Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Discussion Post: Disconnect in the Book Blogging Community

Recently, I started booktubing as some of you may know. For those of you that don't know what booktubing is, it's like us blogging here on Blogger/WordPress but people talk about books through videos on YouTube. There's a whole community of them on there!

Long before I started book blogging, I also had tumblr - I've had one since 2009 and just started using it again. I mainly reblog stuff - fashion, food, landscapes and other elegant/pretty looking things. However, I also found out that there is a WHOLE OTHER book blogging community on there. These book blogs that post reviews just on tumblr, their hauls,  lists, fanart/edits and it's beautiful and wonderful. I recently just started following a lot of them.

What is the disconnect then you say?

Firstly, us Blogger/WordPress bloggers (which is apparently what we're referred to in the other communities) don't interact as much with these other 2 communities. I mean I interact with some booktubers but most have thousands upon thousands of subscribers and I just feel in awe when I watch their videos and I don't comment on their videos like I do blog posts. I basically have never even interacted with the book blogging community on tumblr until these past few weeks when I've dropped a few messages in their Asks.

Secondly, most of us Blogger/WP bloggers interact very closely with authors on Twitter - a lot of Booktubers do too. I'm not sure about the tumblr ones as I know authors use tumblr but tumblr works differently to Twitter. Where we can directly chat with authors on Twitter, tumblr uses 'Ask' functionality. But I still think it's mainly us Blogger/WP bloggers that interact the most (along with those Booktubers that also have a book blog on Blogger/WP). From what I've observed, Twitter is definitely the central hub of where authors hang out and where us fans can get the most recent and accurate news direct from the source.

Thirdly, and the biggest difference I found: tumblr book bloggers and Booktubers don't get as many review copies as us, if at all. The few Aussie ones I talked to on tumblr weren't even sure of how to request review copies - they didn't know that most of the time WE approached the publisher. They seem content with NetGalley, but some posted such lovely reviews I thought - well some of them should be getting review copies. One of my Booktuber friends also mentioned she has JUST been approached by 1 publisher. One. And she'd been booktubing for AGES before I even STARTED book blogging. I definitely have contacts with more than 1 publisher and I was approached as well 1 year after blogging. What this also means is that they miss out on bookish events. The few Aussie book bloggers in these other 2 communities I talked to had absolutely no idea about the various signings we've had in the past, the launches, the book blogging meetups, and things such as the National Book Bloggers Forum. I also wonder: do authors know that their lovely readers on tumblr do giveaways of their books? Because it happens often. Authors on Twitter RT links to our book blog giveaways, but what about Tumblr? Do they know there's a whole community on there who absolutely adore their work?

You might think, well maybe they're content with just NetGalley and reviewing books they buy. And don't get me wrong, that's great. But it also means they're missing out on a lot - especially with regards to events and hearing about book news. Most importantly though, they miss out on when the latest books come out and the opportunity to read and review these before they are released to spread the book love in their respective communities.

What do you guys think about this? Am I wrong? This is just what I've observed. Should we be doing something to bridge this gap? I know that PTA has a tumblr account which really helps those with Aussie book news related to Penguin Teen and a lot of the US pubs do too... But what about other Aussie book news?

Lucy over at Queen of Contemporary also recently addressed the disconnect between the book bloggers and booktubers. Read her post here: http://queenofcontemporary.com/2014/05/blogging-booktubing-announcement.html

12 comments:

  1. I think that you make a good point here Jaz - I haven't personally really interacted with other bookish people on tumblr or other forms of social media (apart from Twitter), and I think that each of these groups individually can be quite close knit in their own communities which could create this 'gap'. Hopefully in some areas there is a cross-over, and in the end we all have the same passion - for books and for reading. How we each choose to go about that is an individual choice, and each person should be recognised for their own personal style/talents :)

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    1. Yeah there's a definite crossover but it's really small and each community has wonderful bloggers, I just felt bad when I heard that Booktubers and Tumblr bloggers seemed to be missing out on the latest news.

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  2. Oh. This is really really interesting!! Videos make me supremely uncomfortable, and on a personal level, I am much more articulate in print than when speaking! I love watching videos when I have the time, but I DO NOT COMMENT either!! I've just realised that I am wasting an opportunity here.

    I am very surprised that book tubers don't usually get access to the things we do. I actually assumed that they got them and more: I've always assumed that people prefer to watch videos, where they can just hit play and get all the emotion as well as a comprehensive review, rather than simply the text.

    I wonder if you have comments about the opposite situation: opportunities book tubers have that Blogger/WP reviewers do not?

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    1. Right? I'm always watching booktube videos, they're so interesting and I love watching facial expressions and fangirl/boy moments. I'm too scared to ever comment though as I think YT has a lot of trolls.

      You raised a very interesting point that I didn't consider there with your last comment - I have noticed that the book bloggers on tumblr do seem to have a lot more followers because they're not JUST posting reviews. Their hauls and pretty pictures garner the attention of other users who may have an interest in looking at those things and end up getting the whole package of pictures, lists, recommendations and reviews.

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  3. What an interesting post! I use Tumblr mostly for fangirling, haha. Harry Potter, Sherlock, funny text posts, Nerdfighter stuff, and a bunch of social justice posts (women's rights etc). I've never thought that there might be other communities on the different platforms, especially Aussie book bloggers! Twitter is where most people seem to interact, but now I'm not so sure...great topic :)

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    1. Same here Emily, my tumblr is purely fandom stuff and looking at things that are sort of trending in the world out there.
      Until 2 weeks ago I didn't even know about people reviewing on tumblr. Makes me wonder if there are any other communities out there.

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  4. Dammit, I just wrote a long and detailed response, and my asshole phone ate it. For me, definite disconnect, because I was barely aware of these bloggers (I just assumed these things were in addition to blogger/WP blogs--which was pretty ignorant). It seems crazy that these people have hundreds of followers and are reaching so many people and missing out on so much!

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    1. Oh no :( I never comment on my phone because it never seems to go through!
      I was barely aware myself but these tumblr followers have thousands of followers - they do like 1000/2000/3000... etc up to like 10000 follower giveaways and it's CRAZY that they're all spreading the book love out there and authors may not (or they may idk) even know about it. A lot of the bloggers seem to be missing out on those platforms too.

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  5. Hmm...this is a really interesting post Jaz. I only blog on Wordpress, so I've never really had a reason to look at reviews on Tumblr or within the booktubing community, but I feel you've brought a lot of light to the situation.

    It's a shame that Tumblr bloggers and booktubers don't get as "equal" privileges as Wordpress / blogger reviews. Like you said, they're spreading the word about books as well - to lots of people - so it's really saddening that they don't get the privileges of Wordpress/Blogger reviewers with the same stats as them.

    If I was a publisher, I'd treat everyone equally. If a blogger requests an ARC and they have, say, 500 followers and a booktuber requests the same ARC and has 700 subscribers, I'd give it to the booktuber. Just because you're a reviewer on Wordpress/Blogger doesn't mean you should get extra privileges over booktubers and Tumblr bloggers. It should all be equal, and I think you've really gotten the point across in this post, which is wonderful!

    Thanks for sharing Jaz! <3

    ~ Zoe @ The Infinite To-Read Shelf

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    1. I had no idea about the publishers giving ARCs to the reviewer with more followers thing although that does make sense.
      But yes I think everybody should get treated equally.

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  6. I think booktubers are completely in a class of their own. It takes confidence to post up review clips so that they're not only informative, but it takes a certain amount of charisma to pull it off. But it seems that they're also the ones that cop the most flack as well. It's sad. I wish I could keep up with all the various blogging platforms, but unfortunately time isn't my friend.

    Completely agree though, tubers put so much more of themselves out there and they seem to reach many more readers than most of our blogs do, they should get the same privileges we do, if not more, based on their views and such. I'm definitely going to check out your clips, it's awesome that you're crossing over and maintaining both. I'm in awe :)

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    1. I completely agree. It really takes a lot of confidence to actually put yourself out there - even though the video is edited, you need to be able to articulate yourself in a certain amount of time and in a manner that you hope audiences will like.

      Regarding tumblr, there's so many blogs those tumblr book blogs that have lots of followers I think are really awesome too - they need to stand out among all the other book blogs + blogs that reblog heaps of other stuff.

      Before I started blogging, I'd actually considered booktubing first, but decided to go with Blogger/WP style blogging to see how it goes.

      Thanks Kelly (:

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