Booktube with Annie!

Today we’re very happy to be talking to Annie about booktubing (book YouTubing, for those who aren’t in the know!)

1. Why did you start your booktube account?

Truthfully – I was living in Austria and had a lot of time on my hands and nobody to talk to about books, so it seemed like an obvious solution to a problem. Now I have much less time and a lot more ‘real life’ people to talk to about books – but I keep it up anyway because it’s such a lot of fun.

2. Who are some of your favourite booktubers?

I love Eric at The Lonesome Reader because we have very similar reading tastes and Jen Campbell because she is so knowledgeable! Lauren at Reads and Daydreams was the first channel I ever started watching and I also really love Simon of Savidge Reads because he makes me laugh.

3. What do you think is the most difficult thing about booktubing?

Finding time to film and being consistent with uploading a video every week. I don’t have any fancy lighting so I try to film during the day when the sunlight is good (which isn’t often). I also have to be in the right mood to film… and then there’s the problem of my internet connection being so weak that I can only upload videos on the UCL WiFi…

4. Talk us through how you film an average video for your account.

First I’d think about what I want to talk about – if it’s just a regular chatty video like a round-up it won’t need too much scripting, but if I’m going to talk in detail about a single book or topic then I’ll definitely do some research or at least think about what I’m going to say before I press record. Then I’ll wait one (or two or three) weeks to be in the mood to be on camera and have good lighting. After I’ve filmed, I spend about an hour editing (I used to take me way longer because I edit out loads – I umm and ahhh so much). Then I design the thumbnail, upload the video and spend a little while longer faffing around with the description, cards and end screens. Oh, and I also reply to comments as much as I can. Writing all that out has made me realise that it’s actually quite time consuming… hmmm. Assignments? What assignments?

5. What advice would you give to someone interested in booktubing?

Give it a go and see if it’s for you! You won’t regret trying. Your first video will probably be a bit rubbish because they always are – if you’re like me, you’ll feel awkward on camera and you won’t know how to edit or upload or any of those things, but it absolutely doesn’t matter. The Booktube community are suuuuper friendly and welcoming and they don’t care if your lighting is bad or if your audio quality isn’t great (I film on my phone, nobody cares). You really do have to learn by doing and it’s so easy once you get started.

“Ok, that’s all from me guys, don’t forget to hit thumbs up if you liked this and hit the subscribe button so that you never miss any of my videos!!!!” (I’m joking I don’t say that).

Thanks so much to Annie!