Every couple of weeks or so, as a YouTuber, I get a wrap up of the analytics of my channel. It’s interesting to go through it and see how it’s being received but if I want more details, you can drill down into the analytics in that specific section in YouTube Studio which is the backend of YouTube where all content is uploaded and edited…the engine of your channel in other words.

I’m deep in thought about this endeavour I started.

Do I continue with it?

Do I delete the entire channel?

I don’t know.

What I do know is that I love reading and I love responding to people’s comments. They’ve been engaging, interesting and educational with people giving me recommendations I’d never have come across. They’ve also suggested writers who come from different parts of the world other than Australia, USA or the UK.

The bad thing? The editing. It’s a massive time suck. Also , I’m not comfortable in front of a camera as I get tongue tied and the constant take and retake starts to become tiring.

I think better than I articulate – but that’s always been my case. In my head, I can beautifully describe my thinking of the book but as soon as I open my mouth, it comes out as garbled. My mind runs ahead mainly because I get impassioned with the “idea” of it all and I have to hold myself back. One idea spurs another – and that’s not a good thing when you’re in the process of talking.

I think it’s the reason why I always had difficulty in expressing my ideas at work.

Both my brain and my mouth work independently of each other – each working concurrently but at the same time deaf to each other so their respective merged noises don’t stop one to give the other the floor (so to speak).

This year I may do something a little different and script out the entire video and use that to read from. However, I know myself. I’ll remember to add something while the camera is rolling, lose my place, then have to start again. 🤣

Admittedly though, don’t think I’m losing sleep over this. I’m not. I’m not the first nor the last person who has an issue with this type of activity. The whole reason I got in front of a camera so many years ago was to overcome this very thing.

It’s an ongoing learning process I guess.

So when I receive the Wrap Up Analytics notification from YouTube, I always check it out. I thought I’d share some of the screen shots here if you’re interested.

First of all, my recap screen. I was surprised with my top video. It’s my biggest earner (think tens of dollars not millions of $$$ 🤣). I think it’s because I presented my own interpretation of the book cover that drew most comments. Also the audience in the comments come from younger people and I think are of Asian background – polite responses too. I’m thinking it may even be a school book somewhere which may explain the numbers of views.

Usually my Views are very low compared to other YouTubers. The reason is deliberate.

I’ve chosen to do ONE video for ONE book.

The books I read are not the current best sellers. It means that there’s not many people around the world reading those books at the same time I am. It’s an eclectic mix because I read different genres of fiction.

I find the classics have higher views because there’s more people reading them – and over time – the views increase. The same cannot be said for other unknown authors over time wgo are forgotten (unless a movie is made from their novel where I noticed the review of Spaceman of Bohemia increased when a movie with Adam Sandler had been promoted on Netflix which I had no idea about at the time I read this book).

I also noticed that books that are in schools curriculum of study have more views. I learned this through some of the comments left by students telling me that they referenced my video. This always makes me smile because most of the time, I think I’m just talking into a void. You tend to forget that people of all ages are watching your videos. 🤣

This image shows my views. The jump in December is attributed to a video I titled “My Year of Reading in 2024” (my previous post here if you’re interested in watching it). YouTube tells me that if I make more seasonal content like this, I’d get more views and possibly more subscribers and maybe more money.

But….I can’t be bothered.

To me, that tells me it’s more work. More filming, more editing, more time that takes me away from reading.

This isn’t surprising. Given that I have one video per book, people are unlikely to subscribe because we may not have the same reading tastes. Every book I read is different. They’d be better off finding a YouTuber who gives ultra short summaries of books that sound interesting to read rather than delve deeply into books they hadn’t heard of or are unlikely to ever read.

Having said that, some subscribers have told me that my videos help them find books they can read too. 🤷‍♀️

Mmm. I wonder who is sharing my videos and where to? (I think they’re being shared in school essays as references mainly….🤣).

As I’m not on social media too, that number is low but it’s unlikely I’ll get back on the socials just for this. It’s way too much work for me to do this).

I’m not going to lie, I love the comments I receive. On the whole, they’re polite and thank me for the video. Some are quite in-depth about how they found the book and what life lessons it gave them. It’s always humbling to read and receive long comments because it brings the book back up again to the fore. For a couple of books, I went back and re-read them with my viewers comments in mind and it gives you a deeper understanding.

If anything, it taught me that regardless of where you come from, the joint love of a good book shows our shared experiences.

This analytic goes to show that people come to my channel because they’re searching for a review of a certain book they are reading – or planning to read. It’s not from subscribers.

Lastly YouTube provides me with some ideas for boosting my channel. They’re not bad ideas at all and I mainly do the last one. I’m an active participant in other YouTube channels and always watching and learning what others are doing.

Ultimately I’m trying to not come across as a “performer” or just about increasing my views or subscribers as these don’t interest me at all. I want more interaction and discussion – like a continual and perpetual open and online book club where readers pop in over a long period of time to offer their thoughts.

So it’s the long game for me.

I have some ideas of what I’d like to do in 2025 with it and my audacious goal is to do two videos that are different:

(1) A book review video entirely spoken in French. The book I’m thinking about is Victoria Mas, The Island of Mists and Miracles (Un Miracle) that has been translated to English from this French author. The reason is that it’s not a well known book in English but there’s more content in French for this book which means that a whole new audience will see this video and either tell me that my French is crap – an affront to their ears- or they’ll tell me “bravo!” Personally, I like to confuse the algorithm. 🤣

(2) A video on the 10 Books You Need to Read in 2025 but not actually give any specific titles. Instead, I’ll give suggestions of how to find books that “speak” to you about when they should be read. It might be a bit woo woo but hopefully it may encourage people to not act as followers and read books that aren’t trending – and give love to those books and authors that have been forgotten over time.

Let’s see how it goes!