If you’re a budding BookTuber with a penchant for online book reviews but want a little guidance when it comes to building your BookTube channel, you’ve come to the right place. A growing platform for bookish types, there’s a legion of BookTubers who are swiftly establishing themselves as famous book reviewers in the online book world. Wherever you are on your BookTube journey – whether you’re devising BookTube name ideas, deciding how to format your Youtube book reviews, or whether to vlog about your latest book haul, the best book club books or your favourite creepy stories – you’re in good company.

And with the London Book Fair’s BookTube awards just a matter of weeks away, there’s no better time to start building your BookTube. So, if you’d like some wisdom from the crème de la crème of BookTubers, read on for some top tips for becoming a BookTuber from two of the best book YouTubers around: Eric at Lonesome Reader and Kendra Winchester, BookTuber and co-founder of popular bookish podcast, The Reading Women.

Film your way

Many people get nervous about filming themselves, but know that you don’t necessarily need to be on camera talking about books. There are lots of fun and creative ways to film books, your library or surrounding environment while talking about what you’re reading. For inspiration of how this can be done watch the reading diaries and top book videos on Anna from A Case for Book’s channel.

Be yourself

This may sound like a cliché but when videos are fully scripted or heavily edited to take out every little misstep it feels stilted. Don’t worry if you stumble over your words or can’t remember every detail about a particular book. People will watch you because they like who you are – not because of how well you present yourself.

Let yourself be imperfect

When you first start out on BookTube, it’s easy to feel discouraged when your first videos don’t come out as well as your favourite BookTube stars. But with each new video, you learn something new and become a little bit better. It just takes time.

Engage and Interact with others

BookTube is a community. Watching and commenting on others’ videos helps you build relationships with other creators. This helps developing new online bookish friends as well as giving you ideas for videos to make or good common practices to follow.

Read what you want

It’s easy to get swept up in all of the latest book releases and most buzzed about titles. But you may not like the latest YA lady assassin novel or the most recent presidential biography. And that’s okay. Life’s too short to read books you don’t like.

Don’t get hung up on numbers

We all aspire to have lots of subscribers and views. It can feel disheartening if your videos aren’t as popular as others. But don’t equate numbers with your personal value. Focus instead on the conversations you have in comments and fostering an audience who likes your own unique point of view.

Persist

Developing a channel takes a long time. It may be weeks or months before you get any comments or likes. Film what you’d enjoy watching. Experiment. Be playful. Have fun. In time you’ll connect with like-minded people who love books and discussing them as much as you do.

Have fun!

Ultimately, we creators make videos because we love books and want to talk about them. It’s easy to get swept up in all the books you’d like to read and all the videos you’d like to make. But it’s important to remember we’re here for the joy of reading.

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