Only one line of dialogue from the franchise-destroying film, The Last Jedi, deserves to be repeated with any amount of seriousness:
“We're going to win this war not by fighting what we hate, but by saving what we love,” Rose Tico, ridiculous character.
Last week, several indie authors got some flack for yelling at famous people on the internet. You see, the internet-famous people had made videos ragging on Disney and Star Wars for their shoddy quality. The videos garnered millions of views—all of them.
Indie authors filled up the comments of these videos criticizing the large creators for not shouting out smaller indie works.
Some minor sniping ensued, but it gave me an idea. My YouTube channel is mostly a lead magnet rather than a money-maker. I get a lot of clients through the channel, but I’m not a slave to the algorithm.
With that in mind, I thought maybe I could also use my channel to review indie books—the ones that succeed where crappy big-budget movies and tv shows fail—and let people know what’s safe to spend their money on.
When that post went out, my comment section was flooded by authors volunteering their books. Obviously, there were a lot of Star Wars comps, but also many classic fairy tales, Indiana Jones-esque adventures, and some lesser-known comparisons like Anastasia and Treasure Planet.
Looking at the list made me happy, though I couldn’t in good conscious review everything that ended up in my comment section. In fine indie fashion (no gatekeepers), some of them weren’t up to snuff quality-wise. And some were comics, which I don’t feel qualified to review.
I selected 42 Indie novels to read and review with the understanding that I’d be framing them against a well-known Disney property.
The idea is to read the book and make a video review on YouTube, one that harkens back to the Disney property it can reasonably be compared to.
That way 1) my regular viewers will get good book recs and 2) the algorithm might look more favorably on a video that references Beauty and The Beast and get more eyeballs on it. Maybe, God willing, one will go viral, convincing those big review channels that you can review indies AND make that sweet Adsense money at the same time.
I have no idea if it will work, but unknown authors making good art deserve a callout, even if it’s just from lil ol me.
Random Poll
I’m pulling my hair out trying to decide, you guys. I need a small, portable tablet to get work done when I travel and when I work at coffee shops. I got a ChromeBook and I HATE it. With a capital HATE.
So which one of these should I buy?
The Microsoft Surface Go is a nice tablet with full-fat Windows 11. Since I work on the Microsoft eco-system, this is a good option.
On the other hand, the Boox Tab Ultra C is easy on the eyes with its color e-ink screen. It uses Android 11 OS, but I can still access my documents through the Microsoft 365 app.
Prices are comparable and so is size. Which one should I spring for?
Looking forward to the review videos! Regarding the hardware, the Surface Go you linked to has twice the system memory at half the price. There may be other features you're looking for on the Tab Ultra (what kind of name is Boox?), but from a Productivity perspective, the Surface Go seems to be ahead of the rest.
Kristin, I don't have a Surface Go but I swear by my trusty Surface Pro 6 (a 5 year old laptop). Yeah I'd like a more substantial keyboard, but the Pro is an EXTREMELY light and silent device, basically a souped-up tablet, so I deal with it. The big difference between the Go and the Boox seems to boil down to the Go being a laptop junior, and the Boox is more of a glorified e-reader, an updated Kindle. These Android tablets (and this is coming from a loyal Samsung guy), will only do so much before their "mobileness" starts showing. To explain: since the newer Go tablets run Windows 11, they will likely also run the full MS Office suite, which you may need someday vice the mobile version of O365 which is probably all you can get on the BOOX running the Android 11 OS. The mobile versions of each Office product has less features (differences are detailed in the link below). Limited and mobile software is one reason I'm bald, btw; apps on my Android can be SUPER frustrating. You may say you don't NEED all the fancy features of the full products, but you won't feel it until the day comes when you're at the coffee shop tweaking book 3 of the Mason Timeline, or a presentation for one of your upcoming classes if you still do those, and, well, you can't do what you want and your blood pressure spikes because your deadline is about to make that whooshing sound as it blows by. I mean if they're the same price, having Win11 on a tried-and-true Microsoft product is probably your best bet.
:) Differences in mobile vs full versions of Office: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/office-online-service-description/office-online-service-description?redirectedfrom=MSDN