De-influencing you, book influencers starter pack.
You did it! You finally decided to share your love for books with an audience on a larger scale and what is more wonderful than talking about books all day? But you have realized, that the more you consume bookish content, the harder it is for you to produce your own. First, you have to find your voice in a space holding millions of amazing content creators, and next you have to make it authentic.
So to ease your worries, and make your book content creation a thing you enjoy. I am going to be de-influencing everything in the book content world so you won’t have to go through it, best to avoid it if you can.
1. Books are expensive and the majority of us are poor — I will be frank, books are crazy expensive and with the inflation, things are going crazy expensive. Debts, tax, rent, utilities, everything is more expensive, and leisure money is now nothing money. Poof. Doesn’t exist anymore. The amount of money you used to buy books then, has been cut in a solid half and at a more expensive rate. Most book influencers are sent ARC copies swap old books for new ones at a cheaper rate, or even have friends lend them the books they want to read. Not all the books on their selves are bought. So don’t be unmotivated by the rolls of books at their background, it took either years to build or isn’t theirs.
2. You probably won’t like popular books — Most books on Booktok and Bookstagram probably won’t be to your taste. Books that people rank the best would probably end up on your ‘did not finish’ list, and sometimes most people won’t relate to your type of read — this does not mean your people aren’t out there — it would just seem like a ball of one-side recommendation. And that is okay, it is perfectly fine to like books that aren’t popular on social media.
3. There is more to reading than booktok/bookstagram recommendations — There is an abundance of amazing books that don’t exist in the corners of social media, and so many amazing authors that people have never heard of and probably won’t hear of if they never step in a bookstore. Some of my favorite books aren’t even on social media, and I am surely not alone in it. Though booktok recommendations are amazing, there is only so much that can be covered with the abundance of books in this world.
4. Don’t worry, most of us have non-aesthetic pleasing homes — Most of us share a room with our siblings, most of us have a roommate, most of us stay in the dorm, and most of us simply live in shitty homes because that is we can afford. Let’s be realistic, a majority of the world population lives the same. Money doesn’t grow on trees, so we go for the necessary not the most pretty. Having peeling walls is not a crime and having your clothes stacked up in one corner of your bedroom because cupboards are expensive is more common than you think. Most creators have a section of their homes that they clean out and use it mainly for content creation, and you should probably do too.
5. Templates work as well as physical copies — the invention of e-books will probably remain one of man’s greatest inventions. It is cost-effective, cheap (after purchase of the Kindle tab), and lightweight. It can be taken anywhere, and read anywhere. So what, you don’t have physical copies of books, you have the ones you can afford and that is something, at least you are reading. I normally use Canva to edit my Instagram templates and attach copies of the book cover to the template. The message is still passed and your love of books is still vivid. Believe it, most popular book influencers do the same thing, because like I said, it is cost-effective.
To conclude, reading is a relaxing activity and should be pursued at a rate of contentment. Read realistic, read what you like, and read simply for the joy of it.
