"Can I handle that many rejection letters?" People who write short stories for literary magazines: "I was born in the dark...molded by it..."

"This channel has not been as prolific as in the past..." Girl. Quality over quantity. Death to the algorithm.

"If you're a novelist you're probably not very good in being concise" You might as well come to my home and slap me in the face with this level of personal attack

Lindsay Ellis, Dec 2019: "This is gonna be a long year." Me, April 2020, laughing brokenly:

"Turns out you're not supposed to yell at your publisher." LINDSAY WHAT DID YOU DO

"There's a business centaur that owns a company and he's just living his life until one day a plucky young virgin becomes his secretary." If you don't write it I will, and I'm calling it Secretariat's Secretary.

I was PRAYING you'd use a "10 YEARS OOOOOOOOOOOLD" Love Never Dies clip and you DID. Thank you.

I can't wait for Jenny Nicholson's hot-take on your book

"Is it on brand? Yes." Sold.

Me: *hasn't written anything in years * Ah yes, this is helpful for my dream of becoming an author.

“My heroes are dead, my enemies are in power” - there is a Brazilian song from 88 called Ideologia with a very similar chorus : “My heroes died of overdose, my enemies are in power”. It was a big wtf moment to hear that in English.

"It's 2017. My heroes are dead and my enemies are in power." That's a MOOD. Also, today I learned that it's been 2017 for three years.

okay, this timing's good. just got my first round of query rejections, looking forward to a 2030 publish date

"My heroes are dead and my enemies are in power, what do you want?" ...Holy Hell Lindsey, that's raw.

Be extremely talented, hard working, and well adjusted; and then get super lucky. Tale as old as time. May it be a best seller and optioned into a Netflix series

I remember hearing a writer explain that the moment when he was able to look at his own work and see the issues and how to fix them, that's when he started being able to get things published. Also, having a platform doesn't always mean guaranteed sales for self-publishing, frequently the audience that consumes free content has very little crossover with the audience that's willing to pay for content.

I love that you said being a novelist is incredibly slow-going and you need patience, as opposed to saying it's incredibly difficult. It gives people a lot more hope to hear it phrased like that. Thank you!

The best thing about Lindsay's videos is that she tells me stuff I wouldn't even think of wanting to know about. But now I do!

24:55 for anyone who’s curious, as I was when I posed the question at one of her online book tours: the problem that her literary agent pinpointed as to why many publishers felt they couldn’t sell the book was Cora’s age. I’m hoping she’ll address this later down the line as I can only vaguely remember her full answer on this, but the short version is that Cora was originally 18 and publishers at the time and also now are trying to stay away from anything resembling a teenage girl book. So she revised it so that Cora is now college aged.

"Independence Day meets The Big Short" is far more intriguing to me than "Arrival meets Stranger Things" if I'm being honest

As someone who's spent five years going through this process (I've never gotten an agent, just a handful of full requests), I'd like to thank you for this, Lindsay. It gives me inspiration to keep going.

“It wasn’t good, but I finished it” Me submitting every paper

"I'm not good at finishing stuff so I'll go into data collection" - me, a data scientist who was once an aspiring author when younger: Wow, I feel personally attacked by Lindsay Ellis right now

Lindsay Ellis, the woman who puts Infinite Jest next to the Twilight trilogy on the same shelf.

"It doesn't really go with any publishing trends right now" Which is why it's Arrival meets Stranger Things.

My dad was self publishing and a literary agent found him that way and now it’s his full time job so that’s nice

"I like suffering. I want to write a novel." Aspiring writer mood.

Honestly, as a 24 year old who has no idea what they're doing in life and just wants to finish a goddamn self-insert reader x character fanfiction, this video was inspirational.

this is somehow simultaneously soul-crushingly depressing that it took 10 years but also uplifting because clearly hard work can get you results

A "Hey I'm A Girl Boss" book written by you would probably be pretty hilarious to be fair

I was terrified of this video. I've just finished my 4th NaNoWriMo, and while I've "won" it several times, this was the first time I actually wrote an ending to one of the drafts I was working on. Now I'm in editing hell and... I'm scared. I want to try and get this published, I know I do, but I also know I'll be rejected over and over for sure. So when I saw this video, my first thought was "If even she can barely do it, what chance do I have?" Now I watched the video and I'm glad I did. Your experiences are super insightful. I still know it's gonna be hard. But at least now I know that if I stay on it, eventually my patience CAN pay off...

"Your word baby is a bit of a yike" I'm crying

The fact that “WOOL” does not have the same spine design as “DUST” and “SHIFT” is STRESSING ME OUT

"Oh boy I've always wanted to learn how to publish a book!" _*watches video_ "Yeah I'm doomed."

"Which just reveals these people don't know how anything works. That's fine... that's why I'm here." -- Lindsay I love the level of confidence required for this statement. Down with the ignorant haters! This video pretty much confirms what I've already heard as an aspiring author trying to break into the industry. It sucks. There's very little chance that your passion project that you have worked on for years will ever see the light of day, yet we toil on anyways in the hopes that shouting into the void long enough will mean someone will answer. Thank you Lindsay for everything you do. I always appreciate your insightful analysis and your drive towards understanding the art that our culture produces. YOU are the modern academia, and I've learned just as much from you as I have from any college or grad school classroom. I'm going ahead and pre-ordering your book simply to show my appreciation for everything you've done. Maybe having that KZfaq platform will end up paying off afterall! I have confidence it'll be a good read anyways.

"Look, it's 2017. My heroes are dead and my enemies are in power, what do you want?" should honestly be the defining slogan of this decade.

I am a fellow creative (author of two published novels, debuting a third in 2020), and when I heard that you had wrangled yourself a paid book deal, I erroneously assumed that you had gotten the book deal purely because of your existing following as a video essayist/vlogger/influencer. I remember being genuinely angry about that - so I'm really glad that you put out this video and set me straight. I've preordered your book, and look forward to reading it.

"How many rejection letters can you take?" Post-graduate me machine-gunning my resume to anyone with an email address: "Hey, at least they read it! ... Right?"

Lindsay has had such a glow-up since Nostalgia Chick! Her content is my total KZfaq comfort food.

I love how you had Contrapoints give the compliment to the girl boss book.

yyaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy this sounds rad can't wait for the audiobook ;)

I’m a Professional Writing Major and this is the best piece of advice I’ve ever received.

I watched this video in December. I was not in the greatest place mentally. I'd been shopping around various versions of a novel for five years, and was starting to believe I'd never land a literary agent. Well, this week, I landed the agent of my dreams, and in some weird superstitious ritual, I've come back to watch this again and give you the blood of my firstborn. Thank you, Lindsay!

I will wait for the day you reveal that “small but fixable issue like town” because WHAT _WAS_ IT?!

"american three body problem for girls" is the best elevator pitch I have ever heard, pre-ordering rn

"Is it on brand? *YES."* _Shut up and take my money!_

So when I was a teenager I discovered I had *some* talent in writing, and that I actually enjoyed doing it. Although at the time it was almost entirely incred-emo woe-is-me shitty "poetry." When I matured slightly I wanted to try my hand at writing fiction and quickly discovered that for the life of me I could not write a character that was not some type of established trope I had seen in TV and movies. Anyway, the point is after DMing Dungeons and Dragons for years I've recovered some confidence in my ability to create fiction and I appreciate this video greatly. Thank you for *mostly* detailing your experience and explaining what is likely ahead of me. If I ever actually grow a pair, I may try.

"the worst recession in living memory" bit at 14:17 did not age well lol

"The influencers sit recumbent on their chaise lounge and receive the offers" We all know you make no secret of your love of Contrapoints, but I still caught that Lindsay!

" ...well, if you're a novelist: you're probably not the best at being.... concise..." lmao

But if “I’m losing to a bird!” Isn’t in your novel I’ll riot.

Why is there Zero mention of the great Lindsay/Nella led YA project “Awoken”- a teen love story featuring Cthulu???

...Was that a Jenny Trout's "The Business Centaur's Virgin Temp" reference?

"I like suffering" I'm always glad to hearing when my favorite youtubers share my interests

Honestly as a person in that stage of overly expensive college is over and entering the scary world of tv and film. This video helped me get through some mental hurdles knowing many are ahead. Congratulations Lindsay on your book

Finished your book this morning; I enjoyed it thoroughly, plotting, character, the whole enchilada. Congratulations!

What no one tells you when you decide to be a writer is that writing the damn book is the easy part

“My heroes are dead and my enemies are in power what do you want?”- Lindsay Ellis That’s the best quote ever!

Your expression at 25:40 probably mirrored mine when I got a job after a year of unemployment. To me, it's an expression that says, "I got the thing. I'm glad I got the thing. But I don't actually feel any more secure or like I have any more control over my fate than I did when I was unsuccessfully chasing the thing."

Oh my gosh you have Wool on your shelf! I remember when he first self-published the story. We were all in a writers forum together. He was an inspiration. We were all just throwing spaghetti at the wall and reporting back on what stuck!

so basically lindsay at the beginning of the decade: trying to understand publishing lindsay at the end of the decade: still trying to understand publishing

Lindsay reading the summary on the back of her book: "And I didn't write this" My dumbass: "So you're talking about a book where you share the name with author? Where is this going?" Took another two minutes to realize my mistake. Thanks for the video Lindsay.

I'm planning on putting myself through this hell for most likely the next decade, but actually, I'm feeling okay about failure. Not too long ago I got a comment from someone on a fanfic that I wrote years ago, saying that they had a habit of coming back to it and re-reading it because they found it comforting. And you know, even if that is all my writing career ever amounts to, I'm happy that someone, somewhere, connected with something I wrote and put out there. That's pretty magical and rewarding.

"if youre not a novelist youre probably not very concise" jesus christ lindsay you really came for my life huh

The fact you got your start writing Christian romance novels explains a lot, actually.

*Trying to pitch my novel* "Don't say it's Mafia erotica, don't say it's Mafia erotica, don't say it's Mafia erotica!" *deep breath* "So my novel is a romance crime drama with strong themes of corruption, lost of innocence, and the perils of capitalism."

Honest moment. I bought this to support you... I never expect much from first novels, so it was purely a "support my favorite KZfaqr's habit of writing" kind of thing. I am absolutely blown away. This novel is easily as good as several of Neal Stephenson, or William Gibson. It had a very similar reader feel to The Peripheral, which is in my reread cycle (this one will be as well). You are in my shortlist of novelists, along with Herbert, Gibson, Gaiman, Dick and... I waited to buy this book because I was just... Thank you for all your content. All. Of. It. Never stop being candidly who you are. It is stellar.

"...writers are not good at judging the merits of their own work..." Well... that explains a lot of what's going on in the comics industry... particularly, the big two.

while the exorbitant amount of rewrites a publisher puts you through is hell, it's also interesting to see the failures of Kickstarter projects show symptoms of unregulated writing and polish that comes with getting your funding first and your criticism later

PLEASE do a followup about the small fix that the literary agent identified as why it wouldn't sell. So curious. So fascinated by stuff like that.

Sending to my girlfriend who feels she wasted her time writing fanfic while trying to write her first novel. Shanks for the video

3:41 I wrote an Urban Fiction novel and this is the stage that Im in. I went through Ingramspark and I couldn't believe the amount of protocol I had to undergo just to get the book ready for distribution. Like you said, just when you think you're done, they'll tell you that the file is too big, the margins are so small, or anything else that will make you scream! That being said, I wouldn't undervalue the opportunity to become a publish author.

11 years is a flawed average. Spider's Georg, who take 5 million years to get published, is an outlier who should not be counted.

As someone closing in on a decade of trying to get something published, this video makes me feel personally attacked in that way of like "ohh....ohh....ohhhh, I'm sad now. I should go back to editing."

''Just finished reading your novel. All I can say is that Axiom's end is totally you as portrayed in your essays and purported interests. Congratulations on publishing such an authentic book about aliens and college dropouts. It was a fun read!.'' -Guillaume's proofreader Jerome.

Thank you so much for this video! I'm about 30,000 words through my book right now (which I plan on being an illustrated novel since I'm an illustrator too which pretty much relegates me to indie/niche publishing being my only option, but that's fine) and it's really helpful to get some realistic insight on the process and meter my expectations. Also as exhausted as I can see you are by the process this still gave me a hit of motivation and inspiration. Can't wait to read Axiom's End!

Modelland by Tyra Banks is an absurdist masterpiece. Camus could never.

It’s not a “KZfaqr-book” any more than John’s is. You’re not a KZfaqr doing a book on a whim or an offer. You’re an author who also does KZfaq (really well).

I can't believe it took 30min to ultimately land in "and then I got an agent the same way most people with a big platform do". So. As someone who's done the author hustle for 10+ years, I gotta comment on this. And I'll start out with saying that I love Linday's videos. I've followed her for years. I think she deserves a book and I look forward to reading it. Now. This video didn't remotely describe a normal author hustle. More than anything, it comes across as an attempt to prove that you're a real author and that you worked for this. You're more than a "youtuber who wrote a book" - you're the real deal. Thing is - a lot of youtubers who write books are the real deal. It's easier to own the fact that you built a solid platform and got extra opportunities because of it. You've worked at this for years. You're created amazing video essays. You ultimately got this book deal because of that platform, and that's great! Genuinely. You don't need to prove that you're an author who did it the old school way. On to some things in this video that seemed off to me. First of all, I kept waiting for things to turn around. I kept waiting for a moment of self reflection, of when you'd start working more actively on the craft, on dealing with rejection, of understanding the industry and how to pitch. But that never really happened. MOST IMPORTANTLY: a book doesn't have to be polished. At all. If the story is cohesive, the author voice distinct, and the narrative threads are engaging, that's enough. It's always a good idea to clean up embarassing typos and whatnot, but it's overkill to edit a book for months/years. In fact, several of the most accomplished authors in Europe (can't speak to the American market because I don't know many big-name authors there) are dyslexic. The publishers/agents don't give a shit that they have to do serious work to clean up the text, because they look beyond that. Not over-editing is just as important as writing your project from start to finish. Now. On to: 1. The amount of rejections. Most professional authors get rejected like... ten times as much as the rejection letters described in this video. A really basic thing as an author is learning how to handle rejection. You need to know your material enough to expect whether it'll be appealing, or whether it'll get rejected a bunch of times until you find an agent/publisher that the story resonates with. And you need to find the glimmers of hope in rejection; did you get detailed feedback? Did they compliment certain aspects of the book? Ultimately, as long as you consider book rejections personal attacks, writing will be hell. 2. Pitching is an integral part of being an author. You need to know your text well enough to summarize it and understand its themes. If you don't know how to approach pitching, you can attend workshops (online or offline). There are even workshops with agents where they can tell you what they're looking for. As long as you think of pitching as "impossible", it'll hinder your progress as an author. 3. Ultimately LE didn't send her books to that many agents. Also, it seems she didn't do research to find specialized agents. For authors with unique book proposals, there's a strength in doing research and finding the agents most skilled in pitching for a certain genre. These agents usually only have submission windows of a few weeks/months per year open to the public. So if you're determined to find the best agent for your book, you wait for those windows and submit. If you're not sure how to approach agents there are many writing festivals with agents present, where you can get the experience of speed-pitching, or simply apply your book for feedback. 4. The focus on being published by a "big publisher". Half the time, a big publisher can be a bad thing. Yes. They have the most money, and their name on the back of your book is bragging rights for the author. But unless you've written an amazingly mainstream story, working with them could actually cause your book to fail. Not every book is meant for a mainstream audience. Sometimes it's worth working with a genre-specilized publishers, since they'll likely have better connections for selling that type of book. You won't get paid as much, but your book will reach the intended audience and thus get a much better reception. Finally. Two books in ten years is not a lot of writing. It's obviously a good accomplishment! Don't get me wrong! But for viewers who actually hope to publish books of their own, this is not a journey to mirror their own attempts on. You can only get good at writing through practice. By writing *a lot*: short stories, books, scripts, plays, lyrics, articles, fanfiction... whatever gets you inspired to experiment and develop as a creator, go for it. You'll likely have to live through endless rejection; collaborations with publishers who don't pay you; meetings that *almost* lead to an amazing deal but fall through in the end... it's a goddamn struggle. And it's only if you stick through all of that, and you learn of your strengths and weaknesses, and you learn how to navigate the industry, that you'll build a solid foundation that'll allow you to work as an author. This video and this journey only scratches the surface of what publishing books will look like for a person without connections and without a huge platform. And that's fine! But to frame it as some kind of real, gritty struggle feels disingenious. At the end of it, LE got a book deal through her platform, and that was well-deserved. In fact, a lot of people with platforms who get book deals absolutely deserved it and absolutely put a lot of work into it. But what LE describes here does not come near what other authors have to go through, and that rubbed me the wrong way.

"This is going to be a long year" *June 2020's thousand yard stare*

As someone who has dreamed of being a novelist since the third grade, I can't tell if this video empowers me to keep going (like, hey, everyone faces failure!) Or if it completely discourages me. But that's the grey area ive been operating under my entire life so not much has changed.

There's something about seeing someone you've been following since the beginning of their career reach a goal you yourself have set. Thank you for the newfound fervor Lindsay.

After watching this video (recommended by iWriterly), I checked out your book description on Amazon. This line sold it for me: "To save her own life, she offers her services as an interpreter to a monster, and the monster accepts." I also could hear YOU saying that out loud in your "Yeah, that's a thing that just fucking happened." voice. Pre-ordered and excited. Good luck and thanks for the inspiration on my own publishing journey.

I've been a fan of your content for a while now. You manage to present fairly complex ideas/criticism in an accessible and humourous way. Oh and memes of course. This is not easy to do and I'm sure you could make your videos more academic if you wanted to but wouldn't reach as wide an audience. You're damn good at this basically and your view counts are a testament to that. Anyway, sycophantic preamble aside, I just wanted to tell you I think you're extremely brave. Having just watched your XOXO presentation, I have to admit I belong to the group that had no idea you had suffered so much abuse from alt-right groups. My heart goes out to you. Sincerely. It's such a unique and modern form of trauma and you are absolutely right that there isn't enough support for it. There is a kind of disorientating disjunct to it due to the fact that we have programmed ourselves to equate what is essentially simulacra with living, breathing bodies in space. I would suppose this uncertainty exacerbates the feelings of fear, anxiety isolation etc. All I could say in the way of advice would be to try and unplug from the virtual mainframe as much as you can because you'll surely find many living, breathing bodies in space who love and respect you! Anyway I know you have a youtube assistant now and you probably wont read this, but I just wanted to show my support.

I'm interning at an indie press right now and have to read tons of slush. Every rejection letter I send out (even to poorly written manuscripts) makes my heart ache.

What I got out of this was a great new answer for when people ask me how I am: "My heroes are dead and my enemies are in power."

I think this is an incredible lesson on the quote “successful writers are the ones that never quit.” Perseverance paid off. It’s super inspiring that you never gave up. Not really:)

Your book has recommendations from Hank Green and Caitlin Doughty; I'm sold.

Stephen King's advice to fledging writers is to just start writing. The real advice is this video

“It’s 2017, my heroes are dead and my enemies are in power.”

Lindsey Ellis before 2020 actually happened: *This is gonna be a long year*

Thank you Lindsay, i really needed that video right now. Everywhere you look you only see the successes, the end result. What you don't see is the struggle and hard work, the frustration and self-doubt that was involved in the final product. This video made me smile and reassured me that it is totally normal to struggle, even if it is over the time span of years!

Me: Oh hey, I want to pre-order a book I'll later forget I bought! Amazon: Yeah, you already bought that book. Me: I... I did? Amazon: Yup! Two months ago. Me: Oh! Sweet!

So a while back when she said "No one wants a novel from a KZfaqr unless their last name is Green"...

"...writers are not very good at judging the merits of their own work. The truth is, nine times out of ten authors think they are ready to go before they are ready to go." This is the definition of an inconvenient truth. It's also why I have a career as a professional editor. Thanks for speaking to it!

"An alternate history first contact adventure set in the early 2000’s, pitched as Stranger Things meets Arrival, by video essayist Lindsay Ellis." Damn they're really out for you.

"I got rejected so hard..." So, basically a protracted middle school.

In other words "May the force be ever in your favor Mr. Potter"

As someone who has dreamed of publishing a novel since childhood, thank you for this. I knew absolutely none of this information and as much as I am now screaming internally it is extremely helpful.