Facebook will soon provide live streaming capabilities to a select few users beyond just celebrities. The massive social media site has confirmed it will let verified accounts and pages start live streaming through its invite-only Mentions app.

According to TechCrunch, Facebook explained via an email it would soon start allowing verified profiles access to the Mentions app, which houses the Facebook Live broadcasting feature. The social site debuted Live on August 5, but at the time, it was only available to some celebrities like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Martha Stewart, and Michael Bublé.

The way Facebook Live works is similar to Meerkat or Twitter’s Periscope. VIPs can use the live streaming feature to start a broadcast, which automatically shows up in the News Feed of users who have liked that celebrity’s page. Fans can interact with the Facebook Live streamer by leaving comments which overlay on the video feed.

Facebook Live boasts a few different benefits compared to Periscope or Meerkat, though. First of all, Live saves all broadcasts for future viewing (a smart tactic on Facebook’s part considering these live streams will only add to its ever-growing original video library and its ability to deliver video ads). Meerkat doesn’t save live streams at all, and Periscope users’ broadcasts are only available for 24 hours.

Additionally, Facebook Live could be considered a more efficient and practical live streaming option because users already have a built-in following, unlike on Periscope or Meerkat. Live product manager Vadim Lavrusik told TechCrunch that public figures already share content with fans on a regular basis. “We think this will be an awesome experience for both public figures and also users,” Lavrusik said. “We want to get feedback from both public figures and viewers as we evolve the product.”

TechCrunch believes Facebook will make the Mentions app and Live feature available to verified accounts by the holiday season of 2015.

Filed under: Articles, Facebook, News by Bree Brouwer
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Since its launch in 2013, Emu has used its proprietary technology to put users at their center of their own animated GIFs. Now, with its latest partnership, it is opening up new avenues for influential people. Emu has teamed up with TopFan to bring its “selfie stickers” to fan communities.

To best discuss this deal, it’s easiest for me to provide a quick overview of the two companies involved. Emu’s game is all about its selfie stickers, which users create by taking short videos of themselves and pasting those videos over existing templates. Here’s an example from the world of Pulp Fiction:

TopFan, on the other hand, connects fans to their favorite influencers, often through mobile apps catered to fan communities. Clients include Jabbawockeez and a plethora of pro athletes.

The deal will integrate Emu’s selfie stickers into TopFan’s communities, and that has the potential to pay big dividends for influencers. Stickers can be sold as in-app purchases, and in general, their presence encourages fans to spend more time within influencer apps. Fans who use these stickers to engage with creators can share their work both on social media and across messaging services.

“We could not have chosen a better partner than TopFan to be the first to integrate the Emu experience,” said Tomer Harry, CEO of Emu creator Homage Technology, in a release. “TopFan provides communities to some of the most popular celebrities and media brands in the world and we are excited to help them create more meaningful experiences within those communities, with less work on their part.”

Beyond the TopFan integration, Emu’s stickers are also available from its official app, available on both the App Store and Google Play.

Filed under: Articles, Emu, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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The Internet Cat Video Festival attracted one of its biggest attendance records to date. The fourth annual event dedicated solely to the cultural obsession with cat videos drew a crowd of 13,000 people on August 12, 2015.

This year’s Internet Cat Video Festival, hosted at CHS Field in St. Paul, began with Mayor Chris Coleman throwing out a ceremonial ball of yarn(!!!). Afterwards, the 13,000 festival attendees enjoyed clips of cats displayed on the stadium’s digital scoreboard, including a video of a cat scaring away a bear and a spoof of Jurassic Park with dinosaurs replaced with furry little felines. The night ended with the Golden Kitty Award, a recognition of the best cat video of the past year, officially going to the clip “Cat Behavior Finally Explained.”

Debuting in 2012, the Internet Cat Video Festival previously took place at the Walker Center for the Arts and the Minnesota State Fair. Vice even created a documentary about all the famous cats and their appearances at the Minnesota festival called Lil Bub & Friendz. The documentary features, of course, Lil Bub and other well-known internet feline faces like Grumpy Cat (who has her own feature film from Lifetime) and Keyboard Cat.

If the Internet Cat Video Festival isn’t enough to satiate your need for feline-focused clips, you can also check out The Friskies, where last year’s best videos were selected by YouTube stars like Grace Helbig and Zach King.

Filed under: Articles, Events, News by Bree Brouwer
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Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.

LDShadowLady is picking up plenty of fans in the video game world. The 22-year-old Brit, whose real name is Lizzie, posts Let’s Play videos of games like Minecraft and The Sims for her subscribers, who now number more than one million. We caught up with Lizzie about her growing influence among her fans:

Tubefilter: How does it feel to have 1 million subscribers? What do you want to say to your fans?

LDShadowLady: It doesn’t feel much different from 999,999. It’s a whole load of support from even more lovely people.

TF: What inspired you to start a YouTube gaming channel?

LD: I wanted to make friends with some other gamers and it looked like a lot of fun.

TF: What’s your favorite part about making Minecraft videos specifically?

LD: Minecraft just has so many possibilities, I never get bored of it. I can do comedy skits, pranks, chilled-out single-player survival, creative building, and competitive PVP!

TF: How long does it take you to come up with a new video idea. Do you just wing it sometimes? What’s your creative process like?

LD: Sometimes I will spend days working on a project and putting mods together, like for Shadowcraft 2.0. I’ll spend lots of time off-camera building and planning. Other times, I will just jump on for a quick fun mini-game on a multiplayer server.

TF: We saw you on the Gender in Gaming panel at VidCon. Why do you feel conversations like that are important for the YouTube community?

LD: I’m so excited to see more young females becoming involved in the gaming community and I think it’s important to give them a friendly welcome. I believe it’s important to move past the old stereotypes of ‘boy games’ and ‘girl games’. People can play whatever they want and we should just be excited to share our passion for gaming with more people.

TF: Besides your welcome video, the one about your Minecraft Zoo is the most popular clip on your channel. How did you come up with the idea to make that one?

LD: Smallishbeans built the Minecraft Zoo on a series on his channel. When he was finished I thought it would make a cool video for him to give me a tour around what had over time become a ‘disaster zoo’ due to a series of unfortunate events. The idea for that was not thoroughly planned, we just thought it would be fun. I had no idea people would enjoy it that much!

TF: What would you tell someone who wants to start their own gaming channel?

LD: Make sure you have something original on your channel to make you stand out from all the other gaming channels. Also, if you’re having fun, your audience will have fun watching!

TF: If you could make a new channel about any topic other than gaming, what would it be and why?

LD: I love little nerdy DIY projects, unfortunately they always turn into little nerdy disasters. So I think I’ll just stick to gaming for now!

TF: What’s next for your channel? Anything fun?

LD: I’m hoping to introduce more vlogs to my channel soon such as challenges or follow me around vlogs when I go to conventions!

On Deck (channels that will soon reach one million subscribers): FungBrosComedy, TVFilthyFrank, jvnq

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, Millionaires, News by Sam Gutelle
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Black Entertainment Television (BET) is reviving Punk’D, and the new hosts all lined up. The cable and satellite TV channel has revealed Viner Andrew Bachelor (aka King Bach) and YouTube star DeStorm Power as the leading men in the reboot of Ashton Kutcher’s MTV celebrity pranking series from the mid-2000s.

BET had originally announced the return of Punk’D back in April 2015. At the time, the cable channel told Vulture the show would be “tailored” to the channel’s audience, but didn’t clarify what that meant. BET didn’t really give any more information about the series over the next few months, either.

Then, during the week of August 3, 2015, BET said it was going to bring back its adult-themed music video show Uncut. On August 11, the cable channel released Uncut’s premiere episode… supposedly. After viewers were re-introduced to the original intro and disclaimer for Uncut, Bach and Power appeared on-screen and told the audience they’d been punk’d.

Got ‘Em!!! You didn’t really think #BETUncut was coming back…Did you!? 😂😂😂 #PunkdBET https://t.co/o6s2iTsaUZ

— BET (@BET) August 12, 2015

BET’s Stephen Hill, the programming director for Punk’D, made sure to clarify on Twitter the channel wasn’t really bringing back its original series Uncut.

#Punkd‘ lives (next Tuesday at 10:30!):) To be clear, BET will NEVER bring back UnCut, but it was fun to see the energy the last few days.

— Stephen Hill (@StephenGHill) August 12, 2015

Punk’D debuts on BET on August 18 at 10:30 PM PST/1:30 AM EST.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, DeStorm, King Bach, News by Bree Brouwer
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2015 is the first year in which the Streamy Awards will honor excellent programming on Snapchat, and it a fitting turn, the ephemeral messaging platform is home to the online video award show’s most-nominated series. Nominations have arrived for the 5th Streamy Awards, and SnapperHero–a superhero series native to Snapchat–led the way with six nods.

SnapperHero, which launched in January, managed to earn the most nominations thanks to its powerful combination of an exciting cast and excellent production values. The series is led by online video stars like Anna Akana (who is nominated for Best Actress) and directed by Sam Gorski and Niko Pueringer of Corridor Digital, who brought special effects know-how to SnapperHero’s technical side.

Other series with multiple nominations include Streamy Award regulars Epic Rap Battles of History and Video Game High School, which are both up in four categories, and newcomers Bootleg Universe and Hotwives of Orlando, which each earned three nominations.

This years Streamys (which, full disclosure, are co-produced by Tubefilter alongside Dick Clark Productions) will mark the first time the event will be broadcast on TV. VH1 will air the awards ceremony, which will take place on September 17th beginning at 10 PM EST.

While nominees in 42 of the Streamys’ 44 categories have been determined, contenders in the two fan-decided categories–Entertainer of the Year and Show of the Year–will be revealed on September 3rd. Voting will be open in those categories for the next two weeks, leading up to the Streamys’ mid-September broadcast.

Here is a full list of this year’s nominees:

ANIMATED

Bee and Puppycat

Blank on Blank

Cyanide & Happiness

RWBY

sWooZie

BREAKOUT (NEW CATEGORY)

Lauren Elizabeth

Rachel Levin

Jenn McAllister

Arden Rose

Matthew Santoro

COMEDY

Flula

Ryan Higa

Jenna Marbles

Miranda Sings

Rhett & Link

DRAMA

Adi Shankar’s Bootleg Universe

Anamnesis

BlackBoxTV

Carmilla

Frankenstein MD

FIRST PERSON

BFvsGF

Grace Helbig

Tyler Oakley

PewDiePie

IISuperwomanII

INDIE

Anamnesis

Eat Our Feelings

The Katering Show

The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy

Player Piano

INTERNATIONAL

Enchufe.tv

HolaSoyGerman

Jack & Dean

Korean Englishman

Racka Racka

NON-FICTION

Good Mythical Morning

Hey USA

Improv Everywhere

Kids React

Shaytards

SPIN-OFF

30 for 30 Shorts, 30 for 30

Hack Into Broad City, Broad City

Saturday Night Line, Saturday Night Live

Team Coco on Twitch, Conan

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Backstage, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

SUBJECT AWARDS

ACTION OR SCI-FI

Action Movie Kid

Corridor Digital

SnapperHero

Super Power Beat

Video Game High School

BEAUTY

Andrea’s Choice

Gigi Gorgeous

Kandee Johnson

Ingrid Nilsen

Michelle Phan

DOCUMENTARY OR INVESTIGATIVE (NEW CATEGORY)

Atari: Game Over

Queens of Kings

Rituals with Laura Ling

Street Cuts

Thank You And Sorry

FASHION

Maddi Bragg

Brooklyn And Bailey

Lauren Elizabeth

MakeupByMandy24

Maiah Ocando

FOOD

Epic Meal Time

Nerdy Nummies

SORTEDfood

Tasted

You Deserve A Drink

GAMING

The Game Theorists

Markiplier

PewDiePie

Smosh Games

stampylonghead

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Blogilates

BroScienceLife

Furious Pete

Superhero in Training

Tony Horton Fitness

KIDS AND FAMILY

Eh Bee Family

Kid President

Kids React

Shaytards

What’s Up Moms

LIFESTYLE (NEW CATEGORY)

Joey Graceffa

iJustine

Alisha Marie

Bethany Mota

Rclbeauty101

NEWS AND CULTURE

BuzzFeed Video

MTV Braless

The Philip DeFranco Show

SourceFed

The Young Turks

PRANKS

Roman Atwood

Fousey TUBE

The Janoskians

Magic Of Rahat

PrankVsPrank

SCIENCE OR EDUCATION

Crash Course

DNews

It’s Okay To Be Smart

SciShow

Vsauce

SPORTS

Brodie Smith

Devin Super Tramp

Dude Perfect

The Ginger Runner

Red Bull

PERFORMANCE AWARDS

ACTOR

Bart Baker, Bart Baker

James Franco, Making A Scene with James Franco

Aasif Mandvi, Halal in the Family

Paul Scheer, Scheer-RL

James Van Der Beek, Bootleg Universe

ACTRESS

Anna Akana, SnapperHero

Colleen Ballinger, Miranda Sings

Natasha Negovanlis, Carmilla

Ellary Porterfield, Video Game High School

Casey Wilson, The Hotwives of Orlando

COLLABORATION

YouTube Rewind 2015

Jimmy Kimmel Live and viewers – YouTube Challenge

Nice Peter, Epic LLOYD, Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart – “Romeo and Juliet vs. Bonnie and Clyde,” Epic Rap Battles of History

Pentatonix and Lindsey Stirling – “‘Papaoutai,” Pentatonix

JusReign and Timothy DeLaGhetto – “Bounce”

DANCE

Amymarie Gaertner

Israel “Izzy” Harris and Ashleigh Mitchell

Dominic Sandoval (aka D-Trix), The Dominic Show

Marquese Scott, WHZGUD2

Alyson Stoner

ENSEMBLE CAST

Six Guys One Car

SnapperHero

The Annoying Orange

The Hotwives of Orlando

Video Game High School

MUSIC AWARDS

BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST (NEW CATEGORY)

Tori Kelly

Austin Mahone

Shawn Mendes

Rachel Platten

Max Schneider

COVER SONG

“Evolution of Michael Jackson,” Pentatonix

Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud / I’m Not The Only One” mashup, Sam Tsui and Casey Breves

Lorde’s “Royals” parody, Weird Al Yankovic

Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk,” Fifth Harmony

Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again,” Tyler Ward featuring Charlie Puth

ORIGINAL SONG

“Gibberish,” Max Schneider

“No Matter Where You Are,” Us the Duo

“Nobody Love,” Tori Kelly

“Take Flight,” Lindsey Stirling

“Here,” Alessia Cara

CRAFT AWARDS

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Ivan Slipčević, 2Cellos

Devin Graham, Devin Super Tramp

Jordan Valenti, Gynkhana

Michelle Phan, Michelle Phan

Jay Holzer and Gab Taraboulsy, Thirsty For…

COSTUME DESIGN

Amanda Hosler, Bart Baker

Alisha Silverstein, The Britishes

Sulai Lopez, Epic Rap Battles of History

The League of S.T.E.A.M., The League of S.T.E.A.M.

Jamie Brown, Mark Cope and Carlo Moss, The Most Popular Girls in School

DIRECTING

Joseph Kahn, Adi Shankar’s Bootleg Universe

Kurt Hugo Schneider, Kurt Hugo Schneider

Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere

Sam Gorski, Niko Pueringer and Jake Watson, SnapperHero

Matt Arnold and Freddie Wong, Video Game High School

EDITING

Tony Valenzuela, The Fourth Door

Andrew Sherman, Ryan Moulton, Daniel Turcan and Peter Shukoff, Epic Rap Battles of History

Joe Penna, Mystery Guitar Man

Ronnie Edwards, Forrest Lee Black and Ryder Burgin, The Game Theorists

Michael Stevens and Guy Larsen, Vsauce

VISUAL AND SPECIAL EFFECTS

Daniel Hashimoto, Action Movie Kid

Andrew McMurry, Andrew M Films

Sam Gorski, Niko Pueringer and Jake Watson, Corridor Digital

Sam Gorski, Niko Pueringer and Jake Watson, SnapperHero

Zach King, Zach King

WRITING

Bad Lip Reading, Bad Lip Reading

Peter Shukoff, Lloyd Ahlquist and Zach Sherwin, Epic Rap Battles of History

Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Erica Russell and Andy Signore, Honest Trailers

Dannah Phirman and Danielle Schneider, The Hotwives of Orlando

Mamrie Hart, You Deserve A Drink

SOCIAL VIDEO AWARDS

SHORT FORM CREATIVITY (NEW CATEGORY)

Meagan Cignoli

Cyrene-Q

Zach King

Shonduras

SnapperHero

SNAPCHAT STORYTELLER (NEW CATEGORY)

Chris Carm

Jerome Jarre

Shay Mitchell

Ryan Seacrest

Shondruas

VINER

King Bach

Cameron Dallas

Brittany Furlan

Lele Pons

DeStorm Power

CAMPAIGN AWARDS

BRAND CAMPAIGN

Roman Atwood, #WithDad / Nissan

SoulPancake, Kitten Therapy / Purina Tidy Cats

Silentò, Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) / DanceOn

Tim and Eric, Totino Boy! / Totino’s Pizza Rolls

Jack and Jack, Rooster Teeth and Andrea Russett / Pizza Hut

SOCIAL GOOD CAMPAIGN

Thirst Project, Connor Franta

Prank it FWD

Terminator Genisys, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Trevor Project

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, The Streamy Awards by Sam Gutelle
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Periscope’s user base just hit a massive milestone. The Twitter-owned live streaming app now claims roughly 10 million active users across both its iOS and Android apps.

According to The Verge, Periscope founder Kayvon Beykpour announced the big user count on August 10, only four months after the app’s launch. At about a month after launch, Periscope was already at one million users, so the last few months have seen exponential growth for the live streaming company, which has already been used by director James Gunn, MTV, and digital stars like Matthew Santoro and Nicole Arbour to deliver live streams and new content to fans.

Beykpour also said despite the high user count on Periscope, the app doesn’t view that number as the ultimate sign of success. Instead, Periscope puts emphasis on the amount of time users watch content on a daily basis. As a collective whole, Beykpour said Periscope users on iOS and Android (web watch times aren’t counted yet) watch about 40 years’ worth of content every single day.

“There’s no better metric that illustrates that people like and are using Periscope,” Beykpour said.

Despite the growth of users on Periscope, the app may not be as popular as it seems. Horizon Media’s WHY Group surveyed 3,000 Americans about their awareness of popular social apps like Periscope, rival live streaming app Meerkat, and Instagram. Of those consumers aged 13-34, only 13% had heard of Periscope as opposed to, for example, 74% who had heard of Snapchat (which boasts a whopping 100 million active users).

Beykpour seems to have faith in his app, however. The Periscope founder revealed the app’s team is working on new and requested features like spam control, a fast-forward option, and broadcasting capabilities in landscape format. No launch dates have been announced for any of these upcoming features as of yet.

Filed under: Articles, News, Periscope by Bree Brouwer
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NBCUniversal (NBCU) has dropped large chunks of change into two digital media properties. According to Re/code, the media and entertainment conglomeration has confirmed its investment in Vox Media.

Back in July 2015, Re/code (which is owned by Vox Media) reported NBCUniversal was considering investments in BuzzFeed and Vox for as-of-yet unknown amounts. Now, NBCU has confirmed it’s putting $200 million into Vox, which places the pre-money valuation of that digital media company at around $850 million. Vox Media’s new total valuation is sitting at around $1 billion.

As for BuzzFeed, NBCU is also reportedly investing $200 million into the viral content and online video powerhouse. Should NBCU invest in BuzzFeed, the influx of cash from NBCU would make BuzzFeed worth about $1.5 billion, including previous investments in the digital media company by companies like Andreessen Horowitz (who dropped $50 million on BuzzFeed back in August 2014).

Peter Kafka at Re/code reports that Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff said Vox and BuzzFeed will now also have a “commercial partnership.” “That means, among other things, that they will collaborate on digital advertising, will work together on video advertising and video programming, and that you will likely see Vox Media employees more frequently on NBCU-owned networks like CNBC,” Kafka writes, noting Re/code already has a news partnership with CNBC.

NBCU’s decision to invest in Vox Media and BuzzFeed makes sense considering the digital properties will help the media giant up its overall digital game and attract a younger crowd. On the BuzzFeed and Vox’s parts, the two media brands will be able to use the cash from NBCU to up their motion picture and video content goals, respectively.

Neither NBCU nor BuzzFeed have officially commented on the investment deal as of yet.

Filed under: Articles, Buzzfeed, NBC, News, Vox Media by Bree Brouwer
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When it distributes Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq later this year, Amazon Studios will make its first significant foray into the world of film distribution. In order to keep up any momentum it gains from its first few movies, Amazon will need to acquire an impressive library of upcoming projects, and it has hired a new executive to help accomplish that goal. Julie Rapaport, formerly of The Weinstein Company, will join Amazon Studios in a role Variety calls “development executive.”

Rapaport joins the growing team at Amazon Original Movies, which is led by veteran film executive Ted Hope. Hope’s film development division also includes former Variety critic Scott Foundas, another recent hire.

TWC, Rapaport’s previous home, is known for producing films that ultimately bring in large hauls at the Oscars and Golden Globes. Amazon is certainly interested in using awards recognition to get the word out about its original programs; it ran an extensive Emmy campaign to support Transparent, its most critically-acclaimed original series.

Films acquired by Rapaport and her team will join those already set within Amazon Original Movies’ development pipeline. In addition to Chi-Raq, the fledgling studio will also distribute Elvis & Nixon, which will star Kevin Spacey and Michael Shannon.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Smart Girls at the Party will attract plenty of bibliophiles with its newest project. The digital network, co-founded by Amy Poehler and owned by Legendary Entertainment, has launched a literary-themed web series called Book Report with Aisha Muharrar, hosted by the titular comedy writer.

In the first episode of Book Report, Muharrar discusses the Divergent book series with comedian and writer Joe Mande. Muharrar unsuccessfully tries to summarize the trilogy’s plot in under 30 seconds, and then surprises Mande with the fact that there are more public libraries in America than McDonald’s. Future episodes of Book Report will find Muharrar discussing books like Harry Potter and authors like Judy Blume with a variety of guest stars, including Mo Collins and Gillian Jacobs.

Muharrar brings years of writing and production experience (and a love of books) to Book Report. She has written for The Huffington Post and the animated sitcom Sit Down, Shut Up, as well as co-executive produced Parks and Recreation. At the age of 17, Muharrer also wrote a non-fiction book called More Than a Label, all about how labels and stereotypes do not define a person’s character.

Book Report is the second most recent series released by Poehler’s Smart Girls in the last few weeks. On August 3, Smart Girls debuted Experimenting with Megan Amram. Hosted by scientist and comedy writer Amram, Experimenting covers STEM-related topics infused with plenty of Amram’s sexiness, quirkiness, and attitude.

You can catch future episodes of Book Report with Aisha Muharrar every Wednesday on the web series’ dedicated Smart Girls website.

Filed under: Articles, News, Web Series by Bree Brouwer
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In Felicia Day’s new book, she tells us You’re Never Weird On The Internet (Almost), but an alternate title for the book could be You’re A Bestseller On The Internet (Sometimes). Day released her new memoir on August 11th, and it immediately became one of the 100 best-selling books on Amazon.

As with many of the other books authored by online video stars, You’re Never Weird is personal recollection that follows Day’s life so far. It begins with her upbringing as a “lonely homeschooled girl” and tells readers how she became “queen of the geeks,” according to its Amazon description. It’s a “rags-to-riches” tale that Day’s many fans (she has nearly two-and-a-half million followers on Twitter) will surely relish.

Many of those fans have already powered the book’s strong post-release push. At the time of this post, You’re Never Weird sits in 57th place on Amazon’s bestseller list. It also made an appearance as one of the site’s “Hot New Releases,” where Day appears next to the likes of Dr. Seuss and Harper Lee.

@feliciaday #neverweird is on Amazon’s ‘Hot New Releases’ page- in the company of Dr. Seuss and Harper Lee.👍 pic.twitter.com/gueidP8BEy

— Maureen (@MoTaxBrat) August 12, 2015

Day, who is best known as the creator of the web series The Guild and the founder of online video network Geek & Sundry, first announced her book late last year. Now that it’s out, she has embarked on a book tour. She’s in Boston today, one of 11 cities she’ll hit as she self-promotes her way across the United States. Dates for her tour–as well as plenty of other information about You’re Never Weird>–can be found on the book’s official website.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Felicia Day, News by Sam Gutelle
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Welcome to the Fund This column! Each week, we’ll look at a planned web series or other online video project currently in search of funding on crowdfunding sites. We’ll tell you what the series is all about and explain why it is worth your money. Do you have a project that’s currently being crowdfunded? Contact us to let us know and we may feature it in upcoming installments and check out previous installments right here.

Project Name: Cooking Little

Asking For: $1,000 on Kickstarter

Amount Raised Thus Far (At Time Of Post): $862

Days Remaining In Campaign (At Time Of Post): 17

Description: Cooking Little is based on the premise that you can get “big flavor from a small kitchen, because everyone can be a great cook.” The proposed series will cover tips and tricks for baking and cooking for average people who don’t have access to multiple ovens, stovetops, cooking staff, and tons of counter space, unlike the way many food-based web series and TV shows are created. Cooking Little will also provide ideas for saving time and money on your meals.

Creator Bio: Candice Jordan describes herself in her campaign video as an “average American woman” who works a full-time job, has a house to clean, and a husband to feed. Basically, Jordan is just a regular woman with a long-time love of cooking who wants others to be able to enjoy the pastime, too. Jordan writes on the project page that she married into an Italian family, and has learned the value of sharing a meal with loved ones because of this. The California-based cook also notes she’s been watching cooking shows and honing her own food-based skills for years.

Best Perk: While Jordan has put together an impressive collection of rewards at the lower levels (like a promise to create a recipe out of five ingredients you name), Cooking Little backers will get some truly practical items if they shell out a bit more dough. For example, at $90, Jordan’s wood-working Italian husband will create a handmade cutting board for you out of maple and walnut, complete with the Cooking Little logo and all. Nifty!

Why You Should Fund It: It’s no secret that cooking and food web series are abundant online. Many of them, like Epic Meal Time and Hannah Hart’s My Drunk Kitchen, have risen to fame for their hosts’ ability to combine antics with outrageous food concoctions. Others, like Vice’s Munchies channel, often feature professional chefs making or discussing complicated meals in large, stocked kitchens.

But Jordan promises to give viewers the means to make delicious at-home meals even if they have just average equipment, little experience cooking, or even a small kitchen. Plus, with her likable nature and down-home attitude, Jordan seems like an honest, friendly face you’d want on your screen as she teaches you to make the best possible food you can with whatever you have available in your kitchen’s arsenal.

Got a crowdfunding campaign you’d like to see featured in Fund This? Be sure to contact us here.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Fund This, Kickstarter, News by Bree Brouwer
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