jasonmklug

I think there is a bit of a bias on my part in that I have never listened to audiobooks personally

Oooh — quick plug for audiobooks as a medium:

If it wasn't for audiobooks, I'd get through about 1/10th the number of titles. It's rare that I can sit down and consume a book in print (mix of ADHD and heavily time-chunked schedule), but I can listen intently while I'm driving, washing dishes, cutting the lawn, et cetera.

They do have their shortcomings (especially in nonfiction, where I might miss out on relevant images or graphs), but the sheer quantity of books it allows me to engage with (and, therefore, ideas I'm exposed to) makes them worthwhile.

Not sure if any of that is relevant from an authorship standpoint, but as a consumer of books, audio has been a game changer. I highly recommend trying one out! : )

Oh, I didn't mean it as a dig on the book (I'm sure the narrator did a wonderful job — there's something to be said for the quality of go-to audiobook narrators). It's a question I've had generally about authorship/audiobooks for a while now, and you were the first one whose AMA I caught : )

I pre-ordered the audiobook version of "How We Got to Now", and am looking forward to listening tomorrow.

You seem very well-spoken and have an easy-to-listen-to, engaging personality in interviews — and now you even have a TV series hosting gig under your belt. Why did you not do the audio for "How We Got to Now" yourself? (I feel like you've done the audio for some of your other books...)

This happens a lot with authors who've presented/hosted in other mediums, so I'm curious whether there's some aspect of the audiobook production process which affects that decision.

Given the inquisitive and connection-making nature of your books, I imagine it must be difficult to restrain yourself to a defined topic through the research and writing process (Subject A => Subjects B, C, & D => ∞).

How do you define a scope for a given book? Does that scope often change as you go through your process?