Often Fail​
• Greenleaf podcast: Blog Your Way to a Book Deal​
• Sept. 6: When Your Email Newsletter Growth Has Stalled, a business clinic with Jane Friedman
• Oct. 29: Author Platform Mastery: Website, Social Media, Newsletter, free Zoom-based Q&A with Jane, hosted by StoryOrigin

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Upcoming online classes

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• ​Mixing Points of View with Tiffany Yates Martin, Sept. 4
• ​Start on Substack with Power & Purpose with Dan Blank, Sept. 11
• ​Improve Your Author Website with Jane Friedman, Sept. 12
• ​Platform Building When You’d Rather Write with Jane Friedman, Oct. 10
• ​Mastering Trauma Scenes to Improve Your Memoir with Lisa Cooper Ellison, Oct. 16
• ​Irresistible First Chapters with Tiffany Yates Martin, Oct. 30
• ​Memoir Bootcamp with Allison K Williams, Nov. 6, 13 & 20

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Meet Jane at an event

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• ​Book Proposal Intensive with Jane Friedman (Cincinnati), Oct. 17, 2024
• ​Writer’s Digest Annual Conference (Cincinnati), Oct. 17–20, 2024
• ​NYU Advanced Publishing Institute (NYC), Jan. 6–10, 2025

“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 | Threads | Discord​ P.S. I have a paid newsletter, too.

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