What's the Deal with Authortube?

I recently joined YouTube to be a part of #Authortube and talk about #writing and my soon-to-be #selfpublished book, but when I search "Authortube" on here some very interesting videos pop up. I decided to talk about that here in my latest video.

Much respect to everyone mentioned in this video.

[Bienkex]

Thank you for saying this,
The part about being a writer first and a youtuber second really spoke to me,
And i think i now know why i feel more connected to writing than filming...
Thanks a lot 👍

[HaleyWrites]

Welcome to YouTube / AuthorTube! I completely agree with your assessment of big channels being more "creator-first" vs "writer-first." With more and more "authortube drama" coming out, I think it's important for smaller channels to stand strong and rededicate themselves with the writer-first mentality and work toward rebranding what authortube should be. I think most of the critiques of authortube stem only from the big channels, and they forget to talk about all us small fish out here, who want to change the platform, but are just too small to do any major changes yet. Great Video and I look forward to seeing your channel grow! subbed :)

[Bartolottasabra]

Welcome to Authortube, I’m just so glad someone really spoke up about it. Authortube has me on edge and not only this video but there is a lot of “tea” or “drama” in the community and it makes this community less fun for lot of people.

[jesswrites]

Thanks Tyler for this video. I too have been thinking about joining AuthorTube, to be part of the larger writing community, and was disappointed to find drama when I searched the keyword. I do not want negativity in my headspace, and it's made me question whether I should attempt anything here. But thanks to your encouragement, I may give it a shot. <3 Subbed.

[jlslipak]

Hi Tyler! Welcome to Authortube. You'll find it very "cliquey" here. Don't worry about this. I am very excited to see what you do and wish you all the best with your projects. There's great advice on here too. If you want to know more, let me know. I am not new to the field of writing; been writing since 1980. I started in the newspaper/magazine industry and went from there. I also have a new channel on Youtube. Michelle Schusterman is fantastic and Lisa Daily too. Wednesdays at 11:00 there's a live panel of great authors. Come and join us. Take care and good luck.

[DanielleMamaril]

Hey Tyler!
I just found your channel through reddit. I can't believe we've never crossed paths. I've started in the authortube community for god...5 years and have been around through the highs and lows. It got to a point where I was labeled as the "teen writer" lol. But being in authortube from a stupid young age definitely affected me for better or worse. It's admirable that you want to change authortube's reputation.

I don't think that these authortubers have a problem with necessarily being youtubers first and authors second. I think the two jobs go hand in hand. In order to be a successful writer, we have to market ourselves. There is no "writing" without the "marketing" bc then writing isn't a job, which is fine. Writing is a craft in its own right, but most of us on here want to create a living off our writing eventually. I don't think that the "authortuber first, author second" is to blame for the bad writing. I think that it's just because they're bad writers, but they just so happen to be terrific marketers. Tldr, I don't think correlation equals causation in this case.

Also yes, authortube is very cliquey. I think that's because our community is so small. We're a young community in the history of youtube and we've, as far as I know, only had two huge peaks of growth (2018 and 2020). I don't think cliques are bad necessarily, I just see them as "friend groups." Nonetheless, I think it's easy to make friends in this community so long as you make your face known and people start to recognize you more.

I look forward to more videos from you:)

[Zackthedalj]

4:15 Very much agree sir. As a fellow authortuber I think the fact you have noticed this issue so quickly, speaks to how astute & discerning you are. I do not know if you are familiar with me, I'm the resident delinquent and trouble maker here on book/authortube, for calling out this issue and several others. I want to offer you a welcome to the fray, and say authors like you and me, who are authors first, and youtubers second, are here on the platform, and we can make progress and take back the reputation of the community. When your book is ready to send out as an ARC, feel free to reach out and I will review it on my channel, and you'd also be welcome to come talk about it on the weekly show I do with my partner Cait.

also just an fyi, found this vid from your reddit post. Will also reply there.

[gracetocultivate]

I am new to the #authortube space. Thanks for sharing your perspective. I'm also trying to understand its pros and cons.

[KevenPirritano]

02:05 Well using words like: good, bad, great, crap, etc are all subjective words.

There is a difference between:

1) This book's plot is bad.
2) This book has no plot.

One is a subjective statement (1) well the other is objective and could be proven (2).

[EmmaBennetAuthor]

I’m still pretty new on here and am finding my way. Thanks for this. Subscribed.

[jeremyfee]

Good points here! I've found a lot of nice AuthorTubers.

[ericpshow]

You are better standing out from the crowd, building your own channel and your own community, the freedom to be creative and do things your way is probably for the best ; ))

[zoebrugg]

Jenna Mareci though I would say, I don’t like her. Her books have proven that she doesn’t take her own advice, and puts down her male audience via politics. Being a writer and YouTuber means that you need to prove your work, that you can walk the walk not just talk. That’s why I prefer to not be a YouTuber. Maybe a book vlog video every now and then for books that I enjoy or want not. But, honestly I rather not, blogging would be nicer. Less traffic maybe, but I don’t care about fame, I care more about the book, and the ones that would like or love the type of content I want to make.
I rather stay genuine to myself than follow a heard.

[ZarinaMachaAuthor]

Welcome to authortube! Funnily enough, just a few weeks ago I put out a video titled 'authortube: don't believe everything you hear', and touched on these kinds of videos. There's a bunch of channels out there talking about how terrible the SAME two channels/books are, and yet that's not representative of this entire platform. There are hundreds of authortubers out there and plenty of channels making great content.
Good luck with your book launch, subbed and looking forward to see nice content from you.