All, I am seeing a lot more em-dashes being used not just in books, but in everyday postings, including news-articles. I have been associating that with AI type output, but I know em-dashes have been used for a long time. Personally, I prefer hyphens, always have. But this brings me to my question - when is it appropriate, or by Chicago Manual of Style, to use em-dash or a hyphen? Thanks much.

In past years when I filmed a video looking into the year ahead I said things like 'reviews are still important, audiobooks continue to grow, and build your own audience' and all of that remains true however this is the first time I've looked ahead and gone 'woah - this year is going to be really different than past years!'. Things changed A LOT this year and it's setting 2026 up for some big shifts. Are you ready? If you aren't feeling ready ... let's chat about it in the comments here or on the video!! We want to set you up for success.

Okay, @Julie Broad , your recent video on Eleven Labs got me thinking about doing my audiobook. :) Since I have a professional podcast setup and am a former radio guy myself, I decided to record it. I'm using Descript for the recording and editing and it's going pretty smoothly. Since my book uses a lot (like a LOT a LOT) or footnotes, I went through my book and pulled the more important ones up as in-line asides where I'm pausing and voicing "footnote." I rewrote some of the straight research reference ones so I could read them aloud. For figures, I'm mentioning the figure number and providing a good "alt-text" like description of the diagram. One part of my book has DOZENS of diagrams because I'm using examples of my card deck, like the one attached. I'm still reading each card. But I'm wondering if it might be a neat idea to create a hidden page on my website that contains all of the figures so people could flip through them or pull them up as a reference. It would also make for a great call to action to direct traffic to my site. Has anyone done this? Did you just set up like a media gallery with all of the images? How do you "protect" or provide access to audiobook listeners? Am I overthinking this?

Hi all! I wanted to officially introduce myself. I’m Kate 👋 I work at Book Launchers as a Process Expert, and I’m part of the team that runs this group. Day to day, I’m deep in the actual publishing work like managing project timelines, editing stages, layout, covers, distribution setup, and answering a lot of “is this normal?” emails from our incredible Book Launchers authors. One thing I’m especially passionate about is an author-first mentality, particularly when it comes to rights. In 2020, I got the rights back to my first published series and immediately went scouring the internet for what to do next… and found very little. Not many authors were talking openly about rights reversion, either out of fear of “bashing” traditional publishing or simply because they didn’t know much about it. So I took charge and documented my own process in my first nonfiction (and first self-published) book, Take Back Your Book. Somewhere along the way, I caught the self-publishing bug and have since reverted all 12 of my traditionally published titles. A lot of authors don’t realize what rights they still have, what they signed away, or what options exist later, and that knowledge gap can really limit long-term careers. That’s where I come in. I’m always happy to answer questions about publishing contracts (though I'm not a lawyer!) or the rights reversion process and help you think through your options. Happy publishing!

It could be big or small: - Something you’re stuck on - A decision you’re avoiding - A task that feels heavier than it should - Or just a question you keep circling Share it in the comments. You don’t need a perfect explanation—just be real. Chances are, someone else here is dealing with the same thing, and this is a safe place to talk it through, plus some of our admins might be able to help you get through that pesky problem you're having. 🤓