What is BookTube (Why Should You Be a Part of It)

Despite a radical decline that seemed to be a never-ending constant trend in the past years, reading seems to make a nice comeback as an entertainment form and as a habit for many people. This can only be seen as amazing news, and the more impressive thing we noticed here at Basmo, is that this comeback came with a trend of fresh new mediums for our love for reading to be promoted on. 

So, what is BookTube and what does it really mean for the readers’ community?

Even though reading is a solitary activity that relies mostly on imagination and a certain amount of introspection, given that we are all social beings constantly looking for validation, we turned our attention to social media platforms and video streaming websites for new creative ways to promote our love for reading. 

What is BookTube?

BookTube defines a particular section of Youtube, the video streaming giant that has already made history in the past decades, that is completely dedicated to book lovers. 

As you can probably imagine, given the limitless possibilities provided by the platform, which doesn’t restrict the length of the videos, or even the format or content (to a certain extent), you will be able to find a huge variety of types of content. From book reviews, authors reading their books on youtube, BookTubers sharing their thoughts on certain books or recommending titles, to visually pleasing imagery that is relevant to us book lovers. 

One thing we need to clarify when it comes to BookTube is the fact that just like BookTok and Bookstagram, the name doesn’t define a separate platform, but a subcommunity on a particular social platform or video streaming service.

Here at Basmo, we are committed to our general love for reading and books, so it was just a natural and interesting distraction to start exploring the amazing world of BookTube and we have to admit that we absolutely love it. 

While reading books on Youtube may seem like an odd thing to do for some, the one thing we should be focusing on is the fact that this trend is actually reaching the hearts of millions of children and teenagers who are likely to start seeing the activity of reading from a different perspective than they were told in school to. So, from this point of view, we should all come to an agreement that BookTubers provide our society with a highly important service.

What is a BookTuber?

Speaking of which, in case it wasn’t already clear, a BookTuber is a person who owns a channel on BookTube, promoting books, sharing his opinions, reading books for their followers’ amusement, or more simply put, who posts reading-related content online. 

Being a BookTuber is equivalent to being a social media influencer on Youtube who only promotes books, reading, or other related materials. A BookTuber is a passionate reader, a person who takes reading seriously and loves sparking discussions about certain titles within their community. 

Last but not least, a BookTuber is a person who managed to turn their passion for books into a lucrative business and a more than decent source of revenue. The best BookTuber out there certainly earns more than enough to make a decent living. 

How to become a BookTuber?

If you are seriously passionate about your reading and you’re thinking of learning how to start a BookTube channel and become a BookTuber yourself, the good news is that doing this is not at all complicated. With a little determination, a good mindset, and some willpower, you can start your own BookTube channel and start sharing your thoughts with your community.

Depending on what you wish your BookTube channel to achieve, whether you are just doing it out of your passion for reading or if you’re hoping to earn some extra cash doing it, things will differ a little from the start. 

Decide on the purpose

The first thing you need to do when you decide to start the journey of becoming a BookTuber is to establish your goals. Why are you doing this and what are you hoping to achieve? Are you looking for a way to simply express yourself and have some fun or are you looking for an extra source of income? 

If you’re not doing it with a clear intention to monetize your videos, you can just do whatever feels right for you and do your thing without worrying too much about the results. If you want to monetize your BookTube and start earning some cash, you will need to take things a little more seriously and approach it with a different mindset. 

Find your niche

Since you are not the first BookTuber out there, you will need to take your competition into consideration. See what others are posting, what others are dedicating resources, and try to figure out what’s missing from this world. The ideal scenario would be to find a particular aspect of reading you are particularly passionate about and explore your options to become the first and only channel dedicated to that said aspect. 

Don’t hesitate to express yourself exactly how you feel you should and follow your passion. Most success stories start this way. If you like a particular author, genre, or sub-genre, dedicate your channel exactly to this and you might be surprised to see how many other people with similar interests are going to join your community. 

We tend to think of ourselves as unique individuals with unique particularities and taste, but the truth is that considering the amazing reach a platform like YouTube has, chances of finding like-minded people from all around the world are huge. 

Choose a name

Choosing your BookTube name is going to play a huge role in its success. While other platforms like Instagram and TikTok limit your creativity to a simple handle, Youtube gives you a little more freedom.

That does not mean that you should go overboard with the name. Keep it simple and relevant to the topic you are going to focus on. In case you keep drawing blanks when you try to think of names, using a YouTube channel name generator may be a good solution.  

Create a logo

Another important step in your channel creation process is designing your logo. This will be displayed as a profile picture if you will, and you need to make sure it is something memorable, relevant to your channel, and one that stands out.

Not all of us are skilled designers, so if creating logos is not something you are good at, you can try to use an online logo generator that delivers the exactly right format for Youtube. That way you won’t have to worry about resizing the image or cropping it to fit.

The importance of your logo is not something that will make or break your BookTube channel though, so you shouldn’t spend ages trying to find the perfect one. It just needs to be eye-catching, relevant, and easily recognizable.

Make sure you use the right equipment that fits your purpose

Since your channel is going to be hosted on YouTube, which only supports videos, you need to make sure that what you deliver and offer your subscribers to watch is of good visual quality. 

That means that expectations are usually quite high on the platform in terms of image quality, and you need to adapt to this. Nobody likes a washed-out, pixelated video. If you want to monetize your videos later, you will need to invest in a decent camera for your shots, some lighting equipment, and perhaps a microphone if you’re planning to talk during your videos. 

Editing is also going to be important, so make sure to purchase a video-editing software that is easy to use and delivers quality results. 

Design your backdrop

If you are planning to film yourself talking about books or reading books on your channel, your background is going to be important and will need to stay consistent throughout the videos. 

Design a good-looking backdrop and decorate it as you see fit, while maintaining it relevant to the topic of your videos. 

Create your posting schedule

Consistency is key for running a successful BookTube channel. That is why creating a posting schedule and sticking to it is important. Depending on how much time you want to invest in this, you should aim for regularly posting at least once a week.

To make things easier, you can use Basmo to keep your reading on time, so you can then follow the reading schedule with the appropriate posting routine. Basmo is a reading tracking app that can help you tremendously in maintaining healthy reading habits and it all starts with a structured reading schedule. Basmo allows you to choose different times for each day of the week so you can easily organize your reading session according to your daily schedule, and it will also remind you of upcoming reading sessions so you don’t miss any of them.

Post quality content

On top of the video quality, editing skills, and the relevance of your name and backdrop, what you actually post matters a lot. Posting quality content can separate you from your competition and it will all start with thorough research.

Check out other BookTube channels for inspiration, and see what others are posting and how their videos on different topics perform. You can either post similar things to what you already see as top-performing videos, or you can go in another direction and post things you think are missing. Fill in the blanks.

When searching for quality content, Basmo can also help. By encouraging you to become a better reader and supporting you throughout the entire process, Basmo comes with a series of functionalities on top of the scheduling I mentioned above.

Note-taking

When you own a BookTube channel, you should always read with a clear purpose in mind.

Journaling

If you want to expand more on your ideas, you can also use the journaling feature, which allows you to keep a reading journal. That way you can keep track of your thoughts, feelings, or video posting plans more easily and in a less restrictive manner. 

Feelings tracker

Reading lists

Statistics

Since we love books, reading and everything else related to this amazing hobby, here at Basmo we also wanted to be a part of BookTube. So, we decided to convince some BookTubers to check out our app, use it for a while and share their thoughts. 

Here is what the BookTubers came up with:

What are the biggest BookTube channels?

And, of course, whenever we start on a journey like this, we need to aim high and try and beat the best. Here are the biggest BookTube channels today. Check out their content, use them as inspiration for your posts, or simply see what they are missing and fill in those blanks!

• Jack Edwards (1.03M subscribers): this was his experience with Basmo
• polandbananasBOOKS (426K subscribers)
• jessethereader (398K subscribers)
• PeruseProject (351K subscribers)
• Abookutopia (338K subscribers)
• Hailey in Bookland (312K subscribers): here’s what she thought about Basmo
• Josu Diamond (252K subscribers): his opinion about Basmo
• Little Book Owl (179K subscribers)
• books with chloe (104K subscribers): she tried Basmo too!

Final thoughts

Now that the question “What is BookTube?” has been extensively answered, all that’s left for you to do is decide whether you want to become a part of this world or not. If you want to become a successful BookTuber, make sure to follow our advice and also use Basmo to improve your reading habits.