TGWTG Nostalgia Chick / Lindsay Ellis / TheDudette - aka Hotdogs in face girl

[Herty]

He’s also insanely consistent and treats the YouTube thing as an actual job, putting stuff out on a regular schedule. I could set my watch by him. Which is way more than I can say about Lindsay and her whiny associates who don’t know how good they’ve got it.

Well that is because Yahtzee is not an YouTuber, he is employeed by The Escapist and posts his videos on their website and then one week later, Escapist internees posts it on YouTube. At best, he Livestream on YouTube as part of an Escapist program

How much difference do you think the publisher leaving her holding the bag on advertising made?

Oh a lot, no doubt. Not only she probably has no idea of what proper marketing entails but she said herself (in the video mask-off) that she did the bare minimum self-marketing her contract demanded

 

[ManiacalChrisBenoit]

I was at Barnes and Noble earlier today, being disgusted by how much of the children's section is devoted to alphabet shit, and saw like 15 copies of her book piled up on the bottom shelf in the sci-fi section. I should have taken a picture to share.

 

[TherapyMan]

She wanted to believe her online presence could back up real life endeavors. The fact is she is a joke in her actual day-to-day and knows it.

Ultimately, I believe this is the reason behind Ellis' unhappy bitch demeanor. Ellis desperately wants to be taken seriously as an actual cultural critic and make meaningful art, but does not have the talent or the pedigree to do so. Instead, she's stuck as an "online commentator" or "that girl who was the Nostalgia Chick" because those are the only things she actually knows how to do. Her unhappiness comes from the fact she never recognized that she's peaked in her "career" and has no viable way forward anymore. She's never actually developed the skills necessary to get her where she wants to be.

Like Doug Walker, Ellis is trapped in a prison of mediocrity created by her online persona. Unlike Doug Walker, Ellis never accepted or embraced her own limitations.

 

[Ralph Barnhardt]

She has surpassed all expectations of someone who announced that they would no longer be producing content.
View attachment 2844823
She started this month at 8,409 patrons at the start of this month and in a matter of days her patreon grew over three Moviebobs that day!
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At this point I'm wonder how long this high will last. Will there be a slow decline in support like what she was experiencing or will the simps realize that she's really not gonna be putting out any content and dump her frumpy ass? She'd have to do something extra problematic for the latter tbf.

Bravo hotdog girl. You got all the people who didn't want to get into the middle of your stupid, drunken slap fight with troons to pay out the ass.

When I was here last Lindsay had tricked around an extra 3k simps to give her money to not do anything.

Well at least some of them got wise. What's funnier is that, according to graphtreon, that drop off was a lot harsher on January 1.

Let's see what excitement next month brings!

 

[AnOminous]

Oh a lot, no doubt. Not only she probably has no idea of what proper marketing entails but she said herself (in the video mask-off) that she did the bare minimum self-marketing her contract demanded

If their contract said she was obligated to promote the work and then did as half-assed a job as she could without getting sued, she can't really blame her publisher for that. I think both parties mistakenly believed lots of Twitter followers somehow magically translates into real world sales.

How many years of this bullshit has there been without these idiots figuring this out?

 

[Herty]

If their contract said she was obligated to promote the work and then did as half-assed a job as she could without getting sued, she can't really blame her publisher for that. I think both parties mistakenly believed lots of Twitter followers somehow magically translates into real world sales.

How many years of this bullshit has there been without these idiots figuring this out?

She said in the video Mask off that she deactivated her tweet but had to come back to use it because the required promotional posts she has to do in her contract so this show how much of a chore she sees promoting her own books is

 

[Haramburger]

@Boston Brand you're getting noticed all over the internet. Your posts (on comics, not Lindsay) were just shown in the new ItsAGundam video.
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Timestamped vid here:

ayyyy, me too. Based:

Fuck Zoe Quinn/Chelsea Van Valkenburg.

 

[Common Shadow]

He’s also insanely consistent and treats the YouTube thing as an actual job, putting stuff out on a regular schedule. I could set my watch by him. Which is way more than I can say about Lindsay and her whiny associates who don’t know how good they’ve got it.

Example: It’s halfway through January and Todd still hasn’t produced his Top 10 best songs of 2021. This is literally his job, he gets to set his own hours and make way more money than he would at a regular 9-5 and all he can do is bitch on Twitter about his viewers (who make his entire career possible) asking for his year end top ten video.

I honestly think Todd's simping for Lindsay after her announcement has led to him delaying his content. I imagine him off and on sobbing uncontrollably into a Mickey Mouse blanket that she gave him years ago while he rocks back and forth listening to The Carpenters.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Example: It’s halfway through January and Todd still hasn’t produced his Top 10 best songs of 2021. This is literally his job, he gets to set his own hours and make way more money than he would at a regular 9-5 and all he can do is bitch on Twitter about his viewers (who make his entire career possible) asking for his year end top ten video.

Todd in the Shadows has No Set Schedule!

I was at Barnes and Noble earlier today, being disgusted by how much of the children's section is devoted to alphabet shit, and saw like 15 copies of her book piled up on the bottom shelf in the sci-fi section. I should have taken a picture to share.

Yes you should have. Was it the first or second one?

She said in the video Mask off that she deactivated her tweet but had to come back to use it because the required promotional posts she has to do in her contract so this show how much of a chore she sees promoting her own books is

You just know she's so entitled she wanted the publisher to handle everything themselves while she just sat back and collected revenue.

 

[Chandelier]

I don't know what authors told you that, but they're absolutely right. Rejection and revision is part of the process, and it absolutely makes your work better.

Ironically, by using her social media following to jump in line, Ellis probably kneecapped herself... there's no way either of her books has ever seen an editor's pen. Truth in the Divine especially, had it crossed my desk, would have either been a rejection or page 1 rewrite.

You're right though - publishers don't give a fuck how toxic you are, they just care that you sell books. For all their crowing about social justice, put a gun to their head, and make them pick between one of their danger hairs with a Hugo nomination, or Orson Scott Card, they'll kick that pink hair to the curb so fast heads would spin. Hell, did cancelation efforts kill the careers of Larry Correia or any of the Puppies? Or for that matter, NK Jemison after she nearly drove Isabel Fall to suicide?

The only thing that makes your name too toxic to touch in publishing is not being able to sell books... and guess what?

That's why the books tanking is probably hitting Ellis so hard - this is the first time in her life that she's not riding Doug Walker or BreadTube's coattails, she's on her own selling something entirely on her own merits in front of the entire world...

And she's failing because people don't want it. She's forced to confront the fact that her actual talent and influence is very thin indeed, and that KILLS her.



I wish I knew somebody at St. Martin's Press. I just have to know what idiot looked at Ellis, her books, and that excuse of an agent of hers, and thought, "Yeah, this looks like a good use of company money."



Ding ding ding!

She absolutely would have made more money self-publishing this - hell, her Twilight Parody she wrote with her lackies a few years ago until very recently had more reviews on Amazon than Truth of the Divine did.

This was never about money for her, she wanted this book deal and a Hugo for the same reason she wanted that PBS gig and to be a director: legitimacy. And instead, she blew up a money printing machine (her YouTube) to sell fewer books than most D-list spec fiction authors.

And all the money her publisher blew on her advance, promotion and publication probably could have paid for the debut novels of a dozen new authors who just didn't have the luck to be Doug Walker's bottom bitch ten years ago.

As others have said, Lindsay would have been better off self-publishing her book and allowing her audience to give her feedback. In lieu of a professional editor, you can have a cutthroat audience that will give you everything under the Sun. Metatron and Shadiversity have such a fanbase and if they made any mistakes they would be called out for it.

There are online groups for help, critic's circles and the like. However, for the latter, it can be filled with stuck up people who think their own works are better than what they are. Knew a few folks who wrote fanfiction and attended those circles who wrote nothing but purple prose and could not accept trims. But I digress.

The same thing occurs and is occurring with comics. Lindsay needs to know her audience: the bulk of it is online, they know her work is akin to fanfiction, so she should have started off with that base. Then allow the first wave of critics to come in and modify it. If you think it's fit to print and publish, seek an editor. Keep the original manuscript because you never know when people might want to see the OG script like the did wit Stephen King's 'The Stand'.

I've been writing blogs and short stories for years and have unpublished books. I am my own worst critic never going through the publishing process. Too poor to try and self-publish and copyright my work. Maybe one day, but whatever. Lindsay, however, sees what she is doing as the logical bridge between what she THINKS she knows (how to write) and what she wholeheartedly BELIEVES in (patriarchy, feminism, white males are assholes, etc.) Her notoriety gave her a big leg up to be successful and I guarantee you the publisher that looked at her work figured her bullshit would strike just the right chord with people at the height of all this feminism/anti-feminism/MAGA nonsense giving her lots of sheckles. What she didn't count on was the immense drop off of that drum banging in the wake of COVID and Biden winning which put a huge dampener in interest leading to what is Lindsay's lackluster status in the literary world today.

That's the tragedy of it. She ticked ALL the boxes for success; many Hugo nominees who didn't deserve that nomination got it due to their race and/or socjus themes. Lindsay couldn't even cut it. It speaks to her incompetence and overstepping in that she failed even in one of the greediest niches there is. Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo are absolute frauds but they make a LOT of money. You need to polish bullshit enough for it to be sold and she couldn't take the hint.

Colin Flaherty, RIP, wrote in a similar niche yet published more books because, while he had unorthodox publishers, he had content people wanted to see and branched out to many platforms. He was very receptive to audience feedback.

My advice is to partner up with a good editor. I am a self-published author and my editor is actually a best friend I have known for years. Insanely good at his job and I am very lucky. It helps immensely to have someone to tell you "This sentence structure is all fucked up." when you can't see it. Just make sure its someone who has a similar vision to you and also has enough balls to even tell you "Hey, this entire chapter sucks and needs to be redone."

He told me to completely rewrite the ending to one of my books once. Devastating, and we had a small half an hour argument about it because that was a lot of work. The book ended up way better as a result though. Having someone who knows when you can do better will always produce a better product and keep your ego in check.

Edit: I just want to mention, I don't think people looking in from the outside know how collaborative writing is in the real world. The name on the cover is a brand that sells, but it certainly isn't the only contributor to a book's success and/or quality.

If you can't find an editor, building even an online audience helps. Look at guys like Steve Sailer. He remains relevant and his writing is tight because he gets feedback from everyone.

Editors should also be scrutinized. I had a writing neighbour be completely fucked over. Charged her $500 for a preliminary reading, fucked off on vacation when he went off schedule, and didn't even read her work. She was out of money for something an online audience would do - for the whole thing; editors/publishers usually won't do the entire book - on their spare time. You definitely need someone who won't cut corners and will speak the truth plainly to you.

In Lindsay's case, she just used her celebrity to sell books and it wasn't even on the level of Don Lemon. C'mon girl.

 

[BScCollateral]

These pathetic numbers all show how Twitter isn't real life, and most of the spergs on there don't actually buy anything, because they're on the dole and spend their little amount of money on Funko pops and drugs. Or they're literal bots, whether paid for or not.

I'm voting on literal bots. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that only 10% of Lindsey's followers are actual humans and potential clients. The number of actual book-readers is even smaller than that.
This problem can be applied across the board. The majority of the internet "audience" doesn't actually exist; it's mostly one program fooling a second program in order to inflate audience numbers.

 

[Ninon42]

...Oh god I just realized the authors that write that dumb omegaverse wolfcock shit are more resilient and successful. At least they know how to appeal to a market.

Addison Cain has cranked out 27 books of pure schlock and will continue to do so as long as alpha wolfporn(?) remains popular. Lindsay had an existential breakdown trying to produce two longform Transformers fanfics. Point: Omegaverse

 

[Herty]

I'm voting on literal bots. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that only 10% of Lindsey's followers are actual humans and potential clients. The number of actual book-readers is even smaller than that.
This problem can be applied across the board. The majority of the internet "audience" doesn't actually exist; it's mostly one program fooling a second program in order to inflate audience numbers.

Well not to this extent but you are right, particularly twitter is full of bots and Twitter does nothing about it because then it can fool investors it has an active and healthy userbase

 

[Random Internet Person]

Todd in the Shadows has No Set Schedule!

Has Todd ever gotten his Worst and Best songs of the year out by the end of December at any point? Also, I remember in his best of 2019 video his end blurb said that he had to rewrite the video 5 times, and in his best of 2020 end blurb, he mentioned that he muted any Twitter people who asked about the video. So this has gotta be a touchy subject for him.

 

[ManiacalChrisBenoit]

Todd in the Shadows has No Set Schedule!


Yes you should have. Was it the first or second one?


You just know she's so entitled she wanted the publisher to handle everything themselves while she just sat back and collected revenue.

It was actually her first book. I didn't see any of the other ones there just about 15 of her first ones piled around each other.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

If their contract said she was obligated to promote the work and then did as half-assed a job as she could without getting sued, she can't really blame her publisher for that. I think both parties mistakenly believed lots of Twitter followers somehow magically translates into real world sales.

How many years of this bullshit has there been without these idiots figuring this out?

As I understand it, the publisher did the promotion for the first one, then when that performed like a much cheaper book, left her holding the bag on the second one.

 

[Jah Hates Kaffirs]

It was actually her first book. I didn't see any of the other ones there just about 15 of her first ones piled around each other.

I saw the first one in a Barnes & Nobles a few months ago, and it was coincidentally shelved right next to the shitty manga section

 

[Random Internet Person]

I saw the first one in a Barnes & Nobles a few months ago, and it was coincidentally shelved right next to the shitty manga section

That may be a case of how B&N sorts their shit. Hell, if you’re in a college town, it could be a matter of the books being crammed together to make space for textbooks and school merch.

 

[JJLiautaud]

I was at Barnes and Noble earlier today, being disgusted by how much of the children's section is devoted to alphabet shit, and saw like 15 copies of her book piled up on the bottom shelf in the sci-fi section. I should have taken a picture to share.

Same but even better

Front of the store under new releases but still my sides

 

[Cobalt-60]

I thought about giving her books a try but I'll admit that "durr how do you even define a person in the first place?" was such a dumb line it turned me off. "[T]he two must work together to prove to a fearful world that intelligent, conscious beings should be considered persons, no matter how monstrous-looking, powerful, or malicious they may seem." Humanity has tread over this a lot, from legally, philosophically, and biologically. We even have debates about intelligent animals being considered nonhuman persons. Maybe the book approaches it with more grace, but the blurb makes it sound like nobody had ever thought about what a person is until aliens showed up. Or that it'll be any difficult for aliens to be considered people. Especially if they can communicate in a human language. Do the aliens use English in there?

Strictly as a reader, the first book fails to catch my eye beccause of this: "[A]n extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades. Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication."

So it sounds like other people have been dealing with aliens, but as soon as the main character finds out she inserts herself into the mess and decides she's the best for the job? How can she even act as their interpreter? These are not questions that are intriguing me, these are questions that are turning me off from the book because the story sounds dumb. Query letter, synopsis, and back of the cover blurb: These are supposed to be the most exciting ways an author explains their book. Because this is how readers are supposed to be hooked in and wish to know more (by buying and reading to find out). Lindsay's blurbs are rather bland and even if I knew nothing about her, I'd pass on these.

If I go browsing along Amazon's self-published books the sci-fi market is just teeming with authors and I bet in 10 minutes I could find several that at least sound like a better way to spend my money than Lindsay's books. GoodReads even has a list of First Contact books that won't take much time to pick apart and find something enjoyable.