“Did I get a refund for Madame Web? No, I ate that cost and made that money back by sh*tting on it in a YouTube video like a real hater.” I GAGGED. GO OFF QUEEN 💀

You know those kids who start a band and then make up all the t-shirts and merch before they even write a song? That's this.

I might be wrong but it sounds to me like Audra doesn’t love writing, she loves this world she’s created in her head. So when she’s tried to write it down it’s almost like that’s not the important part to her the important part is the world and the story at large. That’s why she’s so into getting art made when that’s not really important in terms of writing, why she’s avoiding any professional advice or criticism. She’s not been developing her craft she’s been developing her world

“a proofreader and an editor for my book from my audience” that’s a horrible idea. get a professional!! “auditions” is wild too

"A 10 year career" ma'am just because you've been creative writing since you were 12 doesn't mean it's a career. Your career started when you started advertising. Which was still young, but she had the gall to say she's been in the field 10 years and this is her first ever published work (not just book, first published ANYTHING from the looks of it), and 6,000 people ignored that giant red flag???

She is very good at online marketing, not writing books.

Both things are true: the buyers calling for refunds because the book is bad are idiots. Audra Winter who thinks her 10-year childhood hyperfixation project is an actually stellar novel is also deluded.

"She info dumps about her world's history; it's her special interest" is particularly incredibly funny to me. Like I guess that's one way to excuse lore dumping on your readers but they still aren't going to retain that wall of text you throw at them

As an aspiring writer myself who probably started trying to write her first novel at 15, the best advice I have for new writers is this: STOP REWRITING AND REWRITING YOUR FIRST BOOK. Put that book down and start writing a new book from scratch. You’ve learned a lot from the process of writing your first book, but it’s hard to apply all the lessons you’ve learned on an old project. I promise, you have another idea, another book within you. You can always come back to your first book later.

EDIT: Wow, I don't think I've ever gotten this many likes before. To anyone reading this who wants to be a writer, I believe in you. We got this. I leave you with my favorite quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald about writing: "Don’t be a bit discouraged about your story not being tops. At the same time, I am not going to encourage you about it, because, after all, if you want to get into the big time, you have to have your own fences to jump and learn from experience. Nobody ever became a writer just by wanting to be one. "

A society with assigned roles based on zodiac signs? The nature of humanity is just that every so often someone accidently reinvents Homestuck again

Honestly, the people who are made that they purchased this book can only blame themselves. I'm not on tiktok, but it feels like every few months I hear about some "drama" where a tiktoker said "my book will be sooo good guys, it will have insert trope and *insert trope*, buy it! trust me!" and everyone just believed them and got mad when it didn't blow them away. Like, at that point its not even the authors fault. They showed you a pinterest board set to ambient music and you thought that symbolized quality.

Audra absolutely tried to get an agent and get traditionally published, that was the only part of her journey that I followed because I was curious about the process, but eventually I completely forgot about this project until this mess blew up. I read people more informed than me say that she didn't like the feedback that she received from traditional publication and that's why she jumped to self publication. Which honestly checks out.

It isn't going to be fixed in a few weeks. Girlie Pop, pull a No Man Sky, go dark, and come back a year or so later with better polished work. Don't hire fans for editing.

I feel like this is one of those cases where traditional publishing would have benefited her and helped her avoid a lot of the problems with the writing. The art is actually really good, maybe a webcomic would have served her better (it def would still need rewrites but she seems to really stress the art of the world and characters). It makes me sad her project didn’t work out but it seems like she’s open to reworking it so I wish her luck

the moment you mentioned in the beginning that she was 22 and had been working on this story since she was 12 i knew it had to be terribly written.  none of my creative friends were still working on the same stories we'd come up with when we were 12 by the time we'd graduated highschool, let alone by the time we were 22; at most a few ideas were recycled into new things, but by and large it was all scrapped.  so people demanding refunds and bullying the author is just like.  sorry yall got duped and bought a bad book but that's honestly on you.  honestly it should have been just a "wow the writing is terrible, do not recommend" and move on

Cringe is the mind killer! When you smiled while singing at the end I cried a little??? Bring back sincerity for real

Audra's wild success marketing this book feels like some kind of Midas touch--in the traditional sense, where her gift has brought her suffering

"From 12 to 22."
Pass. I've had a vague concept I've wanted to do since I was a teenager, and you know what's happened? I've had to completely blow it up and start from scratch at least eight times. Making a debut novel is one thing, but it's risky to leave a novel in the oven for so long.

tbf there are young writers that are absolutely amazing. i've read both fanfictions and original works written by younger people that deeply moved me. still, those communities still involve some length of criticism from beta readers to critical readers. i think the problem comes from this girl being so defensive all the time when, as a writer, she should be her biggest critic as well as her biggest defender. you can't just  defend everything you do.

this was incredibly interesting - this dynamic keeps happening in indie publishing, I think because decades ago people like Audra would sell a dozen copies to her friends, end of story. Now you can independently market yourself to the world! Some people are better at the marketing than the writing lol