{"id":1016,"date":"2022-09-19T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/?p=1016"},"modified":"2022-09-18T15:37:01","modified_gmt":"2022-09-18T19:37:01","slug":"author-ken-follett-uses-spreadsheets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/2022\/09\/19\/author-ken-follett-uses-spreadsheets\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Ken Follett Uses Spreadsheets"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"d942c2121bfbd137a3b44056a000f09c\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Responsive Top -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9531091850463532\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"6574318169\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Many people have written books about spreadsheets, but how many use spreadsheets to write books? Best-selling author, Ken Follett, does, and mentioned it on Twitter!<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Author Ken Follett<\/h3>\n<p>Our bookshelves are filled with Ken Follett&#8217;s novels, starting with his first best-seller, Eye of the Needle, shown in my photo below.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve bought many more of his books, over the years, and enjoyed reading them. These days, we buy digital versions \u2013 they&#8217;re easier on our eyes!<\/p>\n<p>Here are three of the Ken Follett books that I found, in a quick check of our bookshelves:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eye of the Needle (1978)<\/li>\n<li>The Key to Rebecca (1980)<\/li>\n<li>Night Over Water (1991)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Are any of these on your bookshelves (or digital devices) too?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/kenfollettbooks01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0px currentcolor; display: inline; background-image: none;\" title=\"three Ken Follett books showing covers\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/kenfollettbooks01_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"three Ken Follett books showing covers\" width=\"450\" height=\"271\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Ken Follett Book Sales<\/h3>\n<p>As I mentioned at the top of the page, Ken Follett uses spreadsheets. But what does he use them for?<\/p>\n<p>First, as a successful author, he probably uses spreadsheets to keep track of his book sales, royalties, expenses, and other financial transactions.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s lots to keep track of, according to the sales numbers on his website:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Over 181 million copies of the 36 books he has written have been sold in over 80 countries and in 40 languages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Ken Follett Spreadsheet Calculations<\/h3>\n<p>But there&#8217;s another reason he uses spreadsheets \u2013 character tracking.<\/p>\n<p>Ken Follett writes books with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>large casts of characters<\/li>\n<li>plot timelines that can span many years<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To keep track of those characters, throughout a long storyline, he uses a spreadsheet. In it, he enters the following information:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>details about each character, including their age, at the beginning of the story<\/li>\n<li>(main characters)\u00a0 photo or painting of someone similar to what he&#8217;s imagined<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Then, as he works through the novel, the spreadsheet helps him out:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>he can enter a date that something is happening in the story<\/li>\n<li>worksheet formulas calculate the age for each character, at that action date<\/li>\n<li>pictures remind him of each character&#8217;s description, at a quick glance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That spreadsheet saves him valuable time, and helps him avoid plot errors!<\/p>\n<h3>Ken Follett on Twitter \u2013 Make a Spreadsheet<\/h3>\n<p>Here is the embedded tweet, when <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KMFollett\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ken Follet (Twitter profile)<\/a> replied to novelist, Sara Dahmen, who also uses spreadsheets.<\/p>\n<p>She had tagged Ken Follet in a tweet, and wondered if he did something similar.<\/p>\n<p>And yes, he does!<\/p>\n<p>________________<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Good guess, Sarah. That&#8217;s exactly what I do: make a spreadsheet of all the characters and their descriptions. Then the spreadsheet calculates their ages in each chapter. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/23Pnlj0kPy\">https:\/\/t.co\/23Pnlj0kPy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ken Follett (@KMFollett) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KMFollett\/status\/1089937179080577029?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 28, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>________________<\/p>\n<h3>Visit the Ken Follett Website<\/h3>\n<p>You can find more information <a href=\"https:\/\/ken-follett.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on his Ken Follett website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There are sections with his books, adaptations and events, and his About page.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, the Home page promotes Follett&#8217;s latest book, Never, with a quote from another best-selling author, Stephen King.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Ken Follett can&#8217;t write a bad book, and NEVER is his best.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That&#8217;s high praise indeed!<\/p>\n<h3>Social Media Accounts<\/h3>\n<p>In addition to following Ken Follett on Twitter, check out his other social media accounts:<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; 1) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/kenfollettauthor\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ken Follett on Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8211;2) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KenFollettAuthor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ken Follett&#8217;s Facebook Page<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Video: Ken Follett Writing Tips<\/h3>\n<p>In this June 2022 interview with Dan Simpson, on Writer&#8217;s Routine Podcast, Ken Follett explains his writing process, and mentions that he uses an Excel spreadsheet to help keep track of characters.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note<\/strong>: I&#8217;ve set the video to start as the 13:00 mark, when he first mentions the spreadsheet.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xFtCuifzddA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>__________________<\/p>\n<h3>Author Ken Follett Uses Spreadsheets<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/kenfollettspreadsheets01a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0px currentcolor; display: inline; background-image: none;\" title=\"Author Ken Follett Uses Spreadsheets\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/kenfollettspreadsheets01a_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"Author Ken Follett Uses Spreadsheets\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>__________________<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many people have written books about spreadsheets, but how many use spreadsheets to write books? Best-selling author, Ken Follett, does, and mentioned it on Twitter!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monday-media","category-spreadsheet-days"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1016"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1202,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions\/1202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}