Відео

I watch creative writing advice videos mainly to debunk what they say in them. Heard it all before, there's nothing new.

Good advice. I'm going to share this with my authors. As an editor, I see a lot of authors increasing word count with details of minutia and filter words that mean nothing. Increasing dialog and adding detail to the drama and emotion is how to increase word count AND write a better book.

It IS a great video! Some of the information is familiar to me from other videos and blogs. There were a lot of Don'ts. I guess the social media age of writers was meant for Jesus, because He always needed us to care for others. So, I really can't write my works unless I'm thinking about my audience FIRST. But, it's also like the service-industry workplace: You can't serve the public, unless you can take care of yourself (your health) in order to do the former. 😐

I think the issue with "authortube books" is that when you self publish, you have an enormous amount of work to do to make that publication a success, vastly dwarfing the amount of work that went into the book itself. There have been a few cases of authors creating an authortube platform, issuing writing and publication advice all for the purpose of building a following and presenting an aura of highly respectable expertise in the field, so that upon self-publishing the book it is actually possible to see it sell as well as it might have via a traditional publisher. But then the book gets bought and read and reviewed and in some cases it turns out that the quality of the book leads readers to believe that the author's own writing advice wasn't that closely followed, that the book was self-published because the author believed the author's own online platform would do the work of an agent and publisher, and that the amount of revision usually expected by agents and publishers therefore wouldn't be necessary, or perhaps the author never even understood how much revision is required and why, despite producing hours of video content describing exactly that.

This is very fair and balanced.

What I want to know is: does experience breed qualification? If you're an unpublished author, who's written for thirty years should the clue to your competency level lie in your apparent inability to succeed industriously, or in your tenacity, or even the mere fact of your longevity? Like, if I play basketball my entire life, just in my free time, even if I acknowledge I'm not a pro-baller, people aren't going to line up when I say "Let me teach you how the professionals do it..."

I'm an independent author, and I have a writer's channel. I refuse to give advice. I just want to highlight my journey as a writer.

I found this so very helpful as I am a beginner. Thanks Megan :)

Is self publishing typically more expensive than traditional?

Thats why as a "beginner writer" i steer away from certain UA-cam channels on writing.

Advice on grammar. While i speak and write fluent in english language, I do make lots of grammar mistakes. Any advice on that? I bought books and trying to study with that but if there is any other way, i am open to it.

Yeah, I am not taking advice from AuthorTubers. They are there to make videos, get views, get likes and get subscribers. Sometimes, they talk a lot about writing instead of actually writing. They may also suggest products and services that may aid writing, free or paid. So much so that the act of making videos has become big business for them. If one wants to write for the market, then one has to read a lot of books and write like those books, then pitch that book to an agent, who would then represent that book to the publisher. For my current WIP, I am **not** writing for the market. Instead, I will just be writing, self-editing, self-revising, self-proofreading, self-publishing. Everything is done by myself, from the start to the end. The book will just be proof that I have written something. The most I would ever do for the book is a mention on my UA-cam channel in the form of a longform video, talking about the book, or UA-cam shorts with the #booktube #booktok #book #books #fiction #literature #literary hashtags, and share that stuff on social media.

Then at the same time traditional publishers consider it a plus that you manage your social media, meaning less they need to worry about their marketing strategy.

The whole "why would you take advice on how to become a millionaire from someone who isn't a millionaire" line of thought only goes so far. For example...there are plenty of people who write song for other artists to sing. Many of these song writers have never performed themselves. They certainly have never had the success of the big artists they write for. But does that mean that the don't know how to create a great song just because they don't get in the studio and sing themselves? If so...then a lot of the top songs everyone know wouldn't have come into existence. Because those songs were written by writers who are not performers. They did know how to create "hit" songs...even though they never had a hit on a record of their own.

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I’ve been writing for a long time …… what Megan is saying here I agree with 100%. Best to know grammar and not rely totally on someone else. Programs like Gammarly - ugh! If you want to confuse yourself completely, start doubting your own writing and intelligence, that’s the way to go. That’s my experience, anyway.

This video was a lot more positive than I expected by the title. Thanks for proving me wrong! You actually make some reasonable points.

I put a lot more stock in authortube before I checked out the books they had written. The three authors I checked out were all objectively terrible. I mean, I went into these books enthusiastic thinking I would learn something. It wasn’t like I came in trying to trash these authors. I like them and I liked their channels and wanted to support them, that’s why I checked out the books, but I feel like it’s disingenuous to teach something and pretend to be knowledgeable about it when you can’t do yourself. How many people would want cooking lessons from someone who can barely boil an egg? I feel like the best qualification for giving writing advice is being able to write well yourself.

I love your example of the Chicago manual style. I'm a history grad student, and I can find these mistakes in other peoples writing very well. Passive past tense, word usage, citations, etc. But the struggle to find them in my own. We tend to gloss over some things in our own writing because we've read it so much.

Megan, I'm an old codger. I understand why you did this video. Given my age, I'm wise in an area or two (medicine and medical psychology) but not in writing. Based on over 77 years of living I've learned people love to critique others, it is part of human nature. The good of criticism is to advance our knowledge and skills. Unfortunately, being criticized "hurts" unless you have attained the highest level of enlightenment. Now to the help I've seeking. At 67 years old I decided after I retired to become a non-fiction creative writer and focus on what I know. So I started writing a memoir, actually two. I've hired multiple editors, developmental and copy editors, and they have improved my writing. Now 77, I'm still drafting my books and enjoying writing as a wonderful hobby. Any recommendations where I can find a group to bounce off my drafts? Dr. G

Yeah, I avoided authortube for years. I found about half of it insultingly basic, and the other half was stating "rules" that I didn't agree with. But I think that comes from the fact that once you get passed the basics in writing and publishing, a lot of it becomes VERY individualized. Every book follows a different path. Every author has a different style. One author may need to hear "Cut all those extraneous adjectives." Another may need to hear, "you need more descriptions." And so much of it is a matter of style and opinion. There's only so much general advice can help hone your craft. But I support the fact that there are creators out there talking people through basics. Some people just learn better from listening than from reading, and so just googling it won't be particularly helpful to them. Some people have lives where they can put a youtube video on in the background to learn something, but don't have time to plod through the dozen articles they would need to read to find the information (and fact check it.) I wouldn't watch a twenty minute video to find out whether to use then or than, but someone else might find that useful. But yeah, I do feel there is a middle ground, when you are still struggling to get published, but are not a beginner anymore, where authortube becomes pretty useless as a viewer.

Are you still doing the trilogy?

Very good video 🤍 Thank you for addressing this topic. I see a ton of writing advice on the internet that is so black or white. A lot of people tell you that you absolutely NEED to do things a certain way to become a better writer. And I used to feel pressured to follow every single tip I laid eyes on. Lately I've realised it doesn't do me any good because I've got techniques that work for me. It gets so toxic as it also has an adverse effect on your mental health and it can kind of cause burnout when you're forcing yourself constantly to follow all the writing advice out there. I really appreciate your point of view.

How would you write about cultures in fantasy but have a passing resemblance to real world cultures so they are identifyable as being similar like medevil Europe or Rome/ Greek etc basically using the aesthetics cloths certain customs so people can see WHERE you drew inspiration from I understand doing research etc but how can people say your wrong if I want to have Chinese European and others etc but have stuff like magic and dragons, mostly because it’s no a one to one transferable it’s not the same so how would you do that?

Given some of the poor writing I've seen from Author Tubers...I agree. I what I've noticed is that a lot of author tubers are nothing more than parrots...see and say...copying other channels...with the attitude that wow...I can do that. So they buy a camera...and repeat what they've been reading on other channels...

hii

Congratulations! This is amazing.

merry christmas, have a good one, hope you will return soon

The problem with most author tubers is that they came from the industry. The problem with that is that nobody in the industry are writers.... they are editors, which is a whole different ballgame. Writers come with their creative stories to these publishers and the publishers mainly edit, they don't write. Author tubers are the biggest hypocrites there are. They give you all kinds of advice... then they publish their own books and you see they threw all their own advice straight in the garbage bin. Also they seem to be under the impression that using swearwords literally every 5 sentences somehow equals good writing, coz it's edgy and daring or something. Like yeah, swearwords can be a positive when used correctly; really intensify certain scenes and give the conflict extra dept.... but the way these autortubers use it sounds more like a 12 year old Justin Bieber having a temper tantrum meltdown. The overly excessive use of it also means the swearwords lose all their value as a writing tool. I was amazed by the amount of spelling/grammer mistakes they make in their end product for ex-editors too....

Congratulations!!! Those are respectable numbers and JUST THE BEGINNING! You're such an inspiration.

That's wonderful, Megan. Congratulations!

Those are awesome numbers! I’d be interested in knowing what you did in terms of marketing prior to your book launch 😄 Congrats again on your debut!

Wow! Those are amazing numbers. I wish I could come close to that. Congrats!

Great video, I'm coming to find this after your launch results (full disclosure)... courage, Merry! 🤗

Megan that is amazing news!! Strong launch!! Congratulations on your success!!

3:20...nice one. It is expected that debut books sell for 130 for the first time, so you didn't do too bad at all. Considering that you said you was going to do it better than anyone else, you did well. I am pleased for you. Nice amount of money too. Interesting, interesting.

Welcome back, I love your t-shirt

The text on the screen at 3:20 doesn't match what you say. I'm guessing the text is the updated numbers?

Wow, that is a STELLAR debut launch, Megan! COngratulations!!

Congrats! Well deserved!

Where is your favorite place to purchase indie books?

Congrats Megan! Well done!!

Awesome job! This is why I’m going wide. You just have more potential and income avenues

Congratulations Megan! That is amazing and I hope that feel very proud of yourself!! You definitely should 🎉

I think it's important to remember that a lot of people teach things they can't do, but when you get people like Meg LaTorre and Jenna Moreci claiming they're able to do what they're advising their viewers to do -- and clearly they can't -- then the entire community just lends itself to toxicity.

Woohoo! Glad to see you're doing better!!

I had planed to stay up than crashed lol hate early mornings

Welcome back! I'm super excited for you and your new company, and I'm def going to be using your services when the time comes. ^^

Welcome back! Look after yourself.x

I'm so excited for you and your new business. Gonna email you some buisiness questions right now.