Xadrum is both a publishing company and a Youtube channel. Learn more about their fab work at xadrum.com
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Your business covers both publishing and Youtube content. How did both of these come about?
Xadrum, the publishing house, has its roots in the aftermath of my father’s death in 2014. Amongst his things he had a box containing his unpublished manuscripts, including an otherwise unknown 7th novel by my grandfather – who died in 1955. After trying to get a couple of things published as a self-publisher, I quickly found that most businesses weren’t prepared to take me seriously, some of whom were quite disparaging in their attitude.
Eventually, with the aid of The Enterprise Centre in Norwich I incorporated Xadrum Ltd. In Oct 2016 as a banner to unify all of the works under. Xadrum, the channel, came along in 2020. I was inspired after binge watching Red Letter Media for a few months and, with the lockdown, thought it would be a good way of both promoting the business and giving me an opportunity to keep my hand in from a performance perspective.
Having had to take a regular job the year before – if working in a hospital can be considered regular – I wasn’t able to pursue proper acting jobs as much as I wanted to. Thanks in no small part to my good buddy Sam Terry who was the only one of my circle of friends at the time who was willing to throw his lot in and join me on this weird journey into YouTube insanity. And it’s just taken on a life of its own from there.
As a creative person what inspires you?
I find images very stimulating to the imagination and often a story or poem stems from simply looking at a picture and asking “how did we get to this moment?” The other motivator is arguably the most fundamental question to any creative process: “What if?” At the heart of everything I do is escapism. Which stems from the joy I’d felt as a child when I was getting into reading. Layer into that a love of gothic aesthetic, especially the sublime and macabre and an apparent talent for poetry that i’m only just now coming to accept as being a thing.
As a publisher what are you looking for?
To introduce a new reading audience to the novels crafted by my family. Both to honour their memories as well as to complete what I believe my father wanted to do, but for whatever reason was unable to see it through. To bring a sliver of escapism to our readers, a balm against the drudgery of the everyday. The opportunity to grow a company of my own that allows me to be my own boss and, one day, means I don’t have to work for anyone else. And if I can make a living from it, that would be cool too.
What tips would you have for someone looking to produce Youtube content?
Be prepared to be in it for the long haul.
Be passionate about what you produce, especially if you’re going to be editing it yourself.
Invest in decent audio. Audiences are more forgiving of poor visuals over poor sound.
Remember the 3R’s: “Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy”. Back up everything and backup your backups. It’s soul destroying when something fails and you lose all your hard work.
Have fun with it, if you stop enjoying it, stop doing it.
Be true to what you want to create, but listen to your audience and be prepared to pivot if you have to.
Don’t shill. You may make some quick cash, but it’ll cost you your integrity.
What are your plans for the future?
We have our new book ‘Portals’ at the printers right now. This is a showcase of fantastical writing, in a variety of literary forms, featuring work by both myself and Stephen Sinclair – a great writer whose works have been growing an audience via various Audio horror channels on YouTube, most notably ‘iReadBooks’, ‘Naya Nomikou’ and ‘The Horror Story Corner’. We expect the book to be out late Spring – early Summer.
Am currently looking at a few other projects including a collab on a novel with Stephen. Also a poetry project I started working on last year with another friend Simon Michael Morgan. Aiming to release a new edition of my grandfather’s 2nd novel ‘The Evil Cross’ either later in the year, or early next year.
Am also in the very early stages of producing a version of my father’s children’s novel ‘The Refugees From Daffodil Cottage’ for Audible. As well as keeping both the Xadrum Channel and our new 2nd channel ‘Wot Eye Dun’ up and running too.
Oh, and sleep, apparently that’s a thing I should do sometimes too.
I’ve been getting some of my work out there via the aforementioned channel ‘iReadBooks’. Pete is a great narrator, check it out here
Special thanks to Max Phillipe Rudd (Xadrum) for all your support. Be sure to learn more by checking out the contact info below!
Email: contact@xadrum.com
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@xadrumltd?si=PxBaNxw8BQDXOSxJ
Website: www.xadrum.com
Featured channels to check out: Naya Nomikou’: https://youtube.com/@nayanomikou?si=oUJFJP-H-0DLjVkf The Horror Story Corner: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorstorycorner?si=ZCfNJiOeNu6A9kb-
Special thanks to everyone who supports the comic, find out more in our playlist here
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