Despite my best intentions not to create more work for myself, I just launched a YouTube channel to host videos that are too damn large for this WordPress blog.
I didn’t really want to get into making videos (I should be writing 🙄), but I had no choice, because my new videos are just too many megabytes. And you can’t have just one video on YouTube. And since I figured out how to make better ones with voiceovers, I had to keep going … I made a few new videos and overhauled some old ones (see the revised videos for the Lewisburg rec cage stabbing and Aryan Brotherhood hit on Kevin Sanders). So there. I’ve puttered and fussed, and now I have a YouTube channel. Did I mention I should be writing?
In case you’re wondering, my video-making tools include: Canva, ElevenLabs**, Descript, and CapCut. **I record my real voice with ElevenLabs, which cleans it up, eliminates background noise, and gives it a studio-like finish. And while ElevenLabs is known for its AI-generated voice capabilities, as an author-narrator who just won an audiobook award for my performance, I have no intention of adopting an AI voice … so you can put pitchforks away 🤨
I also want to give a shout-out to digital creator and web builder Hal Gatewood for providing free PNG overlays for 9:16 vertical videos, so we creatives can make sure our content stays within the “safe zones” and away from UI clutter for users watching our Instagram Reels and videos via YouTube and TikTok on their phones 👏👏👏 (And thank you, my Gemini AI buddy, for telling me this was even an available tool to use!)
From my first batch of hand-crafted videos, I present my new and improved book trailer for Chained Birds: A Crimemoir. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the YouTube comments 🎥
Carla Conti is a journalist and the award-winning author of Chained Birds: A Crimemoir. Her next true crime book, The Jacklighter, is set for release in 2026. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, who supports her true crime habit.
