Practical
Dictating your book instead of writing it
Some books get written at a keyboard, some get written by hand, and some are never written down at all until someone else types them up. Dictation is a perfectly legitimate way to get a book out of your head, and it suits some writers — and some subjects — far better than sitting at a desk.
Who this tends to suit
- Memoirs and life stories, which often come out more naturally spoken aloud than composed on a page.
- Writers who think better talking than typing — a genuinely common way of working, not a shortcut.
- Anyone for whom typing or writing by hand has become difficult, for whatever reason.
- A book that's been "in you" for years but has never made it past being talked about at the dinner table.
What makes a recording easy to work from
You don't need a studio or special equipment — a phone voice memo is genuinely fine. A few habits make a real difference to how smoothly it types up:
- A quiet room. Background noise doesn't stop transcription, but it slows it down and increases the odds of a misheard word.
- Speak at a natural pace. Rushing to get thoughts out before they're lost is understandable, but a touch slower is easier to render accurately.
- Say punctuation if it matters to you. Most people don't, and that's fine — I use judgement on pauses and sentence breaks. But if a particular rhythm matters, say so and say the punctuation.
- Short sessions are fine. There's no need to record a whole book in one sitting. Send recordings as you make them.
What you get back
Clean, properly punctuated text — not a literal transcript full of "ums" and false starts, unless you specifically want it that way. I use judgement to turn spoken language into readable prose while keeping your actual words and voice intact. Anything genuinely unclear on the recording is flagged, the same as an unclear word in handwriting.
Priced by the minute, not the word
Dictation is billed per recorded minute rather than per 1,000 words, since that's the honest measure of the work involved.
Talk your book out, and I'll do the rest
Send a short recording and I'll tell you what it would cost for the whole thing.