Fiction Friction (#20): What I Post on My Blog vs. on Booktube

These posts are meant to bring about some conversation, discussion, and perhaps even a debate. These discussion posts can occur at varying days of the week, mostly depending upon what's scheduled on the blog and what I feel like discussing.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, especially after the whole thing about the blogging and booktube communities. I started thinking about how I use the two platforms differently. Now, I'm barely on Booktube at all, only making and posting videos once in a while. I watch many videos but only occasionally post a comment. I hardly ever promote my videos, and I'm only starting to post non haul/tbr videos. I rarely review books that way because I find it more difficult to articulate my thoughts when I'm speaking (I forget so much and then feel like I'm talking too much/for too long). I have yet to do any tag videos. 

On the other hand, I'm currently a part of three different blogs, and I'll be adding a fourth (not related to books) one soon. It's hard for me to juggle all of them, but I can't imagine giving any of them up. I'll be stepping down to a contributor role on Lit Up Review, which I'm sad about but also relieved about because it'll give me more time to work on keeping up this blog and my new blog while I'm in college. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to be a part of Feminists Talk Books, so even though having Mondays sucks more than I thought it would, I'm trying to keep it up. I've been struggling though, and I feel like I'm letting people (especially my co-bloggers) down. But it's the medium I feel more comfortable with. Yeah, maybe I don't get many views and most people probably don't read my posts, but when I'm feeling bogged down or burnt out, I really enjoy it (ex. this is the 7th post I'm scheduling today).

But I've realized that because the mediums are obviously very different, I think I'm also going to continue to be posting different things on the two. 

Booktube:

• Hauls and TBRs will remain as videos. I now also embed my haul videos in my monthly wrap ups as well
• Tags--I'm really bad at tags in general but especially the ones circulating the blogosphere. With videos, you can do different types of tags--guess the book, rip it or ship it, etc. Those types of tags wouldn't work in print but work very well and are, in my opinion, interesting to watch.
• Top 10s/5s--I know a lot of people post these on their blogs and whatnot, but I find them more exciting to watch. Maybe it's the fact that you can't see them all at once or maybe it's the way the booktubers I watch present it.
• Book Recs--While I like these on both platforms for different reasons, much of the reasoning behind this is similar to the one above

Blogging:

• Reviews--I still feel like I can more accurately and articulately get my opinons across in writing. I might film some book reviews, but it will still primarily be found on my blogs. Plus, while this isn't true of every booktuber, many of them spend around two minutes just summarizing the book, and I don't really need that most of the time. I mostly read reviews for books I've already read or am really anticipating anyway, and in blogging format, I can skip over the synopsis or whatnot much more easily.
• Discussions--Similar to reviews, I feel like my personal discussions on YouTube would be too all over the place. Plus, I think the majority of the audience on booktube isn't really as geared or interested in that in video form. It's more readable and digestable in written form.
• Cover reveals, tours, guest posts, etc--You can't deny that this is so much easier in written form.
• Events--Blogging events galore! For instance, I had a Dance Appreciation Week event, as well as my Summer of Songs events last summer, combining lyrics/music and books. That's just not something that can be done on Booktube.

It's true that there's room for lots of crossover, and of course it's true that these are more my personal preferences. But I think we all see the value in both mediums. They can get different types of information across or present the same information in different ways. Both communities have been welcoming to me, but I've found it easier to find fellow bloggers and to find people to read my blog posts. Not to say that there are many readers anyway, but I think that given the time I put into my blog, it's only to be expected. I'm glad to be a part of both, though I'm still very, very new to booktube. I'm glad to know people in both communities and to see more and more delving into the other. Then there's also the bookstagram community, but that's a little more cross-sectional, with bloggers, booktubers, the mixed, and the solely bookstagramers all in one sphere.

I don't want to talk about the drama that happened or drag it out more than necessary, but it did lead me to think of this and to think about what I do and the types of videos vs. blog posts I post/create.