A cautionary tale to writers about getting lost in the sauce, girlbossing too close to the sun, and what really matters to your readers.
TLDR: it’s the writing.
Earlier this year, new author Audra Winter made waves in the Booktok community with the release of her much anticipated debut YA novel, Age of Scorpius. But all that glitters is not gold, and the 22 year old author found herself facing backlash after the book reached readers’ hands, and reviews started coming in.
This is all everyone seems to be talking about right now – or maybe I just need to hard refresh my Tiktok and YouTube for you pages. Anyway. It’s all I’ve been seeing for the past month or so, and everyone seems to have thoughts about it. So I decided to add absolutely nothing of value to it by throwing my opinion in as well.
Let me be clear: I am not here to rag on this woman, nor accuse her of scamming, or call into question her past behaviours, or her neurodiversity. I am going to talk simply about the situation at hand, the cost of girlbossing too close to the sun, and why all the art in the world won’t compensate for poor writing. Also, this is all my opinion, this is all allegedly, please don’t sue me. Thank you.
Let’s dip our toes in then, shall we?
At first glance this idea looks pretty freaking amazing. Zodiac magic, a fantasy dystopian post-apocalyptic world? Beautiful artwork with a strong anti Ai stance? Lesbians???
Why, an idea this good could never fail!
Aw, fudge.
So, what happened?
So how does an idea this incredible, at a time when the market is primed and ready for it, miss the mark? (let me tell you: it’s the writing – there, now you don’t have to read the part where I ramble, unless you want to of course).
A very, very brief timeline from what I can piece together: In 2021, Audra was posting to Tiktok and introducing the world of Gardian (yes it’s spelled Gardian in the book, not guardian). This continued until around 2022, where things went quiet for a while after she signed with a literary agent and was preparing the book for sale to potential publishers. Audra re-emerged on Tiktok around 2024, re-introducing her book with a Kickstarter campaign.
Some time later Audra abandons the Kickstarter to focus on presales of the book via Tiktok shop, and it all takes off from there. Pre-orders flood in, and suddenly she’s sold around 6000 copies – unprecedented for an indie author. Audra flips the script here, pivoting from her previous pity marketing tactics to “I’m Audra Winter and overnight I became the owner of a 6 figure multimedia business”, with claims she has hired a team of 15 artists to further develop the world of Gardian, and that she had hired the editor of the Hunger Games to work on her book (allegedly, please don’t sue me).
People were very excited for this.
The problem
The book was not well received.
Reviews and reactions came flooding in, and soon the Goodreads page for The Age of Scorpius was swept up in a tide of 1 stars (as of checking yesterday, the rating is currently at 1.51). Readers began demanding refunds. Nightmare fuel for every author. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy… Actually, I might. I’m a little petty. Is it petty to have a collage of 1 star reviews of your enemies books as your desktop wallpaper? You decide!
I had a look at the writing myself, and (in my opinion, don’t sue me), it does very much feel like it was written by a 12 year old (her age when she claims she started this world), and I can confirm that when I was 12 years old, I was writing fanfiction at a similar level to this. If you want to see it for yourself (the book, not my fanfiction), a sample can be found here.
Audra responds (with what I can only imagine is the royal ‘we’, because as the author, surely it’s only her that is responsible for the book, and not the artists or editors she hired), saying that the e-book version had missed a proofread and would be fixed. Fair enough.
But, it doesn’t end there. There’s issues with the paperback too – grammatical flaws, confusing descriptions and a fair few plot holes. Audra steers the conversation away from quality issues to the impact on her mental health, and says she will be taking a break from social media. I’m not here to comment on this side of things, I want to stay with the writing – I’m adding this for context as to why people became so frustrated.
Now, forgive me here because the timeline gets a little skewed as I try to get my head around it all.
After all the feedback, critiques, and varying levels of criticism, Audra released videos saying that the book will be re-released with a new editor and new artwork from her team of 15+ artists. This has not been well received, with many stating that the artwork isn’t the problem, that it was never the artwork, and the writing needs to be significantly improved before anything else is even considered.
Throughout this, Audra does not seem to apologise or take criticism well, at times claiming that her main character is neurodivergent, therefore the prose and dialogue would be different to regular writing, or blaming the poor prose on previous editors (allegedly, don’t sue me). Many, including other neurodivergent writers, took this as a poor excuse for the subpar writing. People became increasingly frustrated with Audra’s responses, and criticisms quickly steered from the writing quality towards Audra’s character (which I am not here to dunk on. I don’t think anyone should be doing any dunking unless it’s biscuits in tea), and accused Audra of weaponizing her neurodiversity in the face of genuine critique.
Side note: I’m going on a slight tangent here, as a fellow autistic individual: It irks me whenever people accuse an autistic person of weaponizing their disability. It is a disability. Joely Black does a great job of breaking this aspect of the situation down, so here’s the link to her video.
Still, Audra does not help herself (in my opinion, please don’t sue), often appearing arrogant and self-assured. She’s made claims of having 10 years of experience in the publishing industry , writing 10 books (despite Age of Scorpius being her self-proclaimed debut novel), and of having her 10,000 hours of practice in the bag, making her a master in writing. By that logic, I should be the next Shakespeare. Trust, I’m not.
Unfortunately, just because you’ve been working on your world for 10 years, doesn’t mean you’ve been working in the publishing industry for 10 years (in my opinion, don’t sue me). The self published novel you put out at 14 doesn’t really count either (in my opinion, don’t sue me). I put out a comic series at age 14, and it was not good. No, I’m not going to be sharing it.
Audra also seems to struggle a little bit with truth telling (allegedly, don’t sue me). A bunch of people who are much better at researching than I, have found several inconsistencies with her story. One of these being why things ended with her agent. In one video, she tearfully claims to have been let go by the agent, in another she says she actually left them and decided to self publish (I’m not putting allegedly here, it’s in her own videos). And it doesn’t end there. This has caused people to question many things Audra has said, leading to accusations of her being a scammer (I personally don’t think she is, but who’s to say).
Get to the point!
Pride cometh before the fall.
Unfortunately for Audra, this is the internet. Much like elephants, the internet never forgets. And it never forgives. Jk, people do worse shit than this all the time and their careers remain completely unaffected. In two years, there’ll be another drama worse than this one, and Audra will be free.
What can we learn from this?
It’s all about the craft, maaan.
If Audra had been going to writing classes, seeking out workshops, practicing prose and fine-tuning her craft, then yes, the 10,000 hours in question would certainly help her on the way to becoming a master. BUT – with any craft, you never stop learning, and the second you declare yourself a master of something, someone is going to come along and humble you. A 12 year old is certainly not the master of much (not including Shaolin monk kids in this statement, because damn), and it doesn’t matter that she worked on her world for a decade if the world still doesn’t come across as well developed and well written.
Here’s what I, in my ‘unc’ status, advise to writers and soon-to-be authors who are worried about being in this situation: before you publish, git gud, scrub. It all comes back to: just write.
I mean it. Work on your craft. It’s not super fun or sexy, or gets you going viral on social media, it’s just good ol’ fashioned grinding (which actually can be quite fun if you’re into that sort of thing).
Anyone who’s played Hollow knight will know how important it is to git gud.
Screaming, crying, throwing up
If you truly want to be a writer, don’t get distracted by the shininess of being tiktok famous or being the next whatever – just write. Work on your craft. If you want to be tiktok famous, then by all means study the methods of Audra for self promotion. Go off, majesties.
All the other stuff aside, I do feel for Audra. She is obviously passionate about the world she’s created, and I think with some work and time, it could be something really cool. I can see why she had so many pre-orders. In a sense, she did everything right to promote Age of Scorpius. BUT – it just wasn’t ready, and the pride that inspired people to pre-order was the same pride that sent her flying too close to the sun. You can polish a turd all you want; no amount of pretty artwork, gilded pages, or girlbossing can compensate for immature writing. If anything, all the glamour set people’s expectations higher, which worsened everyone’s collective disappointment when reality hit.
I can’t even say this as a master, btw, because I am not a master at anything yet (unless its procrastination). I just have eyes and more than 1 functioning braincell.
Audra is living every one of our worst indie author nightmares. She’s at risk of becoming internet lore for all the wrong reasons, and we’ve all seen what that does to people. I genuinely hope it doesn’t happen to her. I know by writing about it, I’m contributing to the dialogue. Hopefully, it’s a contribution that doesn’t lead to negativity. This is a lesson for all of us about working on your craft and being willing to take criticism. By all means, share what you’re passionate about, share your joy of writing, share the joy of that world, but don’t lose yourself in the sauce, and don’t put the cart before the horse. Hey look, that rhymed. Maybe I am Shakespeare.
Jesse B Writes 