Confession: I love em-dashes

Chad S. White on August 4, 2025

Because generative AI engines like ChatGPT use them a lot, some writers are starting to reconsider their use of em-dashes (which are so named because they’re the width of a capital M). I get it. No one wants to be accused of using genAI when they didn’t. 

But the fact that genAI produces copy with a healthy number of em-dashes only means that em-dashes are well-represented in their training material, and are therefore a staple of good writing. Cutting the versatile em-dash from your writing will only leave it worse off.

For what it’s worth, I use them all the time in my business writing. Heck, there are five in my latest article for CMSWire. And in the draft of book 1 of my sci-fi trilogy, I have more than 600 em-dashes. That comes out to one about every 150 words on average.

That may sound like a lot, but I use them …

  1. When a character’s speech is interrupted—by another character, a door slamming, or an explosion
  2. When a character stutters when they’re flustered (e.g., “I— I think”)
  3. For labored speech, like when they’re out of breath
  4. When a character’s thoughts are labored and fractured, like before they pass out
  5. To offset a clause more emphatically than a comma can
  6. For asides in speech, instead of using parentheses
  7. Before a list, instead of using colon

Beyond that, they’re just a fantastic tool for controlling the rhythm of a sentence. So, no matter what genAI spits out, I’m going to keep using em-dashes. And for the record, I’m going to keep using periods and commas, too, even though those are also suspiciously common in genAI copy.

From Issue 192 of Total Annarchy, a wonderful newsletter by Ann Handley

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Where to draw the line with genAI

Chad S. White on August 2, 2025

I’m a member of the group that’s most bullish on generative AI and the group that’s the least. That’s because I’m a marketing strategist at a tech company by day and an aspiring novelist by night. The latest survey from Substack illustrates the extreme divide between these two groups.

Wearing both of these hats, here are major issues I see:

  1. Anything created substantially using genAI can’t be copyrighted. (And if governments are smart, that will never change.) This is why agents and publishers want to know if you’ve used AI in your book, because it could potentially zero out the commercial value of your book. AI-generated images for covers are similarly problematic.
  2. Using genAI opens you up to plagiarism lawsuits until the law gets settled here, which could take years. This is why some of our Fortune 1000 clients write into our agency service contacts that we can’t use genAI for any of the work we do for them. They don’t want the legal risk since they’re big legal targets already. The Big Five publishers surely feel the same way.

Of course, many writers feel genAI is morally wrong because it’s essentially a plagiarism engine. And their minds won’t change even if the courts rule that genAI’s use of copyrighted material is transformative (which is highly likely to happen).

But putting those feelings aside for a moment, let’s recognize that some genAI uses don’t run afoul of those two issues above because they’re noncommercial. For example, turning your human-authored book summary into social media posts to promote your book. Or creating AI-images of your protagonists based on the descriptions in your book to use on social. Or taking the short author bio you wrote for your jacket copy, adding a bunch of details, and having genAI draft a long bio for your website.

Let’s also acknowledge that genAI is a huge boon for people with dyslexia and ADHD, as well as non-native English speakers.

All of that said, I’ve made the personal decision not to use genAI in any way for the writing of my novels, including AI-infused editing tools like Grammarly. At the end of this very long road, for better or worse, I want to be able to take full credit (along with my editors and beta readers) for everything in my novels, including the human imperfections.

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What you can make out of 462 Rubik’s Cubes

Chad S. White on July 30, 2025

Inspired by Rubik’s Cube art we saw at our local Red Robin, my youngest son Dexter and I created this massive Charizard that weighs in at more than 100 lbs. Dexter contributed the cubing skills, doing all the difficult cube configurations, while I did the easy ones and all the construction. Limited by the six cube colors, we had to adapt the colors of the Charizard sprite a bit, in essence creating our own shiny variant.

Charizard created from 462 Rubik's Cubes
In process construction of Rubik's Cube Charizard

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Work in progress update

Chad S. White on July 26, 2025

📚 My dystopian new adult near-future sci-fi trilogy

Book 1 

📗 Manuscript complete!
✍️ 90,000 words, 23 chapters
▶️ Currently querying agents 🤞

Book 2

📕 Draft complete!
✍️ 100,000 words, 27 chapters
▶️ Out with beta readers 📤

Book 3

📘 WIP …
✍️ 30,000 words, 9 chapters
▶️ Goal to finish draft by end of year 🥂

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Why I self-published my nonfiction books

Chad S. White on July 20, 2025

Honestly, I didn’t give much thought to trying to get my nonfiction books traditionally published. Here’s why I self-published:

  • I’d worked at two book publishers, Texas A&M University Press and Marlowe & Co., so I was familiar with the publishing process.
  • I knew platform size is the primary determinant of nonfiction book success and that I already had a solid platform.
  • As a former managing editor at a magazine, I was confident in my page layout skills.
  • I knew Amazon had 70% of the book market, so being present in that one store would give me exposure to the majority of book buyers. (That made publishing through KDP a no-brainer.)
  • I knew self-publishing would be much faster.
  • I also knew I’d have much more control and already had a clear vision for the book.

Thankfully, all of those things turned out to be true. In less than a year, I was able to write the 214-page first edition of Email Marketing Rules, have it edited by some of my trusted industry friends, get it professionally copyedited, and publish it.

But there were additional benefits of self-publishing I didn’t realize until later. For example, a traditional publisher would have never allowed me to publish a 322-page second edition 18 months after the first edition. And they definitely wouldn’t have allowed me to publish a 677-page two-volume fourth edition.

Did all of those decisions maximize profitability? I’m sure they didn’t. But I don’t regret any of them, because those decisions capitalized on my excitement and allowed me to create books I’ve always been proud to put my name on.  

Self-publishing gives you lots of control. Make sure you’re using it to maximize your vision.

All four editions of 'Email Marketing Rules' by Chad S. White
All four editions of Email Marketing Rules

To receive future posts or to become a Patron and support my dystopian sci-fi novel and get special thank-you goodies upon its publication, subscribe on Substack →

When Novels Mattered: A misread on what’s changed in the world of literature

Chad S. White on July 16, 2025

David Brooks’ New York Times article When Novels Mattered (link to gift article) is the latest salvo against the declining relevance of fiction, and in particular literary fiction. He blames this decline on the popularity of genre fiction, the rise of the internet, M.F.A. programs, and ultimately (and predictably) on liberal politics. My two cents is that only one of those events had a significant impact on shaping the current literary marketplace.

The internet-driven collapse of the monoculture

In the mid- to late 20th century that Brooks idealizes, media was tightly controlled by a relatively small number of institutional players. And then came the internet. Web 1.0 shook the monoculture, but Web 2.0 destroyed it.

Streaming completely undid TV, which also competes with YouTube and TikTok. What remains of radio competes with streaming services and podcasts. News organizations compete with individuals and corporations and social media at large—a transition I have witnessed and experienced first hand as a journalist, then blogger, and then brand journalist and content marketer. And, of course, traditional book publishers now compete with self-publishing—another anti-establishment trend I have happily participated in. Because of their tremendous costs, movies are the last bastion of monoculture (which is why we’re seeing yet another Superman).

The consequence of all this new competition is that there are far fewer mega-hits in every medium, not just in books. At the same time, our culture is much richer and much more representative than it was 40 years ago. The democratization of media has been a wonderful thing. The pie is not only bigger, but way more people have gotten a slice of it. That’s good for creators and even better for consumers.

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The nudge to start building my second author platform

Chad S. White on July 14, 2025

A shoutout to Jane Friedman. Her book The Business of Being a Writer gave me the final nudge I needed to start building my author platform for my upcoming debut novel, even though it’s probably a couple of years away from being published. In addition to joining Substack this weekend, I also joined Instagram and launched my website, chadswhite.com.

It sort of feels like when I had my second son—yes, it’s starting over and, yes, I know it will be hard, but I’ve done it before, so I’m confident I can do it again. In this case, my first son is my nonfiction book, Email Marketing Rules. For that book, which is in its fourth edition, I built a well-rounded website with a blog and newsletter, and grew my LinkedIn audience to more than 11,000 and my X/Twitter following to more than 17,000.

But building a platform for my novel means joining new communities and engaging in new ways. As of today, I have zero Substack subscribers and 3 Instagram followers, which means there’s lots of upside potential. Time to start making some new connections. I’m ready to learn. I’m ready to do this!

Chad S. White holding a copy of Jane Friedman's "The Business of Being a Writer"
The Business of Being a Writer (2nd Ed.) by Jane Friedman

To receive future posts or to become a Patron and support my dystopian sci-fi novel and get special thank-you goodies upon its publication, subscribe on Substack →

Join me on my writer’s journey from nonfiction to fiction

Chad S. White on July 13, 2025

Hello, everyone! I’m an aspiring novelist looking to connect with avid readers and other writers, especially in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. On this blog, I’ll discuss writing and publishing, and share the ups and downs of my writer’s journey to get my first novel published.

A little about my debut in-progress novel: I’ve made things extra hard on myself by making my first effort a 3-book dystopian sci-fi series set in a war-torn near future. My two heroes are new adults (18 and 19 years old) and the story revolves around them finding their places in a world where the two global superpowers are in an uneasy peace. The story also revolves around our two heroes finding each other and coming to terms with their broken families.

A little about me: I’m a tech industry veteran and former journalist who’s written five non-fiction books about digital marketing. As part of my day job, I’ve also written nearly 4,000 blog posts and articles about marketing, AI, and other topics. I’ll occasionally talk about my non-fiction book writing experiences, as those have given me the confidence to take on novel writing.

To receive future posts or to become a Patron and support my dystopian sci-fi novel and get special thank-you goodies upon its publication, subscribe on Substack →