Outsider by Klaire de Lys

[Chiyou]

I wanted to start a topic for people to post reviews of her novel here so Klaire can see everything about her novel under one thread. She stops by every once in a while.

[Emerald]

Here's a video of Klaire making the map of Ammasteinn.

[youtube][/youtube]

[Emerald]

Here's a video of Klaire making the map of Ammasteinn.

[youtube][/youtube]

[Emerald]

Here's the book trailer.

[youtube][/youtube]

[Emerald]

A drawing of Astrid

[youtube][/youtube]

[Chiyou]

I just finished Outsider and I think it's a good debut effort. Klaire has a lot of things set up for the sequel, so I feel like the sequel will be more exciting, especially after Astrid, Jarl, and Knud make it to Logberg. Klaire can even turn this into a political intrigue novel involving elves, dwarves, and goblins if she wanted to. I can definitely see her going in this direction.

I like Astrid. I would like to find out more about Dag.

Astrid, for sure, has the makings of someone who is definitely an outsider that has the potential to bring this warring world of Ammastein together. Kind of cliche, I guess, but it can still be interesting depending on how Klaire pulls it off.

A lot of times, it's not about the premise, but the execution. Looking forward to Klaire's sequel next year.

Rating: 3/5

[Emerald]

How Klaire made the book cover.

[youtube][/youtube]

[Emerald]

A drawing of Knud

[youtube][/youtube]

[TheAuthor]

Hello everyone, I am new here, but I have been reading GG on and off for the past couple of years.

This should really be posted in the Trash a Guru Section, however, I don't think Klaire has one, and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to create my own section for her.

But in all honesty, I am completely appalled and disgusted that Klaire self - published this book. When I learned that she had, and after years and years of watching her and being a faithful follower, I had to unsubscribe from her channel. I know this was a year ago, but I've been keeping these feelings about her published book bottled up for months and feel that I need to get them out, so I guess, here is my open letter to Klaire de Lys:

Dear Klaire,

I had been a loyal follower of yours for years. Every time you uploaded a new video, I would sit and watch it as soon as I could and I always rewatched your tutorials. You were the first 'Beauty Guru' I ever watched when I was just 13 years old. I would sit and practice your looks, learned how to wash my makeup brushes, and you were the one to get me into makeup to such an extent that I now have drawers upon drawers filled with massive amounts of makeup that I love to wear.

But sadly last year, you self - published your book 'Outsider'. Now don't get me wrong, I think you're beautiful and extremely talented, from your photography, drawings/paintings, set work, makeup videos - everything that I watched over the years. But in those years, I NEVER once heard you profess a love or interest in writing, even though you claim to have been loving and doing it as long as you have your other talents. Now, I've read your blog posts and you say that your writing has been very personal, but that doesn't change my feelings of betrayal and resentment I feel towards you.

And I too, am a writer. I have been doing it for the last 9 years of my life. I have dedicated countless hours upon hours just writing, sitting and thinking of ideas, reworking old ideas, brainstorming, etc...I am writing a book series of my own and have been for the last 9 years. I've written Books 1 - 5 in the series so far. Writing is something I absolutely love to do, and for those 9 years all I have ever dreamed about was becoming a published author and sharing my books with the world...

And suddenly, you come along with your self published book. I was outraged.

I did some research into your book. I've read reviews on it, and read that it took you a couple of months to write your book, and you had some friends read over it and help you edit it, and that's great...for a first draft, not a complete and published work.

I get it. It's easier to self - publish your book. You keep creative control, you edit what you want to stay in and don't, and sometimes it might save you money (In your case, you designed the cover yourself, so you might have saved money that someone like myself would have to pay to create good cover art if I self published). And as a plus side for you, you have 683, 332 subscribers on YouTube (possibly more, depending on how many didn't double subscribe to your Art channel, which has 136, 766 subscribers). This many subscribers mean that you don't have to work to advertise your book and wait for a following to build like so many new authors do. You just make a video and *poof*, suddenly you're making money from your self published book because of the following you already have. To me, it feels like one giant cop - out, and in my opinion, makes you look like a lazy writer.

Again, I get it. When you finish writing your first book, or any book, it feels amazing. You're excited and you want to share it with the world - especially with the followers that have supported you for so long. When I was 14 and finished writing my first novel, I was ecstatic, and immediately looked into publishing and self publishing, trying to get it out there. But that was a huge mistake that I'm embarrassed to say I even tried.

Because over the years, I stepped away from the project. I gave myself time to grow as a person, a writer, and develop deeper plot lines, themes, characters, etc...by working on the next several books. While there will still be a sixth book in the series that I have written 100 pages of, I am now going back to the first book and going to rewrite it. I'm going to tie in plot lines that come up in the sequels, add in foreshadowing, take out plot lines that went nowhere in the first book, etc...I'm going to make the necessary corrections that the book needs to be a solid, finished manuscript.

And, in my opinion, unless you're Stephen King, George R.R. Martin - or another successful and great writer - it's impossible to write a book in a couple of months, edit it, and then think it's finished. Not when you plan on writing sequels to go along with it. Because I'm sure that you'll be writing the sequels and come up with different plot lines, maybe a different ending, new ideas - and then you'll look back at the first book and say, "Wait, I could have changed it and made things so much better." I see you doing it now on different websites, asking people for their opinions and reviews so you will know how to make the second book better and correct mistakes. And again, in my opinion, I believe that if you want to be taken seriously as a writer - you shouldn't have to do that. Now, if you'd released Outsider free to everyone just to gain public feedback, that would be different, and then once you've made the corrections and released it for a price, I could see that. I would understand that. But the Outsider is sold on Amazon for £8.99 in paperback, and £3.99 on Kindle. I see it as sloppy and lazy. I see it just as a way to make more money.

What I believe you should have done is finished Outsider and it's sequels, however many there are going to be, and then gone back to the first book. What's different in the sequels? What doesn't tie into the rest of the story? What plotlines were you developing that didn't go anywhere? What lines of dialogue, description, or anything else do you reread over and go, "Ooh, I don't like that anymore." Did Astrid's character suddenly change because your own voice changed as you grew as a person? Does it no longer fit the character that she is?

These are the things that I believe are necessary to do when you write your first novels. And believe me, 9 YEARS I've spent working on this series. And now looking back at the last draft I've written of Book 1 (which was written 2 times before that), I'm now asking myself what I can change and fix so it flows with Books 2 - 6. And I still don't feel as though it's ready to be a published piece of work.

So many authors are just trying to get their books KNOWN, or even accepted by a publishing company, but it was so easy for you because you already have a YouTube following. Some people will probably say, "Oh, well it took her years to build up a YouTube following too!" And I get that. But when you haven't shown any interest in writing before, suddenly publish a book, share it with everyone, but then scramble around to try and write a sequel while working on incorporating what people did and didn't like about the first book just isn't the way to go. Not when you want to be taken seriously as a writer who has just started self - publishing.

I know you have good intentions Klaire, and I know you want your writing to be taken seriously, but I myself cannot look at you and see more than someone who self - published a draft of a book, who had an easy following to get the book known, and is already making money that I don't believe you should earn at this point in your writing career.

I hope that you follow my suggestions. I hope that you stop charging people to buy 'Outsider'. I hope that you take time to finish the book and it's sequels and then republish as a truly completed piece of work. I know you can do it, Klaire, I just believe that your excitement and love for the work got the best of you. And I know you can do so much more. I hope the best for you, Klaire.

Sincerely,
TheAuthor

[KlairedeLys]

@TheAuthor
There was a part of me that was afraid that people would have the same reaction you did when I announced the book – I can see how it could be misconstrued that, as a YouTuber, I just cynically up and decided that I was going to write a book one day.

Prior to announcing the publication of Outsider, I never talked much about my writing in my YouTube videos. So much of what I do is online that it was nice to have something I love doing that was just for me.

So many of the things I enjoy, like drawing, makeup and singing have become jobs (which I love), but it was nice to get home and just write without feeling I had to share it with people on Twitter or Instagram. It's not something you can just post about on Twitter or Instagram, or drop casually in a blog post.

If I shared an Instagram snap of each notebook I filled up with plot points and ideas, or each time I sat down to write, my Instagram would be clogged full with pictures of my computer screen. People would know about every single plot twist and character before the book was even released. As I'm sure you know (being a writer yourself) writing is quite a secretive thing, it's not something you tend to share until you’re ready.
I was sending out stories to publishing houses when I was 14-15 (a ridiculous ambition at the time, I know) but writing is something I have done for a very long time. I was rejected at the time unsurprisingly, but encouraged to continue by the publishing houses I sent my work to, and I've had the rejection letters pinned on my wall for years as motivation to keep working and improving.

As for sending it to friends, editing it for a few days and then clicking the self-publish button, if only it had been that easy! Editing it myself is something I would never consider just because I'm dyslexic and a terrible editor. I'd have better luck trying to juggle for the first time while blindfolded and riding a bike backwards.

It was actually edited by a lady called Elaine Denning who is a fantastic editor, utterly brutal when it comes to improvements and what she thinks is good or bad. If she felt something needed to be added or cut out she was/is not afraid to tell me. I wanted to work on it on my own with professionals like Elaine who could give me the same advice and help a publishing house could.

The way I saw it was that if I was to get a publishing deal it would still look like I was jumping on the bandwagon since at the moment every YouTuber and their mother seems to be "writing" a book. If a publisher had taken on the book I would have inevitably been "encouraged" to make a videos about it every few weeks and ram it down everyone's throats. I've seen the kind of contracts that get offered to YouTubers for anything like this and they're extremely inflexible and don’t appeal to me. The kind of contract where you have absolutely no control over the final product because they're only interested in using you for your online following and you're forced to blare out "Hey look! I have my name on something, buy it, buy it now!" over all your social media.

I did not want to do that. I wanted to write something at my own pace do my absolute best on it, go over it until it was perfect and then release it with one video on my main channel and a few videos on my second channel for the illustrations and drawings. I write because it's something I love doing, it's something I do religiously every day and something that I'll still be doing long after I've finished the Outsider series.

If I had had my book published through traditional channels I'm sure you would feel equally incensed, perhaps more so. You would have felt that I had just been offered something on a plate that I didn't deserve and you did. While I have a tendency to be self-deprecating when I present my work, and that could come across as me being inexperienced or unsure of my work when I'm not. When I decide I'm going to do something you can bet your life I'll work my butt off on it and it will be at the best possible standard when I release it.

I ask people's opinions on what they thought of the book because I'm interested to see their point of view. I find it fascinating, I like to understand how people think and respond to my work. Does it mean I will act on every single criticism? Absolutely not, but I will listen, and listening to my readers because I care about them does not lessen the value of my work.

I'm sorry you feel like I don't deserve the advantage I have, but I don't see the point in not using the opportunities I've worked towards. I'm not depriving anyone of anything by putting myself out there on a platform available to everyone – it’s a free world and a free market. I have never pushed my book onto my audience, it's there if they want to read it and I don't mind at all if they have no interest in reading it.

While I have justified my own hard work here, the point of self publishing is that it allows an author to share their work without needing the validation of a publisher and for readers to take or leave it, knowing that it has been shared directly by the author. As a budding author, you too are welcome to take the wonderful opportunity the Internet has created for your work to be read far and wide. Many hugely successful authors have chosen this route, it’s no less valid than an unsigned musician choosing to share their music independently or an entrepreneur deciding to start a business.

I wrote a book, I'm proud of it, and just because I have a large following does not mean that everything I release should be free. That's what my giveaways, my face charts and my tutorials are for.

P.S. I wish you the best of luck with your book and hope that it publishes, whether traditional or otherwise, to great success

[unicorney]

I haven't read her book but I love Klaire, she's one of the first youtubers I subscribed to like 4 or 5 years ago, I'm glad she is doing so well for herself

[P.I.e]

Man, usually I just lurk but @TheAuthor, what the hell dude?

I honestly find it so sad that you're "disgusted" by someone self-publishing a book. Do you get offended by makeup gurus who earn thousands through sponsorship and adverts, while traditional makeup artists work with clients for years to achieve the same revenue? Probably, given you don't think Klaire should be earning money at this point in her career.

You sound like one of those folks who wouldn't take an actor seriously unless they've done their hard yards in traditional theatre, or an artist who dismisses digital painting as just illustrations.

What gives you the right to rip out someone because they're not matching your standards of what an author should and shouldn't be? Klaire wrote a book in a few months, so bloody what? I'm a painter, and at an exhibition I had pieces that were considered by my teacher technically excellent go unsold, while a painting I did in an hour and a half was sold for $300.

In the end, you seriously need to chill out, Klaire has not "betrayed" you - You've gotten yourself far too wrapped in something that affects you in no way.

Also, to Klaire: Thank you for your great work, it's an inspiration to me and you should be incredibly proud of your efforts.

[angiechuwho]

Hello everyone, I am new here, but I have been reading GG on and off for the past couple of years.

This should really be posted in the Trash a Guru Section, however, I don't think Klaire has one, and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to create my own section for her.

But in all honesty, I am completely appalled and disgusted that Klaire self - published this book. When I learned that she had, and after years and years of watching her and being a faithful follower, I had to unsubscribe from her channel. I know this was a year ago, but I've been keeping these feelings about her published book bottled up for months and feel that I need to get them out, so I guess, here is my open letter to Klaire de Lys:

Dear Klaire,

I had been a loyal follower of yours for years. Every time you uploaded a new video, I would sit and watch it as soon as I could and I always rewatched your tutorials. You were the first 'Beauty Guru' I ever watched when I was just 13 years old. I would sit and practice your looks, learned how to wash my makeup brushes, and you were the one to get me into makeup to such an extent that I now have drawers upon drawers filled with massive amounts of makeup that I love to wear.

But sadly last year, you self - published your book 'Outsider'. Now don't get me wrong, I think you're beautiful and extremely talented, from your photography, drawings/paintings, set work, makeup videos - everything that I watched over the years. But in those years, I NEVER once heard you profess a love or interest in writing, even though you claim to have been loving and doing it as long as you have your other talents. Now, I've read your blog posts and you say that your writing has been very personal, but that doesn't change my feelings of betrayal and resentment I feel towards you.

And I too, am a writer. I have been doing it for the last 9 years of my life. I have dedicated countless hours upon hours just writing, sitting and thinking of ideas, reworking old ideas, brainstorming, etc...I am writing a book series of my own and have been for the last 9 years. I've written Books 1 - 5 in the series so far. Writing is something I absolutely love to do, and for those 9 years all I have ever dreamed about was becoming a published author and sharing my books with the world...

And suddenly, you come along with your self published book. I was outraged.

I did some research into your book. I've read reviews on it, and read that it took you a couple of months to write your book, and you had some friends read over it and help you edit it, and that's great...for a first draft, not a complete and published work.

I get it. It's easier to self - publish your book. You keep creative control, you edit what you want to stay in and don't, and sometimes it might save you money (In your case, you designed the cover yourself, so you might have saved money that someone like myself would have to pay to create good cover art if I self published). And as a plus side for you, you have 683, 332 subscribers on YouTube (possibly more, depending on how many didn't double subscribe to your Art channel, which has 136, 766 subscribers). This many subscribers mean that you don't have to work to advertise your book and wait for a following to build like so many new authors do. You just make a video and *poof*, suddenly you're making money from your self published book because of the following you already have. To me, it feels like one giant cop - out, and in my opinion, makes you look like a lazy writer.

Again, I get it. When you finish writing your first book, or any book, it feels amazing. You're excited and you want to share it with the world - especially with the followers that have supported you for so long. When I was 14 and finished writing my first novel, I was ecstatic, and immediately looked into publishing and self publishing, trying to get it out there. But that was a huge mistake that I'm embarrassed to say I even tried.

Because over the years, I stepped away from the project. I gave myself time to grow as a person, a writer, and develop deeper plot lines, themes, characters, etc...by working on the next several books. While there will still be a sixth book in the series that I have written 100 pages of, I am now going back to the first book and going to rewrite it. I'm going to tie in plot lines that come up in the sequels, add in foreshadowing, take out plot lines that went nowhere in the first book, etc...I'm going to make the necessary corrections that the book needs to be a solid, finished manuscript.

And, in my opinion, unless you're Stephen King, George R.R. Martin - or another successful and great writer - it's impossible to write a book in a couple of months, edit it, and then think it's finished. Not when you plan on writing sequels to go along with it. Because I'm sure that you'll be writing the sequels and come up with different plot lines, maybe a different ending, new ideas - and then you'll look back at the first book and say, "Wait, I could have changed it and made things so much better." I see you doing it now on different websites, asking people for their opinions and reviews so you will know how to make the second book better and correct mistakes. And again, in my opinion, I believe that if you want to be taken seriously as a writer - you shouldn't have to do that. Now, if you'd released Outsider free to everyone just to gain public feedback, that would be different, and then once you've made the corrections and released it for a price, I could see that. I would understand that. But the Outsider is sold on Amazon for £8.99 in paperback, and £3.99 on Kindle. I see it as sloppy and lazy. I see it just as a way to make more money.

What I believe you should have done is finished Outsider and it's sequels, however many there are going to be, and then gone back to the first book. What's different in the sequels? What doesn't tie into the rest of the story? What plotlines were you developing that didn't go anywhere? What lines of dialogue, description, or anything else do you reread over and go, "Ooh, I don't like that anymore." Did Astrid's character suddenly change because your own voice changed as you grew as a person? Does it no longer fit the character that she is?

These are the things that I believe are necessary to do when you write your first novels. And believe me, 9 YEARS I've spent working on this series. And now looking back at the last draft I've written of Book 1 (which was written 2 times before that), I'm now asking myself what I can change and fix so it flows with Books 2 - 6. And I still don't feel as though it's ready to be a published piece of work.

So many authors are just trying to get their books KNOWN, or even accepted by a publishing company, but it was so easy for you because you already have a YouTube following. Some people will probably say, "Oh, well it took her years to build up a YouTube following too!" And I get that. But when you haven't shown any interest in writing before, suddenly publish a book, share it with everyone, but then scramble around to try and write a sequel while working on incorporating what people did and didn't like about the first book just isn't the way to go. Not when you want to be taken seriously as a writer who has just started self - publishing.

I know you have good intentions Klaire, and I know you want your writing to be taken seriously, but I myself cannot look at you and see more than someone who self - published a draft of a book, who had an easy following to get the book known, and is already making money that I don't believe you should earn at this point in your writing career.

I hope that you follow my suggestions. I hope that you stop charging people to buy 'Outsider'. I hope that you take time to finish the book and it's sequels and then republish as a truly completed piece of work. I know you can do it, Klaire, I just believe that your excitement and love for the work got the best of you. And I know you can do so much more. I hope the best for you, Klaire.

Sincerely,
TheAuthor

Someone sounds bitter and jealous

[chatshitgetbang]

What the heck is this? Y u jealous? Go get a book published on yourself by yourself. Don't insult talented Klaire.

Hello everyone, I am new here, but I have been reading GG on and off for the past couple of years.

This should really be posted in the Trash a Guru Section, however, I don't think Klaire has one, and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to create my own section for her.

But in all honesty, I am completely appalled and disgusted that Klaire self - published this book. When I learned that she had, and after years and years of watching her and being a faithful follower, I had to unsubscribe from her channel. I know this was a year ago, but I've been keeping these feelings about her published book bottled up for months and feel that I need to get them out, so I guess, here is my open letter to Klaire de Lys:

Dear Klaire,

I had been a loyal follower of yours for years. Every time you uploaded a new video, I would sit and watch it as soon as I could and I always rewatched your tutorials. You were the first 'Beauty Guru' I ever watched when I was just 13 years old. I would sit and practice your looks, learned how to wash my makeup brushes, and you were the one to get me into makeup to such an extent that I now have drawers upon drawers filled with massive amounts of makeup that I love to wear.

But sadly last year, you self - published your book 'Outsider'. Now don't get me wrong, I think you're beautiful and extremely talented, from your photography, drawings/paintings, set work, makeup videos - everything that I watched over the years. But in those years, I NEVER once heard you profess a love or interest in writing, even though you claim to have been loving and doing it as long as you have your other talents. Now, I've read your blog posts and you say that your writing has been very personal, but that doesn't change my feelings of betrayal and resentment I feel towards you.

And I too, am a writer. I have been doing it for the last 9 years of my life. I have dedicated countless hours upon hours just writing, sitting and thinking of ideas, reworking old ideas, brainstorming, etc...I am writing a book series of my own and have been for the last 9 years. I've written Books 1 - 5 in the series so far. Writing is something I absolutely love to do, and for those 9 years all I have ever dreamed about was becoming a published author and sharing my books with the world...

And suddenly, you come along with your self published book. I was outraged.

I did some research into your book. I've read reviews on it, and read that it took you a couple of months to write your book, and you had some friends read over it and help you edit it, and that's great...for a first draft, not a complete and published work.

I get it. It's easier to self - publish your book. You keep creative control, you edit what you want to stay in and don't, and sometimes it might save you money (In your case, you designed the cover yourself, so you might have saved money that someone like myself would have to pay to create good cover art if I self published). And as a plus side for you, you have 683, 332 subscribers on YouTube (possibly more, depending on how many didn't double subscribe to your Art channel, which has 136, 766 subscribers). This many subscribers mean that you don't have to work to advertise your book and wait for a following to build like so many new authors do. You just make a video and *poof*, suddenly you're making money from your self published book because of the following you already have. To me, it feels like one giant cop - out, and in my opinion, makes you look like a lazy writer.

Again, I get it. When you finish writing your first book, or any book, it feels amazing. You're excited and you want to share it with the world - especially with the followers that have supported you for so long. When I was 14 and finished writing my first novel, I was ecstatic, and immediately looked into publishing and self publishing, trying to get it out there. But that was a huge mistake that I'm embarrassed to say I even tried.

Because over the years, I stepped away from the project. I gave myself time to grow as a person, a writer, and develop deeper plot lines, themes, characters, etc...by working on the next several books. While there will still be a sixth book in the series that I have written 100 pages of, I am now going back to the first book and going to rewrite it. I'm going to tie in plot lines that come up in the sequels, add in foreshadowing, take out plot lines that went nowhere in the first book, etc...I'm going to make the necessary corrections that the book needs to be a solid, finished manuscript.

And, in my opinion, unless you're Stephen King, George R.R. Martin - or another successful and great writer - it's impossible to write a book in a couple of months, edit it, and then think it's finished. Not when you plan on writing sequels to go along with it. Because I'm sure that you'll be writing the sequels and come up with different plot lines, maybe a different ending, new ideas - and then you'll look back at the first book and say, "Wait, I could have changed it and made things so much better." I see you doing it now on different websites, asking people for their opinions and reviews so you will know how to make the second book better and correct mistakes. And again, in my opinion, I believe that if you want to be taken seriously as a writer - you shouldn't have to do that. Now, if you'd released Outsider free to everyone just to gain public feedback, that would be different, and then once you've made the corrections and released it for a price, I could see that. I would understand that. But the Outsider is sold on Amazon for £8.99 in paperback, and £3.99 on Kindle. I see it as sloppy and lazy. I see it just as a way to make more money.

What I believe you should have done is finished Outsider and it's sequels, however many there are going to be, and then gone back to the first book. What's different in the sequels? What doesn't tie into the rest of the story? What plotlines were you developing that didn't go anywhere? What lines of dialogue, description, or anything else do you reread over and go, "Ooh, I don't like that anymore." Did Astrid's character suddenly change because your own voice changed as you grew as a person? Does it no longer fit the character that she is?

These are the things that I believe are necessary to do when you write your first novels. And believe me, 9 YEARS I've spent working on this series. And now looking back at the last draft I've written of Book 1 (which was written 2 times before that), I'm now asking myself what I can change and fix so it flows with Books 2 - 6. And I still don't feel as though it's ready to be a published piece of work.

So many authors are just trying to get their books KNOWN, or even accepted by a publishing company, but it was so easy for you because you already have a YouTube following. Some people will probably say, "Oh, well it took her years to build up a YouTube following too!" And I get that. But when you haven't shown any interest in writing before, suddenly publish a book, share it with everyone, but then scramble around to try and write a sequel while working on incorporating what people did and didn't like about the first book just isn't the way to go. Not when you want to be taken seriously as a writer who has just started self - publishing.

I know you have good intentions Klaire, and I know you want your writing to be taken seriously, but I myself cannot look at you and see more than someone who self - published a draft of a book, who had an easy following to get the book known, and is already making money that I don't believe you should earn at this point in your writing career.

I hope that you follow my suggestions. I hope that you stop charging people to buy 'Outsider'. I hope that you take time to finish the book and it's sequels and then republish as a truly completed piece of work. I know you can do it, Klaire, I just believe that your excitement and love for the work got the best of you. And I know you can do so much more. I hope the best for you, Klaire.

Sincerely,
TheAuthor

Someone sounds bitter and jealous