Amanda and I talk about the behind the scenes elements of running Smart Bitches, and what parts we love most of all. We discuss our favorite features and how some of them came to be. We also talk a little about how we organize our reading for SBTB and for other outlets (SPOILER: There are spreadsheets involved – and I’ll link to mine in the show notes) and how we schedule and track our reading when we get books way, way, way in advance. We also talk about being infused with the power of dairy, and my frustration with entrepredudebro productivity guides.
Then, I answer a question about pitching yourself for the podcast. I’ve had a few questions about this via email, and I’m planning the 2018 season now, so I hope this is helpful.
❤ Read the transcript ❤
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Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:
We also mentioned the following:
- Amanda and my Rec Req episodes, Part I, Part II, and Part III
- Amanda’s Soggy Bottoms special feature
- RedHeadedGirl’s Historical Kitchen special feature
- Elyse’s Knitting posts
- Carrie’s Romance Wanderlust
We also talked about Stardew Valley, one of our favorite games.
And of course: the Reading Tracking Spreadsheet. This is how I organize my reading and track my to-read books based on release date, reading schedule, and library book due date.
Here’s a link to a copy of my reading spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16BFAn8VzJKlQOnCzrNu2DRRb4uV1RdWU1uQkea4qGwk/edit?usp=sharing
This link is view-only.
All you need to do is click file, then Make a Copy to save your own version to your Google Drive.
Then you can replace the heading text and fields as you want with what’s useful and helpful for you.
If you like the podcast, you can subscribe to our feed, or find us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows!
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Thanks for listening!
This Episode's Music
Our music is provided by Sassy Outwater. Thanks, Sassy!
All the music in this episode is by Deviations Project from their holiday album Adeste Fiddles.
This is probably my favorite track. This is Three Ships. You can find this album at Amazon.
Podcast Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Wrangler’s Challenge by Lindsay McKenna.
New York Times bestselling author, U.S. Navy veteran and genre pioneer Lindsay McKenna delivers the fourth installment in the Wind River Valley series. With her signature military heroes and a western romance setting, this distinguished author’s finest talents combine in an engrossing series about searching for the true meaning of love and freedom within the wild expanse of the American West.
Wrangler’s Challenge is a moving story of a female wounded warrior veteran, who lost a foot during her service, engaging in equine therapy at the Bar C Ranch and unexpectedly finds a connection with another veteran struggling with his own demons.
You can find Wrangler’s Challenge where books, ebooks and audiobooks are sold, and find out more at Kensingtonbooks.com.
Transcript
❤ Click to view the transcript ❤
[music]
Sarah Wendell: Hello, and welcome to episode number 275 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. With me today is Amanda! We’re going to talk about reading, writing, and the power of dairy. We have a sort of casual, relaxed conversation about some of the behind-the-scenes elements of running Smart Bitches, what parts we love most of all, and our favorite features and how some of them came to be. We also talk about how we organize our reading, both for review purposes for Smart Bitches and for other outlets.
I would like to warn you that in one case there is a spreadsheet involved, and I’ve linked to it in the show notes if you would like to have your own copy of my reading-tracking spreadsheet that I developed for myself. I have instructions in the post, or outro; the post interview, post-talking part is the outro. Right, yeah, you’re right about that, Sarah. Good job, brain! I have instructions in the outro, and I will also have instructions in the show notes.
We talk about how we schedule and track our reading when we get books way, way, way in advance, and we talk about being infused with the power of dairy, and then I take a little side rant to my frustration with entrepre-dudebro productivity guides, of which I have read several this year. Then I answer a question about pitching yourself or someone else for the podcast. I’ve had a few questions by email this week and last week, and I’m planning the 2018 season now, so I hope this is helpful. If you’re curious about how to pitch yourself or someone else for the show, I’m going to share some information, ‘cause, well, I can. Yay!
Now if you’re thinking, I would like to know more about organizing my reading, or I have a question about how the site runs, or, you know, I just want to tell you things, good. You should totally email us at [email protected]. You can record a voice memo; you can email it to me. It’s awesome when you do! But we love hearing from you.
If you like cowboys, you will probably like the following words: this podcast is brought to you by Wrangler’s Challenge by Lindsay McKenna. New York Times bestselling author, US Navy veteran, and genre pioneer, Lindsay McKenna delivers the fourth installment in her Wind River Valley series. With her signature military heroes and a Western romance setting, this distinguished author’s finest talents combine in an engrossing series about searching for the true meaning of love and freedom within the wild expanse of the American West. Wrangler’s Challenge is a moving story of a female wounded warrior veteran who lost a foot during her service engaging in equine therapy at the Bar C Ranch, where she unexpectedly finds a connection with another veteran struggling with his own demons. You can find out more about Wrangler’s Challenge in the show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast, and you can find Wrangler’s Challenge where eBooks, books, and audiobooks are sold! And you can learn even more at kensingtonbooks.com.
We have a podcast Patreon, and if you would like to support the show and help me make podcast transcripts for the older episodes in our archives, I would be tremendously grateful. There are rewards and different tiers, and for one dollar a month you make a deeply appreciated difference in the show. Have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches.
The show continues because of you, so thank you. If you have reviewed the show – I found new reviews on Podbay, and they made my entire week, so thank you for those – if you’ve told a friend, if you’ve subscribed, and if you hang out with us each week, thank you! It is so awesome to have you here!
The music you are listening to is provided by Sassy Outwater. I will have information at the end of the podcast, but I’m sure you recognize this song – yes, it is time for my favorite, favorite album, and we’ve got five Fridays in December, so you get to hear lots of it. Yay! I’m so excited.
I hope you enjoy today’s episode. I don’t have anything else to say here. I mean I could keep talking, but why would I do that? On with the podcast!
[music]
Sarah: So we’re going to talk about behind the scenes of the website.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: So you told me you had some thoughts on this.
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: Is there something you want to start with? ‘Cause I also have questions.
Amanda: Oh, my goodness. So I would just like to reiterate, this is probably the coolest job I could have ever dreamed of having.
Sarah: And you’re not just saying that ‘cause, ‘cause I’m over here, right? [Laughs]
Amanda: No! It’s just like, whenever I tell people what I do, they’re like, how did you get into that? I was like, well, it started with me reading Smart Bitches and then just emailing Sarah, asking if she wanted an intern, because an internship was required for my bachelor’s degree.
Sarah: This is still one of my favorite email messages: Hi! Listen, I need an internship, and I was wondering if you wanted an intern. You’re not allowed to pay me, but you have to fill out some forms –
Amanda: Yeah. [Laughs]
Sarah: – and I was like, well, fuck, yeah!
Amanda: Yep.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: And then, like, that turned into a part-time job, and then it turned into a full-time job, so I don’t know, it was a series of events that I never thought would ever happen, but I don’t know, there’re a lot of different things with the site that I really enjoy doing. I love doing any sorts of recommendations, like the Rec League or the podcast that we do because I, I think of it as, like, a little puzzle?
Sarah: Yes. It is such a puzzle –
Amanda: Because –
Sarah: – because then you’re like, okay, I’m going to find the perfect book.
Amanda: Yes, and readers don’t just submit, like, a generic, oh, give me, like, a cowboy romance. They want –
Sarah: Oh, no.
Amanda: – a cowboy romance with a mail-order bride set in Montana. Like, it’s very specific what they want, and so it’s kind of like a little game for me to, to find all of these elements. Like, when we recorded our last recommendation podcast, someone asked for railroad romances –
[Laughter]
Sarah: That was amazing!
Amanda: – and I had, like, found an anthology, a romance anthology that was all, that took place on, like, a railway! [Laughs]
Sarah: On trains! Yep!
Amanda: So it’s kind of fun. I really like that aspect of, of working for the site, is being able to recommend books to people that match their tastes or match what they’re searching for, is what I probably like the most.
Sarah: Plus that also means that you have to sort of, like I do, have an awareness of a lot of books that are not necessarily things that you want to read?
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: But that will fit what someone else likes to read.
Amanda: Yes. That’s where my crazy memory –
Sarah: And that –
Amanda: – comes in handy. [Laughs]
Sarah: Yeah, ‘cause I don’t remember, like, jack, and I’m like, okay, there is a book for you, and I remember it came out around this time, ‘cause I was at this place and I saw it, and the cover’s peach, and then, like, twenty minutes later, my brain’s like, oh, this one! Oh, yeah! Like, that happened to me recently; I was trying to remember a book for a Rec League and, like, six hours later I was brushing my teeth, and I looked at, looked at my husband and, like, yelled, I know what it is! And I scared the shit out of him. [Laughs] Toothpaste coming out of my mouth, I run over to my phone to type in the title. I was so proud of my brain. My brain worked really hard for, like, six hours to pull that out of the recesses.
The funny thing about the site is that we’re coming up on the thirteenth anniversary of the founding of the site, and it’s so different than the way that it started. Like, I remember when it started, I was working full time. I was pregnant, because I had my older son in November of the first year of the site, and, like, we just put random shit on up. We didn’t have a schedule; we would just be like, oh, a thing needs to go up! And then as the site grew, we were like, oh, we need to, we need to have content, like, every day. Okay. I remember a friend of mine, Heather, used to work at a publisher that has since closed, and she told me that she would regularly stand up at her cubicle and yell across the whole room, Smart Bitches Cover Snark is up now! Like, we’d just updated it, and they would all look at it at the same time, mostly ‘cause a lot of their covers were in it.
And I was like, oh, I should probably have a schedule, so then the schedule evolved because, for example, at my old job, the, Friday was my busiest day, and so I created the Friday Videos because I was like, if I just drop a YouTube embed link in here, that’s, like, five whole minutes of work, but that’ll cover me for Friday. So Friday Videos was I’m Really Busy at Work; Let Me Do Something Fast. And it was fun because there’re lots of cool videos to look at. Now you’re so organized, and I love calendars; like, the site has its own calendar.
Amanda: Which I love.
Sarah: Oh, I love it. I love looking at the whole month and being like, all right, all right, okay, that’s there, that’s there, and we fill things in so there’s more content. And it’s, it’s funny because I always describe the mission of the site as connecting romance fans with one another and with the books they want to read, so pretty much everything on the calendar has something to do with romance, whether it’s a review or a recommendation thread or the Help a Bitch Out, which is super popular. The goal hasn’t really changed much over thir-, almost thirteen years. Like, it’s still the goal is to be like, romance fans, come hang out. We have fun shit.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Which means we get to do really fun things like, you know, cook all of the technical bakes from The Great British Bake Off.
Amanda: I think I’ve picked my next one, though there is a running joke between Eric and me, and I’m getting really sick of it, so I might just do that one so he stops making the damn joke.
[Laughter]
Sarah: He won’t, he won’t stop. I just want you to know, he’s not going to.
Amanda: So he is obsessed with Frasier jokes, like the, like the TV show with Kelsey Grammer –
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: – and he –
Sarah: Interesting.
Amanda: – is obsessed with the theme thing, and I don’t think it’s funny. I think Kelsey Grammer is an asshole.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: I don’t think Frasier’s funny. The best thing about Frasier is that grumpy dog. But there’s a recipe for one of the techno, technical bakes, and it’s for fraisier cakes, and he thinks it has something to do with Frasier, so he’ll, so the theme song is, like, “Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs,” and he’ll, he will change it to “tossed salad and fraisier cakes.”
Sarah: Oh, God.
Amanda: And he just wants me to make them so he can make more Frasier jokes, and – [laughs] – I’m just at this point where I’m like, fine, I’ll make them, but you have to never make this joke ever again.
Sarah: [Laughs] [music plays] Oh, I forgot to turn my phone off – bad podcaster. Oh, my gosh. Do you think he’s actually not going to make the joke?
Amanda: Oh, God, no. I, I –
Sarah: He’s going to keep making it.
Amanda: [Laughs] He’ll keep making Frasier jokes until I die.
Sarah: What you need to do, what you need to do for the post is find some really obnoxious Frasier GIFs –
[Laughter]
Sarah: – of, like, and if, if it’s all the different actors looking really surly, the caption can be like, okay, Eric, stop making the joke now.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: No, really, you can stop, it’s okay! [Laughs]
Amanda: Well, like, Eric and my love language is Twitter DMs? Like – [laughs] – we could not talk all day, but I guarantee you we will have exchanged at least four tweets that we have found funny over Twitter.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: Like, we won’t even say anything like, oh, that was a really funny thing you sent me. We’ll just send it back and forth. [Laughs]
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: And if we’ve seen the, the Twitter joke or the tweet we’ll be like, yeah, I already saw it; nice try. [Laughs] So –
Sarah: Ooh, harsh!
Amanda: – that’s essentially our love language, is tweets back and forth. [Laughs] I probably get one of those before he, like, texts me in the day, is I will get a Twitter DM and be like, oh, he’s awake now. Okay.
Sarah: [Laughs] In bed looking at Twitter.
Amanda: Yep. Pretty much.
Sarah: That happens. That happens. So what are some of the other things you really like about the community and running the site? You know, this isn’t awkward or anything.
Amanda: [Laughs] So I also like that – and I’m prob-, I’m speaking for the other reviewers here, but I don’t think they’ll mind – is that we have room to take on projects that have something to do with our own interests and our own personalities and our own hobbies outside of just reading books.
Sarah: Yep!
Amanda: And you’re, I would say you’re usually pretty receptive to, hey, Sarah, could we do this? You’re like, yeah, sure, why not? Like, I remember –
Sarah: Sure, okay! [Laughs]
Amanda: – with Soggy Bottoms I was like, I can write up, like, a test post, and we can see how it does well with traffic, and you’re like, no, just do it, and I was like, okay!
Sarah: Yep. I have two driving philosophies with running the site: I take the community and the sanctity and the safety of the community very safe, very seriously. I take the safety of the commenting area extremely seriously, but I do not take myself seriously at all. So I am a frequent flyer on Seat of Your Pants Airlines, and I always think, all right, run it up the flag pole. See who salutes! Somebody’s going to dig it, and usually someone’s like, oh, my God, this is exactly what I wanted. Like, yes!
Amanda: Well, Elyse has her knitting, and, you know, Carrie does lots of history-based stuff, and –
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: – Redheadedgirl does cooking stuff, and she’s really into film, so she does a lot of our movie reviews, so I like –
Sarah: Yep!
Amanda: – that we have room to kind of like dip into things that are kind of like romance-adjacent, like a lot of romance readers are into crafting, and a lot of romance readers are into cooking, and, you know, they’re super into historical accuracy –
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: – so that’s where the historical cooking and, you know, like, Romance Wanderlust kind of comes into play, ‘cause there’s a lot of historical stuff with that. So I really like that, and then I love doing Hide Your Wallet, which is all the new releases coming out.
Sarah: Oh, that, that is, that and what are, Whatcha Reading, those, those are so expensive.
Amanda: [Laughs] Because I’m, I’m on top of new book releases just ‘cause it’s, like, the nature –
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: – of the beast with this job. I used to work for publishing houses, so I would subscribe to all of the, like, publishing insider newsletters from Publishers Weekly and, you know, Shelf Awareness, so I still get those, and to discover a book coming out or having, like, a book announcement that you’re really excited for, I don’t know, I just kind of like talking about new books that people might not have otherwise realized were on their radar?
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: So I like that, and there’s, like, a system to doing it. Like, we have a spreadsheet where we input all of our stuff each month –
Sarah: Yes, we do!
Amanda: – and then I get to, like, load it in. It’s very systematic, and it’s very organized, which also appeals to me.
Sarah: Oh, absolutely. And I like to work in advance as much as possible. Do something last minute tends to give me panicky feelings? Like, I’m much more creative far in advance –
Amanda: Yep.
Sarah: – so if I have something that I’m going to write that goes up on a Thursday, I’ll have a note on my to-do list like, draft this post on Monday. It’s very rare that I write and publish something same day, and then that’s when I look at it and I’m like, oh, my God, I could have said that, like, so much better, but I had to get it done. That’s fine.
Amanda: See, I’m the opposite, not in terms of writing, but in terms of scheduling stuff for the site. I will do it only one day in advance unless I’m traveling, because, like, I have a nice little morning routine where I wake up; I do, like, Facebook stuff; and then I’ll do the Books on Sale stuff; and then I’ll get ready for the next day so that, like, that’s my little routine –
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: – but if I’m traveling then I’ll do, like, a week out. So, but I feel like it hasn’t really caused any problems. [Laughs]
Sarah: No, not at all! No, that, that ac-, that works really well, because that way if something has to move last minute, then we can just move things around very easily. For me, in terms of creativity, I have to work out in advance. I just know that’s how it is with my brain. Editorial I do once a week and then schedule the next week, like, a week ahead, but even then I still move stuff around. Like, this week we’re moving a bunch of stuff around because we have a Rec League –
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: – after, like, three, now four people, have asked me for royal recommendations of, of royal romances, preferably where someone marries a commoner – can’t imagine why that’s a request – so that makes –
Amanda: Did something happen that maybe – ?
Sarah: – zero sense. I don’t know. Maybe? I couldn’t tell you. You know, there was really very little said on the internet, so I’m really not sure. So we have that, plus Redheadedgirl watched – [laughs] – apparently, the Netflix A Christmas Prince is a complete crap? Like, it’s horrible. So she reviewed it; it’s bad. Spoiler alert, but that will go up the day before this, this drops. So I just move stuff around as needed, and then we can just move it all around in the calendar, and it works out really well, because there’s always something new, and there’s always something different.
Amanda: I agree. I feel like we’re never at a shortage for, for stuff to –
Sarah: No.
Amanda: – like, go up on the site.
Sarah: Nope.
Amanda: It’s just a matter of, like, where the heck are we going to put this? What day are we going to put this on?
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: I know every year –
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: – when we do recaps, we always have the same conversation of, so what day did we do this last year? Was it Saturday? Was it Sunday? [Laughs]
Sarah: Yep. We did a thing; something happened. The only thing I always want more of is reviews, but that’s just a, a constant anxiety on my part, simply because there are so many –
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: – books out. Oh, my God. There are so many books out. How? How are there so many?
Amanda: Right now, Elyse and I are working on a joint review of Into the Drowning Deep, which is about, it’s a horror novel about killer mermaids?
Sarah: As you do.
Amanda: [Laughs] And we’ve done of a lot of squeeing back and forth, but there are some things that I really had a problem with in the book, and we’re not so far into the joint review because, for Elyse and me, we just kind of write on the joint review whenever we can?
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: So I’m curious to see if she had the same reading experience, because we kind of kept our reading experiences separate, in that we didn’t message each other constantly with, what did you think of this? Did you read this part?
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: So I’m, I like that aspect of joint reviews, and we’re kind of, both of us are going in blind to what the other person thinks.
Sarah: And you’re writing on your own time, and then you’re reading what each other thought, so it’s a discussion, but not in real time.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: That works really well, I think, for, for joint review.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: One thing that I have started doing differently was actually inspired by Leah Koch at The Ripped Bodice. She was talking about how she reads things and keeps track of her reading, and she has a spreadsheet that she keeps and then makes, like, miniature notes about the book as she reads them, and I realized, like all things –
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: – I love a good spreadsheet –
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: – and spreadsheets are The Shit, sooo I should do a spreadsheet, so around late August, when I realized that I had a lot of things that I needed to keep track of in terms of books that I wanted to read that I wanted to talk about, but I didn’t want to read too far in advance, because then by the time it came to talk about them I’d be like, there were words. There were some letters –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – of the alphabet that were in this book. I don’t remember all of the specifics.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: So I schedule when I’m going to read something –
Amanda: Oh, wow!
Sarah: – and I also schedule, give myself a note when it comes out, and then I divide it by month. This has made, by, by the way, this has made doing the Hide Your Wallet posts so easy, because I’m like, wow, Past Sarah! You have organized yourself. Good job! So, and I got through all of the books that I had suggested for myself for, for November –
Amanda: Heck, yeah!
Sarah: – though I did try to read the new Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach – not a romance; totally literary fiction. It’s like a myst-, historical mystery sort of hybrid of a bunch of stuff, and I was like –
Amanda: I think I’m recalling the cover in my head.
Sarah: Yeah, it’s, like, a circle, and then the letters are written in a sans serif font, but then there’re lines coming down from some of the letters that have straight up and downs? Like, the Ns –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – have, like, these long tails going down? Yeah, it bored the fuck out of me.
Amanda: Oh.
Sarah: I, that is not my genre. So back to the library it went, and I was, like, hold number 362, so whoever is after me now has it, and I hope they’re enjoying it very much.
Amanda: [Laughs] So I might do that. I like that idea of kind of keeping –
Sarah: You want me to tell you what’s on my spreadsheet?
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: Okay! So I will tell you: I have a start date and a finish date so I can keep track of about how long it takes me to read. Just because I don’t know what year it is, I don’t actually know how long it takes me to read a book.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: I have learned that it takes me about a day and a half.
Amanda: Also, when I tell people I’m a romance reviewer, the chief question –
Sarah: Oh, God.
Amanda: – or, like, I read books for a living is, so how long does it take you to read a book? Like – [laughs] – that’s the number one –
Sarah: Always!
Amanda: – question I get. I was like, I don’t know; I can finish a book in about a day, like, a 350-page book –
Sarah: Right!
Amanda: – if that’s all I’m doing. Like –
Sarah: If –
Amanda: – they’re like, wow, you must read really fast! I was like, yeah! [Laughs] Like, what?
Sarah: I know I read fast, but like we talked about in the podcast, I have a specific time that is for reading! Like, I have a time that is reading time, and if I’m reading a book that I know I have saved? Like, I saved A Hope Divided and Wrong to Need You so that I could (a) read them just before the event this week with Alisha and Alyssa in D.C., but also I didn’t want to read them too far in advance because when they come out, or when they – well, they’re, no, they’re out now; they came out yesterday.
Amanda: Yes. Yes.
Sarah: Time is amazing. Did you know that time is just incredibly confusing for me?
Amanda: It just keeps moving.
Sarah: I know! And there’re numbers, and it’s kept track of with numbers, which is not cool. Damn it. Anyway. So I read those very recently, because I wanted it to be fresh in my mind for the event, since we’re going to, you know, work on questions and making an interesting discussion, but also I want to be able to talk about them when they’re out so I can say, you, you need to read this. This is great, and here’re all the things that I remember, and I took a lot of notes so that could develop this, the, the panel, but when I’m looking at when I’m going to read something, I usually put the release date and then organize them from, in, like, in sections from each month, top to bottom, in the order that I think I should read them, and then that order gets moved if something that I’ve asked from the library is made available, because if I put a digital hold in my library I have three days to check it out when it’s available, and then I have three weeks to read it before it gets returned automatically, and I can’t renew, especially if there’s a hold on it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: So I move the list around if it’s a library book, but I kind of sketch out what I want to read and when, and then I can read anything from that list for that month in whatever order otherwise. And it, it’s, it’s nice –
Amanda: Can you share that spreadsheet with me?
Sarah: I would be happy to spread that, share that spreadsheet with you.
Amanda: Thank you!
Sarah: You’ll also see my notes –
Amanda: Spread that sheet, baby.
Sarah: – [laughs] – like, repetitive conflict; stupid coworkers; not enough spark; DNF 29%.
D: it started out okay, but it got stupid in a hurry. Very few hooks to reality what would make, which would make the story compelling. This shit is just silly.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: And then there’s another one: boring as fuck; I did not care.
[Laughter]
Sarah: I’m looking at Past Sarah –
Amanda: That’s the worst!
Sarah: Past, Past Sarah in September had a real long streak of DNFs, and it was very sad.
But knowing what I plan to read and knowing what’s coming out is, is very helpful, because I don’t, I mean, I don’t have to read super far in advance, ‘cause I’m not reviewing for any publications that have a really long lead time –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – so I can read closer to release date, and I can review close enough that I write the review and then it’s all still fresh in my mind and I can talk about it as well as write about it, which is my favorite way to talk about books, ‘cause it’s all still in my head? Like, for example, in my December list I have, let’s see, My Lady Governess by Elise Clarke, which was pitched to me as a medieval comedy? I never had those words together! I’m totally here for that! That comes out in 12, on 12/20, so I’ll probably read that, like, the week before. And then A Distant Heart by Sonali Dev comes out on the 26th, and I’ll be on vacation, so I’ll probably read that on the plane.
Amanda: So –
Sarah: And I’m not sitting with my children, so I don’t have to, like –
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: – sit next to somebody and watch a movie. I can be, like, reading, ‘cause they’re old enough that they know how to behave on a plane, and I don’t have to sit with them. Yay!
Amanda: I –
Sarah: So –
Amanda: – do –
Sarah: – I want to hear about how you organize your reading.
Amanda: Oh, my gosh. So I do review places that have a, review for places that have a long lead time, so I have –
Sarah: You do! I don’t know how you do that.
Amanda: It’s tough. Because I have books sitting on my nightstand that I did read, but they don’t come out until, like, February.
Sarah: Oy.
Amanda: And sometimes I would really like to review them for Smart Bitches, and there are two that I would love to review for the site, because I can say a lot more, but, like, I don’t like writing reviews so far in advance –
Sarah: I know; me neither.
Amanda: – because, you know, by the time you edit them for them to go up, I’m, and if you have comments, like, I might not remember, like, what the heck did I write again?
Sarah: Yep, I have the same problem.
Amanda: So usually in that case I’ll shelve them until I’m ready to write the review, and then I’ll do, like, a little cursory kind of reread or, like, a skim through it just to refresh myself? One –
Sarah: You can also, if you want to write a review? You can also, like, message me in Slack and be like, hey, can you look over this while it’s still fresh in my head? I can totally do that.
Amanda: Ooh, that might be a good idea.
Sarah: Always feel free. I mean, I’m constantly asking you to look over what I write because, like, ‘cause, I mean, I don’t, I like to have someone else be like, uh, listen, I know you think those words made sense –
Amanda: But they don’t. [Laughs]
Sarah: – but they don’t. No! No verbs. Oh, right, yeah. Oops. [Laughs]
Amanda: But the –
Sarah: Oh, my God, I discovered something I have to tell you about.
Amanda: Oh, wait, tell me.
Sarah: Oh, my God. Okay. So if you have a book from Amazon that you’ve purchased and you are highlighting and making notes in the file, you can export those notes as a spreadsheet.
Amanda: What?! I did not know that.
Sarah: Yes! Can you believe – I did not know this either, and I was like, what’s this feature? And then I had this whole exported spreadsheet of all of my notes and highlights and comments, so it would, one column would have the text that I highlighted, and then the next column would have my comment, and it made writing the review so easy.
Amanda: That’s really handy, ‘cause before I would go through and be like, all right, got to look through my highlights, and I’m like, why the heck did I highlight this again? [Laughs] Like, what –
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: – what was I thinking? [Laughs]
Sarah: Come on now, Past Amanda, what the hell was that? We liked that? We didn’t like it. What, what, what – and then, I’m a terrible typist on Kindles? Even the one that had the keyboard, like, I type so fast that it doesn’t always catch what I’m trying to say, and I –
Amanda: It takes a while for, like, for, I have a Paperwhite –
Sarah: Yes.
Amanda: – a while for, like, them to register that you’ve hit something.
Sarah: Mm-hmm. So I’ll have notes that are like, why bad green.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Which made sense to Past Sarah at the time, but now I’m like, what – am I a spy? What does this mean? I don’t understand this. So exporting my comments as a spreadsheet rocked my world, but I think you can only do it with books that you purchase. I don’t know if, I have, I haven’t tried it with a book that I’ve gotten as a review copy and is therefore a document, not a book.
Amanda: I get so irritated that I can’t read review copies on my Kindle app on my computer. I can only read them on my actual Kindle.
Sarah: Yes. I used to use that a lot. I think that’s a new restriction, because I used to be able to get some documents or some books on my desktop, and I would highlight and then copy and paste things into the review. That was great.
Amanda: Yeah. [Laughs]
Sarah: It’s all about me being lazy, damn it.
Amanda: But how do I – what was your question? – how do I track my reading?
Sarah: Yeah, how do you organize your reading?
Amanda: Organize it? So my previous roommate moved out, and she left behind a bookshelf she found in our weird dungeon basement, and I took it because it’s a free bookshelf, and I made room to put it in here.
Sarah: Obviously. This makes perfect sense!
Amanda: Yeah. So I have a to-be-read bookshelf at the moment, and I try to be choosy on what goes on there, but there’s still probably, like, twenty books on there right now. [Laughs] So that’s a good kind of physical visual that I have of books that I want to read, but then, of course, I have a lot of digital books, which is harder for me to keep track of. And I think I’ve expressed in previous podcasts that lately I, I haven’t been wanting to read digitally; I would rather read on paper?
Sarah: Yep, that happens.
Amanda: So I feel bad, because there’s some good stuff, like, hanging out on my Kindle, but just, like, I really don’t want to hold my Kindle right now and, you know, read on it. I feel like it’s not a, I don’t know, it’s not a dynamic reading experience for me lately.
Sarah: Hey, whatever makes your brain happy. I mean, I only recently figured out that the reason my brain craves video games when I’m stressed is because it’s a very low quest-reward cycle.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: Especially the beginning of a game. Like, you do these two things, and then you get a reward, you know. Gold that isn’t actual gold, but that little hit of, of serotonin and dopamine? What, it’s going to be one of them; it’s probably dopamine. That little hit, like, that feels really good! So if I’m stressed –
Amanda: Well, like, Stardew Valley is so precious, and you just get rewarded for –
Sarah: Yes!
Amanda: – just doing the most basic things. [Laughs]
Sarah: Like, I watered my plants today! I win!
Amanda: My favorite –
Sarah: I knocked down a tree, and I pet the cat. I win!
Amanda: My favorite thing is, like, putting all your sellable stuff into, like, your, your crate and just watching the money –
Sarah: Oh, my gosh.
Amanda: – roll in at the end of the day. Like, yeah! Today was productive!
Sarah: Damn right! I, I made some gold start blueberries, which, by the way, there’s this tiny little farmer holding this blueberry above his or her head, and the blueberry is the size of a Volkswagen, and they’re just walking around with this big blueberry and chucking it into a box.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: The, the food is ridiculously outsized. No wonder you get gold for this food; it’s enormous!
Amanda: So my favorite thing is when you start Stardew Valley – I know this is a tangent, but Stardew Valley is so amazing – you have to put in, like, what you love or whatever? Like, what your favorite thing is? And when I started I was like, I don’t know what this is going to be used for, but whatever, so I put my favorite thing is dairy. Like, I love, like, I was like, I run a farm, like, you know, I love cheese and ice cream, so I just put, like, your favorite thing is dairy, and when you find, like, one of those magical stars, it’s like, you’ve been infused with the power of dairy!
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: And, like, your, like, health goes up or whatever.
[Laughter]
Amanda: I was like, oh, that’s what this is used for.
Sarah: So is this, is this why you went out to get ice cream last night at 9:30?
Amanda: I just needed something sweet.
Sarah: Were you infused with the power of dairy? [Laughs]
Amanda: I was so infused that I went out in, like, twenty-degree weather. I just, no, I didn’t put a bra on; I just put, like, jeans and my slippers and a big coat, and I just went down to the store, and I was like, you know, I needed some coffee anyway. I ran out, so I justified it by I needed coffee; like, oh, while I’m here, might as well look at the ice cream! [Laughs]
Sarah: Hey, you need to be infused with the power of dairy. I completely support this.
Amanda: But as far as, like, tracking my reading, it’s, it’s hard to figure out what I want to read next. I feel like that’s my chief difficulty? I had just finished Into the Drowning Deep, which was really good, I really enjoyed it, despite, like, having some issues with the ending.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: I really loved it, so it’s like, I read a horror novel. It was very graphic and very violent and, like, do I want more of that? Do I want something light? It just, like, it’s hard because I have so many books it’s kind of like an embarrassment of riches, and I used this analogy –
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: – on Slack the other day, where it’s like, I’m starving and I’m hungry, and I have a fridge full of food, but there’s nothing in there I want to eat. [Laughs] So –
Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. It’s like, it’s like the library, it’s, it’s the library equivalent of staring in a full fridge.
Amanda: Yes. But there are two books that I really loved, and they’re sitting on my nightstand, and I plan on reviewing them, but I had already read them for another, like, review publication, and so I’m waiting to do, like, a reread of them closer to, to publication date, ‘cause they don’t come out until, like, spring of next year. So I was like, do I just reread them again ‘cause I liked them so much? [Laughs] Or do I just, you know, find something else? So I’ve, I kind of hop between things as the mood strikes me. I am one of those horrible readers that will stop reading a book halfway through because I just need to read something else, and I might not come back to it for a few months.
Sarah: Oh, no, I do the same thing. I really struggled for a long time with my tendency to DNF a book? Because I thought, oh, you know, you have to, you have to. You know what? There are so many books right now, I do not have to. If this is not for me, I can probably get enough of a sense of this book to know it’s not for me, but I can recommend it for someone else, or it’s not for me because it’s offending the fuck out of me.
Amanda: Well, I didn’t, I don’t mind not finishing a book. My, like, personal motto is like, life is too short for bad books?
Sarah: So true!
Amanda: So if I’m not en- –
Sarah: Life is too short in general to do anything that you don’t want to do.
Amanda: Yeah! If I’m not enjoying it, like, big deal, I put it down. Like, what, nothing is going to drastically change in my life, or, like, no one is going to be offended if I don’t finish this book.
Sarah: Nope.
Amanda: So that’s super easy for me to do. [Laughs]
Sarah: My biggest struggle this year is I’ve been mixing in a lot of nonfiction about, it’s all mostly filed under productivity, but what I’m actually trying to learn more about is ways to counteract the work culture that is so pervasive, especially online, that you must be working all the time.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: Like, life is too short to work all the time, and just because I can work all the time does not mean that I should work all the time. I actually should play Stardew Valley for an hour every night, because I go to bed and I’m having the best time! Like, it’s great! But also, time that you have enjoyed is not time wasted. So I’ve been reading a lot of books this year about productivity, work culture, identifying the things that are actually your priority versus the things that you’re told ought to be your priority? And that’s really frustrating because a lot of those books are super expensive, so I end up getting them digitally from the library, so I have a limited time window in which to read them, and they are all so very often written by what I have now called entrepre-dudebros?
Amanda: Ugh.
Sarah: Entrepre-dudebros are all about hacking and, like, the, the quick hacks and the ideas and the, the, the tricks to being more productive, but the thing that makes me absolutely cranky as fuck is that, is that all they talk is work, so even though these books are all arguing against the idea that you work all the time, the only thing that they are struggling with is work. They’re not struggling with running a home or raising young people or maintaining some sort of connection to a, a place where your time is expected, like a synagogue or a church or a charitable endeavor that you’re involved with. They don’t talk about, you know, that you might have to feed yourself and other people, and so there’s this very gendered and limited perspective? So I keep reading, as I’m getting more and more irritated, because none of these people are talking about what it’s like to actually run a life if you have more than just your work responsibilities. Like, my goal is actually to balance home and food and raising children and all of these mammals who have fur in my house that just, like, poop and puke everywhere? Like, a good third of my day is, did someone puke yet? And it’s not a human.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Like, if the humans are puking, I know –
Amanda: And then you get, you get nervous when someone hasn’t puked. You’re like, oh, God, there’s no puke.
Sarah: Or, or –
Amanda: I’m overdue for a puke soon.
Sarah: Yes! Or, or I heard the sound; where is it? ‘Cause I, I’m going to find it when I’m, like, barefoot at three in the morning. That’s when I’m going to find the resulting location of that sound that I heard.
So there’s no real addressing of the idea that you can work and also have time for all these other things. It’s just here’s how to tame your email inbox, and here’s how to really focus and iso- – there’s one that made me absolutely nuts – focus yourself and isolate yourself into this tower, like a literal tower, and only do this one thing, and you will focus so hard that you will produce incredible amounts of work! And I’m like, I kind of not want to do that. I want to focus my work and get it done and feel like I’ve accomplished things and then feel like I’ve created something, but also be able to sit on my ass with my kids and not feel like, oh, I should have done, I should have done that, I should have done this other thing. I want to not have any should’ve-dones; I want to be like, I did what I needed to do, and now I’m going to sit here with my kids. That’s really hard, and I haven’t found any books that really address that, so I just read and read and read and get angry.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: And then because it’s a library book, I’m like, you’ve got a limited time; you need to keep reading. There’s going to be another nugget of something in here. Maybe it’s poop, maybe it’s wisdom, but you’ve got to keep reading. Then I finish them and I’m like [growly, grumbly noises]. And I mean, I realize I’m complaining about wonderful things? Like, I’m complaining about having wonderful things that I want to enjoy, which sounds really douche-y? But at the same time, there are so little, there is so, there are so few books that really talk about, I think, the experience of being a person who identifies as female who has a lot of responsibilities beyond just going to work and coming home.
Amanda: I’m really, like –
Sarah: That doesn’t get talked about.
Amanda: – sick of the whole, like, can she have it all sort of –
Sarah: Oh!
Amanda: – mentality. Like, how does she do it? Like – [laughs] – I hate it so much.
Sarah: You just show up and you get it done, that’s how. [Laughs]
I hope that you enjoyed that little behind-the-scenes discussion between Amanda and me. It’s always fun for us to talk to each other, and I know that the episodes where we just hang out and talk about romance and the website and everything have been very interesting for y’all, so I hope you enjoyed that.
I have one more topic for this episode. I’ve received a number of questions by email about how to pitch yourself for the show. I have inquiries about how to sponsor a podcast, how to sponsor the transcript, how to access the Patreon, and I’ve gotten a few, hey, I’d like to be on your show; what are you looking for? Well, I’m happy to tell you! Are you ready? So here is how to pitch yourself for my show, because I can only speak for myself:
The thing about making a pitch for the podcast that means that it stands out is to explain why you’re pitching either yourself or someone else; this could go either way. I receive a number of pitches that are basically, hey, I wrote a book. Now, on one hand, I love knowing about books to read, but, hey, I wrote a book is not necessarily going to make a good thirty-five to forty-five or fifty-minute interview.
There are some authors who I interview because they have a new book out, especially if it’s an anticipated title. For example, the Char-, Sherry Thomas – I’m going to try to mix up Sherry and Charlotte with my head for, like, twenty seconds now – okay, the Sherry Thomas interview about Charlotte Holmes series, about the Charlotte Holmes series, is an example where the new book is out, so I’m talking with her about it, but we’re also going to talk about research, history, recasting roles, gender flipping, and also why Sherlock Holmes is so interesting for being recast over and over. So it’s not just, here’s the book; it’s the things that are around the book. Usually the authors that I interview talk about whatever it is that they’ve written, plus an adjacent element, and that’s the key part here.
So, for example, when I interviewed Tamara Lush about her book, I also talked about the Amtrak residency and about being an, an AP reporter. With Alisha Rai, both times we end up talking about dating. With Alyssa Cole we talk about customized dresses and the, the, you know, dresses that she wears at conferences and talked about the designer who made them, plus her book cover. So it’s the book, plus adjacent elements that we discuss and then move on. There was another interview I did a couple of years ago with an author who talked about the role of women in munitions factories in World War II, because that was what her book was about.
When I draw up the schedule for the podcast, and I do it by year in a long spreadsheet, I have the date of the episode, the guest, and then the topic. Just saying, I am author so-and-so, and here is my book, does not always make for the type of interview that I want to have, so the trick to a good pitch is to explain what are the topics that you can speak about in addition to or related to your book, and there are some topics that are going to translate better into an interview that is audio-only. So, for example, doing an interview about morals or manners or customs is something that you can do in an interview that’s just audio, because you can tell stories about it. A good interview is effectively a conversation with storytelling inside it.
Now I am still learning how to do this. Every time I do an episode, I learn something about what kind of podcast I want to create, and I also listen to a lot of different episodes of different podcasts that are being produced, and I learn there what kind of interviews I like and what kind of conversations I prefer. And I love that people want to pitch themselves and they want to be on the show. That is awesome. The best pitches, as I said, are those that introduce the person who is being pitched and what they would like to talk about and what topics they can bring to the show. That makes it easier for me to develop a guest and a topic and then an outline of things to ask them.
Sometimes it’s very, very easy, and sometimes it’s very challenging, because it’s kind of nerve-wracking to know that you’re doing an interview and being recorded, and I promise you it is not difficult. I’m not mean, it’s super casual, and if you make a mistake you just start over and I edit. Editing software is fabulous; I edit out my own stutter all the time! Except for this part, ‘cause I totally messed up a couple of times and didn’t take it out.
So there’s your summary: How to Pitch for the Podcast. Send me an email, introduce yourself, explain to me why you’re pitching and what you bring to the interview. What topics are the things that you are passionate about? And that’s key. Things that you can talk about and things that you’re passionate about are different, and what you want is the things that you’re passionate about, because that makes for interesting audio. Like, I am really excited about doing a podcast. Like, I can’t even tell you how much I enjoy doing the show every week, and I could tell you all sorts of doofy things that I’ve learned, most especially where to put my keyboard so when the cat flops over you don’t hear the sound of his posterior slamming against my sound box. Things that you talk about with enthusiasm and interest are always interesting.
So if you would like to pitch the show or pitch me or pitch yourself or tell me about someone else you think we should talk to, I would love to hear about it! You can email me at [email protected], and if you want to make a suggestion or you want to tell me about something that you’ve read or you want to tell me about something you think I should talk about, you can also record a voicemail – record a voice memo. You don’t, well, you could record a voicemail, but recording a voice memo is probably a little bit less nerve-wracking, so record a voice memo and email it to me if you like it. It’ll be great! I have a couple for an upcoming episode; I’m really excited.
And that brings us to the end of this episode.
This podcast was brought to you by Wrangler’s Challenge by Lindsay McKenna. New York Times bestselling author, US Navy veteran, and genre pioneer Lindsay McKenna is delivering the fourth installment in the Wind River Valley series. With her signature military heroes and Western romance setting, this distinguished author’s finest talents combine in an engrossing series about searching for the true meaning of love and freedom within the wild expanse of the American West. Wrangler’s Challenge is a moving story about a female wounded warrior veteran who lost a foot during her service engaging in equine therapy at the Bar C Ranch, where she unexpectedly finds a connection with another veteran struggling with his own demons. You can find Wrangler’s Challenge where books, eBooks, and audiobooks are sold, and you can find out more at kensingtonbooks.com.
The transcript for this episode does not have a sponsor, but of course it will happen anyway, because transcripts are key, and I love them very, very much. So first, thank you to garlicknitter for doing our transcripts each and every week, and if you would like to sponsor a transcript, you can totally do that! Email me: [email protected]. It is a wonderful, wonderful thing to underwrite the transcript, and I know many, many, many readers wait for the transcript because audio is not their thing, and that’s okay.
And if you would like to find out more about our Patreon, I would totally dig that! Patreon.com/SmartBitches is where you can find out how to help support the podcast with monthly pledges. It helps me transcribe older episodes, and you can help me develop new ideas and suggestions for 2018, ‘cause I’m building that schedule, like I said.
You can also leave reviews for the show wherever you listen to the podcast, and that is an enormously helpful thing. When you rate or review a podcast, it lets the service that you’re using to listen know that this is a show that you like, and the things that you like tell them what other people might like as well, so if you’ve told a friend or subscribed or reviewed, or you’ve listened every week, or you’ve had a look at the Patreon, however you have engaged with what we do, thank you. I really, really appreciate that.
Our music each week is provided by Sassy Outwater, and it is time, yes, it is Deviations Project time. This is their album Adeste Fiddles, and if you are a long-time listener of the podcast, you know that, despite being Jewish, I love this album of Christmas music so much! This is probably my favorite track. This is “Three Ships.” You can find this album at amazon.com. I have not been able to find it on iTunes, but if you like fiddles and remixes and funky, funky songs, you will probably really like this album. And, hot diggety, there are five Fridays in December this year, so you’ll be hearing a couple of pieces of this album, because, well, I do this every year; it’s my favorite.
And if you were thinking during the recording of this episode, I would really like a reading spreadsheet, I can help you out with that! I have made a copy of my reading-tracking spreadsheet that I made in Google Sheets, and I have done a sample pair of rows to show you what data I record, and I have a sharable option on the show notes, or in the show notes? On the site, in the show notes – however you want to say that, you go to smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast. There will be a link to my spreadsheet, but it is view-only, so what you need to do is, when you’re inside Google Drive, inside the Google Sheets window, inside Google – not on the browser, but in the Google part? – in the screen part, go to File, Make a copy…, and you will save a copy to your own Google Drive that you can edit and change and do all kinds of things with. That way you can start your own reading spreadsheet for 2018 if that is a thing that you would like to do. And if you have any problems or you’re confused about these instructions, email me. I am totally always able to help. But if you’re thinking, I would really like to track my reading with a spreadsheet, it’s super fun. I really enjoy it. It, it soothes that sort of obsessive, detail-oriented part of myself, and it’s kind of fun to see how much I’ve read and record it in a place that I can always access it.
And of course we’ll have links to everything else we talked about, because that’s how we roll.
And finally, are you ready for the bad joke? ‘Cause you know I always have a bad joke. I mean, I have a really bad joke. You ready? All right.
What’s the line that separates a regular joke from a dad joke?
Give up? You don’t know? What’s the line that separates a regular joke from a dad joke?
The punch line.
[Laughs] I test these out on my poor husband using Desktop Chat, and every day he’s like, oh, my God, these are so bad. And the next one, next week I have one that’s actually kind of good, so I hope you like it.
But wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, on behalf of Amanda and everyone here, including Orville, who is on my desk again, we wish you the very best of reading. Have an excellent weekend, and we will see you back here next week! Bye-bye!
[merry music]
This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.
I haven’t even listened yet, but I saw the word Spreadsheet (!) and went right to save that link. The details nerd in me has been obsessed with all the things Excel and Google docs can do lately- I had a spreadsheet started for my kids’ Christmas shopping in October
Can you post a link to how you export your kindle notes into a spreadsheet?
Great spreadsheet, Sarah! I was facing a similar dilemma a few years ago, so I turned to my then 16-year-old son who devised a similar Google spreadsheet for me. Since I listen to A LOT of audio books, I have a column for the narrator’s name as well, since there are some I love and some I hate. What’s great is that I can pull it up on my phone as well as my laptop and so can find the name of a particular book when I’m out in the world talking with people. (I have a terrible memory for book titles!)
Oh that is VERY smart, to track audiobook narrators you like. What a brilliant idea!!
Jayne:
Sure! First, there is a service that does so, and links to Evernote and other options if you’re needing a more robust note exporting option (like for research): https://www.clippings.io/
But to export notes and highlights, you do the following. Your notes and highlights are on this page (you need to be logged in, obviously):
https://read.amazon.com/notebook
Your most recent books (including the highlights and notes from library books I’ve recently returned, much to my surprise) should be on the left sidebar, and you can click to see your notes and highlighted sections.
Thank you for the reading spreadsheet (I’ve done similar ones for tracking TBR releases)– and good idea to include audiobook narrators! A question: How do you handle the longer notes on the books? Do you just make the cell bigger?
“my frustration with entrepredudebro productivity guides”
Oh yes yes yes!
I love spreadsheets! I make them for everything and track my reading with one as well, though lately I’ve been trying to use both a spreadsheet and goodreads and it’s gotten a bit confusing. Thanks for sharing yours, I love to see how others organize their information (data nerd alert). Ok, now I will actually listen to the podcast, I just got overly excited there for a second 🙂
Other things I like to keep track of in my spreadsheet are: whether or not it was an audio, if this was a re-read (nerd alert#2 – conditional formatting!), and I also like to make note of the series and number in the series if it applies. I like the “where is it?” section you have, Sarah – I use multiple apps and the library so I often have to go hunting if I want to return to a book!
Sarah, do you listen to Kevin Sonney’s Productivity Alchemy podcast? He puts a lot of emphasis on balancing work and home life and on *not* burning out.
@SQ Re: # in a series: YES! Very important with longer series so I can see at a glance where I am, especially if the titles/covers are similar.
On audio: I listen to a lot of Big Finish audios for Doctor Who/etc, so I have to figure out if a) include it in the main list b) how does it get tracked.
I loved the discussion of “entrepreduedbro” productivity guides. I found it validating that Sarah talked about balancing work and all of the other parts of life. I end up with impostor syndrome or other feelings of insufficiency because the world (or parts of it) seem to be saying that we must have “important” jobs or have side gigs or volunteer gigs working for social change. I aspire to a more interesting/activist job once I’m done this round of grad school, but I also value being involved in my faith community, spending time with friends, having hobbies, as well as managing life with my spouse and feline overlords. I hope we’ll hear when Sarah finds productivity guides that recognize this!
@Rhonda: Thank you! I know EXACTLY what you mean. If I don’t find the productivity guides that address building the life you want with ways to be productive in every area of that life, I’ll have to write it myself, I think! I completely agree that having a job that allows you to do all the other things you want to do is just as valid and fulfilling. I think productivity and creative work in your daily life aren’t exclusive to those who focus solely on it. I don’t think I’ve focused solely on one thing in my life in many many…many years.
I love it when I stumble across someone else with a reading spreadsheet. I starting tracking my books on a Google sheet because I wasn’t satisfied with the amount of information on Goodreads’ “stats” page, and I am so nerdily proud of the sheet I built! It has a whole page of tables and graphs to show page counts and genres and reading time and so much more! Here’s last year’s version, if anybody wants to snoop or make a copy for their own use: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nDy1H-V1UVXci8xPILG4yFhDyhJ0Aof7M4toP4AKNGE/edit?usp=sharing
@Andrea – I love your graphs! Hope it’s ok I saved a copy of your spreadsheet. It seems like I’ll be revamping my tracking starting 2018 with all of these great ideas!
@SQ Absolutely! Happy book tracking!
I have really enjoyed seeing this site grow over the years. I have only been following you since I started my site eight years ago and just love it and seeing your crew have various interests and that you touch base with all types of genres. Keep up the great work, you have really been an inspiration to me!!!
I am sure I am stating the obvious but if you have a Goodreads account and you want a spreadsheet you can export all the data ….then add notes or do pivots as you do. Like who’s the author you read the most or who’s the author that’s on your TBR and how many books, etc. Then you can update your notes etc with a vlookup, etc. Ok excel geek out done….for now….Happy Holidays! Thanks for the podcast.
@Jule that’s good to know you can export Goodreads data!