Hello, my book-loving friends! I am happy to announce the release of a project that I have been working on since 2019. As an avid reader, booktube content provider and booktube viewer, I am always looking for ways to connect with people who love reading books. So this project is really another way to make that happen. But first, let me give you the background of how this labor of love came about.
Background
I believe in 2019, an article was published by a major newspaper talking about booktubers and highlighted several booktubers. Shortly after it was published, the booktube community lit up with discussions about the lack of diverse representation in the article. The fact that the research fell short of including a more diverse group was not lost on the black booktube community.
While recording a Black History Month group chat as part of the #ReadSoulLit events in 2019, I sat on a panel of booktubers and the subject of the lack of outreach from publishers to promote books and read ARCs within the black booktube community was mentioned.
My experience as a booktuber trying to find black booktubers has been quite an arduous task over the years.
An idea to product
With all of the topics mentioned above rolling around in my head I began talking with my husband about this void that needed filling. His response was then you should fill it. Don’t wait for someone to do it. So that’s what we did. So for several months, he worked on the database and I went on Youtube and began snooping around to find as many black booktubers as I could. Once the database was ready we populated it with the data. I decided what better time to launch this product than Black History Month 2020. I hope you enjoy using it.
My hope
I wish for many wonderful things to happen with this database:
- For Booktubers and general YouTube viewers – I want them to use this database to gain exposure to my diverse content and content providers.
- For Authors – I want them to use this list to find black content providers that will not only read their books but will promote their books (on their channels, blogs) as well as offer up interviews to the black content providers.
- For Publishers and the Media – I want them to know that there is a list of black content providers that is growing daily and for them to reach out for reviews of ARCs, coordinate author interviews and when writing articles, they can provide a more diverse representation when discussing the booktube community.
Accessing the database
You can access the database easily by clicking on the ‘black booktubers’ link on the sidebar. Please visit often for I will continue to update this list of new content providers.
