I love YouTube for its free content. It is a great source for writers. Here is a list of some great YouTubers in the writing community to watch if you are pursuing a career in writing. Keep in mind, some of them have a Patreon account where fans of their work pay a monthly fee in support of the writer’s career. I am not a fan of this nor do I encourage you to engage is this kind of support. There are accomplished authors who provide advice and writing tips for free.
With that said, here is is a short list to get you started in the right direction.
First is Abbie Emmons. She is the self-published author of 100 Days of Sunlight. She has a plethora of videos on how to write a novel. If you like visually stylistic episodes, you will love her. What I like most about her videos, is that she deals with a specific topic and they are no more than twenty minutes each—usually. My only criticism is that she only references movies and books White girls would like; if that is not you, you won’t relate.
Up next is The Creative Penn with NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Jo Frances Penn. Her channel has been around for some years. She has great content along with some impressive guests who share their knowledge from years in both the traditional and self-publishing world. My only warning is that her videos are on the longer side, meaning—an hour or so.
Alexa Donne is the traditionally published author of two Young Adult novels. She shares her journey in getting published and what new, unsigned authors should anticipate if they are choosing the traditional publishing route. She sometimes brings in other authors to share their experience. I also like that she supports other underrepresented authors—but not in an inauthentic way. My only criticism is that she sometimes delves into other topics that I’m not interested in seeing from her specifically.
Heart Breathings with Sarra Canon is one of my favorite YouTube channels on teaching aspiring authors how to get published and have a successful career. She is a successfully self-published author with over one million in sales; even if you want to be traditionally published, you can learn from her. She shares her road to success and gives advice on how you can get there without sounding like a sleazy sales guy. My only criticism is that she loses focus talking about personal issues which is why her videos are longer than thirty minutes.
Reedsy is a channel I recommend to polish your skills as a writer. They have a popular website to help authors in the various stages of writing and their YouTube channel is no different. With editors, agents, and even critiques on first sentences of your manuscript, this is a much watch channel, especially if you have yet to be published. My only warning is that they have multiple hosts of this channel, so some personalities are more vibrant than others.
I saved the reliable Film Courage for last. They have been around for years and although they deal with screenwriting—a writer is a writer. You can gain a wealth of knowledge from the interviews and conversations they upload on their channel. Their videos deal with a range of topics including the financial aspect of a story which a writer should consider if they want their novel to be adapted. My only warning is that they have no formula with their videos: some are more than an hour long while others are as short as three minutes.
Some people may argue with my list, saying I don’t have popular YouTubers. My response is, my list has channels that give you quality content; they are not sponsor happy, trying to sell you fifteen versions of writing software that clearly competes with each other—making me question them as a person—let alone a writer.
Links to this Youtubers channels if you want to check them out:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC20oEMuKgfaNBfpV7JlFRQQ
https://www.youtube.com/user/thecreativepenn
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=alexa+donne+writing
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCasYwEzMc7tjKuAS-vtDYPw
Tameka Fleming 