I’ve Got a YouTube Channel!!!
I’ve been jumping on a lot of bandwagons lately, most notably Bloglovin’ (which has been nothing short of a disaster) and Twitter, which is slowly but surely accepting me. And then a blogging bud of mine Laura Frey mentioned that all book bloggers are now booktubing (which I’ve gone ahead and just assumed means recording your book reviews and posting them on YouTube) so I figured I better get in on this lit-loving action ASAP. Plus, I have two cats, and people freaking love videos of cats, so how can this idea possibly not succeed? So, being the industrious little housewife that I’ve come to identify myself as, I have created my own YouTube Channel-check it out!
Below is my first video that I’ve uploaded, and it’s a sixty second book review of a hot new book for summer: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. You’ve probably seen a ton of reviews for this book by now, but I really enjoyed it, so I had to tell my loyal readers (and now viewers!) all about it.
Filming this video took a few tries, but Smokey was surprisingly fine with the whole thing. I also struggled to find a suitable location in my house, and alas, unlike many other book tubers, I couldn’t find anything in front of a bookcase to make me look more legit, so I’m just sitting in front of some paintings that a good friend made for me and my husband as a wedding gift. I’m quite proud of the fact that I designed the channel header myself on Canva, although it took me much longer than I’d care to admit. 
Being the tech newb that I am, I’m lucky that my husband pointed out the fact that the quality of this video was quite low, so I’ve since downloaded better software to record my next video (promise!). But I’m interested to know what y’all think of this new endeavor of mine; should I stick with written reviews, or do you see an interest for these 60 second vlogs? I also need advice, like, how do I make fun little screen shots or graphics appear in the shot while I’m talking? What else should I be doing differently? As always, thank you in advance for your comments and suggestions, they are extremely helpful!
Congrats on getting a channel! I’m so bad and awkward with cameras I’d just never feel good doing anything like that :D you’re brave!
haha well the most nerve-wracking part was posting it on you tube, the recording is the easy part :)
A you-tube channel! Great video! I’m pretty sure I would suck at talking about books. I’m not so good on the spot. You’re a natural!
ha you’re too kind :) Although I doubt you would have any troubles with this, you’ve got lots of interesting things to say
My thoughts don’t come out of my mouth as well as they come out of my fingers. :)
Good luck with your YouTube channel. Wish I was brave enough to talk online about my book reviews.
It’s not as much a sense of bravery as it is “whatever let’s just do this” haha
I thought this was pretty good (very relaxed); in fact, as someone who’s experimented (less successfully with the video book review, I wanted to ask about sound (this was my major hurdle). What kind of mic are you using?
Thank you! I’m not using a mic, just my laptop which is a big problem, the sound is really inconsistent in my videos. I’m thinking of getting a whole new camera just for these videos, but we will see!
Hi Anne, Thanks for responding. The sound was really low when I tried. Did you use a particular setting?
Ummmm no, I don’t think so, but I did download a new piece of software which helped a bit. It’s called Debut Video Capture Software, it was like 20 bucks
Okay. Cool. Thanks.