YouTube and its Advertisers Need a Chill Pill

/RantOn!

Did you know that a lot of content on YouTube (one of my main sources of entertainment) is being dubbed "not family friendly" and is having their advertising yanked?

Yeah, I didn't either until some of my favorite YouTubers began mentioning what was going on. Some of them have lost up to 80% of their revenue due to the changes, and they're almost all small 'Tubers who don't have the large numbers that, say Stephen Colbert has.

Yes, I know there's a reason he has those numbers. I love me some Stephen too. But we're talking the creepy, the horror, the #KeepYouTubeCreepy members of the community like me, who love to watch things like Rob Dyke's Seriously Strange series or Cayleigh Elise's Dark Matters.

Why does Deadly Women's channel continue to get advertising when Criminally Listed doesn't? Because they're from a major network, that's why. And as YouTube grows and changes, it overreacts to things like the Wall Street Journal's article on "objectionable content". I won't link the article to you because, unfortunately, you probably can't read it unless you're subscribed to their paper. I tried to look it up and was unable to read it because I'm not. (I did link the below headline to the paper's article if you want to try and read it.)

So. Yeah. Even sites without the creepy content, like AnimeAmerica, are getting hit because they...review...anime? I'm not sure what's hitting them (YouTube algorithms are said to give nuclear physicists hives), but I bet it's that pesky "family friendly" thing YouTube is stressing about.

The Vintage Files, a channel that discusses old murder cases, disappearances and other things, is missing revenue because of the YouTube issue. I understand there's a whole list of words that can't be put in the description or title or else the video does not receive advertising.

I worry, as an author of romance novels who writes things that are a bit on the spicy side, that this trend could wind up impacting people like me or others who write even spicier novels. Content doesn't need to be "family friendly" on a website where a simple click can take you away from the material you find so offensive. Guard your kids, people. Watch what they watch. Don't just assume YouTube will babysit them for you, do it yourself.

My kids watch YouTube, but we can see their computers from where we sit (or my husband can since we moved into the new house, and let me tell you he's far stricter than I am). If he or I see something we don't want them watching, WE MAKE THEM TURN IT OFF. Simple as that.

We had company two weeks ago, and one of the boys wanted to watch hunting videos where wild hogs were slaughtered. I told him no, I don't watch that in this house and neither do you. Luckily his mother backed me up, he turned it off, and that was that. No advertiser needed to pull its slot, no YouTube needed to blacklist the video. It was done, taken care of.

So please don't babysit my content, YouTube and your advertisers. Let me do that. I can do it just fine, thanks.

P.S. For those, like me, who adore true crime stories and creepy content, you can use the hashtag #KeepYouTubeCreepy to support those YouTubers who give you that content. You can also subscribe to Patreons or buy merchandise, but you  have to check individual YouTuber channels to see who is doing what.

#KeepYouTubeCreepy

/RantOff

Beta Readers, WIPs, Print Books and Cover Pretties

Gods, it sounds like a lot to go over from the title of this post, but really there isn't that much to discuss.

Hide and Seek is with my beta readers now. Once they're done with it I'll hire an editor to go over it and polish it up for publication.

As for my current projects, I've got...two? Yeah, two going on, and one that needs to be outlined.

First, I've got Hour of the Wolf back from my MIL with lots of notes for me to go over. Hopefully, the fresh perspective will allow me to fix the problems and finish the novel.

Second, I've started a series for Entangled's Otherworld line called Terra Noctem. The first novel in the series is called Sound's Familiar. I've got the novel outlined and I've started working on it, but I still have some research to do before the novel gets into the full swing of things. I love creating new worlds and getting ideas on how it should (and shouldn't) work. (Plus I promised someone months ago that I'd start this series "soon", and I hate breaking a promise.)

Thirdly, I've started a rough outline of Hope in Darkness. I know a lot of you are waiting for this one, and I promise that it's coming. It's going to be darker than a lot of my other novels due to Hope's ongoing issues and Jamie's... erm... insanity. I need to maybe binge watch Dexter to wrap my brain around poor Jamie.

Man, that's a lot of stuff already.

Okay. Print books. I'm working on that. I need to figure out how to make ebook covers become print book covers, since all I got from Samhain were the ebook covers (it's all they had to give me, so it wasn't their fault). Once I figure out sizing, trim, etc. I'll start my print publications.

Lastly, I have a cover pretty to share with you! It's the cover for Speak Thy Name, the third Nephilim book! I've already shared it on Facebook, but I know not everyone follows me there so I thought I'd share it here as well.

This Nephilim book will be going to print as I'm self-publishing this series from now on. Paper & Sage did the cover art, and they did a beautiful job with it. I'll definitely use them again.

Anything else? Hmmm... Anything I might have been holding out on you guys?

Oh, yeah. That's right. I have the cover for Hide and Seek already.

The wonderful Angela Waters did this cover. It made sense to ask her, as she's done all of the True Destiny covers up till now. Another amazing cover artist I adore and will use again.

So, that's it! I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!