Laterpress Weekly: May 21st, 2026 (Issue #189)

Holiday Notice:

Monday the 25th Is Memorial Day in the United States, and Laterpress staff will have the day off. Any emails or customer support needs will be seen to on Tuesday. Thank you for your understanding, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Even though it's a holiday weekend, I'll still be streaming on Friday from 3-4pm on our YouTube channel. And if you missed the stream on Tuesday, you can find the replay here. In addition to continuing work on an urban fantasy romcom in collaboration with our story tools, I also showed off a new feature coming soon.

Nate's Notes:

My family has a lot of catchphrases and in-jokes. So many, in fact, that we spent some time making a “Family Dictionary” listing and defining all of our in-jokes, shorthand references, and unique terms for things. When I was a kid, one of my dad’s oft-used phrases was “How much is enough?” I wouldn’t classify myself as a spoiled brat, just an ordinary child who wanted the New Shiny Thing as much as any other kid would when they’re too young to understand the concept of money. “How much is enough?” was Dad’s gentle reprimand against unnecessary consumerism. A nudge that maybe my brother and I should enjoy and appreciate the things we do have versus for longing for what we don’t.

That understanding came later. I found the phrase incredibly annoying at the time.

Of all of my dad’s common phrases, it's the one I find myself saying the most in adulthood, now that I'm responsible for a mortgage, car payments, a job, an author business, etc. It’s another way of asking “Do I really need this?” when my finger hovers over the Buy button. Maturity is realizing that “enough” is a line or a threshold that can be crossed. In fact, we may not even know what “enough” looks like in our lives until passing into the realm of “too much.” I’ve been over the line for a while now, with more stuff than can be reasonably expected to fit within the square footage of my residence. I’ve taken spring cleaning seriously this year to address that.

Last weekend, I unloaded three large boxes of books on Half Price Books. I already have another three ready to go for a second trip this coming weekend. On Monday, I had a junk removal company haul off old furniture, a treadmill that for various reasons I rarely used, and other difficult-to-remove items from my house. That’s made the place feel less cluttered, and I’m already observing a connection between a cleaner home and a cleaner mind. The tidier the house gets, the easier it becomes to fall into a creative headspace. It’s as if being surrounded by too much stuff subliminally stressed me out. Decluttering feels freeing. If anyone is experiencing creative frustration or blockage, I would earnestly suggest cleaning and decluttering your room / apartment / house, if necessary, to see if that helps. If not, it still improved home living conditions, so it wasn’t wasted time.

“How much is enough?” is a brilliant question, because it can cover anything. It has saved me from making unnecessary purchases. It’s motivating me to sell / donate / toss unused possessions. But it has a home in many aspects of an author’s life.

“How much is enough?” in:

Marketing - How many platforms does an author need to use for promotion simultaneously? Does someone really need to juggle a newsletter, blog, podcast, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and X / Threads / BlueSky account all at once? How many platforms do you enjoy and would be willing to put the work in to maintain?

Drafting - How long does the book need to be? Are there scenes that exist “for the vibes” that don’t advance the plot or slow down pacing, where the book as a whole would be better off without them?

Revision - Does a manuscript really need a fourth, fifth, sixth draft? How many times can a chapter be revised before it's not improvements, but rather perfectionism getting in the way of ever finishing something? Is excessive revision a way of coping with a fear of publishing, or public reception? At some point, the revisions have to be "enough" and an author needs to move on to a new project.

Writing time - In this context, the question is a check against burnout. Are you working the correct amount of hours available in your schedule to make meaningful progress on a book? Are you staying up into the early hours of the morning and chronically sleep-deprived because you worry you’re not a “real author” unless you publish three or more books a year? What is the correct amount of time, for you, to feel you’re doing the work, but not sacrificing mental health along the way?

Sales - How many copies do you need to sell to feel the time spent writing a book was worthwhile? Or to feel like a success? Or a “real author?” Or to take the plunge and pursue writing full-time? There are philosophical and economic directions for this question where sales are concerned.

Live events - Beyond breaking even, how many books do you need to sell at an event to feel it was worthwhile? What non-financial activities influence an event’s success? (For example, networking opportunities, conversations with readers, lessons learned, etc.) Or, if you do a lot of events and it starts to feel like a grind, “How much is enough?” is another way of asking, “Do I really need to do an event every other week?”

Reading - I believe authors should be readers too. How does anyone know what good writing looks like unless they’ve been exposed to it? How does one truly know reader expectations for a genre unless they’re familiar with it too? However, reading and research can be used as distractions from ever starting on a manuscript. Someone wanting to break into LitRPG would do well to read some of the genre’s biggest hits, but I wouldn’t tell anyone they need to read 100 books in a genre before writing it. We’ll all have our own definitions of what “enough” looks like here.

Tools - Does someone need a PC, laptop, and tablet to write a book? Probably not. What about writing software? At various points in time, I’ve used Scrivener, Atticus, Poe Writer, AutoCrit, Google Docs, and, of course, Laterpress for either drafting or file management. My attitude now is to maintain a core roster of tools rather than have so many programs I start forgetting what I was even using each one for.

I think that’s enough examples to make my point. When in doubt, asking “How much is enough?” may clarify for you whether or not something is necessary, if you’re in a good place, or if something needs to change. It has worked for me.

Interesting News and Stories from Around the Publishing World:

​Doctor fined $30k for self-publishing unauthorised pictures of patients - An Australian anaesthetist self-published a book on the profession intended to be humorous, but nobody was laughing. A Queensland Civil and Administrative tribunal found the book provided commentary and photographs that were “demeaning, insensitive, and disrespectful,” and contained information patients did not authorize for release. The author was fined $30,000 for professional misconduct, and has since resigned his position.

The book only sold eight copies before being unpublished. The doctor gave away an additional 15 to friends, family, and colleagues.

Australian law won’t be the same as the United States, but the lesson I’d take from this for nonfiction writers is that, when in doubt, make sure you have permission from people if you’re going to use photos of them. And use due care when revealing personal information, especially of a medical nature.

​Imposter Syndrome Is Not a Disease or Abnormality - Have you ever suffered from imposter syndrome? If so, you’re not alone. John Steinbeck dealt with it, even after the publication of several novels. It’s not a pervasive condition or an illness. Instead, Anne Janzer argues, it’s a fleeting (and common) experience. She offers several suggestions for how to overcome it, and encourages folks to think of it instead as the “Imposter Phenomenon.” It’s a temporary state that can be dealt with.

​Literary Prizewinners Are Facing AI Allegations. It Feels Like the New Normal - The Commonwealth Foundation, a nongovernmental organization in London, gives out a short story prize each year to one writer from five different regions: Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Each of those winners receives £2,500 (about $3,350), and a shot at the grand prize, an additional £5,000 (about $6,700). Three of the five regional winning stories now face accusations of AI use. This seems to be a sign of the times – someone wins an award, then others look for ways to delegitimize that person’s accomplishments, or “purity test” their work. It’s exhausting. I have not looked up the authors or the stories in question, so I’m not going to offer an opinion on whether or not I think any of them used AI. But, as a thought experiment, let’s say that they did. Wouldn’t that show that not all AI-assisted writing is “slop” if people working with it win awards?

​Walking and Dictating: A New Strategy to Mix Up Your Writing Routine - Corrine Kumar suggests that walking while dictating can be a great way to combine movement and exercise with making progress on a book. She points to research showing that movement can have a positive effect on creative writing, and lists benefits from both a physical and creative POV. For me, this article on SFWA’s site feels timely. I’ve been experimenting more with dictation, and summer is a great time to be outdoors. If you’re unsure of the appeal, Corrine may have you convinced by the end of the article.

For anyone who does mix walking and dictation, I have more good news for you: it will soon be possible to do this within Laterpress. I've tested it. It works. More on that soon! (Maybe watch Tuesday's stream, linked above, in the meantime?)

​A Beloved Children's Book Author Said Most Children's Literature Is "Crud." It Has Not Gone Well. - Children’s book author Mac Barnett found himself the target of online outrage culture for daring to suggest most children’s books aren’t good. In one chapter of his recent book Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children, he mentions “Sturgeon’s law” which suggests that “90% of everything is crud.” If that’s true, he jokes that with children’s literature, it’s “maybe more like 94.7%” That one line, from a book otherwise defending kids’ books and kids themselves, has drawn disproportionate anger, perhaps because Barnett has a position with the Library of Congress. Should someone in that position be more diplomatic than critical?

This one is wild to me, because I imagine pretty much every indie author has heard “most self-published books are bad” from someone at some point. We’ve all had someone take us less seriously at first for investing in ourselves, rather than waiting for traditional publishing’s gatekeepers to deem us worthy of publication. Also… wouldn’t most of us agree in principle, without assigning percentages, that there are a lot of bad books out there? I’ve read my share of terrible indie and traditionally published books, though I keep which books I think are bad to myself. This just seems like such a small comment to get riled up over.

This Week's Featured Story:

HeartStrings, by Jason Gregg

Power no longer resides in governments, markets, or men.

It beats silently beneath the skin.

In HeartStrings, the world’s most powerful figures—presidents, financiers, and billionaire investors—are chosen for a revolutionary medical breakthrough: a bioengineered artificial heart designed to extend life and secure the future of human leadership. But the gift comes with a hidden architecture. At the base of the skull, a microchip is embedded—undetectable, irreversible, absolute.

Linked together by a covert operating system known as Synarch, these individuals are no longer guided by instinct, ideology, or conscience. Their thoughts are filtered. Their decisions are authored. Their will… unified.

Meme of the Week: