YouTube’s full advertising and Premium revenue-sharing requirements are set to change for new creators entering that level on February 1, 2027. The earlier YPP opportunity beginning at 500 subscribers remains unchanged, giving creators time to build before the higher requirements arrive.

In this Author’s Notes conversation, Lula Starling looks at what that means for authors, content creators, and creative entrepreneurs deciding what they want to make and where that work belongs.

The episode explores:

• Building a body of work instead of chasing one successful upload
• Giving creativity room beyond one narrow niche
• Why faceless content is a legitimate format when the work still carries your voice, research, storytelling, and perspective
• Using current opportunities to build toward future visibility and revenue

The larger lesson reaches beyond YouTube: the harvest begins before the harvest.

Plant now. Cultivate what you want to grow. Arrive at the next season with something already built.

Explore Lula Starling’s books and creative work:
https://lulastarling.com/

Follow Author’s Notes with Lula Starling for more conversations about books, creativity, authorship, content creation, and alternative ways of understanding the world.

Have you added author tools one problem at a time—only to discover that your publishing platforms may already include some of the same functions? Or are you considering leaving Draft2Digital without fully understanding what your account currently provides?

In this Author’s Notes conversation, Lula Starling looks at Draft2Digital as more than a distribution channel. The episode explores selected production, release-management, collaboration, promotional, and reader-routing features—including Bookshop.org distribution and Books2Read Universal Book Links—without assuming that every feature is useful to every author.

You’ll also learn how to conduct a simple author-tool audit using four practical considerations:

• Cost
• Time saved
• Control
• Evidence of use

The episode also looks at Books2Read activity for The Gilded Hotel as an example of how retailer-click data can help identify where readers choose to go without treating those clicks as confirmed sales.

The goal is not to collect more tools or cancel everything. It is to understand what each platform is doing for you and make a deliberate decision to activate, keep, replace, cancel, or ignore it.

Explore more indie-author resources from Lula Starling:
https://lulastarling.com/

What Draft2Digital feature surprised you—or which author tool do you need to audit?

Follow Author’s Notes with Lula Starling for more conversations about books, creativity, independent publishing, and the author journey.

Platform features and eligibility can vary by format, retailer, territory, and account. Promotional or merchandising submissions do not guarantee placement, visibility, clicks, or sales. Confirm current details for your own account before making changes.

Sources discussed:
Draft2Digital — Twelve D2D Features You May Not Know About
Draft2Digital — Current FAQ
Draft2Digital — Activation and Maintenance Fees
Draft2Digital — Bookshop.org Partnership
Amazon KDP — Expanded Distribution

Some days feel so peaceful, creative, and unmistakably ours that returning to the usual routine feels like losing something. But the answer is not to make every day effortless or turn ordinary life into a permanent vacation.

In this Author’s Notes conversation, we explore what those meaningful days may be revealing about your pace, attention, creativity, relationships, and need for space.

This episode looks at how to separate the setting from the feeling underneath it, recognize the difference between wanting to create and needing to recover, and identify one repeatable element of that aliveness that can be carried into an ordinary week.

You do not have to monetize every source of joy or reinvent your entire life. Sometimes the next step is one honest adjustment that gives you more room to think, create, breathe, and recognize yourself.

If this reflection resonates with you, Silhouettes in the Garden: Uncovering Who You Were Meant to Be is a poetic collection about inherited expectations, reclamation, and recognizing the life that feels true.

Explore Silhouettes in the Garden
https://a.co/d/05jps8I

What part of your creative life makes you feel most like yourself?

Follow Author’s Notes with Lula Starling for more conversations about creativity, personal growth, books, and intentional living.