Talk your book, one step at a time.
Eight guides to turning recorded conversations and voice notes into a nonfiction manuscript, in the order you will need them. Start with the method, then come back to each guide when you reach that stage.
How to talk your book out
The whole method end to end: outline, one chapter per session, record, transcribe, rewrite, revise, and how many hours of talk a book takes.
Read the guide → Step 2 · 7 minute readDictate, be interviewed or type?
Who each way of working suits, a side-by-side comparison, a one-week test and the hybrid most authors end up using.
Read the guide → Step 3 · 10 minute read100 interview questions for your book
A question bank in eight groups, from origin story to the future, plus the follow-ups that turn answers into stories.
Read the guide → Step 4 · 8 minute readHow to have someone interview you
Who to pick, a one-page brief to give them, how to share your outline and a 90-minute session agenda.
Read the guide → Step 5 · 7 minute readRecording setup
Phone or microphone, the right room and distance, remote calls, backups, and a file naming system by chapter.
Read the guide → Step 6 · 8 minute readTranscription options
Software, human services or doing it yourself: accuracy, cleanup, prices from the providers' own pages and privacy terms to read first.
Read the guide → Step 7 · 9 minute readFrom transcript to chapter
The five edits that turn speech into prose, shown on a worked before and after example.
Read the guide → Step 8 · 8 minute readWhen to hand it to a writer
What an interview-based ghostwriting process looks like, how much of your time it takes and what to ask before you sign.
Read the guide →Plan your sessions
The free worksheet turns your chapters into a session plan, and everything stays in your browser.