My GAMMA.CON Review

It was a couple of weeks ago now that I attended my first GAMMA.CON, Canberra’s answer to Comic-Con. Being my first experience not only of GAMMA.CON, but in fact any Con, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.

At first I did a loop around the arena, getting my bearings, and a glimpse of the event. While it wasn’t packed with people, there was an energy and enthusiasm that certainly filled the space. I meandered, slightly lost, between the stalls, the striking cosplay, art, and other wonderers.

Initially I felt a little out of place, and underdressed, but my feeling of estrangement didn’t last long. I found that people manning stalls were very happy to have a chat, the Cosplayers were always keen for some positive feedback, and the general atmosphere was one of inclusion and creativity. There were so many talented people gathered in the one place. The time, the effort and the passion put into their work was truly inspiring.

When I finally settled at the Odyssey stall, I then got the opportunity to talk to the interested readers and writers that came past, chatting with them about favourite genres and reads. Both the reading and the writing of books can be isolating, often solitary exercises, and I enjoyed engaging with people so set on making these passions a social experience. 

One of the best things was to see was such an avid interest in Odyssey’s books, many who came past the stall keen to experience the worlds and adventures Odyssey authors have created. I was especially stoked to get to read and purchase a new book published by Obscura (an imprint of Odyssey which specialises in beautiful and unusual gift books) called Octopus and Family. It’s witty, punny and comes highly recommended!

It was fascinating to catch a glimpse of such a passionate and engaging community, so thanks for having me GammaCon! 

An Ode to Booktubers

 

This week as part of my intern work I did some more social media exploring. I looked at booktubers, the youtubers whose channels focus solely on discussing books. As I mentioned in my previous post, the way I normally engage with books tends to be fairly old-fashioned and I hadn’t really looked into booktubers. The closest I had come was when I got really invested in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a blog-style adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (if you haven’t watched the blog it’s amazing but also very addictive, proceed with caution –https://www.youtube.com/user/LizzieBennet)

Much like my social media stalking/research, yet again I was shocked and impressed by what I found. These channels are massive, some booktubers, such as Sasha Alsbery, who created her channel ABookTopia, have over 300K followers. She’s a woman in her 20s who has 300 thousand people listening to her talk about books, that’s impressive. Moreover, there’s a whole culture around booktubing with its own slang and customs. For example most of the booktubers I looked at would promote their “book hauls”, “TBRs” (to be reads), “wrap ups”, “tags” and of course “reviews”. All these practices are geared towards making talking about books all the more interesting, engaging and entertaining. They create these massive followings through creating videos that are so damn watchable. You watch one short video and bam, you’re stuck in a Youtube spiral, it’s The Lizzie Bennet Diaries all over again.

The booktubers that I have become most besotted with so far are: Jessethereader – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDPo9-NZFNi2Gwe8LnlvAUQ

and Mercy’sbookishmusings – https://www.youtube.com/user/MercysBookishMusings

Jesse is enthusiastic, funny, conversational and so endearing. He reads a lot of young adult and fantasy fiction, and the way he talks about the books he reads imbues them with such excitement and enjoyment that you’re immediately convinced that you need to read them; he’s a publisher’s dream! Also he cuts his videos in to spoiler-free and spoiler-full sections so you avoid the bits you need to. I’m really interested in the ways young adults receive and review YA fiction and I’m going to be researching it for my PhD thesis, so I can’t wait to explore more of his videos.

My other new favourite booktuber, Mercy, looks at a range of genres including literary fiction, magical realism and even non-fiction. I was drawn to her reviews of literary fiction and impressed by the range of books she takes on. She’s also really engaging, but comes off a little more serious and thoughtful than Jesse. Another thing that I really like is that Mercy states boldly in her information section that she doesn’t “have a degree in English literature” and that she’ll “never write a novel”, but that she still has her own opinion. I love that she’s so unapologetic about her lack of university knowledge, and so confident in the importance of varied opinions and analyses. As she suggests there is never one way to read, understand or appreciate a book. So what I’m coming to discover, and really value, about the booktuber community is that predominantly it’s not exclusive, elite or pretentious. Instead it’s inclusive, positive and compelling.

These booktubers are creating their own cyber book clubs, where anyone, from anywhere, at any time of day can connect with other people about the literature that inspires them. I joined a book club a few months ago (mostly because they were going to talk about my idol Thomas Hardy) and I went to one meeting, just the one, and never another one since. Even though I loved it and I met great people, it was so hard to make schedules align. What booktubers offer is a massive, exciting, anytime, kind of book club.

I believe the most important thing a book can do is change the way you think about the world, and when you get one of those rare, incredible, thought-changing books you absolutely NEED someone to talk to about it, and booktubers create the perfect platform for that conversation.

Even more wonderfully, pretty much everything they do promotes literature.  I was talking to a friend recently about booktubers, and he commented that it’s ironic to think that an industry so threatened by the internet could now come to rely on it. But I don’t think it’s ironic at all, it’s ingenious. In an era that prescribes the demise of the book, the publishing industry and literary community is using the very technology that threatened it as the launching pad into a new world of communication. So go you good booktubers!

Reaching for the Stars – The Importance of Book Reviews

by Jenna O’Connell

You’re sitting in your chair, pondering the barren wasteland that is your bookshelf. You wish there was a book, any book, to fulfil your yearning for words. But you’ve read everything. You’ve got that craving, that craving for something new and exciting. You’ve decided! You’re going to get a new book! Hooray!

But as you approach the fantastical world of online book shopping, or that cave of magic and wonder we call a bookstore, you skid to a sudden halt. There’s so many! How are you possibly going to choose one? You need some advice, and the blurb isn’t enough. You want to know the real story, the underground mutterings from someone who has read the book.

Congratulations, you’ve just jumped into a world that authors and publishers face every day. Not because they’re rich enough to buy new books everyday (although that is the ultimate dream) but because they are trying to sell one book within that many.

Marketing today is a complex battle to try and engage readers and draw their attention to one specific book in a market flooded with dozens of options. So we use a number of strategies, including social media, cover teasers, press releases and releasing preview chapters. But one of the most important is the full utilisation of book reviews.

Many of you purists out there will be recoiling in horror. I know many of us would like to believe that book reviews magically appear out of nowhere, penned by an enthusiastic reader who stumbled across the book and fell in love. I’m not saying that those reviewers aren’t out there; I’m just comparing them to our favourite mythical white horse with a horn. The majority of reviews are requested, whether by the publisher sending out review copies, or by the author themselves.

Review copies are copies of the manuscript produced about four months before a book is due to be released. These are usually sent to book reviewers, often for newspapers and magazines, but more and more frequently to book bloggers. Each reviewer usually has their own stipulations for what sort of book they wish to be sent. Most still tend to favour print books over eBooks. Although, as publishers, especially small press, are increasingly reluctant to send out physical copies with no promise of return, sending eBooks to reviewers is a growing practice. Often there is no guarantee that a reviewer will even review your book, let alone say nice things about it, so the more you can send out, the better. Unfortunately, this tends to favour the larger publishing houses, which have more resources to produce and send out more review copies.

This is where services like NetGalley come in. NetGalley is a website designed to bring those eager to review, and those wanting reviews, together. Publishers sign up, and post summaries of their works to be reviewed. Interested readers and reviewers then request a copy of those they would like to review. It does have its flaws, at least from a publishing side, in that there is no obligation to post a review – no one can chase you down after you have requested a book. But it does provide another avenue for publishers to have their books reviewed.

No one who has bought a book online can honestly claim to have not looked at the reviews, even if they only have a quick glance at the star rating. For many authors, especially those with smaller publishers, word of mouth is the best publicity there is, and reviews are the internet’s version of that. With the rise of websites like Goodreads, reviews are increasingly becoming a part of the way we decide which book to read next, making them a vital part of marketing strategy. So next time you dive into the multitude of available books and emerge victorious, consider writing a review! Having now done a couple myself, not only is it not as scary as I thought, but it allows you to think more deeply about what you do and do not like in a book. And if you stumble across one of those little undiscovered gems we’re always looking for, it’s a great way to show how much you loved it.