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Wesley Edits

@wesleyedits.bsky.social

75 followers 40 following 540 posts

Producer/Editor • Emmy & Grammy nominated • Audie winner • Writer • Media/AI critic

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Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · Mar 12

Excited to share that 'When the Sea Came Alive' won an Audie Award for Multi-Voice Performance!

www.audiopub.org/2025audies-1...

This D-Day oral history was a team effort with an incredible cast. Congrats to all nominees & winners!

Listen: amzn.to/4iovv2J

#booksky #audieawards

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Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 3d

AI can recombine the known, but Montesquieu understood - true aesthetic surprise comes from the genuinely unfamiliar

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 4d

You win some, you lose some. Long-time client ghosted me today. But a juicy new prospect just slid into my inbox. Such is the game in a freelancer's life.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 6d

If you want to read/listen to Joyride yourself:

amzn.to/478ezsQ

(affiliate link - supports my work at no extra cost to you)

amzn.to

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 6d

I edited Susan Orlean's audiobook for Joyride (out today)

Somewhere between removing the 347th mouth click, I learned more about craft than most workshops teach

7 lessons that apply whether you're writing, producing, or building anything creative.

On @medium: 👇

medium.com/books-are-ou...

7 Writing Tips I Learned Editing Susan Orlean’s New Audiobook

From finding ideas to building confidence: Writing advice from the author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book

medium.com

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 9d

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." - Plato

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 10d

I was just thinking… Wild how Facebook and these other social platforms trained us to think giving them free content was the same as maintaining friendships or having real human connection.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 11d

If you're pitching right now what are you seeing? What's working and what's not?

The game changed. Most producers haven't noticed yet.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 11d

Fourth: Your sizzle is probably getting passed because of the editor, not the concept.

Networks can smell amateur assembly work in 10 seconds.

Get an editor who understands what buyers want to see—not just someone who can cut footage together.

That's the difference between a sale and a pass.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 11d

Everyone's arguing about what networks should buy.

I'm telling you what they're actually buying.

And right now? Content that won't generate a mean tweet or a lawsuit from the White House.

Welcome to development in 2025.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 11d

Third: Networks are greenlighting based on whether your show might attract government attention.

Not ratings. Not creative merit. Government pushback.

With threats to broadcast licenses and lawsuits flying, buyers are asking: "Will this put a target on our back?

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 11d

Second: Bring money to the table.

Come with sponsors already attached.

You're not begging for a budget—you're showing them there's already interest with the people who matter.

Pre-attached revenue is the new pitch deck.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 11d

First: Stop pitching to networks that are about to be sold.

Media consolidation is wiping development slates overnight. Your brilliant pitch means nothing if your buyer gets fired before they can greenlight it.

Pitch to stable buyers or you're wasting your time.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 11d

My first sizzle of 2025 just sold to series. After working on multiple pitches this year, here's what's actually getting bought right now (and what's dying in development):

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 12d

LLMs tell you what humans would probably say based on training data. They don't think.

Do your own thinking.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 13d

Just turn off your brain and let the slop keep coming. That's what #AI social media wants.

Scan your face. Give them your voice. Scroll forever.

Is this cash burn and further erosion of humanity worth the slop? I’m going with no.

Full thoughts on Medium 👇

medium.com/actuallythou...

AI Social Media Is Here Whether You Like It or Not

And all they want is your biometric data forever. In exchange we get deepfakes and misinformation

medium.com

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 14d

First cut anxiety on a new series never gets easier. Tony Bennett said something while I worked on his Zen of Bennett doc that stuck with me: if you're anxious, it means you care. That pressure? Just your standards showing up.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 18d

medium.com/@wesleyedits

Wesley Edits – Medium

Read writing from Wesley Edits on Medium. Media veteran with Emmy/Grammy nominations investigating media and tech industry narratives.

medium.com

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 18d

Spoke on a writer panel at Medium's company offsite yesterday about my experience on the site.

Rare to find a platform that tries to compensate writers + wants feedback. That's why I keep writing there & think they're one of the best in the game!

Follow me for media/tech analysis: @wesleyedits

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 18d

Also the entry level job thing IS a real concern societies will have to face, and just asking people to pull their bootstraps up or whatever may not be enough.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 18d

Totally agree. It's one of the challenges teachers are going to face moving forward - how to get our kids to be genuinely curious. Seems like rote memorization may take more of a back seat just like math changed with calculators. Need the tools to verify and elevate what these systems give them.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 20d

"Workslop" is the hot new term for AI-generated content flooding our workplaces.

While AI slop drowns social media, workslop is taking over offices. Here's how to stand out in both.

On Medium:

medium.com/@wesleyedits...

How to Use AI Without Getting Replaced: The Workslop Problem Explained

How to Use AI Without Getting Replaced: The Workslop Problem Explained How AI-generated content is making workers look incompetent and what to do about it I keep getting scripts from clients that are…

medium.com

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Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 21d

Shoutout to AI for being mid enough to cure my ADD. Nothing makes you slow down like knowing your writing assistant is confidently wrong 40% of the time and turns out writing in the style of a middle schooler.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 23d

“Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a Democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.” - John Adams

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 24d

Stop scrolling.
Build something.
Or get used.

Wesley Edits @wesleyedits.bsky.social · 25d

“Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex.” - Frank Zappa