Tim Grahl, a very successful book marketer, suggested I should do little videos to connect with my readers.

Not something I’ve ever done or even considered. Writers are shy, introverted people. Putting myself out is waaaayyyyy out of my comfort zone. I have no idea how to edit a video. I’m barely able to record myself.

And yes, I feel as hapless as the puppy!

But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. This whole author journey has pushed me out of my comfort zone, so there goes nothing. Here’s my very first youtube video with transcript.

My son’s feedback? “Mom, you’re like a brick. Where’s your personality?!?” Ugh.

He’s not wrong. Hopefully, this time next year, I’ll look at this very first video and marvel at how much I’ve improved. Hopefully…

Anyway, I’d be more than happy for any feedback or support! Thanks, guys!

Transcription

Hi guys,

my name is Ella J. Smyth. I’m a writer of urban fantasy, and I live in Germany with my Irish husband and two teenage kids. I just finished writing a trilogy set partly in Germany and partly in America, and I’ve started writing another trilogy that is going to be set in America and in Italy.

I love hearing from my readers, and I’m always exploring new ways of staying in touch with my readers. This is really the thought behind starting this YouTube channel.

Every time I write a book, I spend quite a long time researching. When you’re a writer, you research the most incredible things. You research myths and legends and you find out the strangest things.

For example, I studied four years in Heidelberg for my Masters in English, and in the four years that I lived there I never found out that opposite the castle in Heidelberg which is world famous due to the Beggar Prince, I found out that there is a huge hall in the forest that goes hundreds of feet deep into the ground. Nobody really knows who build it. There are theories that it was the Celtic people but people call it the Heathen Hole—das Heidenloch. What really fascinated me about that was that sometimes in the early twentieth century, there was a newspaper article about this hole.

Supposedly creatures crept out of it, crept into the town of Heidelberg, and strangled people in their sleep. As a result the citizens decided to cover it up with planks of wood. I thought it was the most amazing story ever. So that hole in the forest became the entrance to the faerie realm that my two characters fall into by accident.

This is the kind of research that I really want to share with my readers. Let me know what you think about it. I’m not good at youtubing. I’ve never done it before as you can tell. I just barely managed to set up my camera and my mic, and I have no idea about editing. But I have friends who are good at this, so I hope I can learn.

I am going to be posting a transcript of this video onto my website as a blog post, and I hope to turn this into a weekly thing where I’ll share tidbits and update on the story I’m writing. Thank you very much