Booktok 📚 discussion

So this seems super messy and I can't figure it out...

An email was sent out to a handful of people who wanted to know about this 'super secret' booktok endeavor with a bunch of popular TikTokers and authors. Their goal is to create a subscription-based service for audiobooks, specifically focusing on indie-creators of both audio work and books themselves. Release date of Verba is December, 2022. There's a TT live happening at 6 p.m. EST today (7/5).

Overwhelmingly people are let down with this news. Not only is it similar to a failed service by Audible, but it's being backed and heavily promoted by Willow Winters, highly problematic author. Lastly, they're partnering with random tiktokers who are NOT professional audio narrators but simply are hot and have sexy deep voices.

I'm also seeing comments that the main guy involved, Chance Terry, is being incredibly condescending toward female-presenting creators and commenters. I haven't read any of his comments, but I follow a creator who was sobbing in a video over his behavior.

Anyone else have any more intel on this? Their web presence is absolutely nothing. I can't figure it out.

I definitely don't have high hopes for it because they didn't have the best planning and marketing involved.

The fact that they don't have an app or a website, even if it was just a landing page with basic info.. which you can do for free... is wild to me. They did create hype, but they have no way to retain potential customers. Even the bad press going around could have helped them and pulled people to their website/mailing lists.

That's basic marketing (not to mention, they should have picked a more distinct name as their current one is already a business and probably copyright). So I'm not hopeful about their business model or lack of.

Well that was short-lived. Within 24 hours of their live, Verba has dissolved and they're gone.

Jennifer Jensen, CEO and another unnamed former CEO (author) outvoted Chance Jerry (CCO) outvoted Chance for not working with Willow Winters. They knew her problematic past and the things she's said, and they didn't care.

After the announcement, there was a lot of discourse and skepticism about the application. Staff members came into booktoker's accounts and attacked the creators for 'misinformation/wrong' content.

Then around 7 p.m. Chance posted a video saying Verba is no more and it's dissolved, that they never had any money for this project. That they were receiving death threats and so they were out.

Jennifer has privated her TT, Chance has deleted his page altogether. Chastyn posted a video talking about the end of the app.

So... I have zero clue what just happened.

Amanda wrote: "Well that was short-lived. Within 24 hours of their live, Verba has dissolved and they're gone.

Yeah I saw that. I saw a comment thread before it all went down where Thoren Bradley pulled out of the project. He was going to do some of the voice acting but when people had issues, he went on live and talked to people about it, apologized, and pulled out. He really seems like he wanted to learn.

I commented on Chastyn's earlier videos asking if they would be addressing WW's problematic behavior and she said yes, but then that video was privated.

Where did you see the outvoting thing? From what I heard, Chance actively still wanted to work with WW, but I could be wrong on that. But that might explain why Chance said they were pulling out due to moral issues that came up that they were unaware of and THEN saying they were receiving death threats. People seemed to make it sound like they quit cause of the death threats (that's kinda how Chastyn's appeared) but now I'm wondering if it's because of WW.

There's also a lot of people wondering if the death threats were against Chance/Chastyn or someone else, or if they were real. Which is sad if we have to wonder but WW said she got death threats last time and people think it was a way for her to deflect.

*Edit* Just saw Chance's most recent video

The threats against the verba team were largely exacerbated. There was one credible threat against an author but otherwise they were:

They accidentally doxed themselves. When people brought it to them privately out of concern they took that as a threat.

Then an author was speaking to another author on the team and said 'if you continue to work with WW I hope you get hit by a bus"

This is all so much to figure it out. I have an entire playlist on my tiktok account.