BookTube Video Ideas You Can Film

Not sure what to film right now? These BookTube video ideas will help spark your creativity and inspire you to film!

So you have taken the leap to start a BookTube channel! Congratulations!! You are on your way to having a lot of fun sharing your love for books with the online bookish community. 

Now that you have your channel though, what videos are you going to film? 

No matter if you are a seasoned BookTube veteran or a newbie BookTuber, at some point, you will run into a creative block. You will be wondering what video to film. Not sure where to go from here. 

That is totally fine though! It happens to all of us at some point, and I am here to give you a few ideas to get you through this creative block. So if you are wondering what you can do, maybe check out some of these BookTube video ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Film the “Typical BookTube Videos”

For some reason, I have been hearing people speak negatively about the “typical BookTube videos” lately. Honestly, I don’t see why. These are BookTube staples for a reason. They work and people watch them.

Not sure what the “typical BookTube videos” are? Well, these are the ones that pretty much all BookTubers film regularly.

Book Haul Videos

Book hauls are one of the most common BookTube videos that people film. This is probably because they are simple and easy to film quickly. They also tend to get a lot of views in comparison to other video types.

For some reason, people love seeing what you purchased recently.  So if you have a stack of books that you recently picked up, sit down and film a video showing off your purchases and telling everyone a little about each book.

You can even do hauls as unboxings. If you have a lot of Amazon packages, for example, you can open them on camera to get your live reaction to all of the books you bought or were bought for you.

TBR Videos

In case you didn’t know, TBR means “to be read”. These videos are super simple to film and people also love to watch them.

Make a stack of whatever books you plan to read, and film a BookTube video telling people about the books and why you want to read them. 

Honestly, I rarely stick to my TBR so I have started doing a “pile of possibility” instead because I am such a mood reader. I still film them though to showcase what I am hoping to get to in a month or in a season. 

Wrap Up Videos

In the same vein as a TBR video, we also have wrap-up videos. These are pretty self-explanatory. You talk about all the books you have read recently. 

These are typically done every month, but you can totally do whatever cadence you want. Many people will do seasonal wrap-ups or even recent reads videos. This is where you can talk a little more in-depth about what books you have read and what you think about them. 

People love to watch them because they tend to get little mini-reviews about all of the books you talk about in your video. 

Book Review Videos

 

The last of the “typical BookTube videos” we are going to touch on today are the book review videos. These are actually quite the hot topic in the online bookish community right now. 

Fewer people seem to be doing standalone book reviews lately since they do tend to get fewer views than other video types. While this is correct, they don’t get the initial viewership as other videos, they can get more views over time than the others. 

Why is that? Because reviews are evergreen. That means that they are always relevant at any time. Videos like TBRs and wrap-ups are not evergreen. Very few people (if any) are going to go back and watch what you planned to read a month, six months, or a year from now. People will be searching for specific reviews though. 

One of my most popular videos is a review for Six Crimson Cranes. Initially, it didn’t do too well, but as people began searching for reviews of that particular book, viewership continually increased. 

When it comes to reviews, I recommend doing spoiler-free reviews and then maybe doing a spoiler section near the end for anyone who wants to dive deep into bookish spoilers. 

Also, keep SEO in mind when writing your description. I will dive more into SEO for Book Bloggers and BookTubers, but the short of it is this is the copy that you write that helps you get picked up by the search algorithm and recommend your videos to others.

More BookTube Video Ideas

Now that we have discussed some of the more basic BookTube videos, we can dive into some different ones that you can try. While these are by no means super creative, we aren’t trying to recreate the wheel here. We are trying to give you some fun BookTube video ideas that you can film right now. 

Life and Reading Vlogs

Technically, reading vlogs could have gone with the typical BookTube videos. These are pretty simple videos and perfect for when your audience wants a little inside look into your life and what you are reading. 

You can be as personal as you want in these reading vlogs. I tend to share some of my personal life in my vlogs. It helps me connect more with my audience and, as I said, gives them an inside look into my life. 

These aren’t videos you can sit down and film quickly though. Typically, you will film clips of what you are doing every day for a week or so. Then edit them together into one vlog style video. The beauty of these is that they can have a lower production value. I always film vlogs with my phone. They are much laxer and chill in vibe. 

Book Reccomendation Videos

Another video I like to film is the book recommendation video. These are a lot of fun and you can do a lot with them. I personally like to take a trope and then talk about 5+ different books that fit that particular trope. 

For example, I have done books with morally grey characters, middle-grade books, and underrated fantasy books. These list videos do exceptionally well and can really show off your taste in books. 

Book Tag Videos

Another fun way to show off your bookish tastes with a fun video is by doing a tag. Book tag videos are super common and there are a ton of them out there that you can film. 

Find a few tags that you like, answer the questions, tag the original creator and boom! You have your next video ready to go live. 

If you want, you can browse through this list of BookTube Tag Videos to decide what you want to film next. If you are feeling extra creative, you can even create your own book tag! 

Library Tour Videos

You can also do a full library or bookshelf tour. People love to see other people’s reading spaces, me included. 

These are a lot of fun and a great way to give and get inspiration! You don’t need to have a super aesthetic library room either. Just show what you have, I promise people will want to see it. 

Honestly, people love seeing more relatable spaces that they can easily replicate. You can show an overview or you can pull out and show each and every book. Or, you can do two videos, one of each! 

 

Extra Creative BookTube Video Ideas

Ready to step it up a notch with your videos? These extra creative BookTube videos are a lot of fun and can really help you shine in the online bookish community!

Bookish Chats

One thing that I love to do is make chit-chat videos! I will take something that is “hot” in the bookish community at the moment, and just sit down and talk about it! 

I have personally done things like “how to read more as a busy mom” and a story time about how Harry Potter almost got me expelled from private school as a kid. 

These videos are so much fun to film. They let you open up a little and talk about topics that are important in the online book community at the moment. So pick something you know well, share a story time, or talk about issues you see with the book community at the moment. 

Combine Two Loves

A trend I am seeing across YouTube as a whole right now is combining two loves into one video. A few examples are things like the ever-popular Bailey Sarian‘s Murder Mystery and Makeup!

This can easily be translated into BookTube videos. One thing I personally do (and love) combines my love of making family-friendly recipes with book reviews.  As you can see from the video above, I took a book and made a recipe that is either inspired by it or reminds me of it. 

This is not only fun but sets you apart in the BookTube community. So make makeup and book videos, cooking videos, or whatever else you are good at that you can combine with your love for books. 

No matter what you plan to film next, the most important thing is to just do it! Film the video! Get it up! It doesn’t have to be perfect. Your videos will naturally get better over time as you get used to filming and editing, so don’t stress perfection.