I'm not saying these people are failed writers, I'm saying any author now with industry cache and multiple awards and/or adaptations presenting a Masterclass or creating their own only creative writing courses has failed to continue to make a profit purely from their books.
Every emerging writer unfamiliar with the current landscape should be told they will make very little from the sales of their actual books*. No matter how you do this, someone else is involved in taking profits. What you see in your account for your best seller (apparently New York Times bestseller means nothing now) might seem a touch dissatisfying. But even established authors have to maintain their presence to make money from their books, or they have to consider alternative revenues. Like agreeing to give Masterclass sessions, or going full hog using their connections in the industry to create a company that somehow still requires thousands from you to be involved in their specialised training services. Even if that course is teaching you the DIY aspects of self-publishing and marketing, they still need actual thousands of dollars from you to help you finish your book. And they tease you with the possibility of being connected with agents who are "hungry" for new talent.
Those hungry agents used to be super picky. Then they decided to be a little more gracious about their consideration, since business must be a little slow for them. Which is why a YouTuber still has a better chance in some cases of attracting their attention.
But this is still for a price. To me, this still feels like a "pay to be published" model, it still feels like a ploy to attract ignorant writers, maybe thinking this would be an investment in their book. You know, that book that everyone has inside them that just can't come out? I don't have the money for it, I don't know how much help with editing the courses would give, I don't know if structurally speaking my stuff sucks or not I only know it's not marketable. And they're not really promising to make you marketable. Or they are, and you have to change to suit them. The picture the founder used looked smug as hell, to be honest. They can introduce you to agents, who could realistically still turn you down. The promise of publication isn't a guarantee. It's tantalising to suggest you'll be put before these people but the chances you are must only increase with more money. Which, again, you shouldn't pay for representation either. So this feels so much like yet another loophole from the Big Five to attract money for more than they can return. If they agree to give you a contract, you're not going to be that important to them, I didn't expect to have so much hands on assistance, just a more professional result. The exhaustion of attracting attention without paying a cent is still damaging, throwing money at a course in the hope you'll be noticed seems desperate.
I couldn't find any bad reviews, but not all the good reviews said, I'm going to be a published author. I think they wanted to be a part of a community I have personally shunned for years. But you can do that for free on that nutso forum I can't leave because I can't delete my profile ever, you can go to Wattpad, you can go anywhere else and find the same people. Nobody offered stuff like this years ago. Courses did exist but they weren't presented with outlandish promises, and you really had to search for them before the internet, and they'd be run by local authors, not international best selling Booker prize winners. It's only recently they've been heavily promoted to attract money for successful authors. It's the "if they're so successful why are they lecturing at my university?" argument embittered writers use after they graduate from their 15 grand degree. By rights, my parents effectively paid more for me to just go to uni and I did far less than these courses offer. But now I'm financially independent, a third of that's too much for me on a chance to be noticed. One of their Facebook reviews has nothing to do with the company. And this isn't one author, it's a cadre of authors offering what amounts to a mentorship if you're willing to invest the time and money.
I don't struggle to write if I want to. I have such a vague idea I can flesh out at my own pace. I don't need to pay someone to help me write a novel in 90 days when I've done it in less than 30 more than once with no support. This idea you have to pay someone to encourage you to do this, I don't see that as you having faith in yourself. I could give them a finished product and pay for their advice. I don't know where it'll get me, and that's the problem. They don't owe you a contract because it's not part of the deal, but when you have a group of authors creating a co-op writing course to help writers online, it's because they need the money more than you need the help. They wouldn't be doing this if they were making money from their writing. I'm sorry. It's the sad truth. There's a reason Miss JK cannot and will not do this. She doesn't need to. She won't suffer financially from her TERF bullshit, not in the long run. The best help she could give to other writers would be to just retire on the pile of cash she's made from one franchise. Another author just graciously posted their filmed lectures on YouTube for free. That's a nice thing to do. Hell, I was expected to write multiple blogs on authorship, it was demanded of me, other deals don't need you do to do that much for next to nothing.
Case in point, I just found in order to view one Masterclass from one person, you still have to pay a yearly membership to access it, it's not like pay for the class and leave. At least Skillshare offers a free trial. Masterclass clearly realised the "pay for what you want" model would destroy them and they have a certain caliber of people that would've cost them tens of thousands to court onto the platform they can't afford to do this, but that they do irritated me. Just to clarify further, Neil Gaiman is on this. And he sold the rights to Netflix for the Sandman series. Man has a lot of money his wife had to swallow her pride to ask to borrow. Man still needed a Masterclass contract. Man still needed money from you, even if you did buy all his books (and collaborative books). And thank God for people like Drew Gooden who are willing to waste money to prove these courses are an actual rip off.
*I saw a random Insta ad of a guy who'd written a small book (about the size of my novella) and self-pubbed it, then made 15000 (the cost of my degree, comparatively by digits not actual cost, but still this implies I could've broken even if I'd paid for my degree) from this book (sorry, from good marketing in reality, not just publishing the book) and he could teach you how to write short books and make money from it, you don't have to write novels to make bank. He also turned down an offer from S&S (I can't be bothered looking up how to spell it) and if you gave him money, you could find out why. Okay, cool flex, but 15 grand is nothing. If it was US, it's about what an Aussie writer (anyone who writes anything, not just books) can make if they're not Tim Winton, I guess. I was curious but I wasn't prepared to look into it further, I was just, oh cool, good for you, I'm guessing their offer was absolute shit. Without connections and having good marketing skills, you can't really make bank of any sized book, never mind one the guy wrote in ten days, which I absolutely could do but am choosing not to. I kinda wish that guy had talked to my last publisher and said, you're full of shit, a 114 page book can actually look like a book and not a piece of shit with no spine matter.
