Honest Advice on How to Start & Grow a Channel (Booktube 101)

[@YOURTVSTATION1]

Wooow! It's the book shelf 4 me... The luv 4 books indeed..

[@thelefthandedreader6632]

As a new Booktuber, I stumbled on this video & I lOVE this advice. It’s exactly what I’ve found as I develop my channel!

[@BonnieNicoleWrites]

Thank you for this video! As a new booktuber, I have been having fun and I'm working hard at it and enjoying it.....but this week it's just been....hard and discouraging at times and it's helpful to hear from others!

[@george-vk8ke]

i think one thing that's very interesting that everyone does always say is that booktube has such a community aspect but i never really realised how true that was until i started my channel.. like, i have all of 18 subscribers so i hardly think i'm god here, but already within that pool of 18 i have had one lovely girl who i had never heard of before reach out to me and say that she wanted to challenge herself to read all of the books i recommended during inktober so i was really shocked by quite how true it is that booktube is first and foremost a community where people want to build connections. i love that something so simple as reading can really bring ppl together like that !!

[@bookslikewhoa]

Definitely-- I think one of the biggest benefits to having a channel is getting to be more involved in the community

[@crazybookcanary8941]

@@bookslikewhoa I cannot wait to join this community! Any last minute tips?

[@Bougie_Nerd]

Yes! I just started this week and already feel so welcomed :)

[@letsbefrankcanadasforemost7818]

Thanks for all the feedback, I'm just beginning to make my own BookTube Channel and love the advise.

[@TheBookHerm]

Thanks for doing this video and being so open about some of the realities of booktube. I’ve recently started my booktube channel and have shared this with other new booktubers I know because I think it has a lot of value for newbies and people wanting to see growth in their channels. ❤

[@pagedbypego]

I literally just started my BookTube today 💃🎉🎊 so here I am watching this

[@Dangerous_Biscuit]

Thank you so much for the awesome support on this matter, i got a lots of inspiration for my favourite booktubers i followed before i even started to think becoming a booktuber myself but your video just gave me so much courage for to actually start doing it! Thank you 🙏

[@jamiebbooks]

Helpful video, thanks. :) I am active in the online bookish community, but so far not including my own bookish youtube content as part of my online bookishness. Probably starting posting bookish videos is long overdue for me, but I have a handicap and until Covid I avoided being on video. During Covid I discovered that Zoom is not that scary, and I (hugely astonishing for me) liked what I looked like in zoom calls where I didn't have video turned off. So, maybe 2023 is a good year to poke at becoming a novice booktuber finally.

[@dustinhovanec4718]

I’d literally do anything to have coffee and just talk about life with you! You are such an insightful person

[@bookslikewhoa]

Thank you!

[@asmalljoy]

Can I invite myself? :D

[@Bougie_Nerd]

I will buy the coffees if I can join!

[@secretsauceofstorycraft]

I'm so glad I found this video (years late I know!) but its still nice to hear some advice. Thank you for doing this video for those of us just starting!! I will be joining your discord and poke around to see what else I can find.

[@katreads3934]

thank you so much for this video! i feel like a lot of us know the basics but when you go in-depth specifically for booktube it really helps!

[@gracefilledreads]

Thank you so much for this!!! I just started 2 weeks ago and I am so excited 🥰❤️ Everyone is so sweet!!!!

[@andreabootsma8478]

coming to this years later but just wanted to say thanks for sharing this kind of real talk about the choices & emotions behind starting a booktube channel. I want to be more involved in bookish community but this video really confirmed for me that I made the right choice by starting a bookstagram instead of a channel. I'm stilly getting to enjoy honing my book review writing, learning about photography & tags & just started to dip my toes into making reels. But I think its a much smaller time commitment than making videos. And I have a high commitment job that I love & community commitments that are important to me irl that mean that I don't have the space to carve out the time needed to do booktube well and this video helped me to really have peace about that

[@LisaVanGemert]

I appreciate all of this advice, and I appreciate your honesty. Thanks so much!

[@PrettiBooksy]

This is good advice for starting any channel. I just started on booktube but i do have a different channel with success but it took a year to break thru. Honestly posting often is helpful starting out

[@jackiejo88]

Thank you for this in depth and helpful video! I’m a librarian and have wanted to start a book tube channel for oh... four years now? I just can’t seem to get the courage to begin (and, you know, time between work and family.) I have been watching you for a while, but I’m not much of a commenter. I found you because of the wide varieties of genres you read and that appeals to me both because I read across many genres but also professionally purchase things not in my wheelhouse.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Well thank you for being awesome enough to be a librarian!! I'm so glad that my content is even a tiny bit helpful for you :)

[@mybookshelfwithtammypowley8874]

I found this really helpful.

[@booksandtuxedos]

I’m 4 years late but I’m researching to launch my channel and I found this super helpful! ❤

[@jimsbooksreadingandstuff]

I watched this when I started back in September and have just watched again just now (December), there is a lot of real authentic information here, this is the best video I've watched on how to Booktube.

[@readingwithsarebear]

Thank you so much for sharing this information! I've been contemplating starting a BookTube for quite sometime, mostly for fun. I appreciate that you took the time to break it down to the nitty-gritty.

[@AliDoisRead]

I really like that you don't script your videos! You come across as totally genuine :)

[@wanderingreader6941]

This was really useful - even if you know some of this stuff, it's useful to be reminded. We can always be doing more to grow our channels. Thank you xx

[@annamania13]

Thank you so much for your advice! I've been wanting to start one for a while, waiting for that 'right' moment, and I think these tips will definitely help! ❤

[@noeditbookreviews]

You like positive comments? You are a fine human being and I am grateful for finding this video. Now that I am aware of your existence I have one more thing to smile about in this world.

[@wendyscott7707]

This is my second day of thinking about starting a Booktube channel. One interesting thought that you brought up was the over-saturation of Booktubers. That seems quite remarkable since I just learned about Booktube myself so I thought this was a newish thing. The best advice that you gave at this point was creating an idea list of 52 videos to make. As I finished my day yesterday that was exactly my thought. If I’m going to do this I need to have at least a list of starting points so that my videos do not become redundant and boring. So much to ponder here…

[@carosfootprint]

I’ve watched 3 of your videos so far and have subscribed after this one. First because you’re just oh so helpful, second because you remind me a lot of one of my fav KZbinrs Arden Rose and I love that. Thank you for tips on my channel “hygiene” 🥰

[@Chelseabea]

This is so helpful! Been thinking about making book videos for a while and needed all this info!

[@hollykelly7400]

Just found your channel very recently and you’re so chill and lovely! Looking forward to future videos ❤️

[@NgihVirtue]

Thanks for sharing😊 Quite insightful.

[@deanie3824]

The advice on the tags is so helpful! I never thought of adding questions that people might be searching for.

[@thelibrarianofalexandria6200]

Thanks this video was helpfull. I have been watching booktube for 8 years now and thought of starting a channel almost as long. I have seen many booktube newbie tips videos, but it was still nice to see this one. I am always unsure how to tag videos. So that was a great tips. I have lots of ideas for tags, as in original tags, some I have made alredy some I have planned. Still I dont get many views, but yes you have to think of blind luck and that things take time. I have been doing readathons partly because I want to and partly so people can discover my channel. I know I look up videos in connection to readathons.

[@paulsbookshelf8600]

Thank you for sharing your wisdom!! 😀

[@SherifaNakalema]

Thank you for the tip of having the thumbnail text different from the title. I was making them similar. Will try it out. Got a new sub. Love the natural flow!

[@MissBOverseas]

ahhhhhh i've been subscribed to you for a while but i somehow stumbled across this and i want to say thank you!!!! this was practical and real and has me rethinking things!!!! your energy and insight is much appreciated. time to go do some "youtube hygiene" things!!!

[@breehill9042]

I love the tough part of this conversation. When I first discovered Booktube romance was NOT being talked about, NOW, it’s gradually on its way to be all over the place so I feel what you said on a whole other level. I’m constantly thinking about, how do you stand out when there are so many other romance creators? Which is amazing but if you want to grow, you really have to bring it!!

[@bookslikewhoa]

YES, it has been really interesting to see the amount of romance content really grow in the last 18 months or so! I feel like Booktubers are more willing to just come out and identify as romance readers

[@djbookchat2696]

Thank you soo much for this. It is definitely hard trying to grow a new channel now with all the things you cant control swimming in the back of your mind. Our filming location sucks and we struggled so much building the courage to actually start our channel because right now there would be no way to go on camera, but the amount of money needed to relocate for filming seeing we were brand new didn't make sense right now. So that not spending so much in the beginning from you really helped calm my mind. Booktube itself can be a daunting task without all the external stresses over life. Just figuring out how to edit the videos properly is task and a half but I believe that by continuing to learn from advise from larger channels like yours and enjoying what we are doing we will grow.

[@amedicosworld5358]

I can certainly say you've given me confidence me to begin my own booktube channel added to the fact I have already begun my my own channel. Thank you for reminding again that, you are supposed to grow connections with people. Such a positive message. Thank you so so so much maam

[@abbiel7566]

Watching this 9 months later and when you say you’re approaching 10k it just makes me happy to see you’ve more than doubled that since this was filmed 🥺💕

[@krissythewhimsy]

Thank you for these tips!! Something I have been thinking about is the fact that I read so many different random books and whether that is positive or negative. I started a little over a month ago and you are right the people who did the booktube newbie tag around the same time are people who I check in with consistently. Thanks again!

[@lifefullofwords]

I’m thinking about starting a channel and this video has been so helpful! Especially the marketing bit. So thank you!

[@els.library]

Thanks so much for this video, it's really helpful! Going to edit my descriptions real quick lmfao they're not that detailed right now I've been watching BookTube for a long time and always heard people talking about how awesome the community is, but I never really saw that until I finally started my channel a couple days ago. I posted my first video and within minutes had a couple people welcoming me to the community, it was so nice! This is definitely a space where those around you encourage you to do your best and have fun doing it, I can't wait to make more videos and make some friends in this community!

[@aliciaguzman]

This was very insightful thank you ! I just recently started a booktube channel and it was great to hear your tips!!

[@BobTheBookerer]

I’ve just started out, so this is super helpful, thank you!

[@SonyaandSidney]

Thank you for the video. Off topic I love your hair!

[@angelicabalia6143]

Thank you for this video. I have been playing with the idea of starting a channel for a while and always putting myself down cause it feels "pretentious" of me. But actually you're right, it's a great way to connect. I just found your channel today and I already feel less lonely because of it

[@kriw5658]

incredible advice, legit helpful!!!

[@onthesamepage367]

Wow great video, and still so relevant years later. Really loved your advice at the end about how the newbie tag is kind of like your graduating class. What a great frame. --Nat

[@byaliciabrooke]

Oh my goodness this video was so helpful!!

[@Bougie_Nerd]

You explain all the feels I'm having so well 😩

[@SudakiAnka]

Thanks for your useful tips for newbies 😊

[@beckyduff]

Thank you for all the awesome advice!

[@bookishandbewildered]

Love this 🍸 also, I adore your eye makeup.

[@drchick619]

This was great advise. I am in works of starting my own channel and your video came just in time!

[@Xtian_Reads]

I just started a few days ago, and I just want to grow enough to have a group of people to vibe with. I don't have any others readers in my life, so I want to talk about books, characters, story, etc.

[@s0nzz97]

Thank you for this realistic information on starting a booktube!

[@cherylmusgrove7]

This was a big help thank you!

[@asmalljoy]

I found this really helpful! I just started making bookish content. I want to connect with other booktubers and make friendships. Thank you so much for sharing this video!

[@tara5742]

Because of your approach to help us finding books we’ll love and because of your personality, you are my favorite booktuber. By a lot. Not even close. And I really like a couple and enjoy many booktubers.

[@bookslikewhoa]

That is just so kind - thank you!

[@TheBookClubLife]

Thanks for the vid, Mara! This is my first time watching your channel. I’m about to start mine back up after a year break and wanted to get a little inspiration. This was perfect!

[@MiltGonzalez]

I am so grateful for this video. Thank you so much! I'm in the process of getting myself together and creating my own "booktube" channel. I truly seek to connect with people and simply build a community; like a virtual bookclub of sorts. Lol. Once again, thank you some much for all your insights. Truly appreciated. Btw: Love the "real talk." There's nothing like transparency and honesty. You just can't put a price on it. (:

[@ankevandermerwe2006]

this video was so helpful. and this video gives us hope. cause your videos is amazing and that its recorded with your phone .

[@mynameisemilygood]

That is so awesome that you film on your phone. How on earth do you keep it from not filling up so that there's no more space on your phone?! I used to try to do it on my phone but I couldn't rely on it for space so I stopped! Such wonderful advice about having books in the thumbnail. I've seen that in many other thumbnails obviously but didn't figure it was that important. This is definitely the most honest Booktuber 101 video I've seen. I loved what you said about your "Booktube Class" because it's so totally true!

[@bookslikewhoa]

Haha I have to regularly delete my footage off the phone... usually I'll do it after I finish editing ;)

[@KristinMomentsOfSanctuary]

Super helpful coffee chat! Gave me some inspiration and I appreciate your time and thoughts. Thank you for doing this. Great advice.

[@HushedAndGentleTV]

I'm really working hard to build a good and consistent channel-- thank you so much for the invaluable advice!

[@cappuccinocrafts2412]

Very good advice. I like your approach to what it takes to start a channel, manage expectations, and good ways to make community connections. I am 6 months into my KZbin content creator journey. I am enjoying it so far. It is not a BookTube channel, although I do include chat about what I'm reading and bookish stuff. I have gotten better about editing my videos and found that I actually enjoy it. I am never going to be super produced and highly edited. I don't want to. It is kind of fun to be able to have this as a record for myself of my crafting and my reading. I also enjoy watching other BookTube and Crafting channels. I like chatting in comments and participating in read-a-long events or craft-a-longs.

[@IBDjenn88]

Thanks for sharing!

[@lethallieread8570]

Thank you for this! I'm about to start a channel simply to connect with other readers and this was extremely helpful. I've been doing a ton of research before I actually bite the bullet and I've been figuring out my goals before starting!

[@breehill9042]

Yes to research! Im always researching, there is so much information out there

[@NakiasHideaway]

This was such a helpful video. Some things I knew from being on KZbin in the natural hair community but I'm learning so much now that I've switched to the booktube community. Thank you! 🖤

[@Kite562reviews]

Even though I only have 34 subs on my channel. I really enjoy Sharing my thoughts on what I've read. Whether it's a novel or manga. Thanks to this channel I've made my reading speed has improved quite a lot which is a good thing. 😊❤📚

[@hylabrookbooks]

i've been on YT for 10 years or more, and always wanted to start recording and sharing videos. i just don't have the want to edit, even though i appreciate good editing. i just started my bookish content, so glad I finally got it over with

[@breehill9042]

Girl! Being BACK on KZbin, it feels like WAY more work now then when I tried it the first time. OMG

[@danecobain]

Lots of great advice here, but then I'm not surprised!

[@ashleybundybooks]

This is the most informative video I have found so far. Thank you so much. I've been having difficulty figuring out what I'm doing wrong.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Glad it was helpful!

[@saraerzsebet]

Insightful, specific, and engaging. Thank you!

[@bookslikewhoa]

Glad it was helpful!

[@PatriciaHernandez-cf6wb]

I love this! Thank you for posting!

[@MilenaReads]

These tips are great, thank you so much for taking the time to make this. You’re so kind. 💕

[@thisnerdylife6305]

Thinking about it... I've been thinking about it since starting my channel two years ago, but focused on Disney-ish stuff and never branched out. I chose the name I did though because I never intended it to be focused on Disney. Now I haven't posted anything in two years and I'm nervous about videos that are more face heavy. Lol.

[@Courtagonist]

I was so thrilled to find your video amongst all of the ones on growing your channel. I totally agree that being in a niche is great and hard at the same time. I have found that being known at the Cozy Mystery person is great but I also read other things and want to talk about those now too and I'm finding that some of my long time followers are sad because I want to build and grow my bookish community talking about other reads, but I am still creating content that is cozy. It is trying to find the balance.

[@michellesciti]

Try a Mystery Monday… get your fans to guess what other genres you are reading. Only use Monday to talk about those other books. Hope this helps 🤓

[@rebeccaeatsbooks]

So helpful! Thanks!

[@IHeartRomance]

When you said booktube hygiene - brushing your teeth.. I LOLed because I literally brush my teeth before I film 😅 I just have this crazy fear that I'll see food stuck in my teeth. I love your advice!!! Especially on not investing in $$$ because when I syarted in 2018.. I literally stopped posting after 3 videos and didn't get back to it 2 months ago. I'm loving it right now, though!

[@balladsandbookends]

Thank you for making this video, it's really informative and aware and I really appreciate the honesty! You are absolutely lovely!

[@bookslikewhoa]

Thank you so much! Glad it was helpful

[@eamongilligan3262]

This was a fascinating talk. I'm not sure I'll ever start a channel on anything, but it's incredibly useful advice and interesting to hear 'behind the scenes' info. It was also interesting to hear you want to improve your thumbnails as I think you do a great job with them already. 😊

[@bookslikewhoa]

Thank you, I'm glad they aren't too egregious! I just get jealous of people who have cooler graphics & stuff in their thumbnails :D

[@gelligraphic]

Hi. I just started my booktube channel and I felt the burden of time, effort, money and creative ideas (investments) in making videos and all of that. I'm really interested in knowing how to grow that's why I am here. Thanks for the honest advices and tips! 🖤✨

[@Popchyk]

Awesome advice, thank you :))

[@debralavoie9095]

Excellent suggestions! I appreciate that you list the books you mention.

[@ABookFiendNamedMel]

Thank you for this video, some great suggestions to think about.

[@georgiak.551]

I’m thinking about starting a channel with my best friend; I like Fantasy and Romance, and she likes Sci-fi and Dystopian books.

[@lovinglyread5823]

This is so helpful! Thank you for your insight!

[@bookslikewhoa]

You're so welcome!

[@YOURTVSTATION1]

Hi lady. I luv the yellow eye shadows..

[@valentinaperezalonso3314]

Thank you for this video, it was so helpful and insightful really. I've been watching so many of these type of videos and I find this one by far the most helpful one :)

[@bookslikewhoa]

Glad it was helpful!

[@helenatieck7911]

I loved this video and all the tips you gave! I’ve been thinking about starting a booktube channel for about ... 4/5 years now? 🙈 I always chicken out in the end because I don’t know what I could have to add. But I really wanna try it this year. Right now I’m stumbling on picking a name. I could go with my book blog name but I’ve thought about changing that forever, too so ...

[@AprilSarah]

Love how you put this video together. I'm still figuring things out on youtube and booktube and I've been here for years. It can take so much time and effort but it fascinates me to no end. I just got into the idea of captions for my videos which is so time-consuming but for accessibility... I want to grow more inclusive.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Yes! That's something else I want to do next year- captions!

[@Ann86dk]

I'm no expert in terms of booktube advice, with about 800 subscribers, but I agree about the description info being important. With this I'm thinking as a viewer I hate when I watch a video and afterwards want to check out the books on GR, and then I can't remember the title/author of the book, because it's not mentioned in the description. I try to put the info in the description, but sometimes when I'm in a bit of a hurry to upload I forget.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Yeah, sometimes I can't get to it, but I really try my best!

[@torp42]

very informative...Thank you! Love all your videos....

[@GreenRobinL]

This was very informative! Ever since I found booktube I have thought about joining. I have a handful of ideas that I haven't seen other people do that I want to make but I know that I don't have the time for a channel right now. Even if I did, I don't know if I feel passionate enough about it to keep making videos in the long run. I suspected that running a channel was very time-consuming and you just affirm it so I think I will just stay a viewer! Also can I just say how grateful I am that you always list the books you talk about in your videos? It makes it so much easier to look them up after hearing you talk about them without having to pause the video or have to go back to where you mention it. I hope that more people start doing that as well! I really appreciate all the work you put into your videos!

[@bookslikewhoa]

I'm glad you find it helpful!

[@CoffeeOverApples]

Wow i have to say this video was so indepth and loved it!

[@bookslikewhoa]

Glad it was helpful!

[@YOURTVSTATION1]

Soon I'm opening 1,in 2 weeks, so I plan. Got 2 work on my 4ne 1st..

[@krishnahemminger]

Thanks for this, wanted to say it and be your first comment. I've been looking for a video like this.