"Hot take": Please stop asking authors to feature their stories on YouTube

Please note that these are my opinions, POV Small Author

I mean absolutely no disrespect to those who choose to go the YouTube route, because ultimately, it is your choice, but since I got a really sus DM today, I felt the need to go off…

I mean, look, if you have to ask, then the answer is probably “no.” Especially if the person asking is a) someone you’ve never met before, b) someone who tries to give you loads of compliments out of nowhere, and c) you’re a really small author. At least, those were kind of the red flags for me. And I don’t know if there’s any real way of telling whether or not their intentions are genuine, but I find it hard enough to get exposure as a small author. It is really, really suspicious when someone I have never met before suddenly comes into my DMs and says “I wanted to feature the best Episode stories on my YouTube channel and wanted to include yours.” Like you only just started following me (how did you even find me, by the way?). And you don’t even say which story you want to feature :joy:

Again, I’m not trying to hate on anyone who chooses to put their stories on YouTube, but as a small author, I find it really scary how easy it is to take advantage of small authors because I almost said yes. I wanted to say yes, because I will admit that I was feeling a little desperate. That is, before I considered the potential consequences. And that hit hard.

… Idk do you agree? Disagree?

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Moved to Episode Fan Community since this is Episode-related. Make sure to check out our Forum Tutorial for more info about creating topics, and feel free to PM me if you’ve got questions. :smiley:

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In regards to posting stories on YouTube:

For stories created by Episode, players can upload videos to YouTube as long as there is commentary. Videos cannot be just a recording of the story.

For stories created by players/community authors, this is up to each individual author if they want someone posting their stories with commentary on YouTube.

It is not encouraged to post videos of other users’ stories, as they may be subject to copyright takedown notices, which is the author’s right to do.

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@Sydney_H would doing a voice-over of the story be fine with a few comments in between or would the commentary have to be something else and no dialogue mentioned? Sorry if this is unclear.

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I’m not an authority on the particulars of what constitutes commentary. I’d recommend asking the support team via ticket :smiley:

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I’ve got the exact same request of someone. She/he just started to follow me and didn’t mention which story she/he was going to feature on YouTube. I said no as well, 'cause the account wasn’t even referring to any channel, and I was also doubting the intentions. No bad words to that person, but I’m such a small author, why would she/he then choose to feature a little story like mine?

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I actually don’t mind. I’d rather the person ask rather than just do. I agreed to one person because she included commentary.
The majority of people who contact me literally just want to do a recording, which isn’t allowed anyway. So if someone contacts me, I’ll ask them exactly what they plan on doing. If it’s commentary/reactions I’ll actually likely say yes :slight_smile:
So being asked doesn’t bother me at all!

(On the flip side, I’ve had to report YT accounts that have posted full recordings of my stories without permission including which choices to choose for the good endings. I write the bad endings for a reason lol and I want people to die in my stories. :joy:)

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Even if the author gives permission, recording and uploading whole stories on Episode is committing piracy which is against the law. So people shouldn’t be having YouTube channels which have full stories in the first place

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I’ve seen featured stories with no commentary on yt :woman_shrugging:t3:

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