In a fit of reorganization, I finally got round to sorting out my kitchen space to accommodate better video shooting. I’ve been trying to make more visual fodder for the YouTube crowd since that’s what pays me a few desperately needed pennies but the ‘plan, shoot, edit, write, & post’ cycle is no small feat on each attempt. It can take two or three days not only hands-on at the counter but also my elderly computer grinding away in the background to generate the needed files. Couple that with the ever-dwindling attention spans of the social-media-driven viewing public and it seems the answer that bubbles to the top of the heap more often than not is ‘live streaming’.
The computer gaming world has been on this train for some time now with hoards of viewers gladly watching adverts or even directly sponsoring players (via Twitch, Patreon, etc.) who video their frequently hilarious efforts with little or no editing. My penchant for ‘real’ cooking in ordinary kitchens to meet everyday needs coupled with my distaste for highly edited and polished videos showing pretty people in yoga pants making popcorn means that I might have a niche to fill. Unrehearsed and unedited happens in my kitchen every evening whether anyone besides the cats are looking or not. Might as well set up the camera and let the world peer in for a short time if it can make me a tiny bit of coin in the process, loathe as I am to break my hermit ways.
The real motivation behind this blatant promotion and exposure is that it bolsters my ability to pitch another book deal to my current and prospective new publishers who these days practically demand an author have a ‘social media presence’ before they’ll even consider fresh contract negotiations. I’ve been told basically “don’t even bother if you haven’t got at least 20K followers”. It really is sad to me that some of the last holdouts in well-reasoned media (books) have to cater to the instant gratification whims of the thumb-typing world these days but those are the cards new media has dealt. I remember when publishers actually had promotion departments rather than heaping the bulk of the task onto writer’s shoulders. Certainly they move mountains for a small handful of established authors with television shows and tell-all exposes about Hollywood friends but otherwise they’re hedging their bets and only taking ‘risks’ if they see the profit figures stacking up before the ink is dry. That’s a perfect recipe for drying out the stream of new talent and forcing them into self-publishing.
If nothing else I’ll be able to shoot my usual videos a bit more smoothly now that I’ve set up a ‘rig’ for lighting and camera mounting. It gives me a bit more space to work in as well which means less fussing with equipment and more concentrating on pans or ingredients. From what I gather in these early days, YouTube will ‘archive’ my live streams as they happen for later viewing. As I close in on their magic one thousand subscriber count – a level at which they seem to start to take channels seriously – they also say they’ll promote a bit more (or at least their automated computer algorithm will) to draw in interested parties. That always important “you might be interested in” placement based on previous viewing habits is what really drives the right demographic to watch a channel. That is unless they already know to search for ‘insane Canadian cooking lots of pizzas’.
There’s live ‘chat’ automatically attached to the YouTube streaming approach too so perhaps instant feedback will be fun. At least as long as it doesn’t devolve into internet trolls commenting on my potato mashing technique. We’ll see how it works for the next few tries and evaluate from there. Check out the channel for live or archived attempts over the next month. Try not to laugh at my wonky ramblings… much.
