APIs and Webhooks Aren't Just For Nerds (They're Your Business Secret Weapon)
Digital plumbing: connect your apps once, automate your business forever
Let’s start with a little truth bomb:
Most authors don’t wake up excited to “explore API functionality.”
But here’s the kicker—we should care. Because understanding how our tools talk to each other isn’t just a nerdy flex. It’s the difference between feeling like you’re duct-taping your business together... and building something that actually runs when you're not looking.
Last week, I promised we’d start peeling back the layers on automation—not just the what, but the how. And no surprise, it all starts here: with APIs and integrations. They’re the plumbing behind your productivity. The behind-the-scenes tech that turns your chaotic to-do list into a calm, orchestrated system.
And while the term API might sound like something you need a CompSci degree to use, the truth is way simpler (and way more empowering). If you’ve ever thought, “Why can’t these apps just talk to each other?”—spoiler: they can. And they already do. You just need to know how to eavesdrop on the conversation and nudge it in your favor.
So today, we’re unpacking the whole shebang:
What APIs actually are (no jargon, I promise)
The difference between native and no-code integrations
Why this thing called MCP is going to be as big as HTTP in the automation world (yes, really)
And how to start thinking like a systems builder—even if tech makes your eye twitch
Oh, and I’ll share what’s coming soon with this little project.
Buckle up, buttercup. Down the rabbit hole we go.
🧠 APIs: The Backstage Pass to Every App You Love
Let’s demystify this whole “API” thing.
An API (short for Application Programming Interface—but don’t worry, that’s the last time we say it) is basically a way for apps to whisper sweet nothings to each other. It’s how your email service can automatically add a new subscriber when someone fills out a form. It’s how Stripe tells your website someone paid. It’s the secret sauce behind all your automation magic.
Now here’s where it gets good.
If you’ve used Zapier, Make.com, or any other no-code automation tool, you’ve already worked with APIs. Those dropdown menus that say things like “Add subscriber to MailerLite” or “Send DM on Discord” are just polished wrappers around raw API calls.
They’ve taken the guts of the internet and dressed them up to look like friendly buttons.
What most people miss is that those buttons aren’t the limit. You can go deeper. You can talk directly to the API—and when you do, you unlock a whole new level of control.
Nine times out of ten, those same no-code tools will let you skip the hand-holding and call the API directly. That means you can talk to any app with an API—even if there’s no pre-built connection—and unlock way more flexibility.
Here’s how I actually do it (in the wild, not the sanitized webinar version):
I find the API docs for the tool I want to connect. Just Google it: “[Tool Name] API docs.” Easy.
I figure out what I’m trying to do (send data? grab info? update something?).
I take a screenshot of my Make.com or Zapier window—the exact spot where it’s asking for the URL, the headers, the payload.
I head to Claude or ChatGPT and say:
“Here’s what I’m trying to do. Here’s the API doc. Here’s what Make.com is asking for. Walk me through this, step-by-step.”
And 9 times out of 10, it gives me exactly what I need.
🔒 Sidebar PSA: Never paste your real API keys or passwords into a chat window. Not in Claude. Not in ChatGPT. Not anywhere public-facing. If I need help formatting the request, I replace the keys with something like
your-api-key-hereso I’m not leaking my whole digital kingdom.
Once I’ve got the response? I copy it into Make or Zapier, run a test, and just like that—I’ve got a completely custom automation that does exactly what I want, no plugin required.
This is how I’ve connected tools that were never designed to work together. Once you understand that’s possible, everything shifts. It’s no longer about what a tool can do—it’s about what you want to happen. The tech just figures out how to get it done.
You don’t need to know how to code. You just need to know what you want, and how to ask your tools—or your AI sidekick—for help.
This is how I build automations that aren’t limited by pre-built templates. It’s how I connect tools nobody’s ever thought to integrate.
In other words: once you understand APIs, you’re not just using the internet. You’re building on top of it.
🪝 Webhooks: The Quiet Little Powerhouse That Runs the Show
If APIs are how apps talk, webhooks are how they listen.
A webhook acts like a tripwire for your automation. The moment something happens—like a form submission, a payment, or someone clicking a button—it grabs that data and kicks off whatever workflow you’ve designed. No waiting. No refreshing. Just instant action.
Think of it as your app’s personal assistant: standing by with a clipboard, ready to leap into motion the second the bell rings.
🧪 Behind the Scenes: How We Handle Advertiser Submissions
Here’s a real example from Indie Author Magazine:
Advertisers submit their promo details through a form—headline, copy, images, links, all of it. That submission hits a webhook we’ve set up in Make.com, and the system takes over.
Here’s what happens next:
The webhook captures the data.
ChatGPT processes the text, rewriting or formatting it based on a prompt.
A draft post is generated in our Ghost newsletter system.
A Gmail alert goes out to the team, letting them know it's ready to proof and schedule.
No dragging files around. No Slack messages that start with “Hey, did you get this yet?”
It’s not just efficient—it’s downright civilized.
🧰 For Authors: Automating Your ARC or Beta Reader Signups
Let’s flip the lens. Say you’re gathering a list of readers for your next ARC team.
Here’s how you could run it with webhooks:
A reader fills out your form (name, email, address, favorite tropes).
The webhook fires off and:
Adds them to a Google Sheet
Triggers a welcome email with your reader packet
Verifies their mailing address with the official USPS API (yep, that’s a thing)
Sends you a quiet nudge via Slack or email for anything that needs a human touch
And just like that, your ARC list is built, your outreach is handled, and your back-and-forth chaos is... gone.
Webhooks aren’t glamorous, but they’re rock-solid. They give your workflows the starting line—and let the rest of your automation sprint ahead at full speed.
Fun fact: There are also MAILHOOKS. Same idea, but you send an email to kick it off.
🧠 What Is MCP (And Why It’s a Big Deal)
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol—a new open standard from Anthropic designed to give AI models a consistent, structured way to interact with external tools, apps, and data. In short, it lets your AI remember what it’s doing, why it’s doing it, and how to take the next logical step—without having to be spoon-fed the same info over and over again.
This changes the game for AI-driven automation. Until now, most workflows involving large language models have been one-off: you send a prompt, get a response, and then manually decide what to do next. MCP flips that model on its head. It allows tools like Claude to maintain awareness of your goals, call external APIs, and coordinate tasks across systems—all without losing context.
It’s not just another integration layer. It’s infrastructure. And we haven’t seen a protocol this ambitious—or with this level of potential adoption—since HTTP gave the internet a common language to work with.
That’s not hype. MCP could become the backbone of how AI agents plug into real workflows, not just chat windows. It’s what makes it possible to:
Let an AI manage your launch sequence by checking your database, scheduling posts, and writing content tailored to your goals
Build tools that adapt to real-time context, not static rules
Replace brittle one-way automations with intelligent, context-aware systems
MCP is how we get there.
📂 New Substack Sections (and Why You’ll Want In)
Substack recently introduced Sections—a way to organize different content streams inside one newsletter. It's opt-in by design, so your inbox doesn’t get overrun with stuff you didn’t ask for.
The main Author Automations newsletter isn’t changing. But now there’s room to go deeper for readers who want advanced workflows, experimental builds, and a peek behind the curtain of how this whole machine runs. You choose what shows up in your inbox.
Nobody’s been added automatically. If you want the good stuff, you’ll need to subscribe to it directly. I’ll send a note when it’s ready.
🧠 Really Nerdy Stuff Is the First of Those Sections
This first section is built for creators who want the tech turned up to eleven and are ready to go ALL IN on using AI.
Where the main newsletter covers strategy and systems with a broad stroke, Really Nerdy Stuff dives straight into the engine room. Expect:
Deep integrations using Make.com, n8n, Supabase, and webhook-driven AI agents
Behind-the-scenes workflows I use to run multiple businesses solo
Automation experiments that turn tools into digital staff
The first issue walks through a voice-triggered iOS Shortcut that calls a webhook and kicks off an entire campaign. I say:
“Hey Gigi, draft 26 newsletters and the social posts to go with them.”
It gets to work immediately, no clicks required.
This is the kind of tech that can change how you run your creative business.
🚨 Author Automations Is Growing Up (And You’re Coming With Me)
This started as a scrappy little side project—me sharing what was working to keep my creative business from catching fire. Somewhere between building custom automations at 2 a.m. and turning my watch into a publishing assistant, it became something much bigger.
Now it’s time the structure reflects the reality.
I’m reorganizing everything behind the scenes. That means more than just content—it means more downloadable automations you can actually use, video walkthroughs that break it down step-by-step, live webinars that go deep, and new courses and articles designed to help you build real systems that save time, not just promise to.
I’m also updating the pricing. All the tiers are going up—because the value’s going way up, too. More content, more hands-on support, more chances to work with me directly.
If you’re already a paid subscriber, you’re locked in. No surprises. No gotchas. You’ve supported this from the beginning, and I’m not about to forget that.
If you’ve been thinking about jumping in, now’s the time. The foundation is shifting, but the goal stays the same: help authors build real businesses with less stress, more clarity, and tools that actually work.
This is the direction I’m taking with Storyteller OS—and it’s already running the day-to-day operations of Indie Author Magazine, Indie Author Training, and Direct2Readers.com.
Everything is self-hosted. Nothing gets sent to a public LLM. My data stays locked down, running on a private, secure version of a large language model that I control. That’s non-negotiable.
Here’s what it’s doing behind the curtain right now:
Automations handle subscriptions, onboarding, scheduling, content production, ad placement, social media, and magazine publishing across all three brands. Everything flows through a coordinated engine that makes it possible for me to run three companies and publish—from my phone. Preferably in Scotland.
A private vector database holds past newsletters, SOPs, onboarding flows, course content, marketing copy, and more. When I ask my AI assistant to create something new, it’s not guessing—it’s pulling from my archive, my tone, and my systems. With humans in the mix where they should be.
Reader and customer activity is tracked in a self-hosted CRM layer, so I can see exactly where someone came from, what they’ve interacted with, and what actions should happen next—across platforms, not siloed.
Email campaigns, purchase sequences, and follow-ups are handled internally. There’s no third-party ESP dictating what’s allowed or changing terms midstream.
Task-specific AI agents handle things like summarizing data, writing social copy, generating launch materials, and even flagging operational priorities based on live performance data.
And because answering the same team questions 14 times a week is not a productivity strategy, I built Chellebot—a fully trained, internal chatbot that knows how the business runs. It can answer questions about tools, workflows, tech setup, branding, tone, and process without ever pinging me. It’s like cloning myself… without the caffeine dependency.
Every piece of this system is modular and swappable. If I change a publishing platform or add a new product line, the entire system flexes with it—no rebuild required.
Storyteller OS isn’t theory. It’s working right now in production. And soon, you’ll be able to use it too.
🧱 The Foundation’s Built. Time to Go Bigger.
This system isn’t theoretical. It’s already running three companies, publishing a magazine, launching courses, managing ad placements, handling reader onboarding, and pushing content to multiple platforms—daily. And I built it to be used, not admired.
Chellebot is live. My private AI stack is trained. The workflows are running across everything from email to social media to print production. This isn’t a productivity hack. It’s infrastructure.
Now it’s time to make it available to others.
You’ll start to see:
Dedicated Substack sections for the level of depth you actually want
More tutorials, walkthroughs, and automations ready to drop into your business
New offers, updated courses, and ways to work directly with me
Pricing will go up soon, because the value is going up. But anyone already on a paid tier will be grandfathered in. No drama. No surprise invoices.
If you’ve been following along, this next phase was built for you.
—Chelle