I think of Booktube like Highlander. There can be only one. When I feel The Quickening, I know I have to destroy other booktubers until only I remain ⚔
@@booksimnotreading Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery, it's about immortal people who feel an urge that makes them battle each other throughout history until only one remains.
Booktube is definitely unique here on TH-cam. I casually mentioned that I have a channel in a comment on a non-booktube channel once, and was immediately chastised for “promoting” myself. Someone even said they were going to report me! I was flabbergasted. It’s cutthroat out there! I’m so glad I found YOU! What a joy it has been to be here ❤
@@GinaStanyerBooks What?!? That’s crazy, Gina! This is why I use YT for Booktube and music videos. Happy reading! 💛💛💛 Also did you see Steve classified you as a one of the “mean girls” on Booktube? I was laughing so hard!
Uncle Silas was written in 1864, and at that time Our Mutual Friend was being serialized, which was Dickens last completed novel. So he definitely had the whole canon of Dickens to be inspired by! Concerning booktube- I see it as a giant community for the reasons you share- we build community! We promote each others channels. We celebrate reading! I had the chance to meet another podcaster friend of mine in person a few years ago when we were visiting my in laws. My mother in law was confused and said “but isn’t he your competitor?” I happily told her no in fact we’ve gotten to be good friends we just haven’t met yet!
Art, thanks so much for sharing the timeline of between Uncle Silas and what Dickens was up to. I love your story about meeting a fellow podcaster! A great example of community. 💛
Absolutely! The reason I stay here on Booktube is because of the community and I wouldn’t have had any success or gained anywhere near the friends I’ve made or the subs I’ve got without other Booktubers shouting me out! If it had been competitive, I wouldn’t have lasted five minutes as I’m the least competitive person ever! 😂
@@spreadbookjoy 😂😂😂 But that’s why people who aren’t competitive come here and thrive … so many of us have no one in our daily lives to talk about books with! Thank you for sharing your own experience! The first time I saw you on Booktube was when you were in the Jane Austen contest, which was hilarious. 💛
I feel like BookTube is where we have finally found our friends who never tire of our endless nerdy book talk. I'm not competitive by nature so I just can't be too bothered by analytics but I have pondered why some of my videos are more popular than others. Like Jim, I've noticed that the tag videos don't always fare well even though they are fun to make. Thanks for the interesting discussion.
@@readandre-read Thank you so much for watching and sharing your experiences! It can be very difficult to understand why some videos do so much better than others - sometimes I think it’s just the right moment and other times it is tapping into something else. Certain times of the year certain videos do well and other times, people are on vacation and don’t spend as much time watching Booktube. I hope you have a great weekend and happy reading! 💛
Community all the way! If only there was more time in the day to watch and interact. But that's life. Like going to an amazing party or conference when it's impossible to talk to everyone. Meeting new people is the thrill for me.
@@royreadsanything Great comment, Roy! That’s a really interesting analogy to compare it with a conference, where, of course you can’t possibly talk to everyone! It is so much fun to interact with people from all over the world! Thanks for watching and commenting here! 💛
As a subscriber I agree, I wouldn’t leave your channel to go to someone else. I would just join theirs also. I love the book tube community and variety. Thanks for being a supportive part of it !
A lot of people in the "How to improve your channel/content" niche seem to heavily push the idea that it's a competition, and don't get that for some of us, our main purpose in making videos isn't to monetize, get 100K subs and millions of views, or constantly do collabs with big-name creators. I'd rather not put on a forced performance in every video and go by a checklist of things I need to do to beat the algorithm. Some of these creators even insist people automatically stop watching once you say things like "In conclusion," "Thanks for watching," or even "Hello." Most of the BookTubers I watch somehow manage to find viewers despite not immediately jumping into videos without any personal connection or quick introduction, and without answering a question in the video. One of my favorite TH-camrs, PiercingWithScott, said on one of his livestreams, when I asked if he minded me mentioning his channel and linking to his videos after I start the piercing channel I've been planning, that most of the people on PiercingTube are friendly with one another and totally cool with being mentioned and interviewing one another. They're not in competition, since they share the same passion.
@@Ursulas_Odds_and_Sods Thanks so much Ursula for sharing that with me! I didn’t know you had a piercing channel planned. I am glad to hear that is another positive place on YT. Happy reading! 💛
I just found you via Steve Donoghue talking about BookTube - competition vs community. I’m a very small and new booktuber, and I love and appreciate this community. I recently loss a beloved pet, and my friends I’ve met through this community reached out and offered prayers and love from afar. I don’t know what I’d do without my BT friends! ❤ I do have a hard time keeping up with all the amazing booktubers but I try! Glad to have found you!
So glad you found me so I could find you! I'm so glad that your experiences as a new Booktuber have been positive. I'm so sorry about your pet, but glad you felt comfortable sharing that on your channel and people responded with so much love and kindness. I have had ups and downs on Booktube (I've been here for six years), but mainly ups. If there's anything I can do to help you, please let me know! Thank you so much for watching and commenting! 💛
The proliferation of Booktube channels is mind-boggling. I think of Booktube as a friendly community, but since there are only so many hours in a day, creators are in a competition for views. I have cut back on my BookTube subscriptions and viewing because it was taking away too much of my actual reading time. My ideal Booktube video is 15-25 minutes. I’m just beginning The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides, a work of nonfiction about imperialism and Capt. James Cook’s not-so-excellent adventure in Hawaii.
@@athertonca The number of channels is staggering, for sure. I also look to see how long a video is and if there are mid-roll ads, I’ll never make it to the end! 😃 That’s just me. I frankly can’t imagine making a 40-60 minute video- I just don’t have THAT much to say! Thanks so much for watching and sharing your thoughts! I appreciate it! 💛
Great discussion Kelly. I know I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, but I think TH-cam wants us to think of this as a competition so we try harder to get views from which TH-cam generates revenue. The good news is that those who will fight and compete for big view counts help fund TH-cam and our corner of Booktube.
@@BookishTexan Hello Brian! That is an excellent perspective to have. I am very sad when I see TH-cam ads on very small channels though. But I do like the idea of the giant channels actually helping our corner of Booktube exist! 💛
This is just an observation about the community of Book Tube creators. I think this community has expanded a bit in the last two years or so. This might be attributed to increasing numbers of Boomers retiring and looking for a hobby to which they can bring their experience and knowledge. It’s great for them to have time to read and being able to share what they have read with others enhances that experience. 🤓📚📚📚📚
@@mame-musing Mary, that’s a great theory! I don’t know why all of them started a channel, but I have a lot of Booktubers who are retired in my subscription feed. I think some people just need to find people to talk to about their reading. My parents are retired, but they have a group of friends and have a lot of hobbies that keep them occupied. Not everyone is so fortunate. 💛
Such an interesting topic! I think BookTube is definitely more on the community side, but it might not be the same in other corners of TH-cam. I think it mainly comes down to "what are you on TH-cam for?" - many people are on it hoping to amass a huge amount of subscribers and make a bunch of money out of it. But there's just a lot less money to make when your niche is books, so that's probably also why we see less of that on BookTube. Also, I don't think competition would be about stealing subscribers necessarily. As you say, people can subscribe to multiple channels. I think it's more about the time people spend watching videos: if you subscribe to many channels, the likelihood is that you won't have time to watch everything from everyone, so the competition is more for watch time I imagine, making sure your videos perform well? I've heard of some people copying pretty much entire channels' content, which feels so odd to me, but again, if you're on TH-cam just for the numbers and making money, then you'll do everything you can for the views basically. I think we're very lucky on BookTube, because again, there's much less money to make, so people don't really come to the space from that angle, I feel. So many of us are just here to connect, talk with other people about the books we loved (or didn't ^^) and build community specifically. That's our primary goal, so it makes sense that we have so many ways to connect and shout out others in our little BookTube corner. At least, it's definitely why I joined BookTube. Sure, getting views and likes and new followers is nice. But if that's what's driving you, you're so much more likely to get discouraged and quit because the vast vast vast majority of channels stay very tiny with little to no engagement. What personally keeps me going is the small community I've built, the friends I've made and wanting to keep engaging with them. It's so different to be a creator on TH-cam vs just a viewer in terms on engaging with other people. Ok, I'll stop here ^^' I think it's the longest comment I've ever written on TH-cam XD
@@Curious-Cat I’m honored to have your long comment! 😃 You are right - it is about time and we just can’t watch everything we want to (and still read!). But it’s also lovely to hear from someone with a newer channel talk about they are already enjoying the engagement they have and being grateful. It’s la very special thing! I hope you have a great weekend and happy reading! 💛
It is true that you are all technically in competition for viewers, and the video you watched probably assumes you are looking to have the most ad revenue as possible which means it is a real competition. Most booktubers in this corner are not here for the ad revenue so you don't see yourselves in competition. You can afford to share and sometimes lose viewers to your "competition" and be okay that you don't grow exponentially all the time. When I watch channels outside of booktube, I don't see them mention other channels of the same type. I love that booktube is a true community and the booktubers I watch are supportive of others.
@@LaurieInTexas Laurie, all I can say is me too! I love that we mention each other all the time and support each other in a variety of ways. Which may sometimes be views. Very well said. Have a great weekend! 💛
In a literal sense, we are in competition for eyes on our videos. Viewers' time is finite. Even if they wanted to solely watch YT videos about books and narrowed down to their taste in literature, they probably wouldn't be able to keep up with all available videos that fit their rubric. But that doesn't mean us booktubers are competing for those viewers. The main community outreach I do, is to name check (and link to) a booktuber when I've read something they pointed me to in the first place. I don't do tags any more, I don 't do the themed reading months, main ly because the most interesting to me seem to have stopped.
@@booksimnotreading The two I regularly looked forward to were Reading women and Non-Fic November. Reading women month seems to have stopped and I was having unispiring non-fiction reads so I knocked it on the head. But I've stacked up a few non-fic titles so I might give it another whirl next month. I did enjoy the one-off read more German lit year.
@@MarcNashOlive Fellows is still hosting Non-Fiction November. She has announced that this year will be the last time she will do it (10th year) . She said at this point she has too many other obligations and cannot devote as much time to it as she would like.
Great discussion. My experience of BookTube is of a giving and sharing community. If someone said in their video ‘unsubscribe to x and watch me instead’ that would be an instant turnoff. I love the way the creators support each other and shout each other out. The thought of people ‘stealing’ subscribers is just really weird
Definitely community! The only competition I see is all in jest and ribbing, one upmanship on bookhauling for example, I won't name any channels in case I get blocked. But as a content consumer I'm grateful for this corner of booktube and the variety of content offer. Have a great weekend, Go well.
What a great video ! I consider my fellow Booktubers as friends and I never can be in competition with my friends 🤷🏻♀️ but I am not doing the channel for money and I understand it can be a competition for some others. And of course thanks for the shout out!
Berna, of course we are not in competition with our friends. I'll admit to being green with envy with some Booktube channels, but I'll also say that I never ever would dream of trying to do something to steal subscribers or viewers from any of them! So silly! I will always shout you out, dear. I wish it made a bigger difference! 💛
Hi Kelly. Love this discussion. I have never thought of myself as being in competition with anyone else on BookTube. I really try to ignore the analytics that keep being thrust in my face because mostly they just make me sad. I have only ever experienced support and a sense of community from other booktubers. If I’ve had any nasty comments-and I’ve had a few about my banned books discussions-they are never from actual content creators. I try to be supportive of others, and I just wish there were more hours in the day so I could watch all the videos from all the people I follow and comment thoughtfully. All that said, I do think that TH-cam wants us to view this enterprise competitively, and that makes me want to respond in the opposite direction! It never occurred to me that I could be taking subscribers from someone else or that someone is taking them from me. I subscribe widely, to way more channels than I can watch regularly. I also am always delighted when someone I don’t really know lets me know that they’ve watched one of my videos so that I know they were here and so that I can visit them too. For me, this has always been about having a hobby and being a part of a vibrant and welcoming community. I have been in awe of how welcome people have made me feel in the short time I’ve been here. I hope that I do the same for others. Thank you, as always, for a thought provoking discussion! I hope you have a great weekend! 🥰
@@BookChatWithPat8668 Thank you Pat for your thoughtful response and sharing your own experience with me! I really appreciate that. Nasty comments are far and few for me as well … and rarely do they pop up again in the comments section. Happy reading! 💛
I think that book tube is a little bit of both . If you read Fantasy , i think you should check out the following : the Garret Files , the Black Company ( by Glen Cook ) the paksanarrion series ( by Elizabeth Moon ) the Spell Singer series ( by Allen Dean Foster ) the Riddle Master of Hed ( by Patricia A Mckillip ) . I'd be curious to hear your opinion on these books. Have a wonderful weekend !
Hi Kelly, interesting topic. I think is normal to be in competition with other TH-camrs but what matters is to be true to oneself and at the end of the day will paid. Hope you have a good weekend and happy reading my friend 💛
Booktube in terms of the YT universe is fairly insignificant. That means that the competitive nature of so many channels doesn't really apply to this little corner of YT. I think it is safe to say booktube channels will mostly fly under the radar and have no need for cutthroat competition. 😂Btw I finished Judi Dench's book and absolutely loved it. She is so familiar from film and TV that I could hear her voice in my head while she answered the interview questions. Her insights into staging Shakespeare and working with other well-known actors were fantastic. Although it is past Shaketember, that book has me listening to the fabulous Arkangel audio dramatized productions on my morning walks. This morning's trek took me half way through Hamlet! Have a lovely weekend!
I totally agree, we should approach Booktube as a community and not a competition. I'm still quite new to Booktube, and so far I've felt nothing but welcomed by the community, regardless of the relative audience sizes of our channels.
@@genteelblackhole I’m so glad to hear you have felt so welcomed by Booktube! I appreciate hearing other people’s perspectives. I felt the same way after a few months. 💛
I really like doing tag videos. I like to do 2 videos per week. If I didn't do a tag video every week, I wouldn't always a 2nd video because I don't have enough ideas for the 2nd video. As you say, when we do tag videos, we mention some other booktubers. This supports others. I have never seen active competition. As you said, I also don't even know how people would be actively competitive. But because viewers can only watch so many videos because they only have much time, we are in passive competition with one another for their time. I find booktube a great community. Booktubers are supportive of other booktubers. Even the bigger booktubers I watch, who make their living off booktube, are supportive of other booktubers.
@@stuartgriffin1001 Stuart, I am so glad your Booktube experience has been so positive! That’s wonderful. And if you have fun making tag videos, you should do them! You are having fun, right? I’d love to see a big Stuart smile or hear you laugh in a video! But, my advice is always you do you. Make the videos you want to make. If you are ever really desperate for a tag video, look through my playlist and feel free to do any of the tags I’ve done in six years! 💛
@@booksimnotreading Thanks Kelly. I would like to talk in my videos as if I was having an animated conversation about books I love with someone sitting across from me. It is something I want to work on. Thanks. I appreciate the offer.
@@AlbertTheConjugator An interesting idea! I had not thought of comparing Booktube with streaming, even though I know some people only watch YT on their television. 💛
Technically every creator is in competition with every other creator on YT whether they like it or not. You want people to watch your videos even if building community is the goal. People only have so much time and there are so many choices. Booktube has exploded the last year or so and I do check out new to me booktubers every day but in the end there are a small handful of channels I watch consistently who have won the competition of my time.
Yes, BookTube is a community. And yet: each channel IS quietly competing for viewer time, with every video posted. So if the number of creators increases, but the general audience remains the same, then the situation is that each channel has to compete to land more of those eyeballs on videos. If monetization is a concern. I subscribe to select BookTube channels. But I don't always watch all of their videos. Some, I may watch all of their work. Others, I'm selective. (I'm not a Dickens fan, so I didn't watch your ranking post.) Not every one of your subscribers will watch THIS video, either. Consider the subscribers' point of view. They face competition for how they spend their time. Are they going to watch every posting of every channel they subscribe to, this week? (Doubtful.) Or are they going to clean the house, or do the errands, or go to the appointments, or read a couple of books instead? In a way, the built-in competition is not directly with our fellow creators. The competition is for viewers' time. Especially if you monetize.
Thanks Corinne! We'll have to discuss Dickens another day, but just because someone monetizes, it doesn't mean that THAT is the motive behind every video! I totally hear and understand what you're saying, but why on earth would anyone shout out other channels if it was a competition? Why would we participate in events where we mention hosts and link to their videos if all we are driven by is financial gain? I feel like I can see it more on other parts of TH-cam, but less so here. But I really do appreciate hearing your perspective!💛
I know, I have my own channel, and I've chosen not to monetize (for Google reasons, and not for purely altruistic ones). So when I make and post videos, I do it first to entertain myself, and second to entertain and inform other people who are willing to make the time to watch and to listen. I agree that the BookTube community is a supportive community, and that it is one which promotes others. A high tide raises all ships. At the same time, we are quietly competing for viewership. I may have only a few minutes of free time this morning. So am I going to watch Kelly or Gina? Hmmm. Tough decision. Maybe I watch one now, and one later. If I remember, later. Or if it pops up in my feed and reminds me.
I just love your channel. When I saw your cup of coffee, I stopped and made some. Now I'm sitting in your book club😅 I HATE those TH-cam channels. They feel like a ponzi scheme, and people go viral telling others how to go viral, and the only way to go viral is to make a video about going viral. That's why I like it here, on your channel. It's not about going viral or getting a gazillion subscribers. What happened to the social part of social media? And I predict that trend will, like all ponzi schemes, implode. Book lovers are like gardeners: they want to share their reads/plants with as many as possible. Just stay the way you are. Every booktuber has their own particular vibe, and there are readers for every vibe. ❤❤❤ Lovely video. Loved sharing a cup of coffee with you😊
Interesting topic. All content creators over all platforms are in a sense in competition over viewer eyeballs. In this corner of booktube I don't see other booktubers as competition, community events are actually good for boosting all our viewers/subscribers. I am doing fewer tag videos, as I asked my community what they prefer (Tags, TBRs, hauls or reviews) and the majority voted for reviews and only 2 voted for tags. Thanks for the mention, Kelly. I am planning to do a tag on Tuesday which I saw on a Spanish speaking booktuber's channel, which has some spooky vibes for Halloween. I am getting some insights into how the algorithm works from my one minute review videos. I have made over 150 such reviews, about a dozen are doing really well and have over 500 views and continue to get views but the median average is something like 60 to 70 views. When I look in my analytics at the videos getting views it is the same one minute reviews again and again. Those I put out as shorts tend to get more views (but less watch time), also certain authors like Freida McFadden and Agatha Christie seem to be popular.
@@booksimnotreading I've started doing Poetry Thursdays, videos that barely get 10 views and 0.1 hours of watch time... I wouldn't be doing poetry if I wanted to compete...
Hi I’m new to book tube. It’s great to find you. Is there any chance you could do a video highlighting the tags snd events on booktube. I’m struggling to find them ❤
@@CandySoulAndSoil Welcome to Booktube! As far as tags go, you should start with the Booktube Newbie Tag. A lot of people will find your channel that way. As for tags, they come and go and are always expanding and changing. Feel free to do any of the tags I’ve done - you can see them all in my tags playlist. And events! There are so many more than I could possibly name. Events have really increased in recent years. But maybe this month I can highlight the ones I participate in, and other people can comment about their events. So keep watching! 💛
@@booksimnotreading lol i like to confuse everybody and ignore the word niche! I am new to booktube as I’ve added books on recently in the last month. So I’m not exclusively booktube. Before I covered my garden building my art practice and spiritual adventuring, tarot and things like that. So although not new to TH-cam in itself the books are super new to add into the content and I’m loving it. ❤️
Such an interesting discussion! I have never thought about it this way in terms of it being a competition, but you are right 😂. I can only get to a few videos a day to watch and it’s really hard to choose since I am subscribed to so many wonderful Booktubers and a lot of them make multiple videos per week so I can never get to every single one that I want! Sometimes when I find a channel that I really really love I will actually go back and binge their older videos and that takes even more of my viewing time up lol. But it’s worth it for the wonderful friend even though we are making each other’s channels worse, by taking away views lol. Oh well 😂 Congratulations on your successful video! It’s always such a treat to see a video get sucked into the algorithm however random it may be! 🎉
@@bookstalgic it’s so true that yes, we can’t watch every video for every channel we subscribe to. Frankly, even responding to comments on my own videos takes time away from that, but it’s worth it. But frankly, if you find a channel you love and you get sucked into their backlist, you are helping that Booktuber. I have two videos that are more than a year old that consistently get views and I am extremely grateful for that. Yes, I was sucked into a bit of a hurricane this week, which was very fun. Why didn’t anybody tell me that people enjoyed ranking videos so much?!?! Or at least they enjoy them right now! 😂 Happy reading and watching! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me! 💛
Interesting discussion. Thankfully I seem to be around booktubers that support each other and build them up and have great things to say in the comments. Perhaps some joking around as demonstrated by #AaronReadABook 🤣😆🤣
Not sure about competition. Perhaps division. Small booktubers will come to my comments section or mention me in their videos. I do the same. Medium sized booktubers only respond in their own comments section. Big booktubers, nothing. Even the ones who know who I am and know I have a channel. This could be because my channel sucks, or they are very busy, or they just don't bother with the little folks. I mean, I'll defend it a bit, there's A LOT of booktube channels. Even on a D*scord if others did not interact I would leave as the owner has nothing to do with me. Funny = I Patreon supported a big booktuber and left them a hello message when I started. 9 months later they responded as if it was just yesterday. Lol.
@@Montie-Adkins First of all, your channel doesn’t suck! Stop that! Are you having fun? That’s the real question. I think for big Booktubers … it would be so time consuming to respond to all the comments. I’m usually happy to get a heart. IF someone gave me money to support my channel and I didn’t respond for 9 months, I better have an amazing reason! Shame on them for not even saying thank you! Appalling behavior. I love hearing from you in the comments section and I will try to get better about comments on other channels, including yours. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences with me. 💛
@@booksimnotreading Understand I am making no callouts to anyone. I have zero reason to believe anyone has been rude to me aside from a D*scord moderator. Vids with chatrooms on the side are different where they go out of their way to quote people to drum up discussion.
I think of Booktube like Highlander. There can be only one. When I feel The Quickening, I know I have to destroy other booktubers until only I remain ⚔
@@AaronReadABook No idea what you’re talking about, but it sounds funny! 💛
@@booksimnotreading Have you not seen the film Highlander? It's the best! Queen did the soundtrack
🤣
@@AaronReadABook Ummm … who is in it?
@@booksimnotreading Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery, it's about immortal people who feel an urge that makes them battle each other throughout history until only one remains.
Booktube is definitely unique here on TH-cam. I casually mentioned that I have a channel in a comment on a non-booktube channel once, and was immediately chastised for “promoting” myself. Someone even said they were going to report me! I was flabbergasted. It’s cutthroat out there! I’m so glad I found YOU! What a joy it has been to be here ❤
@@GinaStanyerBooks What?!? That’s crazy, Gina! This is why I use YT for Booktube and music videos. Happy reading! 💛💛💛 Also did you see Steve classified you as a one of the “mean girls” on Booktube? I was laughing so hard!
@@booksimnotreading wasn’t that funny! I nearly spit out my coffee!
Uncle Silas was written in 1864, and at that time Our Mutual Friend was being serialized, which was Dickens last completed novel. So he definitely had the whole canon of Dickens to be inspired by!
Concerning booktube- I see it as a giant community for the reasons you share- we build community! We promote each others channels. We celebrate reading!
I had the chance to meet another podcaster friend of mine in person a few years ago when we were visiting my in laws. My mother in law was confused and said “but isn’t he your competitor?” I happily told her no in fact we’ve gotten to be good friends we just haven’t met yet!
Art, thanks so much for sharing the timeline of between Uncle Silas and what Dickens was up to. I love your story about meeting a fellow podcaster! A great example of community. 💛
Absolutely! The reason I stay here on Booktube is because of the community and I wouldn’t have had any success or gained anywhere near the friends I’ve made or the subs I’ve got without other Booktubers shouting me out! If it had been competitive, I wouldn’t have lasted five minutes as I’m the least competitive person ever! 😂
@@spreadbookjoy 😂😂😂 But that’s why people who aren’t competitive come here and thrive … so many of us have no one in our daily lives to talk about books with! Thank you for sharing your own experience! The first time I saw you on Booktube was when you were in the Jane Austen contest, which was hilarious. 💛
I feel like BookTube is where we have finally found our friends who never tire of our endless nerdy book talk. I'm not competitive by nature so I just can't be too bothered by analytics but I have pondered why some of my videos are more popular than others. Like Jim, I've noticed that the tag videos don't always fare well even though they are fun to make. Thanks for the interesting discussion.
@@readandre-read Thank you so much for watching and sharing your experiences! It can be very difficult to understand why some videos do so much better than others - sometimes I think it’s just the right moment and other times it is tapping into something else. Certain times of the year certain videos do well and other times, people are on vacation and don’t spend as much time watching Booktube. I hope you have a great weekend and happy reading! 💛
a belated thanks kelly for your excellent dickens video;especially that last bit about bleak house and all the fog.great.
@@PatriciaTowill Thanks Patricia! Happy reading! 💛
Hi Kelly, Booktube, like love, is a *competition* that must be *won*!! (Haha, totally joking...😁) Wishing you a great weekend!
Have a great weekend! Happy reading! 💛
Community all the way! If only there was more time in the day to watch and interact. But that's life. Like going to an amazing party or conference when it's impossible to talk to everyone. Meeting new people is the thrill for me.
@@royreadsanything Great comment, Roy! That’s a really interesting analogy to compare it with a conference, where, of course you can’t possibly talk to everyone! It is so much fun to interact with people from all over the world! Thanks for watching and commenting here! 💛
As a subscriber I agree, I wouldn’t leave your channel to go to someone else. I would just join theirs also. I love the book tube community and variety.
Thanks for being a supportive part of it !
@@loramull6377 Lora, I am so grateful to have you as a subscriber! Happy reading! 💛
I wouldn’t say there’s competition and there is definitely community, but talking to Booktuber friends, there is also a lot of comparison.😉
@@josmith5992 And a very wise person told me, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” TH-cam Analytics makes it hard to remember that. 💛
It is a wonderful community 😊
@@sterlingreads547 It is! 💛
A lot of people in the "How to improve your channel/content" niche seem to heavily push the idea that it's a competition, and don't get that for some of us, our main purpose in making videos isn't to monetize, get 100K subs and millions of views, or constantly do collabs with big-name creators. I'd rather not put on a forced performance in every video and go by a checklist of things I need to do to beat the algorithm. Some of these creators even insist people automatically stop watching once you say things like "In conclusion," "Thanks for watching," or even "Hello." Most of the BookTubers I watch somehow manage to find viewers despite not immediately jumping into videos without any personal connection or quick introduction, and without answering a question in the video.
One of my favorite TH-camrs, PiercingWithScott, said on one of his livestreams, when I asked if he minded me mentioning his channel and linking to his videos after I start the piercing channel I've been planning, that most of the people on PiercingTube are friendly with one another and totally cool with being mentioned and interviewing one another. They're not in competition, since they share the same passion.
@@Ursulas_Odds_and_Sods Thanks so much Ursula for sharing that with me! I didn’t know you had a piercing channel planned. I am glad to hear that is another positive place on YT. Happy reading! 💛
I just found you via Steve Donoghue talking about BookTube - competition vs community. I’m a very small and new booktuber, and I love and appreciate this community. I recently loss a beloved pet, and my friends I’ve met through this community reached out and offered prayers and love from afar. I don’t know what I’d do without my BT friends! ❤ I do have a hard time keeping up with all the amazing booktubers but I try! Glad to have found you!
So glad you found me so I could find you! I'm so glad that your experiences as a new Booktuber have been positive. I'm so sorry about your pet, but glad you felt comfortable sharing that on your channel and people responded with so much love and kindness. I have had ups and downs on Booktube (I've been here for six years), but mainly ups. If there's anything I can do to help you, please let me know! Thank you so much for watching and commenting! 💛
The proliferation of Booktube channels is mind-boggling. I think of Booktube as a friendly community, but since there are only so many hours in a day, creators are in a competition for views. I have cut back on my BookTube subscriptions and viewing because it was taking away too much of my actual reading time. My ideal Booktube video is 15-25 minutes.
I’m just beginning The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides, a work of nonfiction about imperialism and Capt. James Cook’s not-so-excellent adventure in Hawaii.
@@athertonca The number of channels is staggering, for sure. I also look to see how long a video is and if there are mid-roll ads, I’ll never make it to the end! 😃 That’s just me. I frankly can’t imagine making a 40-60 minute video- I just don’t have THAT much to say! Thanks so much for watching and sharing your thoughts! I appreciate it! 💛
Great discussion Kelly.
I know I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, but I think TH-cam wants us to think of this as a competition so we try harder to get views from which TH-cam generates revenue. The good news is that those who will fight and compete for big view counts help fund TH-cam and our corner of Booktube.
@@BookishTexan Hello Brian! That is an excellent perspective to have. I am very sad when I see TH-cam ads on very small channels though. But I do like the idea of the giant channels actually helping our corner of Booktube exist! 💛
@@booksimnotreading Hello! 🤓
It makes me sad that TH-cam puts ads on their channels w/o their permission and they don’t get money for it.
This is just an observation about the community of Book Tube creators. I think this community has expanded a bit in the last two years or so. This might be attributed to increasing numbers of Boomers retiring and looking for a hobby to which they can bring their experience and knowledge. It’s great for them to have time to read and being able to share what they have read with others enhances that experience. 🤓📚📚📚📚
@@mame-musing Mary, that’s a great theory! I don’t know why all of them started a channel, but I have a lot of Booktubers who are retired in my subscription feed. I think some people just need to find people to talk to about their reading. My parents are retired, but they have a group of friends and have a lot of hobbies that keep them occupied. Not everyone is so fortunate. 💛
Such an interesting topic! I think BookTube is definitely more on the community side, but it might not be the same in other corners of TH-cam. I think it mainly comes down to "what are you on TH-cam for?" - many people are on it hoping to amass a huge amount of subscribers and make a bunch of money out of it. But there's just a lot less money to make when your niche is books, so that's probably also why we see less of that on BookTube.
Also, I don't think competition would be about stealing subscribers necessarily. As you say, people can subscribe to multiple channels. I think it's more about the time people spend watching videos: if you subscribe to many channels, the likelihood is that you won't have time to watch everything from everyone, so the competition is more for watch time I imagine, making sure your videos perform well? I've heard of some people copying pretty much entire channels' content, which feels so odd to me, but again, if you're on TH-cam just for the numbers and making money, then you'll do everything you can for the views basically.
I think we're very lucky on BookTube, because again, there's much less money to make, so people don't really come to the space from that angle, I feel. So many of us are just here to connect, talk with other people about the books we loved (or didn't ^^) and build community specifically. That's our primary goal, so it makes sense that we have so many ways to connect and shout out others in our little BookTube corner.
At least, it's definitely why I joined BookTube. Sure, getting views and likes and new followers is nice. But if that's what's driving you, you're so much more likely to get discouraged and quit because the vast vast vast majority of channels stay very tiny with little to no engagement. What personally keeps me going is the small community I've built, the friends I've made and wanting to keep engaging with them. It's so different to be a creator on TH-cam vs just a viewer in terms on engaging with other people.
Ok, I'll stop here ^^' I think it's the longest comment I've ever written on TH-cam XD
@@Curious-Cat I’m honored to have your long comment! 😃 You are right - it is about time and we just can’t watch everything we want to (and still read!). But it’s also lovely to hear from someone with a newer channel talk about they are already enjoying the engagement they have and being grateful. It’s la very special thing! I hope you have a great weekend and happy reading! 💛
It is true that you are all technically in competition for viewers, and the video you watched probably assumes you are looking to have the most ad revenue as possible which means it is a real competition. Most booktubers in this corner are not here for the ad revenue so you don't see yourselves in competition. You can afford to share and sometimes lose viewers to your "competition" and be okay that you don't grow exponentially all the time. When I watch channels outside of booktube, I don't see them mention other channels of the same type. I love that booktube is a true community and the booktubers I watch are supportive of others.
@@LaurieInTexas Laurie, all I can say is me too! I love that we mention each other all the time and support each other in a variety of ways. Which may sometimes be views. Very well said. Have a great weekend! 💛
In a literal sense, we are in competition for eyes on our videos. Viewers' time is finite. Even if they wanted to solely watch YT videos about books and narrowed down to their taste in literature, they probably wouldn't be able to keep up with all available videos that fit their rubric. But that doesn't mean us booktubers are competing for those viewers. The main community outreach I do, is to name check (and link to) a booktuber when I've read something they pointed me to in the first place. I don't do tags any more, I don 't do the themed reading months, main ly because the most interesting to me seem to have stopped.
@@MarcNash Thanks so much, Marc, for sharing your thoughts and perspective with me! What events are gone that you enjoyed? Lovely to hear from you. 💛
@@booksimnotreading The two I regularly looked forward to were Reading women and Non-Fic November. Reading women month seems to have stopped and I was having unispiring non-fiction reads so I knocked it on the head. But I've stacked up a few non-fic titles so I might give it another whirl next month. I did enjoy the one-off read more German lit year.
@@MarcNashOlive Fellows is still hosting Non-Fiction November. She has announced that this year will be the last time she will do it (10th year) . She said at this point she has too many other obligations and cannot devote as much time to it as she would like.
Yeah, competition is a mindset that various forces in society try to encourage or even inculcate. I appreciate your approach.
@@davidnovakreadspoetry Thanks David! 💛
Great discussion. My experience of BookTube is of a giving and sharing community. If someone said in their video ‘unsubscribe to x and watch me instead’ that would be an instant turnoff. I love the way the creators support each other and shout each other out. The thought of people ‘stealing’ subscribers is just really weird
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with me! I appreciate it! 💛
Definitely community! The only competition I see is all in jest and ribbing, one upmanship on bookhauling for example, I won't name any channels in case I get blocked. But as a content consumer I'm grateful for this corner of booktube and the variety of content offer. Have a great weekend, Go well.
Nathan, I love our friendly teasing! 😆💛
What a great video ! I consider my fellow Booktubers as friends and I never can be in competition with my friends 🤷🏻♀️ but I am not doing the channel for money and I understand it can be a competition for some others.
And of course thanks for the shout out!
Berna, of course we are not in competition with our friends. I'll admit to being green with envy with some Booktube channels, but I'll also say that I never ever would dream of trying to do something to steal subscribers or viewers from any of them! So silly! I will always shout you out, dear. I wish it made a bigger difference! 💛
Hi Kelly. Love this discussion. I have never thought of myself as being in competition with anyone else on BookTube. I really try to ignore the analytics that keep being thrust in my face because mostly they just make me sad. I have only ever experienced support and a sense of community from other booktubers. If I’ve had any nasty comments-and I’ve had a few about my banned books discussions-they are never from actual content creators. I try to be supportive of others, and I just wish there were more hours in the day so I could watch all the videos from all the people I follow and comment thoughtfully. All that said, I do think that TH-cam wants us to view this enterprise competitively, and that makes me want to respond in the opposite direction! It never occurred to me that I could be taking subscribers from someone else or that someone is taking them from me. I subscribe widely, to way more channels than I can watch regularly. I also am always delighted when someone I don’t really know lets me know that they’ve watched one of my videos so that I know they were here and so that I can visit them too. For me, this has always been about having a hobby and being a part of a vibrant and welcoming community. I have been in awe of how welcome people have made me feel in the short time I’ve been here. I hope that I do the same for others. Thank you, as always, for a thought provoking discussion! I hope you have a great weekend! 🥰
@@BookChatWithPat8668 Thank you Pat for your thoughtful response and sharing your own experience with me! I really appreciate that. Nasty comments are far and few for me as well … and rarely do they pop up again in the comments section. Happy reading! 💛
@@booksimnotreading 💚. Happy Friday!
I think that book tube is a little bit of both . If you read Fantasy , i think you should check out the following : the Garret Files , the Black Company ( by Glen Cook ) the paksanarrion series ( by Elizabeth Moon ) the Spell Singer series ( by Allen Dean Foster ) the Riddle Master of Hed ( by Patricia A Mckillip ) . I'd be curious to hear your opinion on these books. Have a wonderful weekend !
@@davidcreager1945 Hello again! Thanks so much for returning! I appreciate your thoughts and book recommendations. Happy reading! 💛
Hi Kelly, interesting topic. I think is normal to be in competition with other TH-camrs but what matters is to be true to oneself and at the end of the day will paid.
Hope you have a good weekend and happy reading my friend 💛
@@charmainesaliba5546 As always lovely to hear from you Charmaine! Thanks for sharing your perspective! Happy reading! 💛
Booktube in terms of the YT universe is fairly insignificant. That means that the competitive nature of so many channels doesn't really apply to this little corner of YT. I think it is safe to say booktube channels will mostly fly under the radar and have no need for cutthroat competition. 😂Btw I finished Judi Dench's book and absolutely loved it. She is so familiar from film and TV that I could hear her voice in my head while she answered the interview questions. Her insights into staging Shakespeare and working with other well-known actors were fantastic. Although it is past Shaketember, that book has me listening to the fabulous Arkangel audio dramatized productions on my morning walks. This morning's trek took me half way through Hamlet! Have a lovely weekend!
@@binglamb2176 Oh, I am so glad you enjoyed the book! I thought it was smashing! She is just a phenomenal person. Happy reading! 💛
I totally agree, we should approach Booktube as a community and not a competition. I'm still quite new to Booktube, and so far I've felt nothing but welcomed by the community, regardless of the relative audience sizes of our channels.
@@genteelblackhole I’m so glad to hear you have felt so welcomed by Booktube! I appreciate hearing other people’s perspectives. I felt the same way after a few months. 💛
I think of it as a community but there is a lot more content that I WANT to watch than I have time to watch, which is unfortunate!
And...even so...I'm always looking for more booktubers to check out!
@@BooklessPete Pete, yes! I think we all wish we had more time to watch Booktube, to leave comments or respond to them and to read, right? 😃💛
I really like doing tag videos. I like to do 2 videos per week. If I didn't do a tag video every week, I wouldn't always a 2nd video because I don't have enough ideas for the 2nd video. As you say, when we do tag videos, we mention some other booktubers. This supports others.
I have never seen active competition. As you said, I also don't even know how people would be actively competitive. But because viewers can only watch so many videos because they only have much time, we are in passive competition with one another for their time.
I find booktube a great community. Booktubers are supportive of other booktubers. Even the bigger booktubers I watch, who make their living off booktube, are supportive of other booktubers.
@@stuartgriffin1001 Stuart, I am so glad your Booktube experience has been so positive! That’s wonderful. And if you have fun making tag videos, you should do them! You are having fun, right? I’d love to see a big Stuart smile or hear you laugh in a video! But, my advice is always you do you. Make the videos you want to make. If you are ever really desperate for a tag video, look through my playlist and feel free to do any of the tags I’ve done in six years! 💛
@@booksimnotreading Thanks Kelly. I would like to talk in my videos as if I was having an animated conversation about books I love with someone sitting across from me. It is something I want to work on. Thanks. I appreciate the offer.
✌️🙂
No such thing as competition with streaming. People can watch everything at their own time. No Time slots like the television days.
@@AlbertTheConjugator An interesting idea! I had not thought of comparing Booktube with streaming, even though I know some people only watch YT on their television. 💛
Its only a competition if you want it to be! Happy Friday, Kelly ❤
@@wordswordseverywhere9113 Happy Friday, Mark! 💛
Booktube is definitely a community! I don't really follow my analytics, but all I see from Booktubers are support for others!
@@awebofstories Melinda, there is so much support from people on Booktube. It’s a beautiful thing! 💛
Technically every creator is in competition with every other creator on YT whether they like it or not. You want people to watch your videos even if building community is the goal. People only have so much time and there are so many choices. Booktube has exploded the last year or so and I do check out new to me booktubers every day but in the end there are a small handful of channels I watch consistently who have won the competition of my time.
@@groovypoptartwashere Excellent points! Thank you so much for the time you spend on my channel and your comments. I appreciate them! 💛
Yes, BookTube is a community. And yet: each channel IS quietly competing for viewer time, with every video posted. So if the number of creators increases, but the general audience remains the same, then the situation is that each channel has to compete to land more of those eyeballs on videos. If monetization is a concern.
I subscribe to select BookTube channels. But I don't always watch all of their videos. Some, I may watch all of their work. Others, I'm selective. (I'm not a Dickens fan, so I didn't watch your ranking post.) Not every one of your subscribers will watch THIS video, either. Consider the subscribers' point of view. They face competition for how they spend their time. Are they going to watch every posting of every channel they subscribe to, this week? (Doubtful.) Or are they going to clean the house, or do the errands, or go to the appointments, or read a couple of books instead? In a way, the built-in competition is not directly with our fellow creators. The competition is for viewers' time. Especially if you monetize.
Thanks Corinne! We'll have to discuss Dickens another day, but just because someone monetizes, it doesn't mean that THAT is the motive behind every video! I totally hear and understand what you're saying, but why on earth would anyone shout out other channels if it was a competition? Why would we participate in events where we mention hosts and link to their videos if all we are driven by is financial gain? I feel like I can see it more on other parts of TH-cam, but less so here. But I really do appreciate hearing your perspective!💛
I know, I have my own channel, and I've chosen not to monetize (for Google reasons, and not for purely altruistic ones). So when I make and post videos, I do it first to entertain myself, and second to entertain and inform other people who are willing to make the time to watch and to listen. I agree that the BookTube community is a supportive community, and that it is one which promotes others. A high tide raises all ships. At the same time, we are quietly competing for viewership. I may have only a few minutes of free time this morning. So am I going to watch Kelly or Gina? Hmmm. Tough decision. Maybe I watch one now, and one later. If I remember, later. Or if it pops up in my feed and reminds me.
I just love your channel. When I saw your cup of coffee, I stopped and made some. Now I'm sitting in your book club😅
I HATE those TH-cam channels. They feel like a ponzi scheme, and people go viral telling others how to go viral, and the only way to go viral is to make a video about going viral.
That's why I like it here, on your channel. It's not about going viral or getting a gazillion subscribers. What happened to the social part of social media? And I predict that trend will, like all ponzi schemes, implode.
Book lovers are like gardeners: they want to share their reads/plants with as many as possible.
Just stay the way you are. Every booktuber has their own particular vibe, and there are readers for every vibe. ❤❤❤
Lovely video. Loved sharing a cup of coffee with you😊
@@TimeslipNovel 😂😂😂 I loved sharing a cup of coffee with you! It’s a good way to start the morning! I hope you have an excellent weekend! 💛😃
@@booksimnotreading it's 16h14 in South Africa. We reach the weekend before you do. 😁 Have an amazing weekend. ❤️
Interesting topic. All content creators over all platforms are in a sense in competition over viewer eyeballs. In this corner of booktube I don't see other booktubers as competition, community events are actually good for boosting all our viewers/subscribers. I am doing fewer tag videos, as I asked my community what they prefer (Tags, TBRs, hauls or reviews) and the majority voted for reviews and only 2 voted for tags. Thanks for the mention, Kelly. I am planning to do a tag on Tuesday which I saw on a Spanish speaking booktuber's channel, which has some spooky vibes for Halloween. I am getting some insights into how the algorithm works from my one minute review videos. I have made over 150 such reviews, about a dozen are doing really well and have over 500 views and continue to get views but the median average is something like 60 to 70 views. When I look in my analytics at the videos getting views it is the same one minute reviews again and again. Those I put out as shorts tend to get more views (but less watch time), also certain authors like Freida McFadden and Agatha Christie seem to be popular.
@@jimsbooksreadingandstuff I just want you to have enough watch time, Jim. That’s what worries me about your one-minute reviews. 💛
@@booksimnotreading I've started doing Poetry Thursdays, videos that barely get 10 views and 0.1 hours of watch time... I wouldn't be doing poetry if I wanted to compete...
Hi I’m new to book tube. It’s great to find you. Is there any chance you could do a video highlighting the tags snd events on booktube. I’m struggling to find them ❤
@@CandySoulAndSoil Welcome to Booktube! As far as tags go, you should start with the Booktube Newbie Tag. A lot of people will find your channel that way. As for tags, they come and go and are always expanding and changing. Feel free to do any of the tags I’ve done - you can see them all in my tags playlist. And events! There are so many more than I could possibly name. Events have really increased in recent years. But maybe this month I can highlight the ones I participate in, and other people can comment about their events. So keep watching! 💛
@@CandySoulAndSoil Candy! You have 4K+ subscribers! Are you sure you are new to Booktube? 😃
@@booksimnotreading lol i like to confuse everybody and ignore the word niche! I am new to booktube as I’ve added books on recently in the last month. So I’m not exclusively booktube. Before I covered my garden building my art practice and spiritual adventuring, tarot and things like that. So although not new to TH-cam in itself the books are super new to add into the content and I’m loving it. ❤️
Thank you so much I will go explore your playlist. I’m definitely new to watching booktube so I’m having a blast ❤️
Such an interesting discussion! I have never thought about it this way in terms of it being a competition, but you are right 😂. I can only get to a few videos a day to watch and it’s really hard to choose since I am subscribed to so many wonderful Booktubers and a lot of them make multiple videos per week so I can never get to every single one that I want! Sometimes when I find a channel that I really really love I will actually go back and binge their older videos and that takes even more of my viewing time up lol. But it’s worth it for the wonderful friend even though we are making each other’s channels worse, by taking away views lol. Oh well 😂
Congratulations on your successful video! It’s always such a treat to see a video get sucked into the algorithm however random it may be! 🎉
@@bookstalgic it’s so true that yes, we can’t watch every video for every channel we subscribe to. Frankly, even responding to comments on my own videos takes time away from that, but it’s worth it. But frankly, if you find a channel you love and you get sucked into their backlist, you are helping that Booktuber. I have two videos that are more than a year old that consistently get views and I am extremely grateful for that. Yes, I was sucked into a bit of a hurricane this week, which was very fun. Why didn’t anybody tell me that people enjoyed ranking videos so much?!?! Or at least they enjoy them right now! 😂 Happy reading and watching! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me! 💛
Interesting discussion. Thankfully I seem to be around booktubers that support each other and build them up and have great things to say in the comments. Perhaps some joking around as demonstrated by #AaronReadABook
🤣😆🤣
Marcia, yes, we do like to tease each other about, but it's all in good fun, fortunately! 💛
Not sure about competition. Perhaps division. Small booktubers will come to my comments section or mention me in their videos. I do the same.
Medium sized booktubers only respond in their own comments section.
Big booktubers, nothing. Even the ones who know who I am and know I have a channel. This could be because my channel sucks, or they are very busy, or they just don't bother with the little folks. I mean, I'll defend it a bit, there's A LOT of booktube channels. Even on a D*scord if others did not interact I would leave as the owner has nothing to do with me. Funny = I Patreon supported a big booktuber and left them a hello message when I started. 9 months later they responded as if it was just yesterday. Lol.
@@Montie-Adkins First of all, your channel doesn’t suck! Stop that! Are you having fun? That’s the real question. I think for big Booktubers … it would be so time consuming to respond to all the comments. I’m usually happy to get a heart. IF someone gave me money to support my channel and I didn’t respond for 9 months, I better have an amazing reason! Shame on them for not even saying thank you! Appalling behavior. I love hearing from you in the comments section and I will try to get better about comments on other channels, including yours. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences with me. 💛
@@booksimnotreading Understand I am making no callouts to anyone. I have zero reason to believe anyone has been rude to me aside from a D*scord moderator. Vids with chatrooms on the side are different where they go out of their way to quote people to drum up discussion.