The Business: An Open Letter To LoreTube's Three Big Players

Dear Spacedock, Templin Institute, & Eckhart's Ladder:

It's time we talked.

You three channels represent a section of YouTube whose content is focused upon taking the lore of a fictional property and making video presentations of it. It doesn't matter if you're talking about a machine, an individual, a faction, an event (including battles), or settings wherein epoch-defining happenings occur.

From the moves each of you--now in an alliance--have recently made, it is clear that you're starting to run out of existing lore from major properties that will draw in audiences. You're starting to branch out into original projects or ancillary topics while you wait for the Next Big Thing.

You should be paying attention to the independent Science Fiction world. We're creating a lot of fun, engaging, Space Opera and related genres that are all-but tailor-made for your channels. Nick Cole & Jason Anspach's Galaxy's Edge series is one of the most perfect matches for all three of you to do (and growing). Their peers, such as Jay Allen and Evan Currie, are no less suited to your channels' primary interests.

Brian Niemeier's Soul Cycle series has plenty for you to dig your teeth into, and his upcoming Combat Frame XSeed will be the perfect gateway to get you moving East to address that Death Star-sized void that is your lack of anime and manga coverage. My own Star Knight Saga will do the same, as well as bring to your attention your lack of coverage of classic Space Opera (as in "Before Starship Troopers").

All this and more awaits you, but you need to read more books and comics and watch less film and television; as good as some of it is, you're going to waste your time more often than not looking for something notable to bring viewers to your channels as those aging franchises go moribund or die- and no, don't expect gaming to pick up the slack, not until after the next crash. Why not collaborate with us? Some of you already have experience in doing that sort of thing, only you'd be coming in far closer to the ground level and not well after the fact, and you'll get a chance to not only court new audiences but to help--at no risk to you--revitalize a scene that you know has serious issues.

Come join us indie SF folks. We have cookies, and you get away from the creeping rot in the mainstream of the genre.

Sincerely,

--Bradford C. Walker