One crippling issue ive seen agents and editors speak to is the mass exodus of experinced workers from the publishing industry. People with experience and connections, leaving less experienced people with few connections. If people traditionally publish because of the connections giving you access to better things, then where has that gone?
yeah, that's a real issue. And with the fragmentation of the distribution system (oh Amazon, must you burn the whole world?), the distribution chains those trab pub houses have also become liiiitle by little less important :/
Are they exiting the industry or just working with the indies? Because they can get you know, money, and work from home, and start their own small press and all sorts. Or just write their own books in some cases.
Possibly nowhere. I studied translation and interpreting at university, because it was one of those jobs that there was always demand for - takes a decently clever and well-trained individual to produce a faithful translation of _anything,_ let alone things where the issuer of the translation might be liable for any misunderstandings they've caused. My graduating year, google translate became a free app download on people's phones. And 'somewhat shoddy machine translation, right now, for free' proved to be exactly as much as most people were interested in, once that was an option. There is no conservation of mass/energy that applies to industries; if the demand goes away for whatever reason, so too do the jobs.
No, the entire problem are the "connections", rather than it being merit based. When you rely on "connections" only "connected" people get ahead. Just like the Mob ;)
This is why I love this Neil Gaiman quote about writing: "The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.”
Nothing killed my interest in reading as a kid faster then my mom pressuring me to "move on" from reading books I enjoyed, fiction, to reading dry autobiographical books because she couldn't fathom someone else having different tastes in genre. And inb4 someone tries to say "oh read this biography it's not dry at all!" no, I'm glad you like that genre and good for you but it's not for me
I hope you are reading books that interest you again. 📚 Funnily enough, I'm only in the past few years getting into reading biographies of artists (painters/photographers/actors) that I adore. Otherwise, I'm expanding out on reading more classics, fiction, non-fiction, and my lifelong obsession of sci-fi.
My mother hated my liking for fantasy and sci-fi. “Why are you reading that crap?” Thankfully my godmother gave me every sci-fi and fantasy book she finished and my two grandfathers regularly gave me money for books. My mother now criticizes the fact that I literally buy my son whatever book he asks for. I’ve only restricted what he wants to read for the two weeks of exams every spring- followed by a book binge when they’re done. I figure it’s also my job to teach him to prioritize.
I may have a skewed perception because I did grow up around my mom reading constantly. But I think what actually made me want to read as a kid was just that my parents read TO me. Not just around me
I would actually say physical reading is a whole entire experiential type of thing. Physical books don't just have a feel to them, they also have a scent or scents and etcetera too. They can also be read even if you have no access to electricity or the internet and such.
@@JamesTullos I don't like the implication that you can't be strong and badass and yet also still need saving. But it is true that there is often a severe lack of balance between the two, in most things.
On the parents reading: I generally agree. A lot of my love of reading comes from my dad. He’s always been a reader. I remember seeing him read every night when I was a kid.
My sister and I are both lifelong readers and my mom definitely made sure we had library cards, etc as kids but I only remember her reading herself on rare occasion
So I have heard a lot of people over the year dismiss books or authors as fad chasers when their book comes out shortly after a massive hit like Twilight, Harry Potter, or Hunger Games and it has similar themes, genre elements, yada yada. And while some books ARE just smashed together to chase $ vapor, there's an element to this that people don't seem to notice. When a book blows up, publishers reach out to agents looking for books that their authors have already written that are similar. So that "trend chasing" book might very well have been a wild passion project for the author that they never thought would see the light of day because the genre was unpopular when it was written. Now, I have no idea how often this happens but it's a thing that we should keep in mind.
Yeah fantasly slow burn romance can be great, seriously grat romance, is great, and organic, but smut, shouldnt be in disguise, and god knows its market is big enough to not try to pretend to not be super horny. if its in the romance rather than the ya section, good, it should.
@@marocat4749 I am not sure if it is slipping into the YA but I have notice there is both romance and fantasy romance that are clearly using the language found in erotic or if you will smutty novels.
@@nicoleneedschocolate I am not sure it makes me sad but it is a bit annoying. I remember when smut novels were pushed off the shelves at major book stories for erotica romance. Over thirty years later now and you can pick up erotica romance novels, some being fantasy at your local big box store. And of you filled through them it is easy to notice that they seem to be all written for straight women. You have to look through self published works in the Kindle shop to find anything that isn't writing for the notorious win moms.
On the parents reading: I somewhat agree. My mom read to my older brothers and me every night when we were little, and my dad always had a book on his nightstand, but I never really saw them reading. However, my older brothers were VORACIOUS readers, and I probably got my love of reading from mirroring them. They also shaped my reading preferences since I was taking books from their shelves.
We do teach media literacy, but only in the context of traditional novels (cue infamous great gatsby light in the distance analysis), I do agree that kids would be more engaged if we could learn about literacy in film aswell.
We also teach media literacy here in Canada. I teach it in all sorts of formats. Where I'm at, it's kind of up to the teacher to decide the scope, which I love. I try to include everything from ads to movies to poetry to music.
Daniel, I gotta say I’ve been loving the return to this format. Of course, you do and don’t do whatever you want, but I’ve been enjoying the change to the channel over the past few weeks
I literally gave up on a series I was greatly enjoying because the author admitted she gave into fan pressure to put two characters together she previously had no intention of ever doing. I know it's pretentious, but I wanna read what the author wanted to write not what the fans told them to write. I'm sure it was still well written, I just have no interest in a story as told by the fans (or rather, I'll go to Ao3 if I wanna enjoy that avenue).
The only kind of writing advice i dont like is when those people say "never do this or that", but its basically just a matter of taste and/or execution
Re Cover Art: Besides being a writer/Author I also do graphic design/digital painting, etc (I'm trained in this area), and I've noticed there has been an increase in the last few years of covers looking exactly the same in format. TT I'm so sad. I always loved seeing graphic artists push the boundaries of cover art. As much as I dislike 50 Shades of Grey, as a book, you can see that the cover art was well thought through and I can say that without any hesitation. But a lot of the covers from the 2022 run looked like they were the same formats without pressing the boundaries that much. Which is to say, when you get a human to design the cover and really think it through, people can sense it. Out of all of them Monae's cover stood out a lot for me, I kept staring at it. My favorite covers are the ones where you read the story and then understand both the cover and the story better in tandem. (But then I'm biased towards Michael Whelan covers because it's clear he reads the books he makes covers for.) When you're halfway through and pick up a detail that's in the cover you didn't see before because the story mentioned it, I think that's magic. BTW, that said, for self-pubbed authors, your cover will look far more professional if you get someone to format the type as much as the art. (My Typography prof was adamant that one should plan the type with the graphic behind it and stop thinking of it last, but with the graphic) Usually the bad treatment of type and not telling your cover artist you need room for the type to appear as well often gives you away. Also have to say people copying the format of other books and getting the type worse because you don't want to pay a graphic artist makes me go boo. Artists need to support other artists because we share often the same spaces. Plenty of writers are also artists and also are into other creative spaces.
While a lot of book covers have gotten a lot better and a lot cooler, some genres have done the complete opposite. Walked by a romance table at Barnes the other day, every single book was the same formula: pastel cover, illustration of two people interacting in the middle with bold, colorful title over the graphic.
7:40 the only thing that disappoints me is no matter how many times I try to advertise my book and get help with it with the person who helps me with my books in general, I haven’t succeeded selling my first book(I’m sure that one of the reasons is language differences).
Not really possible to help without knowing what the book is. Are you actually tapped into the indie community? Is it published or are you trying to smack your face against the brick wall of trad publishing?
14:42 pisses me off too. I get that fantasy romance is definitely a genre, BUT I hate that it’s mixed in with non-romance fantasy. It’s really annoying to see a book with an interesting title or cover, only to read the description and find it’s a fantasy romance and not just a traditional fantasy. Again, I don’t care that it exists, I just wish bookstores in particular would give it its own section.
So where do you draw the line? Most all fantasy books incorporate a romantic plotline, even ones (I would bet) you would call "non-romance" fantasy. So how much is "too much" before it needs a qualifier to be allowed in the fantasy genre? And who decides how much is too much? There are extreme examples that are clearly distinct from each other but there's a lot between them on that spectrum too. IMHO it's a line in the sand and the placement varies entirely on personal preference
@@ThexImperfectionist I somewhat agree, but you could argue that logic applies to pretty much any genre (that's not fiction vs non-fiction). Genre is really just a type of marketing, and in the case of the original comment, romantic fantasy is not being marketed properly (at least in this specific case). I'm not really sure what the differentiating factor is between non-romance fantasy and romance fantasy, but I'm also not sure what the differentiating factor is between a thriller and a mystery, yet I may want to read one but not the other. I would assume the publisher examines any popular tropes within the book, then determines what genre those tropes are used in. I'm not a book marketer so I don't actually know how they make their decisions, though, so take my words with a grain of salt (as you should any CZcams comment haha).
As a hyperlexic, that sees technicolor in my head, I literally can't deal with a story that's too poorly written because I can't get into the book. If I have to read a section three times because the word usage is wrong or it's poorly worded then it completely breaks my immersion. If that happens often enough reading just becomes a slog and I can't do it anymore. Publishers are responsible for making sure that doesn't happen and I think they're failing at it more and more. Self publishing is wonderful but I've also found that so many just don't think that they need an editor and the finished product is nearly unreadable. The point is to share your story with an audience, at least it should be, not to prove how perfect you think you are at writing. The cover - I do judge a book by it's cover. I also feel like that's a little unfair when publishers have a bargain bin publishing section for books that they don't respect and the cover art reflects that, regardless of how good the book is. Authors- Hot Take -It's none of the author's business what we think, in general. Those are our thoughts and feelings and, while valid, not really the problem of the author. If you do the best work you can, it will either find an audience or it won't. Not that they can't or shouldn't look at what we say. It's just that our opinions are, essentially, irrelevant and should be. If someone is blasting a book... they're not the audience for the book. Side note: Watching you in electric pink is kind if eye bleedy. 😂
Well, it depends on _who_ is lambasting the book and *why* they're lambasting it, really. Especially back before reviews became something that basically just anyone could do. Similarly, different people may or may not have to read something more than once to fully get what it is even saying or not-that isn't always because it is poorly or unclearly written, sometimes it is legitimately just because different people's brains/minds understand or process various things differently than others' brains/minds do, and I think individual persons often have trouble knowing for sure which times are which or not.
@@drinkbooks I was mostly talking in general, too. I don't always type completely linearly though, so sometimes I will start a thought and then skip ahead to the next thought before coming back to finish the first one, just to try and get things out of my head and typed before I forget them or to try and give my mind a little more time to iron-out or expand upon the thoughts fully before posting it....but sometimes I lose track and forget things anyway, especially if I'm juggling commenting around other/offline distractions and don't reread thoroughly, which is what happened with that second paragraph. So, my apologies about that particular relatively out-of-context line. I was going to make a point about how before reviews became a thing that pretty much anybody could do, they were more of a thing that writers could use as a kind of sounding board to mine for pointers on how to potentially hone their craft/skill, and I think that's why there's such a complicated relationship sometimes for some writers between themselves and reciews and that's maybe why they don't always interact with reviews the way that readers nowadays tend to think writers should-sometimes even when writers aren't just messy/not-good people. But I forgot to circle back to it and fully flesh that point out. Sorry! Lol😅😁😁 Everything else before and after that was more just speaking in general, though. In general... I think whether a reviewer lambasting a book means that they simply weren't the correct audience actually depends entirely on who they are and what they're lambasting it for. I don't think that's just a rare exception, I think it really just depends on who the reader/reviewer is and what about that book they're lambasting and why. I also think, in general, it is just as often a reader's own personal foibles as the actual fault of the writing itself when reviewers do or don't need to reread something to make complete sense of it; same with when things are "cringe" or "aren't something a real person would say" or such, because most people use themself as their baseline, and people often don't realize that there are things that they personally would never say that other people actually would..and so on. But maybe that's just me. 🙂
@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 That's more than fine! (I can take 30 minutes or more to write a post because I try to be as clear as possible... and often I still fail. :D) Apparently, the first time your post came through, CZcams didn't include the 'Read More' button so I only saw like, the first 3 sentences of what you wrote initially. I was literally responding to what I could see and it ended at the 'before reviews' part. I didn't even get to see the rest of the context until you replied again. Now that I have some... what I meant here is the discussions about books actual content. If you don't like an author, what they stand for, any of that then you are reviewing the author, not the work. I do understand that there are a lot of people that have trouble separating those two things. They will even go looking for things in the work to hate on BECAUSE they dislike the author. They would be more likely to excuse or dismiss the same instances in the book of an author they like. Those authors probably aren't going to listen to you, not really. Those are not the conversations I mean. Bad people, write good words... often. The conversations I'm referring to are: If you're putting a book on blast because of it's tropes... the author doesn't have to care. Their publisher probably does. If you're putting a book on blast for a message you perceived but that the author didn't include in any way they were aware of... they don't have to care and probably shouldn't. Words can be twisted to mean many many things and it can be so subjective. Trying to please everyone never works. The only way to get a fairly even reaction to a work is to write - "...and they all lived, until they didn't. The End" If you're putting a book on blast because it was poorly written... they should probably care a little more and their editor DEFINITELY should. If you just didn't like what a book had to say, regardless of the reason, an author doesn't have to care. All of our freedoms surrounding the spoken and written word provide that space for anything to be written. It is also our freedom to say something about it, to express our opinions but this feeling so many of us have that our opinion should matter to an author is so arrogant that I can't support it except in a very few circumstances. Our opinion is reflected in whether or not we buy/share the work and whether or not it continues to sell. Sharing our views with each other is perfectly fine and does contribute to the success of a work. But, personally attacking an author as if we personally have any authority to do so is, for me, out of line. Not a breach of rights or anything... just out of line. If we're sharing our thoughts as readers, especially on the internet, an author is perfectly capable of going and looking up the reasons their book might be doing poorly. We are not owed access to any person whose work we consume. Actors, authors, whatever. We should not be attacking them personally. I think most of the reason we feel like we should be 'voting' out loud in their comment sections or 'at-ing' them is because we aren't being heard in other places in our lives. (coughpoliticscough) We want our individual vote to matter somewhere and we think 'personally telling a creator of media content exactly what we think and in the loudest possible terms' is taking hold of that power in the only way we really can. I really hope this makes sense. It's 7:30 in the morning and I had no sleep because, Insomnia, yay!
As an amateur writer, I feel like the comment at 16:38 describes how I often feel. I’m afraid that my work is way too niche and would never sell. This feeling has led me to restart and just give up on projects over and over, and I feel pressure to add in some kind of romance or something I really have little interest in just to increase consumer appeal. It’s exhausting, and I don’t want to put so much time and effort into something that won’t benefit me. All the negative press around publishing recently has also made me feel like “What’s the point?” When I hear people like Brandon Sanderson say they wrote 13 books before selling one and only one in 20 students in his class have ever gone on to make a living in the industry is just terrifying.
I’m on the same boat but I think in my opinion you shouldn’t pursue a career in writing to live off it. Is simply too hard due to the many books being released. I’m for example just writing for myself as a motivational project and if one day I publish and hit the lottery cool if not at least 100 or 400 people read it and hopefully enjoy it. Writing should start as a passion side project without expecting too much and if the book series hits then you can plan on how to live off it as a posible business that you love doing
one of the reasons i love this channel is because you articulate so well in your reviews, that even when I won't love a book you do, I know that based off the feedback you give!
I think publishing isn't dead, but it is the best time to be a new author because self publishing is so readily available now using the internet. Once an author reaches a certain level of popularity I think going with a publisher is still the right thing to do, the income is more stable, there is more marketing available, and there is a support structure to help write a quality product. I dont think that will go away. But I do think self publishing will be more and more popular even for the big authors because a print book is becoming a smaller section of the market and authors can have a larger piece of the pie, or even the full pie, if they publish themselves.
On the parents reading thing: I very much agree. I would not have started reading so early on in my life if my childhood home was not filled with the books my parents had amassed over the course of decades in every room. I certainly would not have such a huge love and appreciation for fantasy, sci-fi, crime thrillers and non-fiction books if those were not the primary genres present in my life growing up. I devoured absolutely every book in that house that caught my eyes (avoiding all the steven king books after that first one scarred me within two chapters) since my mom was always reading when she found the time and energy. Even now I am borrowing books from my parents which have only recently caught my eye, like classic arthurian fantasy or the first hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy book I found in my dad's office. My dad reads less often simply because his job already requires so much reading that he has no energy left afterwards (which holy shit I never related to anything more in my life after that first year of uni...it took me a good four years to get back into reading for leisure), but he obviously used to read more frequently in his youth as a big chunk of the books are his (mostly the sci-fi ones), and recently over christmas he randomly stole one of the books I brought with me and devoured it within less than four days (surprise surprise, it was sci-fi). My mum also insists that one of the biggest factors in getting young children into reading long term is reading stories to them until they can read them themselves and then continuously encouraging reading everyday. She always read stories to me when I was little, from classic fairytales, to Alice in Wonderland (which scared the shit out of me) and science/history books for children and when I could read them myself it was my turn to read them to her. If parents don't do this, where are children supposed to pick up the interest in stories and learning?
I have noticed a lot of authors supporting other authors on social media, and assisting them in their efforts to maintain a healthy social - professional balance. Authors who have to dip out of social media for a time (cancer treatments, maternity leave, or even due to general mental health or illness) are supported by other authors. They still help cross-promote and sometimes even step in to help the out-of-sorts author maintain communication with their readership. It's a wonderful trend to see; especially as we all know that authors are being expected to do more and more on their own.
I agree a lot on the part of first drafts. It’s a huge growing experience/hallmark to over come a personal perfectionism towards a first draft. I think we all start wanting a one hit wonder, but we learn to enjoy the process to become that piece than sneezing it out. I love your videos btw!! And thank you for highlighting cover artists, they’re so important
My first three drafts were around 150k words, each; then, I was rewriting and rewriting and… until ten years later I decided to write four short stories with these already old characters, and be done with it. So, I already published the first story last month, and now I’m making the final adjustments to the other stories to finally publish them.
The first comment is so true. Reads with Rachel posts a lot about how trope fantasies are being pushed heavily despite being badly written even by big 5 publishers. She posted recently about a unique fantasy (but it was YA) that was being badly and under marketed and it was a big 5 publisher so it really confuses me that even companies with such influence and wealth don’t want to take this risk. They have the money and should be settings trends, so why don’t they push good books instead of derivative ones? Also I am glad you refuted James’ comment because romantasy is now a new genre which is good. At least we know what to expect. My issue is when books are romantasy but are marketed as epic fantasy like 4th Wing. I think that is the book he referred to.
You read my comment!!!! And love that you completely disagree. It gives me hope that I have only fallen into a toxic side of social media and there is a place where it is different. I’ll keep looking.
The rise of indie publishing has done objective good for the book market. Authors that would never have been picked up by a publishing house are reaching huge audiences and authors get to have their purest vision out there. What is a problem is Amazon monopolizing a good thing. I hate that the only way I can support the "small guys" is to buy from the most morally bankrupt company out there.
I've heard many authors say "Write the book you want to read." Because if you want to read it, then others do too! It'll also help you be more passionate and dedicated toward the project.
Thanks for mentioning the thing about following influencing the attention you get from publishers. I want to publish a story traditionally one day, but this is one big thing that makes me feel like I won't be able to. I don't really have any kind of following, and with 3 kids, I don't feel like I'll ever have time to grow one. So hearing that is a thing isn't great, but it's at least useful to know that it is a thing.
Hey Kyle- hang in there. Don't give up and keep working on the quality of your writing and your dream :) Whenever I think about this, I think of Delia Owens, who wrote Where the Crawdads Sing. It was a runway success and she did not have a following on social media at all. She was also in her seventies! You can be that diamond in the rough too!
Feedback on the visual: Love the background and colors, but as someone who is a little light sensitive, it was difficult to watch this. Had to look away, or scroll away from the video, to just listen 😅 Would have been nice if it was toned down just a bit (somehow - I couldn't tell you how 😂)
What really got me into reading as a kid was a Pokemon manga. I have ADHD and dyslexia so reading was hard for me. It wasn't until I found a topic that I already enjoyed and read with no pressure of having to read it well that I fell in love with reading. It was the first time that I actually felt good about reading something. Most kids don't read on their own because its a chore that's regularly assigned to them at school. The best way in my mind to break them from this to show them things that they love also exist in this form or read to them when they're younger. As an elementary schooler I had no clue that things like pokemon and yugioh had books and I had never seen a comic shop anywhere near me. I knew things like the Harry Potter movies were based on books but frankly to a kid with reading disabilities those books are hella intimidating. I was struggling reading 20 pages, those books are thick and in my little mind way beyond anything I was capable of reading.
What heresy is happening at 4:30 Daniel? You like reading physical books in public because it encourages people to walk up to you and start a conversation? I've never heard a better pitch for e-readers (also I missed this format, thanks for bringing it back!)
I had the same issue and came here looking to see if it was just me. Once I noticed it was a 5 second loop I couldn't ignore it and it's all I could hear.
As a fellow dyslexic, I found that listening to audiobooks as a kid really made it easier to read as I got older. It allowed me to be exposed to literature intellectually and emotionally while not having to struggle through my dyslexia. My parents did still read to me as a young kid but they didn't always have the time to read as much as I wanted and they were worried that I wasn't developing independence when it came to choosing what stories to read. Also, as I got older I wanted to read more mature books with longer chapters and my parents just didn't have the time or energy to do that, completely not their fault. Plus my mom and I both have ADHD and we weren't always on the same wavelength about when to read or what book was actually interesting. So a librarian suggested audiobooks and I've been listening ever since. While audiobooks won't, and shouldn't, replace parents reading to their kids, it can help bridge the gap for a lot of us especially if there is something between us and learning to read, such as dyslexia, autism, ADHD, etc. Not to mention if you have illiterate parents, or they have to work a lot due to capitalism being what it is (especially now). Also, it's perfectly fine to listen to audiobooks as an literate adult (or kid)! Destigmatizing illiteracy is an important step in making a more educated society, and it does not mean treating the issue like it's no big deal. Stories should be for everyone and nobody should feel ashamed of themselves for something they had no control over. We need a better education system, not bullying/gatekeeping. Illiterate people are the victims, not the problem! This is, of course, a lot easier to do when people have easy access to libraries, TEXAS!!! But anyway...
Write what you want. The audience often doesn't know what they want, and it can be so stressful to pin it down. The biggest and most difficult trick to pull off as an artist is to give the audience something they didn't even know they wanted. You will never get that if you are constantly chasing trends and trying to meet people's fickle expectations. Not every idea will be successful, but most artists also enjoy the art of others. If you enjoy it enough to pick it up, then you have some idea what people like. Just keep trying.
Excellent video! When I was a kid I used to get in trouble for reading past bedtime and my mom learned to check under the sheets for my book. So I would lean over the side of the bed reading by streetlight if she didn't catch me. 😄
Regarding reading in public with a physical book, I do this all the time - in pubs waiting for friends, on the bus, and in the gym [inbetween sets and during treadmills steps - I think I'm the 'guy with the books' in my gym ;-) ] and I get loads of strangers come up and ask about what I'm reading, as they are interested, or say nice things if they too like the book! Happened again just two days ago :-) Actually made some friendships from complete strangers. Reading in public is social!!
I'm so glad you share my opinion on the whole artistic concessions thing, Daniel! Marketing can never, ever become art - if you add marketing to your work, it will always carry an anti-artistic ball and chain (is this a spicy take as well? idk hahahah)
Yeah it's my parents reading to me that got me into reading books, I do miss book covers art from back in the 80's and the 90's that were more original compared for now that boring or makes me is this just a re-write of that show/movie. Reading books also helped me keep up with my English studies as my disability makes my learning very hard in the "normal" school format of teaching. Also having a physical copy just works better then trying digital, since digital print just harder to read for me and I don't have to worry about battery power or dropping it. I'm always giving new writers a try but at times I find it harder to get into a new writer due to new fads or only finding out via a social media like twitter, when I rather not have to be on-line all the time to find out about new stuff. Which is why I love going to a library.
16:02 I actually hate this trend that you mention here. My wife was interested in reading acotar (or however it’s spelled) because she kept seeing the books everywhere and the she’s like vaguely romantic fantasy books and then was distraught to learn they’re basically just smut with fairies. Maybe we are prudes or whatever but my wife and I both vastly prefer Sword and Sorcery over Smut and Sorcery Vibes. Buying a book you thought might be an interesting fantasy adventure story and then being lambasted with sexual content you didn’t want sucks and I feel like either the front or back cover of a book should absolutely have some kind of label or way of making it clear when a book has explicit sex scenes. Especially if there’s more than one.
Always love to see your thoughts! In regard to cliche books, speaking as both a writer and reader--people actively seek out books with their favorite tropes. I sure do! I think of it like my favorite food. Sometimes, I want to be adventurous and try something new. But sometimes, I want that meal I KNOW tastes great.
I think authors should always write a story they feel passionate about, rather than one they think will appeal to readers. Everyone performs better when they are doing something they love rather than something they are not so enthusiastic about, so a novel written from the heart is bound to be of better quality than one that is not. It makes it more likely that the story will be well received by readers.
I think the biggest issue with the "Write what you want not what will sell" argument is that a lot of what people base their writing on IS what has sold in the past. The argument sets up a binary that just doesn't exist. People want what they have bought into. It had to be available (sold) at some point, in order for them to experience it. That's not a bad thing. It can lead to both iteration (Eye of the World), and subversion (Evangelion) entirely depending on what the writer _does_ with what they bought into in the first place.
None of my parents are readers but they still read to me almost every night when I was younger. The major reason for this was that I improve my language skills. So I was raised bilingually (German and Turkish) but we mostly spoke Turkish. However, my parents would always read to me in German (I had dozens of fairytales and I loved it 😂). I also had a bunch of audiobooks in form of CDs that I would put in my CD Player and just listen to whenever I wanted to.
I think a variation of James Tullos' one works in the sense that a lot of romantasy tries very hard to pretend to be like "good" fantasy but refuses to make some general effort towards it in terms of worldbuilding and consistency. Not in terms of depth or anything that would turn off the core audience, but in terms of just having some generally reasonable and consistent worlds and plotlines. Some authors do it much better than others(I've read a few of these with my gf, shoutout to Illona Andrews who actually write fairly solid plots and interesting worlds) but a lot of the most popular stuff is downright incoherent as fantasy or even as a story. It reads like smut set in some vague historical period with magic.
In response to the remark about parents wanting their children to read, but not reading themselves, I just want to say that I don’t understand why there is this idea that reading is an especially virtuous hobby. I love to read because I enjoy a good story, and reading just happens to be my preferred way to take in a story. Whereas some people who enjoy good stories prefer to take them in through television shows or movies. Why then is it considered to be a good thing to spend hours reading, but a bad thing to spend hours watching TV. What is the difference?
As an e-book lover I disagree on parents reading paper books: if you read on you phone or kindle you can still talk to your children about books. In fact I think it's generally good to talk to your children 🤷♀
So glad to see this series return! I’ve been watching your channel for about 3 years now and as someone who loves your book content the most, I (maybe a bit selfishly) love to see that you’re going back to your roots. Hope you’re doing well and can’t wait to see more of this new direction 😁
22:47 Media Literacy is so important. Literature class is so far the foundation for logic and reason. We start learning through stories, so we begin learning reading comprehension and then we need to learn critical thinking. Understanding what we read and asking questions. We should add literacy for media especially because we are surrounded by media, tv, movies, CZcams, and advertisements. Learn the logical fallacies because even if someone turns out to not be an avid reader we are all still exposed to media every single day, unless you live on a farm in the middle of nowhere with not internet or cable. 🎉😂❤
I'm having so much trouble focusing with that background lol. I have terrible ADHD though, so might just be me. Edit: just had a stim crash I think, nvm. This was an awesome vid and really interesting to listen to.
i remember an interview where Harlan Ellison talks about how genres are largely a tool publishers use to categorize things on bookshelves, shoehorning things in where they may or may not belong for monetary gain. i know this has been contentious in speculative fiction for a while, and some people gatekeep around these genres for what is or is not, for example, "hard sci-fi" vs "soft sci-fi". i actually just released a video on my channel that tangentially talks about this, and how it can lead to gatekeeping or even discrimination because people can spiral and get really elitist about what is and is not a genre.
I totally disagree with your take on Fantasy Romance. 90% of the genre is trashy romance cosplaying as fantasy, with not themes, massive worldbuilding problems, and characterization all over the place because the author couldn't be bothered to think the implications of what they are writing as long as it makes the female main character look badass, create cheap drama, make the male main character even more horny... I mean "in love" with the protagonist. Also, a lot of reader just want the "spice" with the new Rhysand rip off and a lot of the lore worldbuilding is reduced to "this magic things make my character super special and badass/make the segg great/my partner will never leave me". If anything, it looks like fantasy romance is their teen phase with mostly wish fulfillment power fantasies.
To my it looks more like a way to publish and the readers to read "spice" Without being judged , to me it's ok If you want to make or read "spice" but don't try to sell a bad write "fantasy romance" book , if you want to make a romance fantasy book make a good one , if you want it to be "spice" ok but make it right, don't try to pretend it's fantasy with romance , is just a "spice" bad write book with poorly written fantasy in the background
@@steverainbow2.0 there is definitely a component of shame about not wanting to be seen or heard talking about a book that is specifically smut, so they hide behind the "romance" and "fantasy". I noticed this fandom rarely talk about worldbuilding and everything is about shipping and soap opera drama, because the moment you think about it, it just falls apart
I’ve seen a lot of SJM readers pick up Brandon Sanderson and loving it because of the world building , while preferring the more intimate relationships in SJM’s books so I think you’re just wrong in what these demographic of readers actually want. I haven’t read ACOTAR, but videos used to show up on my fyp discussing how some of the magical elements could be incorporated more even. I don’t disagree that there is probably a lot of copy paste books within that genre since that always happens with popular, marketable books.
@@steverainbow2.0 well ther we are with the 90% are horny erotica stealth marketed. Its not that romance in fantacy can be great slow burn organic in the story and great for characters too, the best stories got that, but that isnt what james is talking about but the spicey and smut stealth marketet with a disguise put on a label that is not only not giving fantasy reader whatthey not want, but also the smut readers neither. Oh yeah and maas might still, she still does worldbuilding and that enough and through that, its fantasy, but its knock offs are not. SJMs shoulsnd be in the erotica genre , or at least romance in the area because it definitly not ya.
That unfinished series take is such bullshit. And if it's about who i think it is, and i wouldn't be surprised if it's about GRRM, then it's even worse, because that talking point always seems to basically just people trying to get a dig at him, along with any talks of his legacy. Like, they don't actually care about the idea they're presenting, they just want to express their anger and feel like he'll get some "payback" for the oh so terrible crime of not finishing a book series.
@@poodlemuffin From what I saw on IG a bunch of authors did, and now Spotify is trying to pull a 180 and say that's not what they meant. which is of course BS.
I am an avid reader with several overflowing bookshelves. I have read and continue to read to my kids on a daily basis. With all that, only my youngest shows any interest in reading for himself (though my eldest does read Manga).
Daniel I love the content, but my ND brain can't handle the editing on this video. Can't speak for anyone else, but thought it was important to let you know. I will still listen to it, though!
My hot take is nobody likes novellas. Most people prefer long thick novels than easy to read short books. Authors have to suffer by putting in so much content and unnecessary scenes to please their customers. I think some stories should only last as long as they could. 😤
My 'LETS DEBATE' assertion is that the original wheel of time covers are great and by far the best out of any editions, and have a really nice visual / thematic cohesion.
0:00 Intro 1:22 Special Editions 2:30 Parenting and children not reading 4:38 hot take on Publishers from Overly Sarcastic Productions 6:27 Writers concerned with self advertising and not writing/ social media 8:44 venture outside your comfort genre 9:22 writing degrees aren’t useless, but… 11:00 books covers are really good 14:35 James’ hot take on publishing being ruined //Romanticy 16:30 writing to tell a story or write for the audience 18:36 appearances and marketing and established influencers having more opportunities in many entertainment industries 20:14 more cliches verses subverting expectations. • 22:47 Media Literacy 23:50 too much advice from authors 25:48 write the story you want to tell not sell, be original 27:52 unfinished fantasy genres
With the argument about Indy Authors….. Libraries don’t carry self published books. If a person’s only reading option is their local library, they won’t be reading self published books. And YES!!!! Of course you judge a book by its. That’s the point of the damn cover art.
Okay I haven't even seen two minutes of the video yet but this fuzzy background is already making me dizzy and making my eyes all tingly haha (before anyone says, yes I noticed the background changes after a couple more minutes :D)
Just started the video and am not sure what’s covered, but one bizarre issue I’ve noticed in the publishing world is a SHORTAGE OF HARDCOVERS. For example, try finding shadow of the gods in hardcover for less than $300. That’s ridiculous. That’s more than I had to pay for the year of Sanderson and those at least were special editions. 🤯
Yes! I’ve noticed this as well. My guess is that it actually has to do with a lot of book printers and binders (in the U.S. at least) closing between 2020-present. Both are very expensive businesses to maintain, and because there is less competition now prices have gone up for materials/labor. That’s likely why publishers are doing less hardcovers, because the printing/binding process costs so much more than for paperback
@@allisonyoung8549 I have no doubt you’re right because otherwise it just doesn’t make sense. It breaks my heart that good books can’t get hardcover regular editions while mediocre books will have a 💩 ton of special editions. And I would be more willing to buy paperbacks, but every modern paperback I’ve bought is laughably fragile. Guess I’ll just dress in black from now on and mourn those closed printers and binders. 😭
So I'm writing these as I watch this video. I usually picked up my books off the shelf at random because of the cover. I heard of Wheel of Time but never read it, I think I picked it up and didn't catch my attention fast enough, and I had not been reading as much for various reasons so despite being a major writer of fantasy I didn't know who Brandon Sanderson was until I found his BYU classes online. I found Brandon Sanderson because of CZcams. As for you Daniel, reinvesting your good will as a CZcamsr into a writing career is no different than reinvesting your money to a new business project. Amazon and bookstores on the shelves are so crowded that it is valid to sell books because you have earned trust and fame in the past artists had to do the same if they didn't just want to get art grants. You are legitimate. People trust you know what a good story is, someone who maybe a better author but hasn't gotten their name out there is another book on the shelf in the sea of millions.
I can't agree more 16:00 the fact that on audible they don't tag these books with romance or erotica and keep the covers bland is so annoying . If that's what you want you should be able to find it and if you don't it should be avoidable
I disagree with the person who posted that parents are always trying to force to read and they do not read themselves. I’m a parent and know many parents and I have found the complete opposite. The parents I know who aren’t readers don’t really push their kids to read.
Mine would be: so many of us readers/writers are not social creatures, and that can show in the writing. MANY times I've had to pause and as myself "has this writer ever interacted with real humans before?" and press X to Doubt...
I'm an aspiring writer in the querying trenches right now, and wanted to comment on your response to the take about balancing audience desire with author desire. As a fellow snobby prick, I absolutely agree with you; I am far more interested in authors who write what's in their heart. For me personally, I don't think I would want to keep writing books if I felt I had to dismiss the stories in my heart for the sake of an audience. Of course, feedback is paramount, being critiqued and editing based on reception is essential, but I feel like I have to always write from a core of what I love, or the result just... won't feel right to me. What I wanted to comment on was that, as a currently querying writer, it has largely felt to me like success comes from the miracle alignment of audience and author desire-- an altogether uncontrollable asymptote, if you will. I'll of course keep writing and keep improving as a writer, I still have a long way to go, and don't by any means intend to imply that I'm a master of the craft (far from it) -- my point is simply that I feel like the journey of an aspiring writer currently is as much about this miracle convergence of author and audience desire as it is about being a skilled writer.
I write stories because they demand to be written. It feels likes a waste to have all these books and do nothing with them so I publish them. I'm not in it to get rich and famous. I don't pay any attention to sales aside from the books I sell in person. I think, on a completely different note, that we are on the cusp of a development equivalent to the advent of the printing press. If you look at that period there was a lot of turmoil as societies learned to deal with the onslaught of words, both good and bad. AI is having a similar affect as we have to filter out huge amounts of crap, but also be aware of the potential ways that machine learning (a better term than AI) can assist in many processes, including creative activity.
Oh my god thank you for talking about how schools make no attempt to teach people basic logic. Why the hell did I spend 6 years having to learn poetry as a compulsory subject? Everyone in Australia did. I'm sure we can all agree, common sense is a myth. No one naturally develops critical thinking skills. They have to be taught, or a child is forced to develop them as a survival skill in a rough home environment. It's one of the most crucial ways of retaining your sanity when you have an abusive parent. 'Critical thinking' in schools is synonymous with overanalysing Shakespeare to the point where I would bet my life if we time travelled and showed him all the stuff students have been forced to write about him, he'd be like "uh... no. I only meant to imply 2% of this." Without question and if you think otherwise you're just trying to convince yourself you didn't waste like 400 hours of your life on nothing. No one actually teaches critical thinking. No one teaches us how to get a job. No one teaches us how to do our taxes. Beyond basic reading and maths school is nothing more than glorified babysitting so your parents can stay at work. Keep in mind a huge reason schools even kicked off in the first place was to get kids out of working in factories. It was just a more humane place to put them, since once we switched away from primarily being an agricultural society, a parent at work was no longer a parent at home working the fields. School is and has always been meant to be nothing more than babysitting (once child labour was largely abolished in the west). And most western education systems have no interest in changing that.
No-one at the publishers working with Martin, Rothfuss or Lynch are asking them to do 'self advertising' on social media rather than write. The best advert for your book is the next book and finishing a series is even better. But you don't advertise yourself, you advertise book 1 and that converts your readers to that whole series. Also yes, writing degrees are useless unless you have Kevin Anderson or Sanderson as a professor (or some other writer who makes a living doing it, telling you useful things about actually making a living). Most authors I know who have one, don't rave about how much it helped them write books and would rather have done something else with the time. Much like getting any other degree of course as so many aren't used for the actual job you do, and while the time isn't wasted, it could have been better sent... probably better than me commenting on CZcams when I should be on my treadmill though ;)
There's an old saying which I learnt at uni, that has only proved to be more true as time goes on: 'If you want to be a doctor, study medicine. If you want to be a solicitor, study law. If you want to be an engineer, study engineering. If you want to work in the arts, study engineering.' Of course, I _did_ study something practical, and then the entire industry I was qualifying for got replaced by a free phone app, so what do I know about anything.
One crippling issue ive seen agents and editors speak to is the mass exodus of experinced workers from the publishing industry. People with experience and connections, leaving less experienced people with few connections. If people traditionally publish because of the connections giving you access to better things, then where has that gone?
yeah, that's a real issue. And with the fragmentation of the distribution system (oh Amazon, must you burn the whole world?), the distribution chains those trab pub houses have also become liiiitle by little less important :/
Are they exiting the industry or just working with the indies? Because they can get you know, money, and work from home, and start their own small press and all sorts. Or just write their own books in some cases.
Possibly nowhere. I studied translation and interpreting at university, because it was one of those jobs that there was always demand for - takes a decently clever and well-trained individual to produce a faithful translation of _anything,_ let alone things where the issuer of the translation might be liable for any misunderstandings they've caused.
My graduating year, google translate became a free app download on people's phones. And 'somewhat shoddy machine translation, right now, for free' proved to be exactly as much as most people were interested in, once that was an option. There is no conservation of mass/energy that applies to industries; if the demand goes away for whatever reason, so too do the jobs.
Those people wanna be paid properly. The new hires don't know what proper pay is. Its really saddly as simple as that.
No, the entire problem are the "connections", rather than it being merit based. When you rely on "connections" only "connected" people get ahead. Just like the Mob ;)
This is why I love this Neil Gaiman quote about writing: "The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.”
Nothing killed my interest in reading as a kid faster then my mom pressuring me to "move on" from reading books I enjoyed, fiction, to reading dry autobiographical books because she couldn't fathom someone else having different tastes in genre. And inb4 someone tries to say "oh read this biography it's not dry at all!" no, I'm glad you like that genre and good for you but it's not for me
I hope you are reading books that interest you again. 📚 Funnily enough, I'm only in the past few years getting into reading biographies of artists (painters/photographers/actors) that I adore. Otherwise, I'm expanding out on reading more classics, fiction, non-fiction, and my lifelong obsession of sci-fi.
For me it was the set text for my english exams. I wanted to read fantasy so badly, but felt guilty because I had to read other stuff for exams.
I still havent got back into reading properly, i just lurk on booktube lol
Sounds like my own mother who expects the world to strictly share her interests. I really hope you've re-discovered your love for it. 🙏
My mother hated my liking for fantasy and sci-fi. “Why are you reading that crap?” Thankfully my godmother gave me every sci-fi and fantasy book she finished and my two grandfathers regularly gave me money for books. My mother now criticizes the fact that I literally buy my son whatever book he asks for. I’ve only restricted what he wants to read for the two weeks of exams every spring- followed by a book binge when they’re done. I figure it’s also my job to teach him to prioritize.
I may have a skewed perception because I did grow up around my mom reading constantly. But I think what actually made me want to read as a kid was just that my parents read TO me. Not just around me
Reading a physical book is a tactical thing, I agree
As a tactical weapon and a tactile embrace.
I destroy books while reading them. Not intentionally, of course, but it's the largest reason I switched to e-reading a LONG time ago
You can read them, you can throw them
@@shadowofchaos7675 ur hard-core if ur hard-cover 🤌
I would actually say physical reading is a whole entire experiential type of thing.
Physical books don't just have a feel to them, they also have a scent or scents and etcetera too. They can also be read even if you have no access to electricity or the internet and such.
I love how James Tullos’s question is just the topic he’s been going off on on his own channel for months now. 😭
Yeah…his perpetually pissed off attitude made me unsubscribe. I don’t need that kind of negativity in my feed, personally. To each their own though.
@@ofthewilderwoods That's okay, I still love you
@@JamesTullos I don't like the implication that you can't be strong and badass and yet also still need saving. But it is true that there is often a severe lack of balance between the two, in most things.
On the parents reading: I generally agree. A lot of my love of reading comes from my dad. He’s always been a reader. I remember seeing him read every night when I was a kid.
Yeah, but ... I'm a librarian and, as far as I know, the only thing my father read was the sports page in the newspaper.
My sister and I are both lifelong readers and my mom definitely made sure we had library cards, etc as kids but I only remember her reading herself on rare occasion
Neither of my parents were readers. My mom read to my sister and I. I'm the only one who reads, albeit my mom and sister occasionally do
I agree with your point, but in reverse. I've noticed my son is reading now because of me. Best part? We read the same stuff.
@@ThexImperfectionistI'm the only reader in even my extended family.
So I have heard a lot of people over the year dismiss books or authors as fad chasers when their book comes out shortly after a massive hit like Twilight, Harry Potter, or Hunger Games and it has similar themes, genre elements, yada yada. And while some books ARE just smashed together to chase $ vapor, there's an element to this that people don't seem to notice.
When a book blows up, publishers reach out to agents looking for books that their authors have already written that are similar. So that "trend chasing" book might very well have been a wild passion project for the author that they never thought would see the light of day because the genre was unpopular when it was written.
Now, I have no idea how often this happens but it's a thing that we should keep in mind.
I feel like the line between romance and straight up smut has disappeared during the last twenty years.
Yes 😫 and it makes me sad
Yeah fantasly slow burn romance can be great, seriously grat romance, is great,
and organic, but smut, shouldnt be in disguise, and god knows its market is big enough to not try to pretend to not be super horny. if its in the romance rather than the ya section, good, it should.
@@marocat4749 I am not sure if it is slipping into the YA but I have notice there is both romance and fantasy romance that are clearly using the language found in erotic or if you will smutty novels.
@@nicoleneedschocolate I am not sure it makes me sad but it is a bit annoying. I remember when smut novels were pushed off the shelves at major book stories for erotica romance. Over thirty years later now and you can pick up erotica romance novels, some being fantasy at your local big box store. And of you filled through them it is easy to notice that they seem to be all written for straight women. You have to look through self published works in the Kindle shop to find anything that isn't writing for the notorious win moms.
I can't tell you how much I've missed this series! I love the direction the channel going. Thank you for the consistent S tier content!
On the parents reading: I somewhat agree. My mom read to my older brothers and me every night when we were little, and my dad always had a book on his nightstand, but I never really saw them reading.
However, my older brothers were VORACIOUS readers, and I probably got my love of reading from mirroring them. They also shaped my reading preferences since I was taking books from their shelves.
My mom got me into reading by reading us Star Trek novels on road trips to visit family.
We do teach media literacy, but only in the context of traditional novels (cue infamous great gatsby light in the distance analysis), I do agree that kids would be more engaged if we could learn about literacy in film aswell.
We also teach media literacy here in Canada. I teach it in all sorts of formats. Where I'm at, it's kind of up to the teacher to decide the scope, which I love. I try to include everything from ads to movies to poetry to music.
Daniel, I gotta say I’ve been loving the return to this format. Of course, you do and don’t do whatever you want, but I’ve been enjoying the change to the channel over the past few weeks
I literally gave up on a series I was greatly enjoying because the author admitted she gave into fan pressure to put two characters together she previously had no intention of ever doing. I know it's pretentious, but I wanna read what the author wanted to write not what the fans told them to write. I'm sure it was still well written, I just have no interest in a story as told by the fans (or rather, I'll go to Ao3 if I wanna enjoy that avenue).
The only kind of writing advice i dont like is when those people say "never do this or that", but its basically just a matter of taste and/or execution
My favorite example of this is Stephen King saying in "On Writing" to never use adverbs. Now every time I see him use an adverb, I laugh gleefully.
Only the Sith deal in absolutes...
Re Cover Art: Besides being a writer/Author I also do graphic design/digital painting, etc (I'm trained in this area), and I've noticed there has been an increase in the last few years of covers looking exactly the same in format. TT I'm so sad. I always loved seeing graphic artists push the boundaries of cover art. As much as I dislike 50 Shades of Grey, as a book, you can see that the cover art was well thought through and I can say that without any hesitation. But a lot of the covers from the 2022 run looked like they were the same formats without pressing the boundaries that much. Which is to say, when you get a human to design the cover and really think it through, people can sense it. Out of all of them Monae's cover stood out a lot for me, I kept staring at it. My favorite covers are the ones where you read the story and then understand both the cover and the story better in tandem. (But then I'm biased towards Michael Whelan covers because it's clear he reads the books he makes covers for.) When you're halfway through and pick up a detail that's in the cover you didn't see before because the story mentioned it, I think that's magic.
BTW, that said, for self-pubbed authors, your cover will look far more professional if you get someone to format the type as much as the art. (My Typography prof was adamant that one should plan the type with the graphic behind it and stop thinking of it last, but with the graphic) Usually the bad treatment of type and not telling your cover artist you need room for the type to appear as well often gives you away. Also have to say people copying the format of other books and getting the type worse because you don't want to pay a graphic artist makes me go boo. Artists need to support other artists because we share often the same spaces. Plenty of writers are also artists and also are into other creative spaces.
While a lot of book covers have gotten a lot better and a lot cooler, some genres have done the complete opposite. Walked by a romance table at Barnes the other day, every single book was the same formula: pastel cover, illustration of two people interacting in the middle with bold, colorful title over the graphic.
That traditional romance. You venture into indie and Litrpg, and the cover for romance gets very different
7:40 the only thing that disappoints me is no matter how many times I try to advertise my book and get help with it with the person who helps me with my books in general, I haven’t succeeded selling my first book(I’m sure that one of the reasons is language differences).
Not really possible to help without knowing what the book is. Are you actually tapped into the indie community? Is it published or are you trying to smack your face against the brick wall of trad publishing?
14:42 pisses me off too. I get that fantasy romance is definitely a genre, BUT I hate that it’s mixed in with non-romance fantasy. It’s really annoying to see a book with an interesting title or cover, only to read the description and find it’s a fantasy romance and not just a traditional fantasy.
Again, I don’t care that it exists, I just wish bookstores in particular would give it its own section.
So where do you draw the line? Most all fantasy books incorporate a romantic plotline, even ones (I would bet) you would call "non-romance" fantasy. So how much is "too much" before it needs a qualifier to be allowed in the fantasy genre? And who decides how much is too much? There are extreme examples that are clearly distinct from each other but there's a lot between them on that spectrum too. IMHO it's a line in the sand and the placement varies entirely on personal preference
@@ThexImperfectionist I somewhat agree, but you could argue that logic applies to pretty much any genre (that's not fiction vs non-fiction). Genre is really just a type of marketing, and in the case of the original comment, romantic fantasy is not being marketed properly (at least in this specific case). I'm not really sure what the differentiating factor is between non-romance fantasy and romance fantasy, but I'm also not sure what the differentiating factor is between a thriller and a mystery, yet I may want to read one but not the other. I would assume the publisher examines any popular tropes within the book, then determines what genre those tropes are used in. I'm not a book marketer so I don't actually know how they make their decisions, though, so take my words with a grain of salt (as you should any CZcams comment haha).
As a hyperlexic, that sees technicolor in my head, I literally can't deal with a story that's too poorly written because I can't get into the book. If I have to read a section three times because the word usage is wrong or it's poorly worded then it completely breaks my immersion. If that happens often enough reading just becomes a slog and I can't do it anymore. Publishers are responsible for making sure that doesn't happen and I think they're failing at it more and more. Self publishing is wonderful but I've also found that so many just don't think that they need an editor and the finished product is nearly unreadable. The point is to share your story with an audience, at least it should be, not to prove how perfect you think you are at writing.
The cover - I do judge a book by it's cover. I also feel like that's a little unfair when publishers have a bargain bin publishing section for books that they don't respect and the cover art reflects that, regardless of how good the book is.
Authors- Hot Take -It's none of the author's business what we think, in general. Those are our thoughts and feelings and, while valid, not really the problem of the author. If you do the best work you can, it will either find an audience or it won't. Not that they can't or shouldn't look at what we say. It's just that our opinions are, essentially, irrelevant and should be. If someone is blasting a book... they're not the audience for the book.
Side note: Watching you in electric pink is kind if eye bleedy. 😂
Well, it depends on _who_ is lambasting the book and *why* they're lambasting it, really.
Especially back before reviews became something that basically just anyone could do.
Similarly, different people may or may not have to read something more than once to fully get what it is even saying or not-that isn't always because it is poorly or unclearly written, sometimes it is legitimately just because different people's brains/minds understand or process various things differently than others' brains/minds do, and I think individual persons often have trouble knowing for sure which times are which or not.
@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 I was more talking about general discussion. There are obviously exceptions.
@@drinkbooks I was mostly talking in general, too. I don't always type completely linearly though, so sometimes I will start a thought and then skip ahead to the next thought before coming back to finish the first one, just to try and get things out of my head and typed before I forget them or to try and give my mind a little more time to iron-out or expand upon the thoughts fully before posting it....but sometimes I lose track and forget things anyway, especially if I'm juggling commenting around other/offline distractions and don't reread thoroughly, which is what happened with that second paragraph. So, my apologies about that particular relatively out-of-context line. I was going to make a point about how before reviews became a thing that pretty much anybody could do, they were more of a thing that writers could use as a kind of sounding board to mine for pointers on how to potentially hone their craft/skill, and I think that's why there's such a complicated relationship sometimes for some writers between themselves and reciews and that's maybe why they don't always interact with reviews the way that readers nowadays tend to think writers should-sometimes even when writers aren't just messy/not-good people. But I forgot to circle back to it and fully flesh that point out. Sorry! Lol😅😁😁 Everything else before and after that was more just speaking in general, though. In general... I think whether a reviewer lambasting a book means that they simply weren't the correct audience actually depends entirely on who they are and what they're lambasting it for. I don't think that's just a rare exception, I think it really just depends on who the reader/reviewer is and what about that book they're lambasting and why. I also think, in general, it is just as often a reader's own personal foibles as the actual fault of the writing itself when reviewers do or don't need to reread something to make complete sense of it; same with when things are "cringe" or "aren't something a real person would say" or such, because most people use themself as their baseline, and people often don't realize that there are things that they personally would never say that other people actually would..and so on. But maybe that's just me. 🙂
@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 That's more than fine! (I can take 30 minutes or more to write a post because I try to be as clear as possible... and often I still fail. :D) Apparently, the first time your post came through, CZcams didn't include the 'Read More' button so I only saw like, the first 3 sentences of what you wrote initially. I was literally responding to what I could see and it ended at the 'before reviews' part. I didn't even get to see the rest of the context until you replied again.
Now that I have some... what I meant here is the discussions about books actual content. If you don't like an author, what they stand for, any of that then you are reviewing the author, not the work. I do understand that there are a lot of people that have trouble separating those two things. They will even go looking for things in the work to hate on BECAUSE they dislike the author. They would be more likely to excuse or dismiss the same instances in the book of an author they like. Those authors probably aren't going to listen to you, not really. Those are not the conversations I mean. Bad people, write good words... often.
The conversations I'm referring to are:
If you're putting a book on blast because of it's tropes... the author doesn't have to care. Their publisher probably does.
If you're putting a book on blast for a message you perceived but that the author didn't include in any way they were aware of... they don't have to care and probably shouldn't. Words can be twisted to mean many many things and it can be so subjective. Trying to please everyone never works. The only way to get a fairly even reaction to a work is to write - "...and they all lived, until they didn't. The End"
If you're putting a book on blast because it was poorly written... they should probably care a little more and their editor DEFINITELY should.
If you just didn't like what a book had to say, regardless of the reason, an author doesn't have to care. All of our freedoms surrounding the spoken and written word provide that space for anything to be written. It is also our freedom to say something about it, to express our opinions but this feeling so many of us have that our opinion should matter to an author is so arrogant that I can't support it except in a very few circumstances. Our opinion is reflected in whether or not we buy/share the work and whether or not it continues to sell. Sharing our views with each other is perfectly fine and does contribute to the success of a work. But, personally attacking an author as if we personally have any authority to do so is, for me, out of line. Not a breach of rights or anything... just out of line.
If we're sharing our thoughts as readers, especially on the internet, an author is perfectly capable of going and looking up the reasons their book might be doing poorly. We are not owed access to any person whose work we consume. Actors, authors, whatever. We should not be attacking them personally.
I think most of the reason we feel like we should be 'voting' out loud in their comment sections or 'at-ing' them is because we aren't being heard in other places in our lives. (coughpoliticscough) We want our individual vote to matter somewhere and we think 'personally telling a creator of media content exactly what we think and in the loudest possible terms' is taking hold of that power in the only way we really can.
I really hope this makes sense. It's 7:30 in the morning and I had no sleep because, Insomnia, yay!
@@drinkbooks 😅🤣 Oy, technology sometimes, 'eh? Lol
You make perfect sense to me, no worries. And I pretty much agree with you completely, too. 🙂
As an amateur writer, I feel like the comment at 16:38 describes how I often feel. I’m afraid that my work is way too niche and would never sell. This feeling has led me to restart and just give up on projects over and over, and I feel pressure to add in some kind of romance or something I really have little interest in just to increase consumer appeal. It’s exhausting, and I don’t want to put so much time and effort into something that won’t benefit me.
All the negative press around publishing recently has also made me feel like “What’s the point?” When I hear people like Brandon Sanderson say they wrote 13 books before selling one and only one in 20 students in his class have ever gone on to make a living in the industry is just terrifying.
I’m on the same boat but I think in my opinion you shouldn’t pursue a career in writing to live off it. Is simply too hard due to the many books being released. I’m for example just writing for myself as a motivational project and if one day I publish and hit the lottery cool if not at least 100 or 400 people read it and hopefully enjoy it. Writing should start as a passion side project without expecting too much and if the book series hits then you can plan on how to live off it as a posible business that you love doing
one of the reasons i love this channel is because you articulate so well in your reviews, that even when I won't love a book you do, I know that based off the feedback you give!
I thought I was still high and hallucinating…
I think publishing isn't dead, but it is the best time to be a new author because self publishing is so readily available now using the internet. Once an author reaches a certain level of popularity I think going with a publisher is still the right thing to do, the income is more stable, there is more marketing available, and there is a support structure to help write a quality product. I dont think that will go away. But I do think self publishing will be more and more popular even for the big authors because a print book is becoming a smaller section of the market and authors can have a larger piece of the pie, or even the full pie, if they publish themselves.
My favorite series you do! Hyped to see it’s glorious return
On the parents reading thing: I very much agree. I would not have started reading so early on in my life if my childhood home was not filled with the books my parents had amassed over the course of decades in every room. I certainly would not have such a huge love and appreciation for fantasy, sci-fi, crime thrillers and non-fiction books if those were not the primary genres present in my life growing up. I devoured absolutely every book in that house that caught my eyes (avoiding all the steven king books after that first one scarred me within two chapters) since my mom was always reading when she found the time and energy. Even now I am borrowing books from my parents which have only recently caught my eye, like classic arthurian fantasy or the first hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy book I found in my dad's office. My dad reads less often simply because his job already requires so much reading that he has no energy left afterwards (which holy shit I never related to anything more in my life after that first year of uni...it took me a good four years to get back into reading for leisure), but he obviously used to read more frequently in his youth as a big chunk of the books are his (mostly the sci-fi ones), and recently over christmas he randomly stole one of the books I brought with me and devoured it within less than four days (surprise surprise, it was sci-fi).
My mum also insists that one of the biggest factors in getting young children into reading long term is reading stories to them until they can read them themselves and then continuously encouraging reading everyday. She always read stories to me when I was little, from classic fairytales, to Alice in Wonderland (which scared the shit out of me) and science/history books for children and when I could read them myself it was my turn to read them to her. If parents don't do this, where are children supposed to pick up the interest in stories and learning?
Why do some authors give their own book 5 stars on goodreads 😂?
I have noticed a lot of authors supporting other authors on social media, and assisting them in their efforts to maintain a healthy social - professional balance. Authors who have to dip out of social media for a time (cancer treatments, maternity leave, or even due to general mental health or illness) are supported by other authors. They still help cross-promote and sometimes even step in to help the out-of-sorts author maintain communication with their readership. It's a wonderful trend to see; especially as we all know that authors are being expected to do more and more on their own.
I agree a lot on the part of first drafts. It’s a huge growing experience/hallmark to over come a personal perfectionism towards a first draft. I think we all start wanting a one hit wonder, but we learn to enjoy the process to become that piece than sneezing it out.
I love your videos btw!! And thank you for highlighting cover artists, they’re so important
My first three drafts were around 150k words, each; then, I was rewriting and rewriting and… until ten years later I decided to write four short stories with these already old characters, and be done with it. So, I already published the first story last month, and now I’m making the final adjustments to the other stories to finally publish them.
The first comment is so true. Reads with Rachel posts a lot about how trope fantasies are being pushed heavily despite being badly written even by big 5 publishers. She posted recently about a unique fantasy (but it was YA) that was being badly and under marketed and it was a big 5 publisher so it really confuses me that even companies with such influence and wealth don’t want to take this risk. They have the money and should be settings trends, so why don’t they push good books instead of derivative ones?
Also I am glad you refuted James’ comment because romantasy is now a new genre which is good. At least we know what to expect. My issue is when books are romantasy but are marketed as epic fantasy like 4th Wing. I think that is the book he referred to.
You read my comment!!!!
And love that you completely disagree. It gives me hope that I have only fallen into a toxic side of social media and there is a place where it is different.
I’ll keep looking.
The rise of indie publishing has done objective good for the book market. Authors that would never have been picked up by a publishing house are reaching huge audiences and authors get to have their purest vision out there.
What is a problem is Amazon monopolizing a good thing. I hate that the only way I can support the "small guys" is to buy from the most morally bankrupt company out there.
I've heard many authors say "Write the book you want to read." Because if you want to read it, then others do too! It'll also help you be more passionate and dedicated toward the project.
Thanks for mentioning the thing about following influencing the attention you get from publishers. I want to publish a story traditionally one day, but this is one big thing that makes me feel like I won't be able to. I don't really have any kind of following, and with 3 kids, I don't feel like I'll ever have time to grow one. So hearing that is a thing isn't great, but it's at least useful to know that it is a thing.
Hey Kyle- hang in there. Don't give up and keep working on the quality of your writing and your dream :) Whenever I think about this, I think of Delia Owens, who wrote Where the Crawdads Sing. It was a runway success and she did not have a following on social media at all. She was also in her seventies! You can be that diamond in the rough too!
Feedback on the visual: Love the background and colors, but as someone who is a little light sensitive, it was difficult to watch this. Had to look away, or scroll away from the video, to just listen 😅 Would have been nice if it was toned down just a bit (somehow - I couldn't tell you how 😂)
The default Stormlight books are fancier than books I've paid $100+ for minus the leather cover.
What really got me into reading as a kid was a Pokemon manga. I have ADHD and dyslexia so reading was hard for me.
It wasn't until I found a topic that I already enjoyed and read with no pressure of having to read it well that I fell in love with reading. It was the first time that I actually felt good about reading something.
Most kids don't read on their own because its a chore that's regularly assigned to them at school.
The best way in my mind to break them from this to show them things that they love also exist in this form or read to them when they're younger. As an elementary schooler I had no clue that things like pokemon and yugioh had books and I had never seen a comic shop anywhere near me.
I knew things like the Harry Potter movies were based on books but frankly to a kid with reading disabilities those books are hella intimidating. I was struggling reading 20 pages, those books are thick and in my little mind way beyond anything I was capable of reading.
What heresy is happening at 4:30 Daniel? You like reading physical books in public because it encourages people to walk up to you and start a conversation?
I've never heard a better pitch for e-readers
(also I missed this format, thanks for bringing it back!)
Maybe it's just me, but the music was really distracting. I dont know if it is just too short of a loop or too loud? Great video though 👍
I had the same issue and came here looking to see if it was just me. Once I noticed it was a 5 second loop I couldn't ignore it and it's all I could hear.
Reader parent here. Finally making headway with my kids on reading books. Took years and a ton of frustration, but we're getting there.
Feels like it's been years since we had a "Let's Debate" on the channel proper. Let's gooooooooooooooo
As a fellow dyslexic, I found that listening to audiobooks as a kid really made it easier to read as I got older. It allowed me to be exposed to literature intellectually and emotionally while not having to struggle through my dyslexia. My parents did still read to me as a young kid but they didn't always have the time to read as much as I wanted and they were worried that I wasn't developing independence when it came to choosing what stories to read. Also, as I got older I wanted to read more mature books with longer chapters and my parents just didn't have the time or energy to do that, completely not their fault. Plus my mom and I both have ADHD and we weren't always on the same wavelength about when to read or what book was actually interesting. So a librarian suggested audiobooks and I've been listening ever since. While audiobooks won't, and shouldn't, replace parents reading to their kids, it can help bridge the gap for a lot of us especially if there is something between us and learning to read, such as dyslexia, autism, ADHD, etc. Not to mention if you have illiterate parents, or they have to work a lot due to capitalism being what it is (especially now).
Also, it's perfectly fine to listen to audiobooks as an literate adult (or kid)! Destigmatizing illiteracy is an important step in making a more educated society, and it does not mean treating the issue like it's no big deal. Stories should be for everyone and nobody should feel ashamed of themselves for something they had no control over. We need a better education system, not bullying/gatekeeping. Illiterate people are the victims, not the problem!
This is, of course, a lot easier to do when people have easy access to libraries, TEXAS!!! But anyway...
Write what you want. The audience often doesn't know what they want, and it can be so stressful to pin it down. The biggest and most difficult trick to pull off as an artist is to give the audience something they didn't even know they wanted. You will never get that if you are constantly chasing trends and trying to meet people's fickle expectations.
Not every idea will be successful, but most artists also enjoy the art of others. If you enjoy it enough to pick it up, then you have some idea what people like. Just keep trying.
Love the video and the discussion, but I am listening to it as a podcast because the moving background is a lot 😆
Excellent video! When I was a kid I used to get in trouble for reading past bedtime and my mom learned to check under the sheets for my book. So I would lean over the side of the bed reading by streetlight if she didn't catch me. 😄
Mr Goblin has been absolutely KILLING it with the quality video content lately
Regarding reading in public with a physical book, I do this all the time - in pubs waiting for friends, on the bus, and in the gym [inbetween sets and during treadmills steps - I think I'm the 'guy with the books' in my gym ;-) ] and I get loads of strangers come up and ask about what I'm reading, as they are interested, or say nice things if they too like the book! Happened again just two days ago :-) Actually made some friendships from complete strangers. Reading in public is social!!
I'm so glad you share my opinion on the whole artistic concessions thing, Daniel! Marketing can never, ever become art - if you add marketing to your work, it will always carry an anti-artistic ball and chain (is this a spicy take as well? idk hahahah)
Problem with publishing now is agents and publishers are looking for people to publish, not stories to publish.
Yeah it's my parents reading to me that got me into reading books, I do miss book covers art from back in the 80's and the 90's that were more original compared for now that boring or makes me is this just a re-write of that show/movie.
Reading books also helped me keep up with my English studies as my disability makes my learning very hard in the "normal" school format of teaching.
Also having a physical copy just works better then trying digital, since digital print just harder to read for me and I don't have to worry about battery power or dropping it.
I'm always giving new writers a try but at times I find it harder to get into a new writer due to new fads or only finding out via a social media like twitter, when I rather not have to be on-line all the time to find out about new stuff. Which is why I love going to a library.
Let the debates BEGIN!
Your content is keeping the heart of old-school classic youtube alive. Thank you!
16:02 I actually hate this trend that you mention here. My wife was interested in reading acotar (or however it’s spelled) because she kept seeing the books everywhere and the she’s like vaguely romantic fantasy books and then was distraught to learn they’re basically just smut with fairies.
Maybe we are prudes or whatever but my wife and I both vastly prefer Sword and Sorcery over Smut and Sorcery Vibes. Buying a book you thought might be an interesting fantasy adventure story and then being lambasted with sexual content you didn’t want sucks and I feel like either the front or back cover of a book should absolutely have some kind of label or way of making it clear when a book has explicit sex scenes. Especially if there’s more than one.
Calling it just smut is you two being elitist. I read better smut romance than any shit normal romance novel.
Always love to see your thoughts!
In regard to cliche books, speaking as both a writer and reader--people actively seek out books with their favorite tropes. I sure do! I think of it like my favorite food. Sometimes, I want to be adventurous and try something new. But sometimes, I want that meal I KNOW tastes great.
I think authors should always write a story they feel passionate about, rather than one they think will appeal to readers. Everyone performs better when they are doing something they love rather than something they are not so enthusiastic about, so a novel written from the heart is bound to be of better quality than one that is not. It makes it more likely that the story will be well received by readers.
Love the idea of a video on how to tell a planned book from one that’s more ‘winging it’ in the writing.
My mom was a journalist before I was born and she read constantly. She tried to get all of us to read but I’m the only one it worked on.
I think the biggest issue with the "Write what you want not what will sell" argument is that a lot of what people base their writing on IS what has sold in the past. The argument sets up a binary that just doesn't exist.
People want what they have bought into. It had to be available (sold) at some point, in order for them to experience it. That's not a bad thing. It can lead to both iteration (Eye of the World), and subversion (Evangelion) entirely depending on what the writer _does_ with what they bought into in the first place.
None of my parents are readers but they still read to me almost every night when I was younger. The major reason for this was that I improve my language skills. So I was raised bilingually (German and Turkish) but we mostly spoke Turkish. However, my parents would always read to me in German (I had dozens of fairytales and I loved it 😂). I also had a bunch of audiobooks in form of CDs that I would put in my CD Player and just listen to whenever I wanted to.
I think a variation of James Tullos' one works in the sense that a lot of romantasy tries very hard to pretend to be like "good" fantasy but refuses to make some general effort towards it in terms of worldbuilding and consistency. Not in terms of depth or anything that would turn off the core audience, but in terms of just having some generally reasonable and consistent worlds and plotlines.
Some authors do it much better than others(I've read a few of these with my gf, shoutout to Illona Andrews who actually write fairly solid plots and interesting worlds) but a lot of the most popular stuff is downright incoherent as fantasy or even as a story. It reads like smut set in some vague historical period with magic.
In response to the remark about parents wanting their children to read, but not reading themselves, I just want to say that I don’t understand why there is this idea that reading is an especially virtuous hobby. I love to read because I enjoy a good story, and reading just happens to be my preferred way to take in a story. Whereas some people who enjoy good stories prefer to take them in through television shows or movies. Why then is it considered to be a good thing to spend hours reading, but a bad thing to spend hours watching TV. What is the difference?
I had a pretty boring task to do at work and decided to listen to this while doing it. Helped a lot. Great discussion
As an e-book lover I disagree on parents reading paper books: if you read on you phone or kindle you can still talk to your children about books. In fact I think it's generally good to talk to your children 🤷♀
So glad to see this series return! I’ve been watching your channel for about 3 years now and as someone who loves your book content the most, I (maybe a bit selfishly) love to see that you’re going back to your roots. Hope you’re doing well and can’t wait to see more of this new direction 😁
22:47 Media Literacy is so important. Literature class is so far the foundation for logic and reason. We start learning through stories, so we begin learning reading comprehension and then we need to learn critical thinking. Understanding what we read and asking questions. We should add literacy for media especially because we are surrounded by media, tv, movies, CZcams, and advertisements. Learn the logical fallacies because even if someone turns out to not be an avid reader we are all still exposed to media every single day, unless you live on a farm in the middle of nowhere with not internet or cable. 🎉😂❤
Also make it fun. Ther eis no excuse to not make learnin about it fun enough it sticks actually
I'm having so much trouble focusing with that background lol. I have terrible ADHD though, so might just be me.
Edit: just had a stim crash I think, nvm. This was an awesome vid and really interesting to listen to.
i remember an interview where Harlan Ellison talks about how genres are largely a tool publishers use to categorize things on bookshelves, shoehorning things in where they may or may not belong for monetary gain. i know this has been contentious in speculative fiction for a while, and some people gatekeep around these genres for what is or is not, for example, "hard sci-fi" vs "soft sci-fi". i actually just released a video on my channel that tangentially talks about this, and how it can lead to gatekeeping or even discrimination because people can spiral and get really elitist about what is and is not a genre.
I totally disagree with your take on Fantasy Romance. 90% of the genre is trashy romance cosplaying as fantasy, with not themes, massive worldbuilding problems, and characterization all over the place because the author couldn't be bothered to think the implications of what they are writing as long as it makes the female main character look badass, create cheap drama, make the male main character even more horny... I mean "in love" with the protagonist.
Also, a lot of reader just want the "spice" with the new Rhysand rip off and a lot of the lore worldbuilding is reduced to "this magic things make my character super special and badass/make the segg great/my partner will never leave me".
If anything, it looks like fantasy romance is their teen phase with mostly wish fulfillment power fantasies.
To my it looks more like a way to publish and the readers to read "spice" Without being judged , to me it's ok If you want to make or read "spice" but don't try to sell a bad write "fantasy romance" book , if you want to make a romance fantasy book make a good one , if you want it to be "spice" ok but make it right, don't try to pretend it's fantasy with romance , is just a "spice" bad write book with poorly written fantasy in the background
@@steverainbow2.0 there is definitely a component of shame about not wanting to be seen or heard talking about a book that is specifically smut, so they hide behind the "romance" and "fantasy". I noticed this fandom rarely talk about worldbuilding and everything is about shipping and soap opera drama, because the moment you think about it, it just falls apart
I’ve seen a lot of SJM readers pick up Brandon Sanderson and loving it because of the world building , while preferring the more intimate relationships in SJM’s books so I think you’re just wrong in what these demographic of readers actually want. I haven’t read ACOTAR, but videos used to show up on my fyp discussing how some of the magical elements could be incorporated more even. I don’t disagree that there is probably a lot of copy paste books within that genre since that always happens with popular, marketable books.
@@steverainbow2.0 well ther we are with the 90% are horny erotica stealth marketed.
Its not that romance in fantacy can be great slow burn organic in the story and great for characters too, the best stories got that, but that isnt what james is talking about but the spicey and smut stealth marketet with a disguise put on a label that is not only not giving fantasy reader whatthey not want, but also the smut readers neither.
Oh yeah and maas might still, she still does worldbuilding and that enough and through that, its fantasy, but its knock offs are not. SJMs shoulsnd be in the erotica genre , or at least romance in the area because it definitly not ya.
“That’s the f****** point of the cover!”
Thank you! 😂😂 Seriously, one of the most bs things I grew up hearing in regards to reading.
I'm curious your take on this new Spotify terms and conditions thing for audiobooks 😭
That unfinished series take is such bullshit. And if it's about who i think it is, and i wouldn't be surprised if it's about GRRM, then it's even worse, because that talking point always seems to basically just people trying to get a dig at him, along with any talks of his legacy. Like, they don't actually care about the idea they're presenting, they just want to express their anger and feel like he'll get some "payback" for the oh so terrible crime of not finishing a book series.
Offtopic: Did you see that mess about Spotify trying to be sneaky about Audiobooks?
That’s appalling. Such a rubbish thing to do. I hope everyone pulls their books.
@@poodlemuffin From what I saw on IG a bunch of authors did, and now Spotify is trying to pull a 180 and say that's not what they meant. which is of course BS.
My parents are NOT readers. Growing up, I was the only one in the house that would read for fun. That didn't keep me from reading, though?
Absolutely agree that Logic should be central in education!
25:08 Immolate means to kill, especially by fire. I think you meant to use the word “imitate” or “emulate”, both of which sound similar
I am an avid reader with several overflowing bookshelves. I have read and continue to read to my kids on a daily basis. With all that, only my youngest shows any interest in reading for himself (though my eldest does read Manga).
Daniel I love the content, but my ND brain can't handle the editing on this video. Can't speak for anyone else, but thought it was important to let you know. I will still listen to it, though!
Yeah It was annoying for me to constanntly watching it
free product idea, ebook that displays the cover on the back side
Your mom and I are kindred souls. I'm two years on Oathbringer and gonna finish it today!
My hot take is nobody likes novellas. Most people prefer long thick novels than easy to read short books. Authors have to suffer by putting in so much content and unnecessary scenes to please their customers. I think some stories should only last as long as they could. 😤
My 'LETS DEBATE' assertion is that the original wheel of time covers are great and by far the best out of any editions, and have a really nice visual / thematic cohesion.
0:00 Intro
1:22 Special Editions
2:30 Parenting and children not reading
4:38 hot take on Publishers from Overly Sarcastic Productions
6:27 Writers concerned with self advertising and not writing/ social media
8:44 venture outside your comfort genre
9:22 writing degrees aren’t useless, but…
11:00 books covers are really good
14:35 James’ hot take on publishing being ruined //Romanticy
16:30 writing to tell a story or write for the audience
18:36 appearances and marketing and established influencers having more opportunities in many entertainment industries
20:14 more cliches verses subverting expectations.
• 22:47 Media Literacy
23:50 too much advice from authors
25:48 write the story you want to tell not sell, be original
27:52 unfinished fantasy genres
With the argument about Indy Authors….. Libraries don’t carry self published books. If a person’s only reading option is their local library, they won’t be reading self published books.
And YES!!!! Of course you judge a book by its. That’s the point of the damn cover art.
Okay I haven't even seen two minutes of the video yet but this fuzzy background is already making me dizzy and making my eyes all tingly haha (before anyone says, yes I noticed the background changes after a couple more minutes :D)
Ahhhh I'm falling back in love with your channel and I'm so here for it.
Just started the video and am not sure what’s covered, but one bizarre issue I’ve noticed in the publishing world is a SHORTAGE OF HARDCOVERS. For example, try finding shadow of the gods in hardcover for less than $300. That’s ridiculous. That’s more than I had to pay for the year of Sanderson and those at least were special editions. 🤯
Yes! I’ve noticed this as well. My guess is that it actually has to do with a lot of book printers and binders (in the U.S. at least) closing between 2020-present. Both are very expensive businesses to maintain, and because there is less competition now prices have gone up for materials/labor. That’s likely why publishers are doing less hardcovers, because the printing/binding process costs so much more than for paperback
@@allisonyoung8549 I have no doubt you’re right because otherwise it just doesn’t make sense. It breaks my heart that good books can’t get hardcover regular editions while mediocre books will have a 💩 ton of special editions. And I would be more willing to buy paperbacks, but every modern paperback I’ve bought is laughably fragile. Guess I’ll just dress in black from now on and mourn those closed printers and binders. 😭
Fr. The fact about book covers is soooo true.
So I'm writing these as I watch this video. I usually picked up my books off the shelf at random because of the cover. I heard of Wheel of Time but never read it, I think I picked it up and didn't catch my attention fast enough, and I had not been reading as much for various reasons so despite being a major writer of fantasy I didn't know who Brandon Sanderson was until I found his BYU classes online. I found Brandon Sanderson because of CZcams. As for you Daniel, reinvesting your good will as a CZcamsr into a writing career is no different than reinvesting your money to a new business project. Amazon and bookstores on the shelves are so crowded that it is valid to sell books because you have earned trust and fame in the past artists had to do the same if they didn't just want to get art grants. You are legitimate. People trust you know what a good story is, someone who maybe a better author but hasn't gotten their name out there is another book on the shelf in the sea of millions.
I can't agree more 16:00 the fact that on audible they don't tag these books with romance or erotica and keep the covers bland is so annoying . If that's what you want you should be able to find it and if you don't it should be avoidable
I disagree with the person who posted that parents are always trying to force to read and they do not read themselves. I’m a parent and know many parents and I have found the complete opposite. The parents I know who aren’t readers don’t really push their kids to read.
5:09 I shit you not the moment he said 'tech' my PC bluescreened. I was convinced it was an editing gimmick until my PC shut off xD xD xD
Mine would be: so many of us readers/writers are not social creatures, and that can show in the writing.
MANY times I've had to pause and as myself "has this writer ever interacted with real humans before?" and press X to Doubt...
I'm an aspiring writer in the querying trenches right now, and wanted to comment on your response to the take about balancing audience desire with author desire. As a fellow snobby prick, I absolutely agree with you; I am far more interested in authors who write what's in their heart. For me personally, I don't think I would want to keep writing books if I felt I had to dismiss the stories in my heart for the sake of an audience. Of course, feedback is paramount, being critiqued and editing based on reception is essential, but I feel like I have to always write from a core of what I love, or the result just... won't feel right to me.
What I wanted to comment on was that, as a currently querying writer, it has largely felt to me like success comes from the miracle alignment of audience and author desire-- an altogether uncontrollable asymptote, if you will. I'll of course keep writing and keep improving as a writer, I still have a long way to go, and don't by any means intend to imply that I'm a master of the craft (far from it) -- my point is simply that I feel like the journey of an aspiring writer currently is as much about this miracle convergence of author and audience desire as it is about being a skilled writer.
I love getting approached while reading but I did have to try and explain the plot of the storm light archive once. That was f**king terrifying
I write stories because they demand to be written. It feels likes a waste to have all these books and do nothing with them so I publish them. I'm not in it to get rich and famous. I don't pay any attention to sales aside from the books I sell in person.
I think, on a completely different note, that we are on the cusp of a development equivalent to the advent of the printing press. If you look at that period there was a lot of turmoil as societies learned to deal with the onslaught of words, both good and bad. AI is having a similar affect as we have to filter out huge amounts of crap, but also be aware of the potential ways that machine learning (a better term than AI) can assist in many processes, including creative activity.
Oh my god thank you for talking about how schools make no attempt to teach people basic logic. Why the hell did I spend 6 years having to learn poetry as a compulsory subject? Everyone in Australia did. I'm sure we can all agree, common sense is a myth. No one naturally develops critical thinking skills. They have to be taught, or a child is forced to develop them as a survival skill in a rough home environment. It's one of the most crucial ways of retaining your sanity when you have an abusive parent.
'Critical thinking' in schools is synonymous with overanalysing Shakespeare to the point where I would bet my life if we time travelled and showed him all the stuff students have been forced to write about him, he'd be like "uh... no. I only meant to imply 2% of this." Without question and if you think otherwise you're just trying to convince yourself you didn't waste like 400 hours of your life on nothing.
No one actually teaches critical thinking. No one teaches us how to get a job. No one teaches us how to do our taxes. Beyond basic reading and maths school is nothing more than glorified babysitting so your parents can stay at work. Keep in mind a huge reason schools even kicked off in the first place was to get kids out of working in factories. It was just a more humane place to put them, since once we switched away from primarily being an agricultural society, a parent at work was no longer a parent at home working the fields. School is and has always been meant to be nothing more than babysitting (once child labour was largely abolished in the west). And most western education systems have no interest in changing that.
No-one at the publishers working with Martin, Rothfuss or Lynch are asking them to do 'self advertising' on social media rather than write. The best advert for your book is the next book and finishing a series is even better. But you don't advertise yourself, you advertise book 1 and that converts your readers to that whole series.
Also yes, writing degrees are useless unless you have Kevin Anderson or Sanderson as a professor (or some other writer who makes a living doing it, telling you useful things about actually making a living). Most authors I know who have one, don't rave about how much it helped them write books and would rather have done something else with the time. Much like getting any other degree of course as so many aren't used for the actual job you do, and while the time isn't wasted, it could have been better sent... probably better than me commenting on CZcams when I should be on my treadmill though ;)
There's an old saying which I learnt at uni, that has only proved to be more true as time goes on:
'If you want to be a doctor, study medicine. If you want to be a solicitor, study law. If you want to be an engineer, study engineering. If you want to work in the arts, study engineering.'
Of course, I _did_ study something practical, and then the entire industry I was qualifying for got replaced by a free phone app, so what do I know about anything.
Yes, because information is as opaque as it has ever been. Whats inside a book has never been more obscure and so the simpler the idea the better.