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How To Get A Book Deal in Ten Years or Less
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- čas přidán 14. 08. 2024
- Pre-order Axiom's End - get a book in eight months you totally forgot you bought! bit.ly/AxiomsEnd
Twitter - @thelindsayellis
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"Can I handle that many rejection letters?"
People who write short stories for literary magazines: "I was born in the dark...molded by it..."
I'm convinced that more people would stick with their writing if every rejection letter came with a small piece of "condolences chocolate." A single M&M, even.
@Jacob DeCoursey Are you Yahtzee's younger twin?
love it XD
@@Robert399 The board / dice game? I don't think so . . .
@@CapriUni Some people might start intentionally submitting garbage...
"Turns out you're not supposed to yell at your publisher." LINDSAY WHAT DID YOU DO
Agents are worth every penny of that cut just for being the buffer that translates, "Are you drunk AND high, you artless hack $&^@!?", to "Your feedback is appreciated as always. My client will consider your suggestions and we'll get back to you with revisions shortly."
i think I'm more interested in what they did to cause such a reaction
"Hello darkness my old friend"
the publisher melted like the Wicked Witch of the West
@@mathieuleader8601 the publisher was defying gravity
"If you're a novelist you're probably not very good in being concise"
You might as well come to my home and slap me in the face with this level of personal attack
I feel like this comment needs two more paragraphs.
Raise your hand if you constantly get a variation of “too long didn’t read”/“why did you reply with a novel” whenever you write a comment.
🙋♀️
The fact you made a half hour video, in this day and age of vines and animated GIF, does make your point 😅
This is why I suck at Twitter
Being verbose is fucking lonely, dude.
We need a support group that mostly skims the paragraph and replies, "yeah, I know."
Lindsay Ellis, Dec 2019: "This is gonna be a long year."
Me, April 2020, laughing brokenly:
was thinking the exact same thing xD
lmao, same
Ha, wait until May.
Me, June 2020: *screaming into the void*
Me watching in June 2020: saaaaaaaaame
"This channel has not been as prolific as in the past..."
Girl. Quality over quantity.
Death to the algorithm.
Good luck with that, the algorithm will kill you for trying.
Tom Hill Tell that to CGP Grey. There are usually weeks and even months between his uploads and yet almost all his videos get over a million views.
@@AlasdairGR "Make videos that people will like" I believe was his response to the question of how to get views on youtube, right??
Ah yes, the famous Roland Barthes essay Death of the Algorithm
@@AlasdairGR Shammy also flies in the face of that, but they're both old guard. Pulling that off has gotten harder over time. And will keep getting harder.
"There's a business centaur that owns a company and he's just living his life until one day a plucky young virgin becomes his secretary."
If you don't write it I will, and I'm calling it Secretariat's Secretary.
Jenny Trout's writing it on her blog
@@gwendolynstata3775 This is amazing news, all is right with the world once again.
that part sounds vaguely like centaur-swap of the comic hotblood
@@TheGazingHeart it sounds like the baby of EL James and Dr. Chuck Tingle
Or you could call it ‘Chaos in the Centaur Business District’
I was PRAYING you'd use a "10 YEARS OOOOOOOOOOOLD" Love Never Dies clip and you DID.
Thank you.
I remember hearing a writer explain that the moment when he was able to look at his own work and see the issues and how to fix them, that's when he started being able to get things published.
Also, having a platform doesn't always mean guaranteed sales for self-publishing, frequently the audience that consumes free content has very little crossover with the audience that's willing to pay for content.
Found an old draft of a story I wrote... A bit over half a decade ago. Ask me then and I would have said this goes straight to publisher the world and I am ready.
Ask me now and I would ask someone to put that writer out of our misery.
Sometimes it really does take age and experience? Stare at a manuscript for long enough and it kind of becomes a word salad. You sort of acclimate to its "badness" and coming back with years of experience and a fresh eye and it's like "oh my godd, no, why did you write it like that, delete all of this, this prologue has nothing to do with the story, these characters come out of nowhere they should be deleted, tie the main plot closer to your central three characters"
Like I'd at some point written in a love triangle just so there'd be a love triangle and when I wrote that second character out the quality and conciseness of the writing doubled because the focus was now on the main romance.
I love that you said being a novelist is incredibly slow-going and you need patience, as opposed to saying it's incredibly difficult. It gives people a lot more hope to hear it phrased like that. Thank you!
It's a refreshing dose of reality. All things do move at their own pace and synchonizing everything takes time and is frustrating.
Unless, of course, you're Stephen King, who is somehow able to write 6 pages a day like a madman.
JackgarPrime King scares me- no human should be able to write that fast. I barely manage 6 pages during a caffeine fueled manic all-nighter
JackgarPrime It takes around 3-5 hours a day to write 2,000 words. I think it’s very doable with just a partime job. Everything is just habit, tbh. If you’re used to only writing 500 words a week then yes 2,000 words a day is going to sound crazy, but it’s not really that bad.
@@shaki8557 As long as those words are, or have the potential to be, quality.
okay, this timing's good. just got my first round of query rejections, looking forward to a 2030 publish date
I have no idea who you are or what your book is about, but I still feel the need to say I BELIEVE IN YOU.
I believe in you too! You've made it so far already.
Updates? I still believe in you too!
“My heroes are dead, my enemies are in power” - there is a Brazilian song from 88 called Ideologia with a very similar chorus : “My heroes died of overdose, my enemies are in power”. It was a big wtf moment to hear that in English.
Osso
Ne manoo, doido demais
Sabia que eu conhecia de algum lugar
Came to comment exactly that, had to go back a few seconds to check if i didn't hear anything wrong lol
Tenso
I can't wait for Jenny Nicholson's hot-take on your book
If I ever write a book I might just pay Jenny for her feed back before I send it to publishers.
@@wheresmycrownyo A lot of people would legit do that.
I feel like it would just be a glowing endorsement mixed with her awkward quasi-criticisms. Anyway, I would sooo watch it
Looking forward to a two-hour plot bashing from Jenny, obviously wearing a costume that matches the novel.
@@creepycustard2383 Like, subtly too. No alien costumes for Jenny.
As someone who's spent five years going through this process (I've never gotten an agent, just a handful of full requests), I'd like to thank you for this, Lindsay. It gives me inspiration to keep going.
Hey, you’re halfway there
@@alwaystired4 SQUIDWARD IN A CHAIR
Remember, validation comes from your friends not your boss. [I think novels totally suck. Don't ask me anything.]
@@alwaystired4 6 more years and you have a chance right?
....actually no, that was for the highly biased sample of _published_ authors. Of whom, the mean was 11 years.
My gf keeps telling me that I should start writing. Yeah... no.
@@alwaystired4 Woooah, living on a prayer!
Me: *hasn't written anything in years * Ah yes, this is helpful for my dream of becoming an author.
Sometimes writing is like that tho.
Hey, it me
Huh, how did I post this comment from a different account that isn't mine?
*pretending my writing experience doesn’t come from **FanFiction.net*
@@trejondunkley To make them a reality instead?
24:55 for anyone who’s curious, as I was when I posed the question at one of her online book tours: the problem that her literary agent pinpointed as to why many publishers felt they couldn’t sell the book was Cora’s age. I’m hoping she’ll address this later down the line as I can only vaguely remember her full answer on this, but the short version is that Cora was originally 18 and publishers at the time and also now are trying to stay away from anything resembling a teenage girl book. So she revised it so that Cora is now college aged.
Changed from college aged to college aged?
@@thepinkestpigglet7529 In one of her videos she said that Cora was also still in high school. And publishers were hesitant because she was not only 18/19 but also in high school.
I came here for this, thank you!
I mean the relationship between Cora and the alien is more palatable if Cora is college aged.
Be extremely talented, hard working, and well adjusted; and then get super lucky. Tale as old as time. May it be a best seller and optioned into a Netflix series
Right.
+
Well-adjusted people never make good art. I guess, except Neil Gaiman.
@@samcyphers2902 lol
"My heroes are dead and my enemies are in power, what do you want?"
...Holy Hell Lindsey, that's raw.
You should've seen the XOXO talk; THAT was raw.
@@IncognitoKarma518 It's on CZcams, if you want to see it. It's REALLY heavy.
Relevant and accurate. If I could drink alcohol, I'd probably be leaning into it hard.
@@blofeld39 summarise please? I have to time to watch it.
@@mav8535 TL:DR Version: Lindsey was aggressively bullied on twitter/social media about her beliefs or her stance on topics whilst dealing with depression and the passing of her father, so she was in a dark place and getting singled out by a sect. of people trying to "remove her" from social media in general. few years pass and when she was trying to get other projects done all the previous fake news that was made and some real news was brought back up which complicated projects she was working on. In the end,John Green is a great friend to have.
My dad was self publishing and a literary agent found him that way and now it’s his full time job so that’s nice
@@abendrot___8055 je m'appelle a baguette
Lafayette was baller.
"It's 2017. My heroes are dead and my enemies are in power."
That's a MOOD. Also, today I learned that it's been 2017 for three years.
It's been 2016 in my mind.
I mean 2021 we will be like
WELCOME TO CYBERREALITY
Just you wait till March 20202
2020 whoops
@@BoredCaterpillar thanks I hate it
"I'm not good at finishing stuff so I'll go into data collection" - me, a data scientist who was once an aspiring author when younger: Wow, I feel personally attacked by Lindsay Ellis right now
The best thing about Lindsay's videos is that she tells me stuff I wouldn't even think of wanting to know about. But now I do!
Right? I don't write and I don't plan to do so but this was an interesting video
Yeah, even if I had never heard of her before, this video would have still interested me.
Agree.
Yeah right? I mean, the past three videos seemed a bit forced and underwhelming, but I'm happy to see her return back to form and talk about something she actually cares about
Also a very original and cool way to promote her book Really respect that as she's giving us a little something in exchange, and she hasn't half arsed it either, 30 minutes! Might buy the book and i (almost) never buy YT books....
“It wasn’t good, but I finished it”
Me submitting every paper
It's only a final draft when it's published.
"It wasn't good, but I finished it"
Me when I make anything ever.
Me when I handed in my bachelor XD
@@DewMan001 at least you finished it. I can't even understand it.
Actually Done > Hypothetically Perfect
"Independence Day meets The Big Short" is far more intriguing to me than "Arrival meets Stranger Things" if I'm being honest
Yes, but Arrival and Stranger things are more recent and are both tied to the genre in some way whereas The Big Short isn't.
I'm going to go ahead and retweet that
"I like suffering. I want to write a novel." Aspiring writer mood.
"It doesn't really go with any publishing trends right now"
Which is why it's Arrival meets Stranger Things.
My favorite of these when I was younger was a description for Ready Player One
"Willy Wonka meets the Matrix" 😅
The fact that “WOOL” does not have the same spine design as “DUST” and “SHIFT” is STRESSING ME OUT
Doug Dimmadab Me too and I’m wondering where “New Moon” and “Eclipse” is... should be between Twilight and Breaking Dawn.
It genuinely bothered me so much, I'm glad you noticed it too
My brain really dislikes you right now.
Yeah I kept being distracted by that
and this is why I scrolled down to the comments while the video played.
And than I get reminded of it. Thanks a lot.
Lindsay Ellis, the woman who puts Infinite Jest next to the Twilight trilogy on the same shelf.
Gol dingit, I wrote a comment in response and hit something and it disappeared. Oh well--here goes again!
I actually wondered about Infinite Jest while she was speaking (without having noticed it on her shelf) and wondered if some publisher saw it and immediately screamed "YES!" But I looked it up and he had excerpts published in several magazines first, so that would probably be a very different route to publication.
Also, regarding that shelf -- Meyers is next to Wallace . . . nope. Maybe Foster is next to . . . nope. Infinite is next to Twilight . . . NOPE!
ARGH! What the hell is her organizational system? lol
Are you asking why she has those two next to each other based on quality or based on genre or what? Because, while I would love to understand why she organizes as she does... I am just a bit confused on your statement as a whole. I have read excerpts of Infinite Jest and read the entirety of Twilight... Therefore, I formed my opinion on both before even coming to this comment... My opinion might be based on my professor in college and her absolute adoration of the book... and making us read 300 pages of it in small Bible print... in three weeks... in a fiction writing class... and not even stuff in order... merely stuff that seems to interrelate without actually explaining any of it... But Twilight was better... no one will convince me otherwise. This is just my opinion on the two pieces of fiction based upon someone literally shoving David Foster Wallace down my throat over and over and not allowing me to actually have an opinion about the text that was not what she personally believed...
Sorry... Having read the mentioned 300 pages within the last two months... and dealing with her referencing it every other class... including how little of our fiction could measure up to his "masterpiece" and its over-explanation of minor characters... your statement triggered my bitchy subroutines.
@@daltonhackett6520 I think I just suffered a case of ellipsis epilepsy.
I was terrified of this video. I've just finished my 4th NaNoWriMo, and while I've "won" it several times, this was the first time I actually wrote an ending to one of the drafts I was working on. Now I'm in editing hell and... I'm scared. I want to try and get this published, I know I do, but I also know I'll be rejected over and over for sure. So when I saw this video, my first thought was "If even she can barely do it, what chance do I have?"
Now I watched the video and I'm glad I did. Your experiences are super insightful. I still know it's gonna be hard. But at least now I know that if I stay on it, eventually my patience CAN pay off...
Nenilein perseverance is the key
I have a NaNoWriMo novel that has been in editing hell for 6 years (getting my BFA got in the way of writing as much). You just gotta keep chugging
What is Nanorimo?
Any updates?
I’m curious about updates too!
A "Hey I'm A Girl Boss" book written by you would probably be pretty hilarious to be fair
Kathryn Hope-Tindall fully agree oh my god
Am instant best seller right there, if it's sold as a comedy of course.
it should have an airhorn attached so that when you read about a really girlboss moment, the book airhorns you.
@@katrinajagelski318 XD
"Is it on brand? Yes."
Sold.
me lol
will plan on getting a copy too. maybe more copies if its something my teen nieces would like.
**10 f u c k i n g y e a r s**
I didn't care about the comment. I just wanted it to hit 1k.
so....does it have some weird Transformer tie-in or something?
Honestly, as a 24 year old who has no idea what they're doing in life and just wants to finish a goddamn self-insert reader x character fanfiction, this video was inspirational.
"Which just reveals these people don't know how anything works. That's fine... that's why I'm here." -- Lindsay
I love the level of confidence required for this statement. Down with the ignorant haters!
This video pretty much confirms what I've already heard as an aspiring author trying to break into the industry. It sucks. There's very little chance that your passion project that you have worked on for years will ever see the light of day, yet we toil on anyways in the hopes that shouting into the void long enough will mean someone will answer.
Thank you Lindsay for everything you do. I always appreciate your insightful analysis and your drive towards understanding the art that our culture produces. YOU are the modern academia, and I've learned just as much from you as I have from any college or grad school classroom.
I'm going ahead and pre-ordering your book simply to show my appreciation for everything you've done. Maybe having that CZcams platform will end up paying off afterall! I have confidence it'll be a good read anyways.
Thanks for This. It doesn't sound like a great investment
Man this is sad. This reminds me of the plight with nonfiction. I kind of want to write nonfiction and this is what one of my professors said about doing an academic study. "You do all of this work and ultimately nobody reads it except you and your grad students."
"How many rejection letters can you take?"
Post-graduate me machine-gunning my resume to anyone with an email address: "Hey, at least they read it! ... Right?"
Depends on the company and how many resumes they receive periodically. If they only receive a handful, they'll pay attention to it. If they receive a few hundred on a periodic basis... well...
Each person has their own technique of how to "cull" the bad (unlikely candidates) from the good (or at least the ones they will bother analyzing). Can't explain, because it's something different for each person.
For example: Look at file-size: too small/large - auto reject (same for page size).
Then look at picture: not flattering - auto reject
Then any quick summary that doesn't catch the attention - probably auto-reject.
Then quickly skim through resume without reading it. No decent formatting - auto-reject
Spelling/grammar mistakes are found just by skimming: auto-reject
And if you're the last resume they see on Thursday or Friday evening - auto reject (No, seriously. You have no idea how the time of day and the mood it drives will make people reject more easily).
Generally: don't send resume's on Friday afternoon or Friday evening. If the person handling it has gone home for the weekend, and there's a few hundred mails waiting for him/her Monday morning, there's a good chance (s)he'll never even get to your resume and auto-delete it just to make space in their mailbox.
Generally remember that on the other side is only a human being. If they have to dig through hundreds of shitty resumes on a periodic basis, at least make sure yours doesn't look like garbage.
That's why here in the UK, thankfully, you have what we call a CV. It's short, to the point, lists your previous job experience and a brief summary on what you did and why you left. Admittedly mine is basically a long litany of leaving because I was made redundant (aka laid off)...
@@luketfer That's a resume
Sofia Arango Cool, we call it a CV.
Christian Hainds This is me bombing employers on Indeed with my resume and cover letter fifteen times a day 😭
this is somehow simultaneously soul-crushingly depressing that it took 10 years but also uplifting because clearly hard work can get you results
Not even just that it took ten years but that she had to keep powering through all the rejections and setbacks when it would be so much easier to just give up and toss the idea/dream of getting a book published right out the window.
@@JenamDrag0n I think the important thing to take to heart here is that rejection is survivable, the problem isn't always you it's just as likely to be whether people think there's a market for the story you want to write. And also, even if the problem is with what you wrote, with a little clarity of distance, and outside perspective, doing tripple bypass surgery on your darlings is a lot more surmountable.
“Seconded.” - Scruffy
Was about to post this.
Shoulda self published. She tortured herself because her ego was too big to accept just taking a smaller prize. Woulda been less painful, but then again, maybe the book wouldn't have been as good so. Who knows, maybe she made the right call, in the end.
@@Bustermachine "I think the important thing to take to heart here is that rejection is survivable, the problem isn't always you"
I dunno, that's even worse to me. I don't think I would have survived it. If there's literally nothing I can do about it and it's just the whims of an uncaring universe, why keep fighting for it? _How_ do you keep fighting?
I don't know how she did it (but I'm glad she did and I look forward to reading it).
"Look, it's 2017. My heroes are dead and my enemies are in power, what do you want?" should honestly be the defining slogan of this decade.
The plight of rich white Westerners not having as much power and money as even more rich white Westerners is truly the tragedy of our time.
lol
"Your word baby is a bit of a yike" I'm crying
"Oh boy I've always wanted to learn how to publish a book!"
_*watches video_
"Yeah I'm doomed."
MJR Schneider Hang In there man! Don’t give up!
When you feel like that just remember the worst book you ever read. If they can do it, so can you.
Same. My decision to pursue a creative writing degree questioned by various family members a number of times, and I've always been like "oh even if I don't publish anything I'll be fine. The degree is so general I can use it almost anywhere". Now I'm wondering if I made a grave mistake. Not gonna give up because writing is the one thing I've ever been kinda good at, but I'm definitely doubling down on that whole "make sure I have a day job as a backup plan" thing.
@@KaijaSchmauss The day job is your backup????
abandon hope all ye who enter here. Also self publish. You won't be mega huge, but you also won't have to go through this bullshit. It would help to be you-tube famous.
I am a fellow creative (author of two published novels, debuting a third in 2020), and when I heard that you had wrangled yourself a paid book deal, I erroneously assumed that you had gotten the book deal purely because of your existing following as a video essayist/vlogger/influencer. I remember being genuinely angry about that - so I'm really glad that you put out this video and set me straight. I've preordered your book, and look forward to reading it.
Glad you came around, but let's be honest, it's easier to sell a book by someone if they have a proven following. People get book deals all the time just because they have already have a platform. It's a safer bet.
I bought a book from an aspiring author posting CZcams videos reviewing scifi shows, movies, and books. I believe he selfpublished.
Long story short: wasted of money.
"the worst recession in living memory" bit at 14:17 did not age well lol
Why is there Zero mention of the great Lindsay/Nella led YA project “Awoken”- a teen love story featuring Cthulu???
Don't forget Eliza
yyaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy this sounds rad can't wait for the audiobook ;)
I HAVE GOOD FEELINGS ABOUT AUDIOBOOK
This is largely unrelated but I was on my first Strucci binge recently and I wasn't sure if she had any connection to essayists I was familiar with, and I started to wonder...am I still in BreadTube? Where are the boundaries of Fantasia? But then I saw an Ollie comment and thought, oop I guess I'm home in Kansas where I always was. I hate that ending.
Something-something parasocial relationships, something-something "boundaries" works twice there. :/
@@LindsayEllisVids - HMM, Who's doing the audio book I wonder???????
You should totally read the audio book olly
As in, you're the voiceover. That'd be awesome.
Needs to narrated by James Earl Jones or I'm not buyin'.
...Was that a Jenny Trout's "The Business Centaur's Virgin Temp" reference?
MAYBE
Wow. You have just made the most obscure reference ever made.
Is Jen Kilgore's Niece?
Not everything is a "The Business Centaur's Virgin Temp" reference!
@@Lady_in_Yearning But everything should be.
I love how you had Contrapoints give the compliment to the girl boss book.
I will wait for the day you reveal that “small but fixable issue like town” because WHAT _WAS_ IT?!
YEAH I KNOW RIGHT I JUST REWATCHED THE VIDEO AND I DIDN'T REMEMBER THIS PART BUT NOW I'M DYING TO KNOW
In one of the online book tours, she said it was the age of Cora. Initially she was 18, and her agent told her most publishers are trying to stay away from teenage girl stories these days, so now Cora is in her early 20s.
@@geniehossain3738 Ooooh, that`s what it was... Thank you!
"american three body problem for girls" is the best elevator pitch I have ever heard, pre-ordering rn
anything that is compared to the Three Body Problem instantly piques my interest, one of the best sci-fi series of the 21st century.
Do you happen to know any similar books?
@@qaztim11 oh damn. Not heard of the three-body problem until my sister got it me for my birthday a few months back.. I suppose I better open it right NOW
As someone who recently acquired the whole Trilogy and the spin off story, I approve of this comment
@@oldclem_ yes you should, it is a very unique take on a first contact scenario, and it actually teaches you a fair amount about the chinese cultural revolution. And the writer has a background in science, and most of the sci-fi concepts that the books deal with are plausible.
Seriouslt why didn’t she just start with that! Preordered.
What no one tells you when you decide to be a writer is that writing the damn book is the easy part
ManiaMac1613 then wtf is George Martin’s excuse?
Same when you're a translator for that matter…
Sean Rushing he’s busy not doing the easy part
Yes, music is the same thing. Play, write record? Easy, the rest is fucking grueling.
I think the issue is not necessarily that it's easier: rather, it's a different skillset. Ie, people who are writing books already know how to write - at least in theory. What they don't know is how to business (as it were). The same issue shows up in teaching martial arts: the ability to be a good martial artist is a different skillset than teaching martial arts, which is a different skillset from running a martial arts school; to be academic/formal about it, one is getting your degree in Dance, one is a degree in Education, and one is a degree in Business.
But if “I’m losing to a bird!” Isn’t in your novel I’ll riot.
Pretty sure you can't start a riot with just one person, my guy.
So I'll join you.
Sharn Peacock yay!
Lesdoit
It’s not, but “I ATE THE WHOLE PLATE” is, so I propose we don’t riot
Ally Li ok valid
Lindsay has had such a glow-up since Nostalgia Chick! Her content is my total CZcams comfort food.
I’m a Professional Writing Major and this is the best piece of advice I’ve ever received.
That was my major i college!
*Trying to pitch my novel* "Don't say it's Mafia erotica, don't say it's Mafia erotica, don't say it's Mafia erotica!"
*deep breath* "So my novel is a romance crime drama with strong themes of corruption, lost of innocence, and the perils of capitalism."
Boreal Forest Witch 🤣🤣🤣 WOW
Too much mafia and not enough erotica
Capitalism more like crapitalism amirite?
Mafia erotica is way more interesting than that paragraph tbh.
lol sounds interesting X)
Oh my gosh you have Wool on your shelf! I remember when he first self-published the story. We were all in a writers forum together. He was an inspiration. We were all just throwing spaghetti at the wall and reporting back on what stuck!
So when I was a teenager I discovered I had *some* talent in writing, and that I actually enjoyed doing it. Although at the time it was almost entirely incred-emo woe-is-me shitty "poetry." When I matured slightly I wanted to try my hand at writing fiction and quickly discovered that for the life of me I could not write a character that was not some type of established trope I had seen in TV and movies. Anyway, the point is after DMing Dungeons and Dragons for years I've recovered some confidence in my ability to create fiction and I appreciate this video greatly. Thank you for *mostly* detailing your experience and explaining what is likely ahead of me. If I ever actually grow a pair, I may try.
PLEASE do a followup about the small fix that the literary agent identified as why it wouldn't sell.
So curious. So fascinated by stuff like that.
I'll talk about that sometime after the book comes out
@Hans Hanzo probably to avoid spoiling the actual book too
It’s not a “CZcamsr-book” any more than John’s is. You’re not a CZcamsr doing a book on a whim or an offer. You’re an author who also does CZcams (really well).
And she's not like Onision, who wrote a book cuz of his ego and has delusions of grandeur
Honestly, the same could be said about any book John Green released after Vlogbrothers took off. Turtles All The Way Down isn't really a "CZcamsr Book" thing. It's an "established author also does CZcams" thing.
exactly!
Then you've got non-fiction works like "Terrible Games you've probably never heard of", which is my go to example of a good youtuber book because it is stupidly well researched AND its by someone who loves the field of early 80s and 90s video games. I know I keep promoting this book here but it really is very well done.
@@luketfer I love Ashens.
I watched this video in December. I was not in the greatest place mentally. I'd been shopping around various versions of a novel for five years, and was starting to believe I'd never land a literary agent. Well, this week, I landed the agent of my dreams, and in some weird superstitious ritual, I've come back to watch this again and give you the blood of my firstborn. Thank you, Lindsay!
Finished your book this morning; I enjoyed it thoroughly, plotting, character, the whole enchilada. Congratulations!
Don't you mean The Whole Plate? The WHOLE Plate!
As someone who has dreamed of being a novelist since the third grade, I can't tell if this video empowers me to keep going (like, hey, everyone faces failure!) Or if it completely discourages me. But that's the grey area ive been operating under my entire life so not much has changed.
true, but it may still turn out to be of help one day
I’m discouraged
the most important thing is to have a book written.
Everybody lives in that grey area. If you don't, you'll be forced to. If you do, you can get out of it.
Do what you love, but keep your dayjob until your hobby starts making more money than what you already pull in.
"The influencers sit recumbent on their chaise lounge and receive the offers" We all know you make no secret of your love of Contrapoints, but I still caught that Lindsay!
Same. It was lovely.
We stan a subtle shout out
"...writers are not good at judging the merits of their own work..."
Well... that explains a lot of what's going on in the comics industry... particularly, the big two.
Thank you, for this. 🖤
Probably more true today than in the past.
Your expression at 25:40 probably mirrored mine when I got a job after a year of unemployment. To me, it's an expression that says, "I got the thing. I'm glad I got the thing. But I don't actually feel any more secure or like I have any more control over my fate than I did when I was unsuccessfully chasing the thing."
" ...well, if you're a novelist: you're probably not the best at being.... concise..." lmao
500 pages later
In this essay, I will
Hears this and thinks, “Really? I should be a novelist!”
One video later and thinks, “nah, that’s a lot of effort.”
Lindsay reading the summary on the back of her book: "And I didn't write this"
My dumbass: "So you're talking about a book where you share the name with author? Where is this going?"
Took another two minutes to realize my mistake.
Thanks for the video Lindsay.
really1337 are you me?
I'm a freelancer editor and proofer, and I am occasionally the one who writes the book descriptions for the author, depending on the company I'm working with. Sometimes the descriptions written by the author aren't great because it's hard for the author to be succinct about their work. I recently did one where the author and I collaborated on writing the long version for the book description (Amazon lets you do much longer book descriptions than will fit on the back or the inside cover), went through a few drafts to get a final version that we were both happy with, and then I edited it down for the short blurb.
Same
I thought the same thing...
Yeah, me too
Honestly as a person in that stage of overly expensive college is over and entering the scary world of tv and film. This video helped me get through some mental hurdles knowing many are ahead. Congratulations Lindsay on your book
"if youre not a novelist youre probably not very concise" jesus christ lindsay you really came for my life huh
She said “if you are a novelist”.
@@Brinta3 on one hand you’re right probably i haven’t watched this video in two years but on the other hand Holy Heck You’re Responding To This Two Years Later?
"I like suffering"
I'm always glad to hearing when my favorite youtubers share my interests
so basically
lindsay at the beginning of the decade: trying to understand publishing
lindsay at the end of the decade: still trying to understand publishing
I'm planning on putting myself through this hell for most likely the next decade, but actually, I'm feeling okay about failure. Not too long ago I got a comment from someone on a fanfic that I wrote years ago, saying that they had a habit of coming back to it and re-reading it because they found it comforting. And you know, even if that is all my writing career ever amounts to, I'm happy that someone, somewhere, connected with something I wrote and put out there. That's pretty magical and rewarding.
Sending to my girlfriend who feels she wasted her time writing fanfic while trying to write her first novel. Shanks for the video
while the exorbitant amount of rewrites a publisher puts you through is hell, it's also interesting to see the failures of Kickstarter projects show symptoms of unregulated writing and polish that comes with getting your funding first and your criticism later
Nobody ever: "I got successful because I did whatever the hell I felt like all the time."
@@claude-alexandretrudeau1830 Nobody ever except Donald Trump, you mean.
Well said. Learning from failure is integral to the creative process.
Auteur ego is a problem that should be cured (especially with Kickstarter project) no matter the medium (movies, novels, comics and especially video games). Lindsay should do a video on how the freedom of creator can both benefit and harm the work.
@@dallasoleary187 I don't think he's really enjoying his current gig. I'm almost surprised he's applying for a renewal.
I'm interning at an indie press right now and have to read tons of slush. Every rejection letter I send out (even to poorly written manuscripts) makes my heart ache.
"Interning." Does that mean you are unpaid? Just curious, as I think I'd really like working at something like that.
@@grumpyotter Some internships are paid although most are not. However, internships are the best (if not the only) way to begin a career in publishing :)
Sounds like a cool job! Is a lot of the work really bad?
I can imagine. No matter how bad something is, someone has put their heart and soul into that.
K A it depends what role you have: editorial, marketing, production, etc. It is very much centered around business and sales, but it is also rewarding to produce books you care about!
"This is going to be a long year"
*June 2020's thousand yard stare*
Came here in October 2020 just to say this
The two thousand-and-twenty-yard stare
3:41 I wrote an Urban Fiction novel and this is the stage that Im in. I went through Ingramspark and I couldn't believe the amount of protocol I had to undergo just to get the book ready for distribution. Like you said, just when you think you're done, they'll tell you that the file is too big, the margins are so small, or anything else that will make you scream! That being said, I wouldn't undervalue the opportunity to become a publish author.
11 years is a flawed average. Spider's Georg, who take 5 million years to get published, is an outlier who should not be counted.
you missed your chance to change the meme to Writers Georg 😔
Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time...
"What's your book about?"
"The highest number of spiders one can eat in a day"
who's that?
@@vivilonrane1330 spiders georg is the guy who eats 5,000 spiders a day in a cave to make the "you eat 10 spiders when you sleep in a year" statistic
"Is it on brand? *YES."*
_Shut up and take my money!_
Lindsey Ellis before 2020 actually happened: *This is gonna be a long year*
"An alternate history first contact adventure set in the early 2000’s, pitched as Stranger Things meets Arrival, by video essayist Lindsay Ellis." Damn they're really out for you.
Me: Oh hey, I want to pre-order a book I'll later forget I bought!
Amazon: Yeah, you already bought that book.
Me: I... I did?
Amazon: Yup! Two months ago.
Me: Oh! Sweet!
faboo faboo Barnes and Nobel doesn’t do that and it upsets me
Stephen King's advice to fledging writers is to just start writing. The real advice is this video
Mayor McCheese Stephen King’s advice is also based on his experience being Stephen King in the early 70’s.
It's the equivalent of Tarantino saying "I didn't go to film school. I went to films~"
He is not wrong though.
In fairness, if you do not write, then this advice is moot.
But hes right, you get better by writing
"Independence Day meets The Big Short"
WHAT.
SOLD!
That sounds way more interesting that the Stranger Things thing
''Just finished reading your novel. All I can say is that Axiom's end is totally you as portrayed in your essays and purported interests. Congratulations on publishing such an authentic book about aliens and college dropouts. It was a fun read!.'' -Guillaume's proofreader Jerome.
Modelland by Tyra Banks is an absurdist masterpiece. Camus could never.
'camus could never' im laughing so hard
Adding this to my read list lmao
God, I hope Allison gets to review it.
@@SayHelloHelli You won't regret it. You'll probably need a large dose of peyote to make any since out of it, but you won't regret it.
I remember that being a huge dumpster fire. Though i had a good laugh at it.
“My heroes are dead and my enemies are in power what do you want?”- Lindsay Ellis
That’s the best quote ever!
www.reddit.com/r/peanuts/comments/7657yn/my_idols_are_dead_and_my_enemies_are_in_power/
dangerousminds.net/comments/my_idols_are_dead_and_my_enemies_are_in_power_does_this_image_speak_to_you
I think it’s more like “the worst timeline”, but what do I know.
(2016 feels like it was the moment when the time Traveller went back and killed hitler, and when he came back it turned out the world was suddenly much worse than before.)
Honest moment. I bought this to support you... I never expect much from first novels, so it was purely a "support my favorite CZcamsr's habit of writing" kind of thing.
I am absolutely blown away. This novel is easily as good as several of Neal Stephenson, or William Gibson. It had a very similar reader feel to The Peripheral, which is in my reread cycle (this one will be as well). You are in my shortlist of novelists, along with Herbert, Gibson, Gaiman, Dick and... I waited to buy this book because I was just... Thank you for all your content. All. Of. It.
Never stop being candidly who you are. It is stellar.
Thank you so much for this video! I'm about 30,000 words through my book right now (which I plan on being an illustrated novel since I'm an illustrator too which pretty much relegates me to indie/niche publishing being my only option, but that's fine) and it's really helpful to get some realistic insight on the process and meter my expectations. Also as exhausted as I can see you are by the process this still gave me a hit of motivation and inspiration.
Can't wait to read Axiom's End!
The fact you got your start writing Christian romance novels explains a lot, actually.
There's something about seeing someone you've been following since the beginning of their career reach a goal you yourself have set. Thank you for the newfound fervor Lindsay.
Your book has recommendations from Hank Green and Caitlin Doughty; I'm sold.
Thank you Lindsay, i really needed that video right now. Everywhere you look you only see the successes, the end result. What you don't see is the struggle and hard work, the frustration and self-doubt that was involved in the final product. This video made me smile and reassured me that it is totally normal to struggle, even if it is over the time span of years!
“It’s 2017, my heroes are dead and my enemies are in power.”
I'm stealing this hook.
@@claude-alexandretrudeau1830 - It's already a quote that Lindsay stole.
@@lettuceprime4922 - From where?
The year is 2049. My heroes are long dead. My enemies remain in power. My last 3 lives were spent assaulting the banks of the New York Financial district. And I mean literal shoreline, not the banking institutions. Even if those were our target. But we never made it past Water Street.
Cazuza - ideologia
As someone closing in on a decade of trying to get something published, this video makes me feel personally attacked in that way of like "ohh....ohh....ohhhh, I'm sad now. I should go back to editing."
Sounds like someone is in the market for guinea pigs to give feedback! I mean beta readers.
(but if you are my inbox is open, like this reply if you want me to read your novel)
I'll read it if it's on brand.
The comment section has your back, Cyrus! I mean, you're taking the steps and making the moves. That's more than most can say. And, if the average publishing time is 11 years, then you're just par for the course.
I think this is an incredible lesson on the quote “successful writers are the ones that never quit.” Perseverance paid off. It’s super inspiring that you never gave up. Not really:)
I've been a fan of your content for a while now. You manage to present fairly complex ideas/criticism in an accessible and humourous way. Oh and memes of course. This is not easy to do and I'm sure you could make your videos more academic if you wanted to but wouldn't reach as wide an audience. You're damn good at this basically and your view counts are a testament to that.
Anyway, sycophantic preamble aside, I just wanted to tell you I think you're extremely brave. Having just watched your XOXO presentation, I have to admit I belong to the group that had no idea you had suffered so much abuse from alt-right groups. My heart goes out to you. Sincerely. It's such a unique and modern form of trauma and you are absolutely right that there isn't enough support for it. There is a kind of disorientating disjunct to it due to the fact that we have programmed ourselves to equate what is essentially simulacra with living, breathing bodies in space. I would suppose this uncertainty exacerbates the feelings of fear, anxiety isolation etc. All I could say in the way of advice would be to try and unplug from the virtual mainframe as much as you can because you'll surely find many living, breathing bodies in space who love and respect you! Anyway I know you have a youtube assistant now and you probably wont read this, but I just wanted to show my support.
So a while back when she said "No one wants a novel from a CZcamsr unless their last name is Green"...
@Hans Hanzo John Green. And I guess also Hank Green now. VLOG brothers.
@Hans Hanzo Lindsay was literally on the Project for Awesome 2019 charity livestream with Hank Green 2 days ago. XD She lit some terrible vodka on fire and then drank what was left; Hank wrote something goofy on his face with Sharpie... all for charity! :D
Tom Green
What I got out of this was a great new answer for when people ask me how I am: "My heroes are dead and my enemies are in power."
we are living in The Empire Strikes Back
the background book placement of Infinite Jest next to Twilight is a wonderful touch
I watch this anytime I'm feeling down and unproductive. Helps me remember that things take time, effort, and trial & error. 🖤
please tell me that centaur book is called "And The Horse You Rode In On"
Underrated comment.
I'd read the shit out of that.
OLD TOWN ROAD
jennytrout.com/?p=12783
"The Business Centaur’s Virgin Temp"
It started as a joke and now the author is releasing it chapter by chapter..
"I got rejected so hard..."
So, basically a protracted middle school.
"my screen play will never see the light of day cause it is quite bad" WHOA THERE! they made human centipede. THREE TIMES!