Every argument clarity score on this site is built from rows on this page. Each
question and answer was assessed with names hidden, the host's own answers included, on
four things from 1 to 5:
directness (does it answer the question asked), coherence (do the ideas follow),
precision (concrete details and clear references), compression (says a lot per word). The weighted
mix (30/30/25/15) is the exchange score. A person's published score averages their exchange
scores on raw tape only, at least 8 of them, shrunk toward the cohort mean.
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Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q Okay, and how'd that process work? So were you negotiating directly with them, or did you get a literary agent, or walk us, teach us about that?
A Yeah, that's a great question. Um, so I had all sorts of terrible ideas for books, uh, a long time ago. Um, and then I got an agent down in D.C., uh, Gail Ross, uh, and she was sort of like my proposal doctor. She told me what ideas were terrible and what ideas were good, and just the process of writing a proposal Writing a promise for a book, um, was its own one, two year, uh, challenge, but then we got that, and then we send out the proposal to a bunch of publishers, and the publishers say, we either don't think this idea is promising, or we do think this idea is promising. I went around, I talked to all the publishers who thought the idea might be promising, and then there's a little bit of a, um, uh, of a, of a bid for the book. Different publishers will put down certain amounts of money, And typically you go with, with whoever agrees to pay you, uh, the most. Um, that's sort of the, the, the story of how the book went from, uh, no idea to, to being published. Um, but the really interesting thing about, um, about books and audiences is how many different audiences there are for a single book. Um, the publishers, so my agent was my first audience, right? I had to impress her with the idea.
AI assessment note: “then I got an agent down in D.C., uh, Gail Ross”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q February seven. Just want to make sure. Good. So do you have any idea in terms of how many, how many have sold so far in pre-sales or did your publishers keep you in the dark about that?
A No, I don't really know how many it's sold. I mean, you can, you can look at the Amazon rating and sort of, uh, sorry, ranking, um, and sort of get a vague sense of how it's doing compared to other books. Um, but for a first time book author, um, you, uh, you know, that, that rating is going to get, going to be particularly high. Uh, pre-sales are easiest for people that have already published really successful books. Um, uh, and so most of the work is essentially done at, you know, at publication and post. Um, once that happens, then you get a sense of how many books are sold, uh, from book scan, which is a Nielsen product.
AI assessment note: “No, I don't really know how many it's sold.”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q Awesome. I appreciate you being here, but I have to tell you, people say, you know, don't write a book. All you do is it takes a lot of time and you lose a lot of money. Why are you writing a book?
A You know, the great thing about a book is that, uh, the reason to go into journalism is because you have a lot of questions that you want answered. Uh, and the best reason to write a book is, uh, to answer questions. And so I wrote a book about why people like what they like and why cultural products succeed. It's a huge answer. Uh, but I loved writing it. And, you know, the funny thing is, um, people say, you know, every book has to have an elevator pitch. Uh, you nailed it right there. But I think books are really kind of like broken elevators. On the one hand, you need both an elevator pitch But also it's like 203 hundred pages long. So if the elevator breaks, you need to be able to entertain people for eight hours. And that challenge of being able to write something that's both focused, but also entertaining for 300 pages was really awesome.
AI assessment note: “the best reason to write a book is, uh, to answer questions.”
Answered produced feed
D 4 · C 3 · P 4 · Cm 3 3.55
Q Did she publish someone else on your team or something?
A She also, she had worked with some people who, who had been at the Atlantic, like, uh, Josh Green, I think he's, uh, worked with her and, and Megan McArdle. Um, I think Jonathan is an agent, um, wonderful writer. Um, all of them are, uh, but I think it's interesting just, you know, how many audiences there are that first your audience is your, is your agent, your next audience is your public publisher. Then your next audience might be sort of like TV producers or people like you, you know, podcast producers. Um, but then your final audience is your actual audience. And I think that, you know, media people, uh, can probably become a little bit more sophisticated in the way that they think about how their audiences are both the end consumer and the broadcasters who reach those end consumers. Um, that sometimes they need to think about the audience of their audience in this way. Um, and I try to think about that both in the writing of the book, um, but also, uh, in the ideas of the book as well.
AI assessment note: “she had worked with some people who, who had been at the Atlantic”
