WE'RE SO BACK 🚀

This week: My BOOK COVER REVEAL, inside my video workflow, and what to expect from this newsletter moving forward

Author

Nick Wolny
April 05, 2025

Oh, hello there! (*looks around your inbox*) Love what you’ve done with the place lately!

First newsletter since July, I’ve been in the book-writing cave all this time. Did I miss anything while I was away? 😅

Kidding. The world’s on fire. But we turn lemons into lemonade ‘round these parts. So here’s what I have for you today:

  • A re-introduction

    • Because when you bump into someone at a party that you haven’t spoken to in years, a quick refresher helps

  • The big, fat book cover reveal

    • And how to help get the word out about my debut book, Money Proud

  • How I’m turning articles into social media videos, quickly

    • My weekly workflow for a time-constrained schedule

  • What happened this week

    • The hot links are back. I’m reading and curating the news so you’re back in the know in time for weekend brunch.

Our new cadence is Saturday mornings, and perhaps some one-offs throughout the week.

If you enjoy today’s email, consider forwarding it to a friend or colleague, or share it on social (web link here).

And if someone forwarded this email to you, you can sign up for this newsletter for free by clicking here.

—Nick

COMMENTARY

A quick re-introduction

Well, I’m 38, a Pisces, enjoy a good beach day… oops, you didn’t mean it like that.

I’m Nick, an editor, columnist and consultant based in Los Angeles. My day job is in corporate media, and I’m currently also the finance columnist for Out magazine, where I share practical advice for queer people about money and culture.

My first book, Money Proud, drops this December with HarperCollins, and you can pre-order it here (ebook, Bookshop) or here (hardcover, Amazon). More on that below, including the cover reveal!

Prior to all this, I was self-employed full-time for seven years as a marketing consultant. I still have my company, Less Noise More Volume LLC, and we still sell writing and editing courses through Camp Wordsmith®, a guided learning portal.

For a long time, this email list was a marketing newsletter promoting my business and insights as a service provider. I’ll still sprinkle that in from time to time, but my work is moving more toward editorial leadership and LGBTQ+ advocacy, so you’ll see more of an author persona-ish focus from now on.

THE BOOK COVER REVEAL!

The coin inscription says “IN GAY WE TRUST”

My first book is now available for pre-order! All pre-orders count toward week 1 book sales when it officially drops in late December, and I want to show HarperCollins the power of investing in queer nonfiction authors. BUY THIS BOOK!

Money Proud is the step-by-step roadmap to financial independence you’ll actually feel like reading. It’s sharp and queer-coded, and explains the foundations of personal finance in a way that lets you save for the future while also feeling fulfilled and inspired in the present.

Pre-orders are huge, so if you want to help, buy this book! So far, it’s available here:

  • Amazon

  • Bookshop (Pick this one if you can, it’s independently owned and the owner isn’t a diabolical billionaire)

Want to buy a batch of books, or collaborate in some way? Reply directly to this email.

OUT MAGAZINE COLUMN

Gaycations, tariffs, recessions, oh my

From the March/April print issue

And it all comes with a heaping dollop of gay.

For year three of my finance column with Out Magazine, we’ve expanded to also include a weekly digital story.

This column focuses on explanatory, plain-English explanations of what’s happening in the world of money and business, with some queer columnist sass mixed in. Print stories are beefier and more reported, whereas online stories are shorter and snappier.

Here’s what I’ve written so far this spring:

I produce a social media video for every story to squeeze more juice out of each article. Some “behind the curtain” details on how I do that are below.

ON BUILDING THE THING

How I’m approaching social videos with a writer POV

@nickwolny1

Recessions can be a b****, or worse, a demon twink. New for @Out Magazine #lgbtq #lgbt🌈 #lgbt #🏳️‍🌈

Now that there’s a book in the mix, I’m focusing more on audience growth. No more “four clients is a full client book for me” mentality; scale is the name of the game. I also have a day job, so like a lot of us, I’m time-constrained; here’s what I’m doing to get out there without it turning into a timesuck.

Currently, I’m doing one well-edited vertical video about my Out mag column each week. The weekly rhythm is:

  • M:

    • Pitch story ideas to Out editor every Monday morning.

    • Story assigned by end-of-day.

  • Tu/W:

    • Write and submit article draft.

    • Write video script concurrently, using the article copy.

  • Thu:

    • Shoot scripted portion of video, get a head start on video edits if time.

  • Fri:

    • Story goes up on Out’s website.

    • Screenshot the story and finish the video edit.

  • Sat:

    • Video goes up on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts (I ideally do this Friday, if time).

    • This newsletter goes out. 🤓

I like turning my articles into videos because it helps get the information to people who weren’t going to go and click the article anyway. My video workflow is:

  1. Rework the article draft into a 500-ish word script.

  2. Record the script on my phone using CapCut with the Teleprompter feature (I use my front-facing phone camera and a Hollyland Lark lav mic)

  3. Edit the a-roll video in Final Cut Pro. (I adjust brightness and cut all the breaths — going for a breathless, newsy feel here.)

  4. Add screenshots and/or b-roll. My editing rule of thumb is I try to do some sort of visual cut every 5 seconds or so.

  5. Export and add captions in the CapCut desktop app.

  6. Post video on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. Angle for a collab on Instagram when appropriate.

I sort of lucked out in that Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts both only recently allowed vertical videos to be up to 3 minutes (up from 90 and 60 seconds respectively). 90 seconds always felt a little constrained, so now that that the bandwidth is higher I’ve warmed up more to doing video.

Follow along on Instagram or TikTok to see this video editing workflow in action each week.

NICK’S PICKS

What happened this week

Disclosure: I work at Ziff Davis, which owns CNET, Mashable, Lifehacker, ZDNET, and PCMag.

Economy, entrepreneurship, money

Substack rolls out a TikTok-like video feed in its app, initially featuring short-form videos under 10 minutes. (Aisha Malik / TechCrunch)

Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie said the company is partnering with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression to support “writers residing lawfully” in the US targeted by the government for their writing. (Hamish McKenzie / X)

AI and future tech

OpenAI’s new image generator is now available to all users. OpenAI also closed a $40B funding round, the largest in history for a single organization. (Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch)

WIRED surveyed 730 coders and developers on how they use AI. 75% have tried AI, 35.6% are AI optimists, 38.4% are AI pessimists, freelancers use AI more, and 50%+ of employers pay for it. (WIRED / WIRED staff)

LGBTQ

Florida Republican lawmakers advanced a bill that would legalize anti-LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination. The bill would forbid public employers “from punishing any employee for expressing ‘a belief in traditional or Biblical views of sexuality and marriage, or … gender ideology.’” (Daniel Villarreal / LGBTQ Nation)

The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, a sibling organization of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, will hold a Candidate and Campaign Training program for all aspiring LGBTQ+ candidates September 4-7 in Los Angeles. Immediately following, September 7-9, will be a specialized session for trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people who want to run for office. (Trudy Ring / The Advocate)

Does the leather community have a Nazi problem? Thought-provoking piece from my fellow Out magazine contributor Alex Cheves. (Alexander Cheves / Out Magazine)

Social media and pop culture

If the Switch 2 Stumbles, Nintendo Has No Plan B. Some fun 8-bit graphics in this feature. (Gearoid Reddy and Taylor Tyson / Bloomberg)

Would it be so bad if Severance was like Lost? In my opinion, no, because that means we’d get three more seasons. (Polygon)

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