Social media has had an enormous impact on the world of marketing and creativity in the last few years. What will this mean in five years? Platforms like YouTube and Instagram have become huge influencers in the creative field. From models to animators to small businesses, everyone who’s anyone is putting their stuff on social media.

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As a result, this is a very exciting time for aspiring authors. In 2016, a YouTuber named Sasha Alsberg, the co-author of Zenith, got her big break when a publishing house approached her about doing a book. She enlisted a fellow YouTuber and writer, Lindsey Cummings, to co-write Zenith with her and earlier this year Zenith was published and became an instant New York Times bestseller. (Sidenote: I read the book myself and I have to say…I didn’t think it was the best thing I have ever read, but maybe the book just wasn’t for me!)

YouTuber Kim Chance also published her debut novel Keeper through traditional publishing, off the back of her online success and a lot of support from her followers.

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Even when publishing houses didn’t take interest in other peoples work in the community, writers took it on themselves to use the platforms they had and did their own marketing and promoting through YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Authors like Natalia Leigh and Kristen Martin have successfully sold quiet a few copies of their books through indie publishing houses and resources at hand.

With that being said many people in the BookTube community, both watchers and creators, are proud that these new voices have been noticed by the publishing industry, and this pride has led to the creation of AuthorTube. Obviously this isn’t something new that sprouted over night after Sasha and Lindsey announced their book, but the community grew as more people started to gain the confidence pursue their own careers through YouTube and Instagram.

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I had the pleasure of meeting a few very talented and sweet individuals who are constantly hard at work on their own manuscripts and it makes me think. Who will the next New York Times bestselling author be? People like Stardustwrites, Namastayreading, Literarykhaleesi, theworld.in.words, Honeypotwords are hard at work with their manuscripts and they heavily influence others with encouragement and they are even sweet enough to hold on their work to give tips to people who ask for it. They inspire me and others everyday to keep pushing through and ignore that ugly little voice in the back of our heads that says “You will never be good enough to get your writing recognized.” You will.

Who knows? Maybe the next aspiring author will be someone you know from Instagram. It’s nice to see that popular industries taking a leap and considering people other than popular authors so that they have a chance to tell their stories because everyone has a story to tell and no one’s is the same.

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