Hey everyone, I'm back again. I've had this idea for a couple weeks now. I've been wanting to do a discussion talking about Underrated BookTubers and starting a channel. Everything I say here is completely honest. This was originally going to just be an outline for a video because I might do a video about this discussion. But here it is. This is really important to me, I don't think other people have done a discussion talking about Underrated YouTubers. I also give you my YouTube Story, how I started out. I wanted to do a discussion in the point of view of a new booktuber. Here you go.
Topic 1- Treat subscribers nicely, appreciate everyone because they take time out of their day to watch my videos
Some people don't personally care about their subscribers, and don't take the time to interact with anyone. I love to reply back and do discussions with my viewers. I love talking about books and I want to interact with other book lovers. You all take time out of your day to watch my videos, and I really appreciate it.
Topic 2- Why making videos makes me feel better about myself.
I have people out there who like to watch me, and they like who I am. It makes me feel good, and important.
Topic 3- Why I started my channel.
I started my channel because I love books. But mostly, I didn't start my channel to get lots of subscribers. I started it to recommend and help people discover new books. In BookTube, most people I watch talk about the same books. It was fine at first, I got to discover new books and I have a bigger TBR pile now. After awhile, it started getting annoying when everyone hauls and talks about the same books. I read whatever I want to read. About 80% of the books I read are underrated. I like books that are hyped up, but I don't enjoy them as much. I started my channel to share underrated books I love, so you guys can discover different books. In BookTube I noticed most people only read YA books. I love Young Adult Fiction, but I also love reading adult books too, and I feel more people should read Adult Fiction. There's nothing wrong with YA, but readers shouldn't only read one genre. A lot of times, I'll read a book that has so much hype, and I end up not enjoying it. It's very rare when I like a book that is hyped up for ex- Throne of Glass. Whenever I read a underrated book, I end up loving it.
Topic 4- Honesty really is the best policy
Now, I'm not going to judge anyone's opinions. Everyone has their own opinions. I'm being completely honest right now. Sometimes in booktube, I wonder if people are really being honest, especially about a book. What I've noticed recently, and this has been bothering me, I noticed in booktube when there is a popular book, everyone loves it, for example- Rebel Belle. Sometimes I wonder if the person is being honest, sometimes people are scared to give their honest opinion, especially if they hated a book that everyone else loved. I am honest in all my reviews. If I don't like a book or series, I'm not afraid to say so for example- I told you guys I hated the "Shatter Me" Trilogy. I'll admit, at first I felt guilty for hating it because everyone on booktube loves the series. I thought I was the only one who didn't like it. But you know what, it's my opinion. My point is, not everyone is going to love the same book. I mean at least one person has to hate it right? I know someone who didn't like "The Fault In Our Stars" and "If I Stay", and I respect them for being honest about it. I feel honestly is so important, and if you don't like a book, even if it's from a publisher, don't be afraid to say so.
Topic 5- New BookTubers
As you all know, I started my YouTube channel about 5 months ago. I know how it feels to start out and I have to admit its really discouraging. I wanted to do this discussion in a "new book tubers" perspective. I know other people have talked about this, but I want to do this in a perspective of a you tuber, who's not popular, because people can understand how I feel. Everyone starts out their channel right? You don't become popular in one day, well some people do if their lucky and I've actually seen that. You have to build up your channel which means you have to start low on the ground, and go all the way up to the sky. Since I'm new to youtube, I understand how it feels to start out and have no viewers or subscribers. That's why I love watching new booktubers. I love watching people who are just starting their channels because you get to see how successful they become. I feel a lot of youtubers forget how hard it was to start their channels and they don't appreciate their viewers.
Topic 6- Reasons why I like being a Underrated BookTuber
I think people who don't have many subscribers appreciate it more, it's like it's more special if you have less viewers and you get to become friends with them and have discussions. It's more of a community because you can respond to every comment and you don't leave anyone out. When people have lots of subscribers, you can't respond to all the comments and it's harder to make friends because there's too much people.
Topic 7- My YouTube Story
I know you guys know I'm not popular. I want to talk to you all about my story.
Like I said before I started my channel to recommend new books, because I was tired of seeing the same books in booktube. So, I was never planning on making videos. I've been watching booktube for 1 or 2 years, and I honestly didn't know it was a community. It was just people reviewing and discussing books. Here's how I got into booktube- I remember I wanted to see if anyone did a tour of their bookshelf, I guess I wanted to see a tour, I don't know why. I searched for bookshelf tours on youtube and clicked on the first one that was listed. It was Giselle's(Book Nerd Canada) bookshelf tour from 2012. I watched her video and I really enjoyed it. I remember checking out her channel afterwards, and then I ended up watching her videos and she got me into booktube. I'm so grateful I found her channel. She is the first booktuber I ever watched and she is one of my favorite booktubers. I love her channel and she seems like the nicest person. After that I think I started searching for book reviews after I finished a book, and found more people. That's what got me into booktube and I'm so thankful for discovering booktube. I always loved reading and now I get to meet and talk to people about books. So anyway, I was never planning on making videos. You guys don't know this from watching my videos, and it kills me to admit it to people online but, I am a shy person. I like to be by myself most of the time, and I never go out and hang with friends. I have low self-esteem, and I'm not confident at all. I hang out with my family but that's it. I also didn't want to admit this either, but a couple years ago, I discovered I have Social Anxiety. I think I always had it, I think I started having it in high school. I still have it now, even though you would never be able to tell from my videos. I'm shy and awkward in public, I'm scared to go places, go to restaurants, talk on the phone, socialize with people and relatives. I'm being completely honest here and I want you guys to realize I'm not perfect. When I'm not working, I like to just stay in my room by myself and read. I was never an outgoing person, and I don't like to be out all the time. My anxiety got worse over the years, and its hard,it really is. I was the outcast in high school, I was the most quiet, kids even called me quiet. I didn't have lots of friends I have a few, but I was always too scared or I never wanted to hang out with them outside of school. Honestly I like to be alone most of the time, I guess you can say I'm a loner. I don't know why I'm telling you all this, but I feel my viewers need to know this. I want you guys to know I'm not perfect, and I wanted you guys to get to know me a little better .It's not easy to admit you have social anxiety, no one wants to admit it. Anyway, back to my youtube story, I don't remember why but I filmed one video for fun(The Book Scavenger Hunt Tag) and I uploaded it just to see if it would get views and so I could advertise my blog to get more views. I thought it would be easy to get views because other booktubers I watch make it look so easy. Some people have only had their channels the same time as me and they get over a hundred views. So after I uploaded that one video, I told myself I wasn't going to make more videos. I never liked being on camera and I thought it wasn't for me. I decided to start a book blog, because I'm a pretty good writer and it's not as awkward. I posted reviews for books, and my blog wasn't really getting any views, but I did it anyway. So I ended up wanting to make more videos, because I had fun making my first one, even though it was kind of awkward. If you guys saw my first few videos, you'll see how bad the quality was. I started filming videos on my laptop webcam. It was a good start, I guess. Since I wasn't getting any views, I was really sad and discouraged because I felt no one liked me and no one wanted to watch my videos. It turns out I was wrong. It's not that people didn't like me, it's just no one knew me. No one knew about my channel. I didn't know what to do to get noticed. At first I went on google and looked up tips to get views on your channel, most of the tips didn't help at all. One of the tips was to advertise your channel on social media. So, I mentioned my channel on facebook, and it helped a little. I got some views, but not a lot. It was mostly views from my family ( my family watches my videos, I think its awkward). But I was still discouraged and kept making videos even though I only got 1 or 2 views. I didn't want to use the webcam anymore, because I didn't like the quality. I searched around my house and found an old video camera my family hasn't used in years. It still worked so I decided to use it. It was fine, better than the webcam, but since its an old video camera the quality wasn't that good, no HD. I used it for a while, because I didn't want to save up for a really expensive HD camera. If your wondering how I ended up getting more views, I'll tell you. Basically I sent everyone I'm subscribed to a message and told them about my channel. But I mostly just commented on people I love to watch and I commented telling them how much I loved their channels and asked them to check out my channel, and that's how I got more subscribers. I found out, that's what it takes to get noticed. You have to promote yourself to other people. I was still discouraged about not getting enough viewers. I found a booktuber I love. I don't remember how I found her channel, I think she found mine first. We started talking and I told her about how I felt about not getting lots of views. She is a underrated booktuber too. She gave me really good advice and told me not to care about how many viewers and subscribers I have. I know that sounds obvious, but I didn't think about that at the time. She told me I would get more viewers over time, and now I realize how right she was. Now,I don't care about how many viewers I have, as long as people like to watch me. I did end up getting more viewers because people found my channel and I promoted myself and asked people to check out my channel. I still do that. Whenever I watch someone new, I ask them to check out my channel and most of the time, they end up watching me back. I actually got some viewers who asked me to check out their videos and of course I did. I even convinced a subscriber to make a channel. She told me she wanted to make book videos and asked me if she should. I was really encouraging and supportive so she made a channel because of me, and that made me feel very good about myself, because I helped someone. I made friends from subscribing to new people and I want you all to know, I'm really thankful for each and every one of you. God Bless all of you, and you guys are so supportive. After I started getting more viewers, I was sick of using the old video camera. I ended up using my iPhone 4S and I still use it right now to film videos. I know the quality is not HD, but I don't care, it's good enough. Then, I decided I wanted to start editing my videos, so I used Windows Movie Maker. It was hard and confusing to use at first, but after I had some practice using it, it became easy. I still do use Movie Maker. It's free and simple to use. But then, I wanted to try using a different editing software so I can put pictures in my videos. It was hard to find a cheap software but I found Wondershare Video Editor. It wasn't free but it's worth it. I'm not trying to be professional but I really love editing videos. I love adding text and music, and I end up deleting parts of my videos so my videos aren't as long. And now, here I am. Right now I am doing fine, and I feel better about my channel now. Since I went through all that, now I understand how new booktubers feel, which is why I want to help them. I met people who are just starting a channel, and I told them if they need any advice, I will help them . I understand everything a new youtuber goes through . I love recommending new booktubers. I like to promote a new booktubers channel, because the people are so nice, and they deserve some promotion because how else are they going to get noticed. I don't want them to have to go through what I went through, which is why I'm helping them get noticed. I give shout-outs on my channel and on twitter and I ask my viewers to check out their channels. It works. I didn't have anyone to promote my channel. When I first started my channel, no one promoted me, I had to do it all myself and I want to help people get noticed. YouTube is a tough website. It's hard to get noticed since there are so many channels. Before I go, I want to talk to you guys about my group on goodreads. If you guys aren't aware, I started a group on goodreads. I don't want anyone to feel left out, and I want people to feel important. This club is mostly for underrated booktubers, I wanted to make all the underrated booktubers(like myself) feel important and special. I feel some people are feeling left out, and I don't want there to be cliques, I want everyone to be included. There are more underrated booktubers then popular ones. Here's what I did: I looked at my subscriptions, and went on everyone's channel that has less than 10,000 subscribers .I sent each of them a message, inviting them to join my group. We do read-alongs every month, and I just wanted to make the non popular booktubers feel better. So that's it guys . I apologize for this long discussion but it's really important to me and I wanted to put it out there. Thank you guys, if you read this whole thing, give yourself a pat on the back. I will probably do a video about this discussion, I'm not sure yet. Thank you all, God Bless you and I will be updating again soon, bye. :) From a girl who is proud to be a Christian, Love Steph.
