Thanks for this thread! I don't care much about the Audra stuff but it's super weird and a lesson in what NOT to do. Books take a very, very long time to write and edit properly. Skipping or rushing entire steps of the process all for a release is how you end up with this mess.

Yeah, my hope is that people looking at this from the outside take away that it is the process, not the product, that is important. It's something I stress to my academic and creative writers, and Audra Winter has not come to grasp that yet because the product is more fun (and lucrative).

Oh good, she got a developmental editor that isn't a fan. THANK GOD. It's also funny to see Laura suspicious as hell about how fast Audra found an editor. I hadn't thought about that, but >.> I'm assuming someone approached her potentially.

My fear with this is that she will try to do developmental, copy, and line edits at the same time rather than doing a developmental edit HOLISTICALLY. You can't do that chapter by chapter and do it successfully.

URK still boss babe-ing. "I'm an entrepreneur, writer, and naturalist." I watched a video by another Youtuber who has an environmental science background who talked about how badly Audra built her environments despite being a naturalist. She literally mixes up rain forest and deciduous forest 🙃

The worst part is that if she wasn't 99% ego/hot gas, NO ONE WOULD CARE, but when you lead with "here are my credentials, aren't I brilliant?" people will happily tell you no.

"We talked to the studio" NO NO NO NO

It would probably make more sense for her make a web novel? I think that's the right word, like one of those games with chunks you read but are paired with artwork and animation. BUT her writing is objectively underbaked and bad. She needs to marinate for a while because her skills aren't there.

I also love how she's like, "I ordered books directly from a printer -hair clip- like publishers do." Ma'am, that isn't special. That is how independent publishers did it for decades before KDP and Ingram Spark came along. You. Aren't. Special. Or clever.

Is it just me or does the preorder number keep creeping up? It was 5,000, then 6,000. Now, she's saying 7,000 preorders.

I still do NOT believe that she hired a developmental editor initially. If she did, she did not listen AT ALL or the person took her money and went "ah yes, perfect, good to go!" She is not taking any ownership of her bad writing at all. I hope we go through the editorial notes because it was BAD.

As someone who does developmental editing, you cannot do it chapter by chapter. Developmental editing is BIG PICTURE issues. She is not going to improve at all.

THANK YOU! I finally have concrete evidence she’s lying about them, other than my own gut instinct/knowledge.

Lmao right? Like okay girl if you want to manage inventory, shipping, and the tariffs (her printer is in Canada), you do you I guess? But hey look at me, I also use a Canadian printer for my books now. I’m so ~entrepreneur~ (except I actually live here lmao)

Having 5,000 copies of my book in my house I potentially can't get rid of is a nightmare/stress dream I have definitely had before. I can't imagine doing it willingly (unless they're like a preordered kickstarter thing)

Oh god. No. No, these are SEPARATE BIOMES with DIFFERENT CLIMATE REGIMES.

The desert is directly next to the forest, and we don't know if it's a tropical rainforest or a temperate one because she alludes to both. It's very confusing.

*cries in ecologist*

Yeah, those three stages *cannot* be done together. Developmental edits can mean ripping the book apart, moving chapters, creating or axing characters, changing events. It's more than just cleaning up the sentence structure. It's clear she knows nothing about the process.

Yeah, this is what frustrates me the most. She wants to move quickly to get it back out and make money, but you cannot do that with a major overhaul. You just can't.

Truly doing a public service with these threads 😂💜

Lmao, thanks 😂 Happy to be of service

I need to watch that one next. Currently listening to a synopsis+critique of the first version of the book. It's so much. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujfh...

I'm scared to watch this one because it's so long. I listened to RachelReads go through it and it was sooooo much. How is this one?

The synopsis is 1.5 hours, then they go into critique. I like SBU English Club because they go at these books as if it's a critique group. So it's like "What's good, what's not good? How can author improve their book before publishing?" It's a pretty positive tone, despite the goofs.