Who? Who is this mystical person who is supposed to care more about your sex…
SEX? (Jenna laughs)
Oh man, okay. Well that’s a whole other topic.
Hellooo, everybody!
Today I'm here to piss a whole bunch of people off. What else is new?
The writing community can be wonderful. Pretty much all of my friends are writers.
They are amazing, and I'm so happy to have them in my life. But no community is perfect,
and the writing community has its fair share of human turds. There's drama and chaos,
there's gossip and rumors. It sounds a whole lot like high school to be honest. So I decided,
since I never know when to keep my mouth shut, I'm just gonna go ahead and list the ten worst parts
of the writing community. The actions or trends or people that really stink up the room.
If this list offends you, it's probably because you're on it. And if that's the case, someone had to tell you.
Might as well be me.
(The sound of a pen scratching. LOGO.)
Before we get started a quick announcement.
I have a Black Friday sale going down right now. My number one best selling dark
fantasy romance novel, The Savior's Champion is on sale for just 99 cents. This sale is available for
all ebook formats, at all major retailers. It is also available internationally. So if you haven't
checked TSC out yet, first of all, how dare you, and second of all, pick up a copy right now!
This sale isn't gonna last forever. Black Friday has also hit my merch stores. So right now you can
get my merch for 20% off. That's 20% off t-shirts, mugs, hoodies, stickers, and more. All you have to
do is plug in this promo code and you're good to go. Lastly, I am holding a giveaway just for shits
and giggles. One lucky winner is going to receive a writerly and readerly prize pack including
signed copies of both The Savior's Champion and The Savior’s Sister, plus custom prints, and a
whole bunch of other readerly goodies. All you have to do to enter is subscribe to my channel,
ring that bell, and comment on this video down below with a heart. If you're already subscribed,
you're halfway there. All you gotta do is comment with a heart, and you're good to go.
Now that that's out of the way let's get to the ten worst parts of the writing community.
If you hate this shit too, you're in good company. Number One (1): The superiority complex.
You're a writer, an artist, a visionary! Other people become nurses and plumbers, but you,
you create worlds. You explore symbology and themes. You bless the world with your brilliance
And that brilliance in particular is big titty alien women having sex with stranded astronauts.
Look, writing is absolutely an art form. But being an artist doesn't inherently make you superior.
And there was no art within the community that is superior to other art within the community.
You're not better because you write literary fiction as opposed to speculative fiction.
And you're not better because you write epic fantasy as opposed to urban fantasy.
You can respect your work, and be confident in it, and passionate about it without being a
dick. Number Two (2): The rambling. One of the reasons I started my channel is because it was
really hard to find quality writing advice. Sure, there was a ton of advice out there but it felt
more like a bunch of writers jerking themselves off. They'd go on and on beating around the bush
making everything so flowery and nuanced. We get it you love to hear yourself talk. The truth is,
a lot of this shit ain't that complicated. You don't need to wax poetic in order to help people
improve their writing. Get to the fucking point. I'm not saying all writing blogs and channels are
like this. I'm just saying it would be a whole lot more helpful if the writing community as a
whole could be straightforward. Number three (3): Competition. A large part of the writing community
is very supportive. They're all about lifting each other up. But there's also a segment that
pits writers against writers. They see other writers, particularly those within the genre
as competition. I can't wrap my head around this. You do know that people can read multiple books at
the same time, right? This ain't a one and done kind of thing. It also makes way more sense to
work with other writers as opposed to against other writers from a business perspective.
Collaboration with other writers broadens your readership because they are exposing you to
their audience. Not only is the competition rude and pointless, it also shoots you in the foot.
You're being a dick and doing yourself no favors. Number Four (4): Men writing women. Don't worry, I
don't mean all men, but if you're offended by this point, then yeah, I'm probably talking about you.
We've all seen the excerpts. They usually involve an objectifying physical description,
as well as sentient boobs. I don't know why so many men think our tits come with their own
thoughts and feelings, but here we are. If you're extra lucky, you might get a description of a
vulva that's reminiscent of an alien life form. If you've never seen a naked woman, I promise you,
there are pictures on the internet. Do the research. I have read boobs compared to eggplants,
I have read nipples that sighed in sadness, I have read pubic hair that shines like a
shampoo commercial, and vaginas that turn inside out. Make it stop. Who is editing these books,
proofreading these books, formatting these books and then publishing these books? Probably more
men who can't write women. Got it. Number Five (5): The girl boss. You know exactly who she is,
but let me paint a picture anyway. She's a thirty-something year old white woman
in a shit marriage, with a few punk ass kids. She reads young adult fiction exclusively, but demands
that the category feature far more smut. Nothing gets her going quite like teenage genitalia.
She thinks diversity and fiction and the writing community is a personal attack against her rights.
How dare anyone threaten her ability to write about a self insert getting railed by a fairy
man. And she's all about uplifting other women. So long as they're also thirty-something year
old white women and loveless marriages. You can probably find her by the decorative cursive font
on her website. Or the All Lives Matter banner on her Instagram bio. But really, there are thousand
girl bosses in every single online young adult book group, harassing teenagers, and generally
just being awful human beings, So they should be pretty easy to spot. Number Six (6): Gatekeepers.
You're no real writer if you write romance. You're not a serious fantasy writer if you
don't write epic fantasy. All female writers must write young adult fiction This is so dumb. Writers
are supposed to be creative, how can you, with your vast imagination, pigeonhole people into
these hyper specific groups. And a lot of the best fiction out there defies stereotypes. That's kind
of the point. Breaking boundaries is what artists are supposed to do. Let people tell the stories
they wanna tell. If it's not hurting anyone, why does it matter? Writing is supposed to be fun,
and treating it like an exclusive club but really kills the vibe. Number Seven (7): Writing isn't a
business. You're exchanging a product for money, but sure, it's not a business at all. You're an
artist, not a businessman. You let someone else handle the money. Who? Who is this mystical person
who is supposed to care more about the success of your novel than you do? I hate to break it to
you but your publisher isn't going to market you for shit. In fact, you probably won't get signed
unless you have already started to build your author platform. And you're definitely not gonna
find any magical free marketing as an indie writer. But still, literally every day, I see
some writer go: meh, I’ll skip the business stuff, it's not my thing. I hope book sales aren't your
thing either, because you won't be getting any of those. Number Eight (8): Scammers. For just $5,000
you can learn how to become a best selling author, from someone who isn't a best selling author. For
the same price as the down payment on a car, you can learn how to become a full time author,
from someone who is only a full time author because you are paying for this bullshit course.
And you can't forget about vanity presses. You will pay them thousands of dollars just for them
to plop your book on the internet and disappear. You actually can have a much wider distribution
reach from publishing your book yourself, versus publishing with a vanity press. Unfortunately,
within all artistic communities, scammers abound, and that's because a lot of artists are desperate
to make a name for themselves. Desperation it's easy to pray on. So please, please, please do
your research before giving your money to anyone. Number Nine (9): The ‘representation is a prison’
writer. You mean to tell me it's more realistic to include some characters of color in my novel?
How dare you aim to improve my writing, while also broadening and respecting my readership?
Don't you know you're shackling me? Destroying my creativity! Because nothing says creative
quite like writing the same character over and over again. What do you mean art requires growth
and learning? What do you mean progress is a natural part of any skill? I wanna be a big
baby forever. You can pry these bigoted cliches out of my cold dead hands. And Number Ten (10):
The reviews stalkers. Someone gave you an honest but critical review, and now you're gonna bully
them on the internet. Or maybe you're not gonna bully them. Maybe you're gonna cry about it on
Instagram live so your followers can bully them instead. Or actually, maybe you're not going to do
any of that. Maybe you're just going to approach the reviewer for a friendly, healthy discussion.
It's a discussion they didn't sign up for, and it's completely inappropriate. But you know,
it's friendly. Negative reviews can be really tough. I’d be lying if I said a negative review
hadn’t ruined my day at some point. But it's your reader’s prerogative to review your work. And
unless they are being intentionally harmful, or they are tagging you in their criticism,
their negative opinions are 100% valid. Art is subjective. You knew not everyone would like
your work when you got into this gig. Stay away from the reviews, let reviewers do their thing
in peace. You're making yourself look like a whiny baby. So that's all I got for you today. I'm not
sorry about any of this. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays.
And if you subscribe to my channel, ring that bell and leave a comment below with a heart.
One lucky winner is going to be walking away with signed copies of The Savior's Champion
and The Savior’s Sister, and a whole bunch of writerly goodies. So, enter the giveaway.
It’s going down right now. When you're done with that, be sure to pick up a copy of The Savior's
Champion. It is on sale for Black Friday right now. I got it linked below. Pick up a copy now,
do it. And after that, go ahead to my merch store and get yourself some 20% off. You can get this
shirt, and you could proclaim your hatred for people all over the world. I know you hate people,
I hate people, it's a writer thing. And be sure to follow me on social media. I'm on Instagram,
Tumblr, Facebook and BookBub and of course you can tweet me @JennaMoreci! Bye!
(Lighthearted Female Voice) It's me, Pippa! Have you subscribed to Jenna’s channel yet?
Oh, you must! It's so much fun! She talks about writing and heroism and romance…and sometimes
she says very naughty words, But I rather enjoy it! Subscribe to her channel, and ring the bell!