It's always great to hear about all these RU-vid niches and their cultures. Before discovering you, I had no idea that BookTubing was even a thing @___@ you're bang on about niches though! My main channel speaks only about One Piece and RU-vid rewards the crap out of tunneling into that niche.
Merphy, your expertise in story analysis is not only clearly evident in your commentary, but also in your other work. Thank you for your diligent and thoughtful insights, and best wishes for you, your family and your channel in the future.
As a newbie to BookTube, I appreciate your candid remarks and insights. Your emphasis on making videos that you enjoy and that have something original to add to the conversations about books really resonates with me. It's often pretty obvious when a BookTuber is simply going through the motions in their videos--particularly in TBRs and wrap-ups produced monthly or seasonally as a matter of routine in an effort to keep the algorithm happy. I also get tired of channels that create endless variety of book rankings that tend to feature the same books repeatedly. Original and varied content seems like the right way to go (even if the algorithm doesn't always agree). I plan to check out your Dear Authors and Inside Publishing playlists. Thanks for making them!
I think a big part of the reason why the dear author series took off so much was because it involved a lot of interaction and direct quotes from your viewers. It was really powerful to have a space that was your opinion but also a curated way to share the opinions of others in such a positive way. It really adds to that sense of connection and community to have so many different opinions from just one video without everyone involved having to become a RU-vidr or show private information... A lot of readers have a lot of thoughts they want to share but don't want the literal spotlight.
I absolutely love that series. I have actually implemented a lot of the advice into my own writing already! I cannot wait to keep watching more of them!
I watch BookTube mostly for reviews. They are sometimes embedded in bookshelf tours, wrap ups, fav. characters, etc. I don’t care for book hauls because the books haven’t been read and so can’t be reviewed. I also like your publishing and dear author series because not only does they make me a more discriminating reader and book buyer, but I always think I may start writing one day. Your channel is great. Keep doing what you like, and I’m sure other people will like it too.
i think question 7 was part of this because when the tag was created; that topic was being talked about. loved the video and the real talk about the sponsorships.
"what do you mean?! Is booktube dying? Do y'all know something I don't know???" 🤣🤣🤣 I'm sorry the book publishing series didn't get as much notice as it deserves. I was really looking forward to it, watched the first two .. Then life happened 😵 will definitely be binge watching it (cause it's just really interesting), so I'm glad you made it Also, I hope you do more sponsorships. I just love your skits 😊
Yes, that's the thing! The binge watching! It was very "I know there'll be a playlist for this so it'll be easier to binge watch it later" kind of content, and not so much "I need to click this video before it gets lost and I never ever see it again" kind of content. No urgency. BUT, here's the other thing. The more urgent content has it's day and then dies. Inside publishing series will still be serving you five or even ten years down the line.
Great video Merphy! You are such a great booktuber. I love your videos. I have read some of the best books I never would have read just because of your channel. One of the best books I read last year was Peter Pan thanks to you and WOW never in a million years would I have thought to read that as an adult. Then this year Sword of Kaigen. That was more influenced by your discord but still. Booktubers rock!
It was nice to hear you talk about it being okay to take breaks from making content, I'm currently in the middle of a break from making videos and was feeling pretty guilty about it. So thanks for the friendly reminder, Merphy! ♡ ♡
OMG the camera videos. My husband has been anticipating the announcement of the release of the Sony A7IV for quite a while now. I think at this point I could spout off camera facts. I'm also convinced he's just watching one long video of the same thing and not different creators. (though the longer I watch his camera videos, the more I can pick up on the ones he watches regularly. There's the one guy who looks like a friend of his, so we just call him Jerry, there's another camera guy who always had his dog in his videos, and most recently he follows a British camera guy with really good dynamic shots and interesting tidbits) But then again, when he comments on the Booktubers I watch, he has little one-word descriptions for the ones I watch regularly. Like BooksandLala is "the Canadian one" (because we're Canadian), Ashley at BookishRealm is "the librarian" (because I'm a librarian too), and you're the one I "get the most rec's" from because he just constantly sees me reading books that you're reading on your channel. XD
Saying you'll do whatever guarantees your own enjoyment warms my heart. Proves all your content are honest and sincere. Came here for one piece and if you somehow decides to drop it i wont even be upset.
I love the concept of Booktube on a whole, but also appreciate your channel in particular because, like me, you particularly love fantasy but also branch into different genres. I recently realized that I've read more than 80 books this year and, while I've had various degrees of enjoyment out of them, there isn't one that I really hated, which is really down to booktube in general and you and Daniel in particular being people whose opinions I can really trust on books, even when I don't agree with them. For example, I think I liked the second and third books in Broken Earth significantly more than you did and last year I read Foundryside and ended up enjoying it far less than you, but you give both honest and rounded reviews that are really helpful for figuring out if I'll enjoy something even if I don't agree with your final score. You, Daniel, and booktube as a whole have helped nurture my already great love of books. Yesterday I literally said out loud, "Fine! I'll read One Piece!" So I hope that's my next reading adventure partially inspired by you that I'll really love
I watched and enjoyed the inside publishing series. To me it was very professional! I will go back and make sure to interact with them and maybe it will help the algorithm!
Honestly, I feel some videos just don’t have the audience for it… yet. The internet is still young so the cycles of discovery aren’t really ironed out. I’d argue that the unique content is mandatory. Obviously a balance is key and it usually is. Much love and thanks.
Now I'm feeling guilty I didn't watch Inside Publishing. It sounds amazing but I'm feeling the publishing business in North America is different from where I live so its less appealing for that reason alone. I might still play it some time :)
I really liked the inside publishing video they will really helpful and insightful sorry to hear that they didn't do well I love you Channel I always get great reading recommendations from you and I really appreciate it!
I loved the Inside Publishing series. It was well made, researched, and really interesting. However I think the problem with it performing badly were the thumbnails. They just didn't grab my attention, and I actually watched somet of them a couple of days after they came out because I overlooked them the first time, but it was still something I was interested in. I know designing thumbnails for RU-vid is hard. You have to grab people's attention in an instant, and they have to look good on a TV and on a phone
Really interesting video. Love the insight in to what you do and how you approach your channel. Reminds me of the economics of your channel video you did which was great
I love wrap ups and reviews, but many time I skip them until I read the book to avoid a preconceived idea on that book. TBR are really enjoyable but I understand if people don't want to make them into video since I myself am a really messy reader and have a VERY long TBR which order I won't respect.
Right?!! If I were ever to become a booktuber and do a TBR type video, I definitely wouldn't be able do monthly TBRs or anything like that, only like "new additions" (more like bookhauls then, I guess) or "most anticipated" or "books I'd _like_ to prioritize but who knows if or when I ever actually will" type TBR vids. 🤣🤣🤣 My reading-list is *SUCH* a mess!!!!! LOL I have mad respect for booktubers and readers in general with super organized reading & TBRs. ^-^
to me, sounds like if one wants to do two things, it is good to have two channels. if one wants to do a variety of things, have one channel and wait to get a dedicated fanbase.
Really enjoyable! I didn’t know what inside publishing would be about but now I’m interested. Do you plug it on other videos? Maybe people just need more info. Like I thought you worked in publishing. I didn’t know you traveled and did research and collab!
She did plug it in a few other videos... even dropped a "trailer"-esque video specifically introducing/explaining it, if I recall correctly! But, no, she definitely didn't just push it excessively like the "coming-soon" prerelease hullabaloo you often see harolding in new book or movie/tv release dates sometimes or on other types of youtube channels that are definitely more of a busy-busy business/brand just constantly churning out content for the clicks or lighthearted-engagement rather than for the passion of the content itself or the meaningful discourse or whatever or anything..😅🤣
I feel like maybe the reason the inside publishing videos didn’t do well was that the thumbnails were all different from her usual. I tend to scroll kinda quickly and look for my favorite creators in the thumbnails and this series’ thumbnails were less Merphy focused than usual. She wasn’t in most of them and I’ll admit I even scrolled past them at first. The content was amazing when I went back and watched them, but I didn’t even realize they were Merphy videos at first! As silly as that little thing is, I think that’s why it wasn’t as popular tbh
Inside publishing series was really cool to watch, and I'm sorry that it didn't perform so well for you. To be honest with any RU-vidr I watch, I'm more invested in their personality over their content. I feel bad for RU-vidrs, you all get treated like you are one trick ponies. Don't get me wrong, once you've found a niche and you're happy with it that's great, but as you say if you dare to branch out to other things the algorithm punishes you 😑 anyway, keep making content you love making, we will continue watching ❤
Put Your Face in Thumbnail! When you announced that you were doing a new series "inside Publishing" I was excited but I didn't click on the videos for the first three because of the thumbnail. I didn't recognize that they were your videos cause you weren't in the thumbnail as I search my videos through "Home" recommendations. As soon as I realized I watched them all. This might be a reason why they preformed low.
Hey Murphy, I really enjoy listening to you talk about what you read. But I would not enjoy it if I thought you weren’t doing that well. Just take a break when you need one please self-care is really important
Reviews that are paid are by definition not reviews, that's an oxymoron. Getting paid to review a product or services introduces bias and often times the final review or script requires approval by the company offering the sponsorship. They would more often be referred to as product showcases. I am really glad you do not accept any compensation for your reviews, I have come to trust your opinions and I'd hate having to second guess any recommendations you give out. I used to do tech and game reviews and in that space paid "reviews" are extremely frowned upon. Any time a company tries to assert control over reviews they get called out publicly (Nvidia vs Hardware Unboxed and LG vs Hardware Unboxed are perfect examples where the entire tech journalism space dunked on these companies so hard, that said companies reverted their position and issued public apologies).
For me the Inside Publishing series just didn't work for me. I could see that it was good content, but I watched a few episodes and it didn't really work for me
That's a bummer to hear that the inside publishing series didn't perform well. I really liked those videos and thought they were filled with great information. In this humble stranger's opinion, you really did something wonderful there, and you definitely deserve to be proud of the series!
Im already interested in hearing more about that Kinda thing as someone Who TRIED writing books as a Teenager or whatever..... so After that vid on the side Maybe I have to Actually LOOK for it?? haha Man bloody Rigged Search Engines Shutting me Up for Saying fook the world government and all the rest...... The Dear Authors stuff showing So FAR Have me intrigued as well.... Merphy Talks about Book Stuff? Why Not Im Sold even if I spend ALL my Laguage skills on bits of Random Language stuff of little use wondering about wierd occult stuff being secret military intel stuff thats usualy ALL wierd metaphors and wierd sex jokes and stuff Id need BETTER PsyOps Knowledge to comprehend accurately... or whatever else other Stuff I just DONT Pay Attention to because of Making MORE Stupid Assumptions as though Ive Figured out EVERYTHING EVER already Enough to get at least half of Whatever anyone says til its all in other languages or JUST Different Enough for it to Not Reach Me on an actual Understanding Level considering one's Perception skills.... WHATEVER what the hell am I Even Rambling about anywaym Im JUST Gonna Click Dear Authors Villains to start or Early Vs Recent WHICH I expect to be talking How SOME Get Worse or Better in Different Ways Depending on A LOT of Variables and MAYBE A Few Unpopular Opinions based on thinking BEYOND What General Public Perceptions AS Programmed by Google or WHATEVER Cause of Whatever Technocratic Nonsense I Expect to Damage Her Less... THOUGH I wonder whether Such Study Results WOULD EVER Be Allowed haaha Whichever Military Intelligence Group IS NOT A FAN of such Sentiments Always Wanting ALL that "Freedom" stuff or whatever Right? Man Really preppin myself for some villain talk ADVICE for Authors Now or Interesting Criticism Maybe?? I guess Ill Ramble More Stuff NO ONE ASKED FOR in the Next Vid's Comments if I dont Write TOO Much and Intentionally Forget to Enter by Making ANOTHER of 50+ Vid Tabs with Text or LOST Text Id Written and Lost when Crashing Computer Again......
You, Daniel, Allen, the Brothers Gwynn, Jimmy Nutts and others are my "food tasters." You read some books so I don't have to. Actually, I saved $$$ and increased my book enjoyment. If you guys love a book, chances are 10000% sure, I'll enjoy it too. If you're Luke warm, I take a hard pass. The only down side: my TBR is WAY too big. Love your content!
I feel that the normal BookTube videos that everyone is doing can get old after a while, that’s why I enjoy it when there’s a lot of unique and original videos on a channel.
I'm really shocked the Inside Publishing didn't do so well. I thought all readers would want to know what goes into making these things we love so much. Hmmph.
I’m so sad the inside publishing series flopped! I watched it all and absolutely loved it! And a quick comment about your ads: it’s because you’re not reading a script but actually doing a little skit that I don’t fast forward or skip it! BTW I started using Campfire too. I’m here for any new Patricia McWriterly content 😂
I loved the Inside Publishing series and would love more "behind the scenes" content. But I also love reviews, haul, and wrap-up videos. I'm here for all the merphy content
The thing about passion projects sometimes flopping reminded me of Abroad in Japan who talked about it, and how he approaches making content on youtube. As he said, when youtube becomes a job, you have to care about views and everything, but you also have to make those outside the box videos that you really want to do, because otherwise it's really unsatisfying. In his case, he has to sometimes make a "TOP 10 (insert something specific to Japan)" videos because he knows it will perform really well by virtue of its nature and title, and those well performing videos help him finance those other videos that often have much more production value and can be much more costly, because he knows there is a good chance those won't perform, even though this is the kind of video his core audience prefers. I think it's a very healthy way to approach youtube as a professional content creator.
That is the magic of youtube because it applies to everything, until youtube forces their creators bend over and takes it in the butt from copyright claims
I definitely appreciate the Inside Publishing series and you got me back into reading. Maybe this is a very cold take but I really love how wholesome and chill the booktube sphere is.
It’s interesting to hear you talk about your first experience with BookTube and how exciting it was for you to find people who love reading and talking about books. That’s exactly how I felt when I found your channel a few years ago. I wasn’t much of a reader during my early college years, but I started reading a little more and I stumbled upon your channel. Thanks to you and other BookTubers I’m reading 30+ books a year and my TBR is constantly growing.
Inside publishing is a kind of series that will be watched even after years ! I hope people are recommended this because it's actually a really great project!
I think the problem with the Inside Publishing videos is you're not prominently featured in them. People usually watch RU-vid videos for the host first then the content.
I think inside publishing will garner views over time. It’s something that people will search for. I feel like in a couple of years it will have gotten a lot of views.
I found you the same way you found Booktube, looking for a review. I really enjoy your reviews and I loved Inside Publishing! It was so unique and fascinating. I even picked up a book (The Nature of Witches) because it was talked about in the Graphic Design video. Also your sponsorship ads are the best!
Algorithm is definitely part of it. Only two of the publishing videos showed up in my feed. I kept thinking "when is she going to make more of them?" I didn't realize you already uploaded six. They never came up in my feed or recommended videos.
If you are subcrbed to this channel, you can click on Subscriptions on the lefthand bar on your homepage, and see everything in order that was uploaded by the people you subscribe to. I feel like it is the last place on the internet where you can see everything from people you follow in chronological order, and it is so awesome!
I watch youtube in two places.... logged out on a tv screen via the house livingroom/PS4 (so I have no subscriptions influencing anything there..only viewing history) - & logged in on my cellphone from anywhere at anytime. On the PS4, I watch a lot of authortube and/or writing and/or publishing type videos in general, and I was actually consistently recommended Merphy's "Inside Publishing" series for every episode without ever having to search for it!!! But I do think those particular niches are maybe slightly smaller or less popular than booktube overall, in general, so that might also have something to do with it; and the algorithm probably wouldn't necessarily recommend them as much or as often to people who ordinarily watch only[ or mostly] booktube (reviews / reading-vlogs / recommendations / etc.) type content and don't typically watch any or a lot of those other types of videos instead. 🤷♀️ On my phone, my youtube viewing is a lot more .. I don't quite know how to describe it? In some ways, it's a lot more random and/or less specific?? But in other ways, it can be just as specific...just toward totally different other-niche spheres, like music and certain types of webseries I like to watch and specific genres &/or fandoms that I love and movie reviews and cats and such with more booktube specific type content being the closest crossover. And on my phone, my recommendations did NOT so much really provide me with Merphy's Inside Publishing series at all...even though I am subscribed to her. (But I think I either have notifications turned off completely, or turned on but only for personalized recommendations or whatever, rather than for all videos; because I subscribe to far too many different channels and my phone would be constantly blowing-up with notifications and impossibly burying me under said notifications so that notifications would become completely pointless altogether if I had notifications turned on for all videos for every channel I subscribe to.😅😅) So, I think maybe it's less that the algorithm squashes certain types of videos, so much as it just pigeonholes potential viewers' recommendations into sometimes too specific or limited of boxes...rather than always recommending diverse viewing options to everyone, even from content creators someone is specifically subscribed to. If that makes sense?? 😅🤷♀️🤷♀️ buut, what do I know; Nothing, really! I could easily be completely wrong here... Loll
@@readingwithrebeccanicole This true though - the subscription feed can definitely be a very useful tool outside of simply relying on recommendations or notifications alone! ^-^
Another reason that original videos doesn't generate a lot of views might simply be that the people in the comments wanting those videos will watch them but the majority of people watching videos don't engange with it further. So the people who want change are always in a minority anyways.
I think the second question, where you went in-depth into how something performs vs. how proud you are of a project, or how elaborate it is, is more of a quality vs. quantity question. Yes, not a lot of people click on it, but those that do often give valuable input in the comments, thus making the concept of people sharing their thoughts on a topic real. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of people clicking and watching, no interaction whatsoever.
Just a comment on the algorithm: In the last few months, I watched two different RU-vid channels make their way through One Piece for the first time. When I was done with them, RU-vid recommended one of your One Piece videos. So, you successfully forced the algorithm to move you into a new spot. 😁
I loved Inside Publishing! I'd been curious about the process for a while and your own curiosity really shone through, even though it was a departure from your usual stuff. I also really like your book reviews, I watch most of them.
Are you interested/thinking about making more harry potter videos 🥺??? I absolutely love all your harry potter videos and would be very happy to see more 😺. Of course, I am not "ordering" or "asking" you to do any of that. I'm just wondering if you would, in the future :D
I wasn't particularly interested in the publishing video but I thought it was really cool you did it and it seemed like a really well made video. Definitely agree with your points about doing what you love
Interesting points. I think that Merphy's popular because she has considerable insight. She is quite intelligent and there is a lot of merit to her opinions. Also, she seems to have a considerable ability to be socially effective, which is necessary not to put an audience off her channel. Many smart people who have in depth analyses and a passion for books seem to make this mistake. Also, she has an easy to follow style of communication, which is inherently theatrical, which even a non-reader will find easy to follow.
I watched some episodes of the inside publishing series and I loved what I watched, but a combination of two thing occurred. 1. It’s hard for me too keep up with any long form content. I’m more of a binger, so if its not in my notifications, I won’t follow it dedicatedly. 2. RU-vid for some reason didn’t push that into my notifications, so I never got new in my feed. If I was to suggest something, it’ll be a summary of some main points of each episode of the series in one video. If that video does well, it’ll also attract more attention to the earlier videos for those who want more detail or are more curious.
So sad to hear your book publishing videos "flopped". I watched and liked every one of them and thought they were incredible. I really appreciate you doing them. They are a real service to book lovers, and I wish you were rewarded with a bigger response.
The people who want original content are the people who watch original content. Unfortunately for them (us), most people are not those people and - as you mentioned - there's also the algorithm. So, they'll never do as well metric wise, until the concepts are no longer original (become popular/trending).
I have all your inside publishing videos in my watch later list but I feel like I need to properly sit down and really concentrate so I haven’t watched it yet. Will do so soon though
I am confused that there is a thing called, "BookTube," which is different than RU-vid. Or is it just a collection of RU-vidrs that talk about books? I know you and I know Daniel Green. I know there are a bunch that talk about writing (Jena Moreci, Sarra Cannon, iWriterly, Shaelin and others.) I know there are a bunch who talk about computer games (Klaus Kellerman, The Mighty Jingles, DezGames, Flambas, QuickyBaby and many others.)
It IS really confusing when you first hear the term(s)! But..yeah = BookTube is just the collective of different creators of content on RU-vid who specifically talk about books. 🙂 Daniel Greene is as much a "fantasytuber" as he is specifically a booktuber, because he doesn't exclusively talk about fantasy-genre books only, he also talks about fantasy-genre movies/games/tv/writing/authors & other fantasy-related things/news. (And he also, sometimes, talks about Sci-Fi, too^-^) RU-vidrs who make content focused on gaming or talking about gaming is called "gamertube"... I think? But I don't watch a lot of that type of gamer/gaming content myself, so I could be wrong. And authors of books who are active youtube content creators are known as "authortube". But there are people on youtube who talk about writing & writing advice and/or the publishing industry in general, not necessarily directly related to being a published (or aspiring) author themself; some of them are editors or literary agents or just university-educated about writing in general and such. It's pretty cool!
My theory for why the inside publishing series didn’t perform very well is that the thumbnails are super different from your normal style. I probably skipped through it in my subscription box because it doesn’t look like your content
I rarely comment anywhere, but wanted to tell you that you can DEFINITELY be proud of your Inside Publishing series, even if it didn't perform that well. Long form content tends to be very hit or miss (as you've alluded to in your video). But this type of content puts you above other content creators in the long run and will draw very dedicated (to books, writing, reading AND you) audiences to you, who will in turn stick with you for longer. These effects are not necessarily measurable immediately, but I am sure having a series like that will pay off somewhere in the future in terms of brand loyalty and also the credibility of you as a brand. Speaking as a marketing professional here. So please, PLEASE continue experimenting with long form content and deep dives and everything. You're doing a great job! Cheers and all the best :)
