Authortube Part 4

[WanderingWeirdo2]

I can get behind the concept of you and your partner packing up and living in a van to explore the country and be free, but not when you have a cat, when it's the dead of winter, and not when you're running a business that requires multiple computers. Maybe she talks about it in her videos, I wouldn't know, but I just keep thinking about her poor cat confined to one room for (potentially) the rest of its life.

As for Alexa: I wish I liked her, because she seems to be a very consistent writer and is always having her books picked up. I envy her for that hard work.

[Justanotherreader99]

I wonder now if Mandi when to school to be a graphic designer or if she’s just doing this for fun and learning on her own. I know one person who went and got a degree in graphic design and web design (don’t know if that’s the actual name for the degree) but she learned all about making book covers and I never thought there was so much involved. And if one little thing is off it can mess up the entire thing. She had to redo a whole project because something with the spine was off and it made the cover not centered.

To me it sounds interesting to learn as a hobby but I don’t have the patience for it in the long run. So anyone could pretty much make a better cover than me.

[OneMoreMessyReader]

I wonder now if Mandi when to school to be a graphic designer or if she’s just doing this for fun and learning on her own. I know one person who went and got a degree in graphic design and web design (don’t know if that’s the actual name for the degree) but she learned all about making book covers and I never thought there was so much involved. And if one little thing is off it can mess up the entire thing. She had to redo a whole project because something with the spine was off and it made the cover not centered.

To me it sounds interesting to learn as a hobby but I don’t have the patience for it in the long run. So anyone could pretty much make a better cover than me.

She advertises herself as a professional, but I suspect she isn't. She's always saying you need a professional who knows what they're doing, but I've taken small skill share courses that by NO MEANS make me anywhere near a professional level, but have taught me even the basics of colour theory, font and spacing layout that Mandi lacks. And that was me doing it just for fun.

I think she might have like a photoshop course under her belt and really knows the program, but doesn't have any design courses.

[freezedriedfruit]

I wouldn't buy a book cover from any cover "designer" who is obviously an author trying to make some side-hustle cash on the side to supplement their book income. The covers might look alright, but they're not professionals and they probably spend more time writing than they do researching cover trends for their genres and honing their skills.

There's a few well known cover designers in the indie world who started off as writers, then quickly pivoted to making covers because they realised that was how they could make ends meet and then put in the hundreds and thousands of hours needed to upskill and now do it full time, like Sylvia Frost or K.D. Ritchie. Their covers are incredible because that's their first priority and they only write on the side now.

Mandi's work is absolutely not professional, and there's a lot of designers who will deliver better work around that price point. They only book covers in her portfolio that are up to standard imo are the ones she did for Bethany Atazadeh, and the concept/branding for those were stolen off the designer from 99designs that did the first book. Technical know-how is the easiest part of being a designer tbh, there's tutorials for everything. Designing is the hard part, and Mandi is obviously weaker on that when you look at the difference between her covers for BA and her other ones.

It's honestly a bit gross that she presents herself as a professional to her audience who, if they're watching her/Booktube for self-publishing advice, likely don't know any better.

Also, this is petty but Mandi's pre-made book cover page on her website doesn't even work for me, it's just a bunch of broken code.

[Justanotherreader99]

I haven’t even seen her premise covers or her website.

So I watched Natalia’s van life videos.

- they should have held out and just kept complaining to the office about the neighbors and get it on tape.
- then she have held out until their van was completed done and ready.
-she looked beat and stressed out in her last van video, like the fun wore off and now she’s stuck with an unfinished van in freezing weather, which again they could have held out for another few months, took their time going through their things to figure out what to keep and sell. It literally feels like zero time went into this.

- As for Alexa I’ll judge it after The Ivies come out to see if she can write thrillers. I wonder how her day job is doing with Covid shut downs. Seems like she wrote the book pretty fast in a short amount of time. So here’s to hoping The Ives doesn’t tank because that could kill her next book for readers who enjoy mystery and thriller.

[greysweatpants20]

I haven’t even seen her premise covers or her website.

So I watched Natalia’s van life videos.

- they should have held out and just kept complaining to the office about the neighbors and get it on tape.
- then she have held out until their van was completed done and ready.
-she looked beat and stressed out in her last van video, like the fun wore off and now she’s stuck with an unfinished van in freezing weather, which again they could have held out for another few months, took their time going through their things to figure out what to keep and sell. It literally feels like zero time went into this.

- As for Alexa I’ll judge it after The Ivies come out to see if she can write thrillers. I wonder how her day job is doing with Covid shut downs. Seems like she wrote the book pretty fast in a short amount of time. So here’s to hoping The Ives doesn’t tank because that could kill her next book for readers who enjoy mystery and thriller.

She's mentioned her job here and there in some recent videos. She was working from home for some time earlier in the pandemic but I believe she mentioned being back at the office.

[May14159]

did anything ever happen when the original cover designer contacted Bethany about copying her designs?

[Justanotherreader99]

did anything ever happen when the original cover designer contacted Bethany about copying her designs?

The original cover designer contacted her? I alway wondered if Mandi doing the rest and copying the other covers was in bad taste and could be seen as wrong.

[May14159]

earlier in this thread was a screenshot of someone who talked to the artist about it and the artist said they would talk to BA

[hayl]

natalia is staying with her mom now... can't say i'm shocked

[May14159]

it's not even book related and authortubers are rushing things and ending up with sloppy results

[nonfriction]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't this always part of their plan? They were always going to go stay with her mother while the professionals finish the van. It's not a failure or a result of her rushing anything, it's something that's been booked in for ages, she's mentioned it in quite a few videos.

[Justanotherreader99]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't this always part of their plan? They were always going to go stay with her mother while the professionals finish the van. It's not a failure or a result of her rushing anything, it's something that's been booked in for ages, she's mentioned it in quite a few videos.

Yeah I think she said she had this all planned out. Stay in the van and then go stay with her mom while the van is finished. I still think they’ve should have just sucked it up and stay in their apartment until the van was completely finished.

[May14159]

i was being facetious, i havent actually watched any of her van videos all the way through. i'm sad that content is the direction shes going because i really liked her writing content

[WanderingWeirdo2]

I still feel so sad for her cat. That's no life for an animal. A cat needs a place to stretch their limbs and run around. They can barely even move in there.

[Justanotherreader99]

How long do you think it will last? At what point does it get old.

[OneMoreMessyReader]

Liselle sold her third book, and it's a six figure book deal!!!! Good for her. With her debute coming out this year, the sequel in 2022 and this third book (a standalone YA Horror) in 2023 she's setting herself up to be a career author. It's obviously easier in Canada because she doesn't have to worry about health insurance and she has a partner to help out, but even with the agent cut and tax cut, a six figure deal will absolutely help pay the bills, at least for the next 3 years considering she hasn't even gotten all the money from her first two book deal yet. The traditionally published on Authortube are killing it lately!!!

[OneMoreMessyReader]

Oh, Liselle actually got a two book deal for two standalones! So she has a fourth book coming out in 2024 as well!

[WanderingWeirdo2]

Six figures. Jesus. I'm so jelly of her, but so happy for her! Let me go watch her video and live vicariously through her for a minute.

[May14159]

i wonder if Natalia's editing business would be successful if she quit authortube?