Friday Reads: Is Booktube a Competition or a Community?

Happy Friday Booktube and welcome to those of you who are new to my channel and, of course, those of you who have been watching for years! I'm so glad I can share my bookish journey with all of you!

What do you think about the remark that YouTube creators are in competition with each other for subscribers and viewers or are we different somehow? Does it feel competitive to you? Or does it feel like a community? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the Comments section! As always, if you don't feel comfortable leaving a comment, you can leave an emoji or give this video a thumbs up! I appreciate it!

Booktubers mentioned:
@BernasBookishAdventures
@jimsbooksreadingandstuff
@GinaStanyerBooks

Videos mentioned:
My version of the Victorian Literature Journey Tag (please feel free to do this tag if you haven't!):

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#booktube #books #booktubecommunity #fridayreads

[AaronReadABook]

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 ⚔

[GinaStanyerBooks]

Booktube is definitely unique here on YouTube. 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 ❤

[spreadbookjoy]

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! 😂

[ArtBookshelfOdyssey]

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!

[readandre-read]

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.

[royreadsanything]

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.

[loramull]

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 !

[mame-musing]

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. 🤓📚📚📚📚

[davidnovakreadspoetry]

Yeah, competition is a mindset that various forces in society try to encourage or even inculcate. I appreciate your approach.

[Michelelynnreads]

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!

[gammaanteria]

Hi Kelly, Booktube, like love, is a *competition* that must be *won*!! (Haha, totally joking...😁) Wishing you a great weekend!

[josmith]

I wouldn’t say there’s competition and there is definitely community, but talking to Booktuber friends, there is also a lot of comparison.😉

[CorinneHSmith]

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.

[BookishTexan]

Great discussion Kelly.
I know I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, but I think YouTube wants us to think of this as a competition so we try harder to get views from which YouTube generates revenue. The good news is that those who will fight and compete for big view counts help fund YouTube and our corner of Booktube.

[RaynorReadsStuff]

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

[AlbertTheConjugator]

✌️🙂
No such thing as competition with streaming. People can watch everything at their own time. No Time slots like the television days.

[Ursulas_Odds_and_Sods]

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 YouTubers, 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.

[awebofstories]

Booktube is definitely a community! I don't really follow my analytics, but all I see from Booktubers are support for others!

[charmainesaliba]

Hi Kelly, interesting topic. I think is normal to be in competition with other YouTubers 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 💛

[athertonca]

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.