Board index YOUTUBE PERSONALITIES (NON-GURU) BookTube
Authortube Part 4
pensandthreads
Re: Authortube Part 4
Post by pensandthreads » Sun Jan 03, 2021 9:42 am
Yes payment comes in the form of ad revenue and subscribers. That holds true if you're a print publication or an individual youtuber or blogger. The bigger you are the more you're getting from those streams of revenue. It should never cross into accepting payment to actually do the review.
Justanotherreader99
Post by Justanotherreader99 » Sun Jan 03, 2021 10:31 pm
Post by iwrite » Tue Jan 05, 2021 2:15 pm
May14159 wrote: ↑
yeah, all of the communities have 'tube' at the end but idk who chose author. They probably thought it sounded more official than writer though that is now the problem
I don't think it's a "problem" per se. It's actually a really interesting mechanism if you think about it. A writer who has always aspired to be an author makes a YouTube channel under the "Authortube" banner. Then there is this sense of internal urgency to take action on those things that have always been dreams, finish something you've created, and put it into the world. For some Authortubers it gives them the push they need to seek out trad pub and learn about the industry/query. For others, they may venture onto Wattpad or another form of self-publishing and it gives them a boost of confidence to keep learning and discovering and plowing down the path.
A lot of them make mistakes because it's a learning process. Some are intentionally running scams, sure...but I don't think that applies to the majority of big or small authortubers. It's just a network. You can meet people, learn from them, make your own mistakes, and then teach others how NOT to do it, but a lot of channels get major heat for being in the MIDDLE of their process. As if who they are today is who they always have been and always will be. YouTube removes a lot of the human aspect because of the nature of the platform, but you can't remove the person from the persona.
At least they are trying. And even when they are fucking up they are further ahead than the writers who are still merely aspiring.
freezedriedfruit
Post by freezedriedfruit » Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:37 pm
iwrite wrote: ↑
I don't think Authortubers get that much heat solely for being in the middle of their process. You can be in the middle of your process like KC, and she doesn't get heat other than people wishing she would hurry up and publish. People get heat when they're in the middle of their process and then start trying to sell us shit they're too inexperienced to sell, or they behave badly/unprofessionally in some way.
Post by pensandthreads » Wed Jan 06, 2021 12:21 pm
Just saw Meg LaTorre's / Iwritterly's latest video since "rebranding" to romance. 1/3 if the video is just her blogging her awful book. Wonder if her rebrand is based on the criticisms that her grand cross-genre book wasn't really sci-fi/fantasy/steampunk but just a smutty romance book in disguise.
yeahiguess
Post by yeahiguess » Tue Jan 12, 2021 6:11 am
Holy crap, have any of you watch Bethany Atazadeh's fav books video? She flat out says that people calling out racism...... are making it worse. Using Nicola Yoon's "everything everything" as her, I guess, evidence?? I've always had such mixed thoughts about Bethany. I think she gets away with a lot of shitty opinions because she's smart enough not to speak publicly about them too often.
Actual quote: "A lot of stuff that is being paraded around as non racist today is actually the most racist stuff, the most divisive, the most upsetting things that I have heard in many many year [...] just because you don't agree with somebody doesn't mean that you get to treat them that sort of way."
I mean, it kind of depends what the disagreement is, doesn't it? If we're disagreeing over pineapple on pizza, yeah.... if we're disagreeing on whether black people getting gunned down in the streets is bad enough to need social reform - I think maybe that's the kind of opinion that you can cut somebody out of your life for.
I don't think that any white person really has the right to say what approaches to racism are or aren't working, let along with the gravitas with which she says it. Just because her husband is an immigrant doesn't make her an expert on the topic of the lived reality of everybody else. I'm white, but I've got POC relatives, and I think they'd punch me in the face (rightfully) if I used them as a reason to amplify my own voice about whether their struggles aren't that bad actually. I really get the "I'm tired of being told white people are inherently racist" vibes from her, I really do.
WanderingWeirdo2
Post by WanderingWeirdo2 » Tue Jan 12, 2021 10:19 am
I haven't been watching Bethany's channel. I don't know what it is, a feeling, a vibe whatever, but I haven't been clicking on her videos. And I was someone who mostly enjoyed her content, despite not agreeing with her...views. So I clicked on this video and skimmed to find what you were talking about and yeah...she really put the blame on people suffering from racism, and that the people being called slurs should have empathy for the racists... Dude...
Look, I am tired of "cancel culture" anytime someone says something ignorant or doesn't understand something and people immediately want to rid them from the earth without even attempting to educate them, but this is RACISM we're talking about. These people know what they're doing. It isn't a poc's job to feel empathy for the person calling them a racial slur. Listen to the tone and words she uses for both "sides" in this, and how disconnected she is toward the one side. I gave that shit a dislike pronto.
Different topic: Kind of tickles me that I mentioned on here a few weeks back that I wanted to see authortube videos about numbers and income, and I've seen multiple end of the year videos about their incomes now. Maybe it's a coincidence, but it's still funny.
OneMoreMessyReader
Post by OneMoreMessyReader » Tue Jan 12, 2021 11:14 am
I'm just trying to understand what Bethany's point is, because I just don't???? "Let's have sympathy for racists" is entirely because her base is racist. I highly doubt if the shoe was on the other foot and someone called her a Christian bitch, her response would be "I should have sympathy for them." No she'd call them out as hurtful bullies - and that's not even CLOSE to what POC are facing with racism. Not by a long shot.
And here's the thing, racism isn't just a bunch of racists and then a bunch of good normal people. It's an entire system of oppression, and even the "good normal people" are complicit in spreading racist rhetoric. I'm a white woman, I have been complicit in it without even knowing. I actually think standing up against racism is very far removed from the whole "toxic cancel culture". (And let's be real, how many white people have actually been cancelled for their racist remarks???)
maybeast
Post by maybeast » Tue Jan 12, 2021 10:21 pm
This may be a dumb question because I know that one of the points of the forums here are to get out our grievances without actually going to that person's space to do so, but....has anyone here actually commented on anything of Bethany's to argue what she says? Like this isn't just some petty thing, this is honestly a pretty dangerous rhetoric to be spreading.
Post by OneMoreMessyReader » Wed Jan 13, 2021 1:36 am
maybeast wrote: ↑
I didn't want to give the video a view but I creeped to downvote and see what others had said... all the comments were liked by Bethany and there were only 8 at the time. I suspect she's deleting negetive comments.
Post by Justanotherreader99 » Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:02 am
Didn't watch her video. More than likely won't watch it. I'd bring up a good argument about leftist white people being some of the most racist people next to the alt right, but this thread is about Authortub, not a way to bring up social justice issues. This whole thread is going to derail. Take it to her comments section and challenge her views if you think she's wrong. Other than that, she probably gets called a Christian bitch all the time. It's the new graze after all. Christianity is the devil. Just like if anyone says they're a Republican they're automatically pegged a racist no questions asked. But I'm not here to talk about that bull shit. I'm here to bitch about Authortube.
Someone else mentioned that Authortubers were coming out with their end of year sales. I actually enjoy those videos. But it's no shocker, they read this form. Why else would they conveniently put out the exact content talked about within days or a week of saying it.
Here's some advice. Keep political and social justice shit off your channels. No one wants to here it. We get enough of that shit in real life. People watch authortube to escape it.
Anything exciting or frustrating happening on Authortube lately while the site was down?
Post by yeahiguess » Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:43 am
OneMoreMessyReader wrote: ↑
I did leave a comment which I can still see, but I don't know if there's a way she can make it so others can't? She hasn't interacted with it at all. I didn't get aggressive, but asked her to elaborate on what her points were considering she was very deliberately talking around what she meant to say. We'll see if she does anything, if she hasn't already and I'm just not able to tell
Post by pensandthreads » Wed Jan 13, 2021 8:45 am
Daniel Greene is giving more information on his upcoming self-published book. Basically said he used his friend Meg la Torre as a template in going about it.. yikes. I hope it's not a disaster... but it's going to be a disaster.
Post by WanderingWeirdo2 » Wed Jan 13, 2021 9:58 am
yeahiguess wrote: ↑
I just looked and your comment can't be there, because it's nothing but people praising her for her stance on racism and how it is EVERYTHING.
What I don't understand is how she can act like people have to be understanding and open to conversation, but is then deleting anything even questioning her stance and asking to elaborate. It just makes her come off (even more) as someone who is inconvenienced and irritated by what's going on in the world instead of actually wanting to make things better.
I know this thread is for authortube, but Bethany is an author who is using her platform to say strange things, and considering she deletes everything, this is the only place to discuss this. (didn't someone also say she has posted some weird conspiracy shit on her IG?) Also, I don't know who she is, but some chick named Danica Christin (booktuber?) was like "I appreciate your take on racism!" And I'm just laughing like...what.
OKAY, to contribute to the thread: a channel suggestion is Hit Me With Your Best Book. I've only JUST found her and am literally watching her video now. She does seem to be a booktuber, but she's currently putting out a series of videos about her writing a book, and I know a lot us like that stuff. She's also a published author.
Post by Justanotherreader99 » Wed Jan 13, 2021 12:56 pm
pensandthreads wrote: ↑
As in marketing it or writing it? Meg copies Jenna Moreci's marketing methods. I hope he isn't going to write like her. That's a bad idea
Post by OneMoreMessyReader » Wed Jan 13, 2021 1:44 pm
Bethany has posted stuff to her instagram stories, yes. During the BLM Blackout, she posted about how it was a coup to prevent Hillary Clinton trial from showing up in the news. Then she posted about voter fraud with sources that had been debunked. I'm not bothered by her faith or even what her political side is. I'm bothered by her values of willingly spreading false information, and don't agree that we need to stop talking about racism so it will "go away".
I'm a Christian, and here's my two cents on it. I may be right, I may be wrong, but this how it reads to me. She gets a lot of flack for her beliefs as a public figure, and she's not used to it in such a public way. And it can get NASTY. We all know the internet can be super toxic - death threats, derogatory comments, none of that is cool. I don't wish that on anybody. And every public figure gets it, doesn't matter what "side" you are on. But excluding the really terrible trolls comments, a lot of it is just plain disagreement. And often, when people disagree with someone's values enough, they just don't support them anymore. And that's honestly completley fair. Us Christians do it all the time (yes I'm generalizing). We pick movies, shows, companies and decide what we will/won't support. But I think us Christian's are particularly bad at having people do it to us. And we "think" we know persecution. We think we know what it's like to be the "underdog" and be made fun of for our beliefs because of characters like Ned Flanders or religious zealot bad guys in movies. But we really, really don't. Even if people weren't Christian, our values were the norm, even in media. And we caused a lot of hurt - sure it's not "all Christians", and sure lots of good too, but we still did damage. And maybe not every Christian personally, and heck some before some of us were even born, but it happened. Over the last two decades or so, that's changed as other people have built platforms for their views and experiences to be heard. And suddenly, very specific Christian values aren't the loudest voice on the table. Suddenly, people are disagreeing. And Christian's in particular take that as an attack as other voices have a place. But we aren't being infringed upon. Nothing is being "taken away" we just aren't the only thing on the menu anymore. And now, Christians are suddenly way more about the "just because we disagree doesn't mean we hate you, why cant we be more respectful?" But like, we dont see how we have this double standard, because we don't give back that respect as muc as we think we do. We cancel people and platforms all the time, pick and choose who "speaks" for us. Especially where religion crosses into politics... no one is saying you can't vote for your "side" or what have you, but they're also allowed to vote for what they want. And guess what? They do vote, and their vote counts. What Christians really want is for you to have your different opinon but just not have it affect culture or any policies and make changes in any way. And yes, "the other side" does this too. But, that other side doesn't actually infringe on us as much as we pretend. It doesn't stop us from practicing our faith - it just make's room for others to have their's too. They can marry and love who the want and not get fired for it.
Anyway, that seems like a rant but the point was to Bethany. And I think Bethany falls into this camp of Christians who can't distinguish between a genuine attack and someone exercising their own opinon. And I'm sure she gets actually hate messages and that's awful- she has every right to block that and report it. I want that to stop. But I think she genuinely believes the hate she gets is worse than the hate anyone else gets, solely because she's Christian. So she's gone into this hyper defensive mode of just blocking any opinon and seeing everything as an attack. But really, people who disagree just leave. And maybe there is an anonymous internet forum where a dozen or so people gossip and talk smack - but we shit on literally everyone. No one is safe XD. The reality is, it hasn't changed her subscriber count. Hasn't stopped her book sales. Some people leave, but others still come. She's always going to have some give and take as her audience gets more refined. I've personally just stopped following her and don't even check her instagram or her videos because I just don't care. And if someone who has seen it brings it up, I'll talk about it and remember the past, but I'm not going to hunt her down and PM her to berate her. I still think despite her values she is one of the truly good self-published who does the work and makes a professional product. I think she will be successful in her career. I just no longer feel the urge to follow that career or read any upcoming books.
Now as for Daniel Greene. I'm surprised he's modeling after Meg specifically and not just his self published friends in general or even Jenna specifically. I mean, Jenna has a similar subscriber count and writes in a more similar genre than Meg does. I think he will br successful though. He is a booktuber primarily with a sizable subscriber count - unlike Jenna and Meg who have a writer audience, he has a reader audience. They want books in sci-fi and fantasy, and that's what Daniel is writing. I just hope this is what he really wants and he thought about it, and didn't listen only to the self-published friends but really considered all options. I don't watch him enough to know his whole background.
Post by pensandthreads » Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:37 pm
Bethany has posted ...
Just wanted to say your post was so well said. No one is voting to ban straight marriage. No one is voting to criminalize Christianity.
That said there's a huge gulf between an author who identifies as religious and likely has views which are socially conservative or even bigoted versus actively working to harm marginalized communities. That tweet wasn't about Sanderson so much as that individual wanting to throw in their clever two cents about why Mormonism is bad.
As for Daniel Greene... he says he's following her model for self-publishing. My problem is that literally means cutting corners. Greene doesn't have a complete novel he's been working on for ages and gone through the usual channels of revision and editing. He literally just finished the first draft and intends to publish it soon. I think he actually slammed Jenna Moerci's book as being garbage but has remained silent on la Torre's.
ForeverTBR
Post by ForeverTBR » Wed Jan 13, 2021 3:40 pm
I can't wait for Daniel Greene's book because in most cases, those who are vocally critical of other people's writing, usually write the WORST books. That coupled with the fact that he's using Meg as a guide... I can't help but wait with anticipation at this crap show. It's going to be epic.
ForeverTBR wrote: ↑
It also really doesn't help when they self publish. And I know people here self publish, i do not mean to mock it, belittle it, or call it lesser in anyway. It is not. I do think though it allows people to publish their earliest works that aren't ready yet and Daniel could go exactly down this route. And even that isn't a big deal when you don't have such a huge and public platform for everyone to witness. Courtney for example has gone on record admitting her earliest publish works aren't as good as her current. Yes she's proud of them, yes they helped bring her here, but she's unpublished them and has now decided not to publish them again because they don't speak to her current capabilities. And she published all of this earlier works off camera. Yes they were still in the public sphere, but it was from the angle of building an audience from nothing. Now we have public figures delivering a product to an already waiting audience. I think it makes the stakes higher and it becomes harder to erase or fix later.
That being said, even if it's bad, he'll probably still be successful. Meg still has success, so does Jenna. Public opinon of Sasha Alsbergs book and Christine Riccios book is that they're bad, but both were commercial successes with decent goodreads ratings. I still think he has the numbers to back it up even if the book is a flop. What I really want is a time machine to see these people in ten years - ate they still writing books? Are they getting better?
I 100% agree with you. The biggest issue with self-publishing is that it's too easy. Writers need room to grow their craft. No one should publish their first 5-ish books. And yes, that's a blanket statement that's not always true, but it true for the majority of people. You simply don't have the skillset yet for a wide audience.
What makes me cringe is, in his vlog he say things like (paraphrased), "It's the best I can make it for right now," and "I'd like to go through it again but I have to let things go and I have deadlines," and the worst of the worst, "it's a prequel to the books I want to write." There's so much going on with all those statements that spell DOOM I don't even want to start breaking it down because it gives me a headache just thinking about it.
It's sad that writers don't want to take time to allow themselves to grow. No one forgets the first book you publish. If it's crap, they won't come back. Take Courtney (as you used in your example), I DID read an early book of hers and it was HORRIBLE. So now I won't buy her new stuff and it's in a genre I read. Because I have a long memory and I know what she thought was publishable. I'm not going to waste my money again. So I'll never know if she really has improved.
Post by Justanotherreader99 » Wed Jan 13, 2021 6:44 pm
Do you think he'll sell a lot of books because his platform is so large. I wonder if he even read Meg's book. It's way worse than Jenna's.
Post by pensandthreads » Thu Jan 14, 2021 6:57 am
Yes this! Again it's not a disrespect to self-publishing. When I was in my early 20s and thinking when I finish this book you know... I do -think self-publishing is best route for me. Basically using Daniel's reasons (he'll get a bigger cut of money, he has more creative control...) There was a lot of discussion for it after a few writer's made it big which, a decade later, came boiled down to the same things he said. Looking back I'm so relieved I didn't go that route. The overall lacking of quality in self-publishing comes down to 2 things.
First is the lack of the gatekeeper. I know so many people like Meg La Torre ignore this and justify it with some bullshit that the market just wasn't ready for my super innovative and creative unicorn project (lol). Really though most books need to be vetoed because they're fundamentally bad. The hopeful writer can't write. She can spit out all the grammar rules and modern stylistic trends she wants... but if every everyother sentence on the first page is awkward and sprinkled with inappropriate diction, it's getting vetoed. Second is the author hiring out people, who are not depending on that work's success, to clean it up for them. I'm sure there are great editors out there working on self-published books. Many of them may have even come from traditional houses. The problem is so many of these self-published authors essentially expect to hand their book to a freelancer, pay them a few hundred dollars and come back with a beautifully polished and well written finished project. Yes there are different kinds of editors, but no one is going to sit there and rewrite their sentences throughout the entire book. Someone in traditional publishing may tell the author they need to rewrite entire parts. They may give them some advice and send it back to them to do the work and back and forth until it's done. If they get through the gatekeepers but there are problems in the prose they'll do more to hammer it out than anyone making a set fee from a self published author. I've seen defenders (aka fans and freinds) on 1* book reviews of book tubers saying 'you can't say this is bad, they're self-published. If they went traditionally published the would teach them how to write better" (lol what?). If it was so bad they wouldn't have taught them they just wouldn't have given them the time of day as it should be.
It's sad that writers don't want to take time to allow themselves to grow.
I was shaking my head so hard at that. He just finished the first draft! He hasn't been slaving over it and making constant changes until it's "perfect." Not sure what deadlines he has other than the fact that he apparently preemptively hired famous audio narrators and cover artists and can't waste the slot. Maybe someone who had never written a book before you know.. should've waited until it was at least in the final stage of line edits?
Greene idolizes Sanderson. You think he would've taken a lesson out of his history. He had a dozen books in the backlog, some written a decade before publication that had to be redone from scratch (and that was with the work of editors who were investing in him not just taking a paycheck).
somebodysomeone
Post by somebodysomeone » Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:33 am
Maybe "deadlines" is codeword for "adsense money running low, now that I left my Software development job for Youtube Fame"
Post by pensandthreads » Thu Jan 14, 2021 11:40 am
somebodysomeone wrote: ↑
I doubt it. He gets at the bare minimum 1k every month just from Patreon alone (more likely closer to 2k). He does have other sources with promotions and youtube money. He's doing this for his ego of releasing a book and because he knows it will sell right out the gate, unlike books from authors without massive ready made platforms. It's not because he has a great love or passion for writing which is what the vast majority of the booktube/authotube books come down to and why they're so bad.
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