Do viral videos count as a credit?

MDSchafer said:

So let's just say you were part of an effort to make a humorous video that some people believed to be real, despite the fact you never made any claim that it was, and resulted in over two million views and made appearances on one or two popular cable internet clip shows. Does that count as a credit when it comes the fiction world?

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If you ask me, no. Not in the sense that it would help to convince me that you are an accomplished writer of fiction.

I have seen quite a few book deals off the back of viral videos - What Does the Fox Say? would be the most recent example - and if someone has a big YouTube following it's going to be a big plus for marketing and will make them attractive to publishers (if, of course, they have an appropriate product.) That's not quite the same thing as a 'fiction credit' though.

MDSchafer said:

So let's just say you were part of an effort to make a humorous video that some people believed to be real, despite the fact you never made any claim that it was, and resulted in over two million views and made appearances on one or two popular cable internet clip shows. Does that count as a credit when it comes the fiction world?

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If it were an extensive, scripted thing, like a well-known web series, maybe. One video, I dunno how scripted but it doesn't even sound as if it was solely written by you (and that didn't even really get that many views, in the realm of things)? I wouldn't consider that, no.

The definition of a "viral" video is fuzzy, but 2 mil. views might not cut it. From Wikipedia, which happened to be the first Google result:

YouTube weblebrity Kevin Nalty, aka Nalts, asks the question “How many views do you need to be viral?” In 2011 he said, “A few years ago, a video could be considered “viral” if it hit a million views.” But Nalts updated that definition. He said, “A video, I submit, is “viral” if it gets more than 5 million views in a 3-7 day period.”

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Source.
Also, I'm cringing at "weblebrity".

EMaree said:

Also, I'm cringing at "weblebrity".

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HIDEOUS

MDSchafer said:

So let's just say you were part of an effort to make a humorous video that some people believed to be real, despite the fact you never made any claim that it was, and resulted in over two million views and made appearances on one or two popular cable internet clip shows. Does that count as a credit when it comes the fiction world?

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Only writing fiction counts as a credit. Such a video might help you in the film world, but not in the writing world.

MDSchafer said:

So let's just say you were part of an effort to make a humorous video that some people believed to be real, despite the fact you never made any claim that it was, and resulted in over two million views and made appearances on one or two popular cable internet clip shows. Does that count as a credit when it comes the fiction world?

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No, because it doesn't prove you can write well.

Selling a piece of fiction means that a publishing professional thought your writing good enough to sell to strangers for a profit. That's the endorsement other publishing professionals are looking for.

Helping make a popular video proves you can appeal to an audience. That's a good thing, but the publishing professional would mainly want to know whether you wrote the script for the video, whether the script was a good one, and how easily your script-writing will translate over to the type of writing you're attempting to woo them with.

In other words, it comes back to writing, not page-views.

fourthing/fifthing the "no."

Janet Reid just posted something recently saying she considers bios for what is promotable about a person, I had tended to only view them as "show proof you can write." I would certainly consider Janet's angle, since she, yanno, is an agent, but the viral video doesn't show you can write, and unless I'm missing something it isn't really anything you can use to promote heavily......there's a big difference between "Dave writes about space exploration with a deft touch and technical prose because Dave has been on three missions to the moon as part of NASA" and "this one time, Larry made a video....."

I'm not saying your video is useless, maybe it isn't. I don't know enough yet. But IS there an angle you can (honestly) use?

They might be relevant to platform. All sorts of things that aren't writing credits can help with platform. Being a Superbowl MVP is not a writing credit, but it's probably fairly easy to get someone to look at your manuscript because of it.

MDSchafer said:

The reason I was thinking it might be useful is that there are several, they're funny, and it kinda proves I can build a platform?

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But is it a "platform" that can sell books?

MDSchafer said:

The reason I was thinking it might be useful is that there are several, they're funny, and it kinda proves I can build a platform?

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What would building a platform for a web video have to do with fiction credits or fiction writing if you don't already have some substantial platform that's connected?

EMaree said:

Also, I'm cringing at "weblebrity".

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How does someone get 'weblebrity' before 'cewebrity'? I mean, come on, that's like Dumb Puns 101.

MDSchafer said:

The reason I was thinking it might be useful is that there are several, they're funny, and it kinda proves I can build a platform?

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Still no. It proves nothing, really. Videos go viral several times per day, and in this sense, platform is meaningless. If you want a credit, you have to write fiction that sells to a top magazine, or a similar place. Even if this did show platform, it still doesn't show you can write anything.

MDSchafer said:

The reason I was thinking it might be useful is that there are several, they're funny, and it kinda proves I can build a platform?

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Little Ming said:

But is it a "platform" that can sell books?

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Plpatform is all wel and good (more so in non fic) but in fiction, yourcredits should include "stuff I write so well people paid me" or possibly "stuff I wrote/self pubbed so well I sold X thousand copies"


Basicaly "prose fiction stuff I write so well that..."

A video is not that. It might be great from a marketing POV, but you don;t get that far without having a bloody good book to sell. All the platform in the world won't get you signed if your book is crap. Unles your name ends in Kardashian.


Concentrate on the book, not the platform (again this differs for non-fic, but unles the book is "how to get one million hits in one day" it's not relevant)