Bet you didn't think you'd get TWO blog posts from me this month, did you?
While I have been fraught with a month-long condition of constant non-negotiable guilt with NaNoWriMo on my shoulders (literally every moment I spend not writing is spent at least partially in guilt), I have also been bursting at the seams with the preparation of exciting projects I couldn't talk about publicly yet. And if you know anything abut me, you know how much I love talking about exciting projects.
Anyway, this blog post is in honor of the fact that I can now openly speak about not one but TWO of the secrets I've been stealthily keeping from you guys. One being the new channel "Answerly" I'm a part of with Hayley Hoover and Joseph Birdsong (we'll be answering your questions and giving our tips and advice weekly about various topics; mine is nerd and gaming). This is awesome and exciting and not in the slightest any sort of replacement for previous collab channels we may have been part of. This is an entirely new project, one I am incredibly pumped about. I'll be posting every Friday. :)
The second exciting secret, however, is a bit more relevant to you guys, as you're a part of what inspired it in the first place. It's no secret that Hayley and I are both absolutely in love with our blog readers and favor you above all other people on the Internet, haha. I am happy to announce that my second secret project also involves her, and that we are launching a website today that hosts information about the NEW BOOK WE WERE GOING TO WRITE THAT ALSO INCLUDES YOU.
The book is going to be called Less Than Three: Stories about Love, Like, and the Internet. You can find out more of the details on our website, but the main exciting part is that it's going to be a compilation of short stories and we're hoping at least a few of you out there (if not lots of you) consider yourself writers enough to want to submit a short story of your own to the collection. We haven't announced this on YouTube or twitter or anything yet, so know that as our faithful and loyal blog readers, we made sure YOU were the first to know about this project. Because we like you and stuff. We'll be taking submissions until the end of January and releasing the book during the summer of 2012. I'm so nervous and excited to be announcing this. :D
Anyway, I have another 2,000 or so words to write today for NaNoWriMo, so that's all for now. But please, if you're interested, check out Answerly and check out the Less Than Three website; we're very excited about both these new projects and we hope you guys like them too!
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28 comments:
Oh wow! I'm really excited for ALL the projects! Do ALL the projects!
Omg, I'm so excited for you guys and these projects. Definitely going to subscribe / read / get involved. <3
count me in on the book :) I love the idea of giving the internet-based writers a chance to be a part of something like this. SO PUMPED to do something awesome outside of my graduate program in creative writing. you have no idea. THANK YOU!
So excited about this! I was allready looking for a new creative project for when I'm done with NaNoWriMo!
You guys are amazing at creating new, fun projects! ;)
That's so awesome! I'm so going to write something for you!! Yay, I'm excited already, but NaNoWriMo comes first!!!
So exciting! Wow. The Less Than Three website looks awesome!
Good luck with everything! I can't wait for both to get started.
Wow! That is an awesome idea! I'm really looking forward to being able to read it!
Ok, so tell me that you're donating the proceeds to charity because we do the work and you get the royalties does not sound like a fun idea to me.
This is so fantastic!!
I totally just screamed.
Loudly.
Oh my god.
This
is
way
too
exciting.
First, three of the funniest, best youtubers in ONE collab channel, WEEKLY, giving ADVICE. My mind can't even comprehend the amazingness of that.
Next, you guys are freaking publishing a book. I am SO excited for you two, first of all, but I'm also kind of nervous-excited for myself...because there's a chance you guys will be reading a story I write, and there's a chance you guys will publish me in the book.
I really hope I have the motivation to actually do this, because I think I'll regret it forever if I don't get around to writing a submission.
oh dear, oh dear.
this is all too much.
:D :D
Nicole that kind of assumes that editing isn't work! Editing is loads of work! Publishing is loads of work! Sorting our distribution is loads of work!
I have no idea what's happening money wise but all I know is that it won't be a situation in which Hayley and Kristina do the small percentage of the work. Kristina, for one, is incapable of doing anything less than as much work as possible. She loves to work. She would marry a full timetable if she could, and then she'd cheat on it with secret side projects.
I'm just tetchy because I've done a fair bit of editing before and it's a lot of work and not just businessy stuff, creative work too. Excuse the tetchiness please :)
*out distribution not our distribution.
So, I've followed this blog for a long time but have never commented or created an account but I felt this was a big enough occasion to do so. :)
I am so excited for these new projects!!! I love all of you that are part of Answerly so that will be super amazing.
And I am for once inspired to write something for Less Than Three because I actually came up with an idea. I hope it works out.
:D
So excited for you! I'm looking forward to both!
So excited with all of the projects...
Slightly annoyned because I have a perfect short story about like and realtionships...just not about the interet, so back to the writing board. :)
Very excited
Also excited for the projects! Plus, you know how much I love hearing about things first on your blog. DFTBA!
omg that's awesome. I just hope I can find someone you can correct my story. I am really exited for this project!
Rosianna, I understand that they both will be contributing to putting the book together. I'm sorry if my comment came across overly snarky, but this blog post just didn't sit right with me. And while Hayley and Kristina are doing work towards the project, the writing of the actual book is a very significant chuck of the work that they won't be doing. I see no problem with suggesting that the profits are donated to a charity instead. Perhaps one to promote literacy or something of that nature? Sorry if my comments are coming across as mean, but I think it's something worth considering!
Nicole - For starters, Hayley and I will also be writing parts of the book. We wouldn't put together a compilation of short stories without submitting our own writing as well, that's the point of us doing this. We want to write, and to write with other people.
There are a lot of people freaking out about where the money is going and we haven't even addresses it yet. We're going to be accepting somewhere in the ballpark of 30 entries; it's not practical to split royalties that many ways. The majority of the revenue brought in from the book will go toward CREATING the book; we'll need to pay a graphic designer and copy editor, we have to pay to get it bound and shipped and distributed. I personally doubt there will even be a ton of revenue after that, but some of it does need to go toward paying Hayley and I for putting in the large chunk of time it will take to put this project together. We're trying to make this our job. We're not trying to take advantage of young writers (seriously guys?) we're trying to give them (and everyone) and opportunity to do an awesome project together, and with us.
If for some reason the book does leaps and bounds better than we think it will, we're obviously not going to hoard the money to ourselves. We're not doing this project to make money. We're doing it to write a book we feel needs to be written, to collaborate with our friends and fans, and to create a product we're all proud of. If there's piles and piles of money left over at the end of the day, Hayley and I will make sure the money goes where it belongs, which will most likely be a charity.
I can't tell you how many compilation CDs bands I was in donated a song to without any indication of ever getting money back. Whether the revenue being brought in by that CD was going to charity or just helping DFTBA out, I was HAPPY to donate a single song to be part of something that would help get my name out more, especially since it was usually other friends on the album as well. Or times I have sent friends footage for a video going on their channel where they'll make the adsense money and I will never see a penny. It's collaboration, guys. We're not trying to rip anyone off.
We didn't address where the potential (but unlikely) extra money will go because neither of us assumed this would create a cascading waterfall of funds. If this project makes you really uncomfortable, by all means, don't submit. Or publish your own book!
I also believe that you have good intentions and I am not trying to fight against what you are doing. I do think it is only fair for you to understand where the other side is coming from though, as it is reasonable for people to want to ask these questions. You said that you have submitted songs or footage to friends before without receiving compensation. While I am sure you partly did this for fun and maybe just to help out, you were also getting your name out there (as you said). You knew that your friends would promote you. The difference between collaborating with a friend a fan is really quite different in this way. You are generally looked at as an insider in a popular ring of people who already have a large fan base, while the contributors will just be fans. If that made any sense.:) My point is that the contributors are not actually that likely to gain much of their own fan base from this, while you were in the collaborations of your examples; you even are from this project. If you never gained anything (not even potential views on your own channel) from the start, but the already successful people you were helping did, would you still look at collaborating with them the same way? I am not saying you would not do it anymore, just that it would probably be different for you.
The fan/star relationship is just inherently different. The hierarchical aspects of it put you in a position to easily take advantage of people without even meaning to. As I like to think (I can't say I know just because I do not actually know you) that you are too down to earth to maybe understand the full implications of this (especially with so many younger people as fans), it makes sense that you may not be really sensitive to the concerns that other people have. Unfortunately, with a project like this, I think that is actually an important thing for you to reflect on. Also, it is sort of a mixed message to say that you are trying to make this your job, while also saying that you do not want to make any money off of it and that it is for the fans.
What specifically do you want the stories to be about? I have a very powerful, emotional story about internet friendship that I could alter (change names, etc) to submit. Would that be acceptable, or is that not quite what you're looking for?
I think this project is a lovely idea, and your comment made me feel a bit better about the money situation Kristina. Perhaps, add a clause to the contract that if it makes a profit then it will go to charity (if you don't want to give a few pence from each book to the contributors) and I think that will make people feel a lot better about the whole thing.
I know you aren't expecting to make a huge profit, and you definitely deserve to earn some money if it does as you will put loads of work in, but I think you should be prepared in case it does do much better than you expect, and have some sort of clause for the excess money.
Good luck with this. I don't have any ideas for a story. I was hoping I could use one a wrote a while back but sadly it's historical about the Berlin Wall so no internet involved! Ah well.
Also, I notice some of your friends are getting very defensive of you in comments (more hayleys blog than yours) and I obviously understand why, but I feel that they should be aware that when money and intellectual property is involved, people will get a bit anxious or concerned, and that doesn't mean they are against you or Hayley, or think the book's a bad idea, just that they want to know all the details and find out what you intend to do if the book does sell better than expected, which is reasonable I reckon.
<3 can't wait to see how the book turns out!!!
That's awesome! Especially excited for the book project!
I just happened to check Hayley's blog today even though she hadn't posted there in a while, and I found out about both projects. Then I came here and oh my gosh! This is so exciting. I also sent the link to your Less Than Three website to my college writing teacher back in Nevada (I've recently moved) so that she can tell her classes about it.
I am so excited! I am probably going to submit a short story. If only I knew how! Sometime between the end of nanowrimo time and the release of the book can you post how to submit a story please?!?
Oh, as soon as December 1st rolls around, I am totally hopping on this project!
This is so exciting- I just am doing my story! Count me in too!
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