For a first-time author, getting a book published is a notoriously difficult endeavour. Hundreds of manuscripts fall onto the desks of editors each week, with most of them failing to attract more than a cursory glance. However, there is one group of first-time authors who seem to bypass this problem with ease: YouTubers. Signing book deals with popular online personalities has become a profitable new trend within the publishing sphere, attracting high sales and book release hype. In an industry desperate to retain readership levels among declining sales, is this crossover between literature and online celebrity a positive new development? Or should YouTubers stick to doing hauls and tag videos, and leave the book deals to the (aspiring) professionals?
28-year-old British vlogger Zoe Sugg (more commonly known by her online moniker Zoella) has found herself to be one of the most successful authors of recent years. Her debut novel Girl Online, a semi-autobiographical book based on her life as an internet celebrity, broke records in 2014 for generating the highest first-week sales of a first-time author, and surpassed J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and E.L. James’s 50 Shades of Grey in the process.
Although the book received some subsequent backlash after it was revealed to have been largely ghost written, the novel was nonetheless a huge commercial success for its publisher Penguin, its rush of pre-orders causing it to reach number three on the Amazon UK Best Sellers list before release, as well as a coveted spot on the New York Times Best Seller list.
Investment in YouTuber-authored books is a clever business move for publishing houses, capitalising on pre-existing interest among fan-bases and viewers. YouTubers that are offered book-deals almost always have enormous audiences to begin with. At the time Girl Online was published, Zoella already had upwards of six million subscribers – a figure which has doubled to twelve million in the four years since.
Because of their platform, YouTubers are able to provide ample publicity for their own books, which reduces the media-spend of their publishers and provides advertising to the target audience free of charge. Zoella heavily promoted her book through her YouTube channel, as well as on her Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat pages. There is a very clear link between Zoella’s literary success and her existing reach and popularity among the tween demographic.
The success of Zoella in the publishing industry is not an anomaly either. British comedy vlogger Alfie Deyes’s debut offering The Pointless Book – an interactive activity book aimed at children and tweens – sold 30,000 copies in the first two weeks of its release. And American daily vlogger Joey Graceffa’s dystopian young adult novel Garden of Eden debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list in 2014, after heavy promotion on his channel.
Online book forum GoodReads now even houses an entire section dedicated to the genre of books written by YouTubers, which includes over 100 titles authored by everyone from gaming to beauty vloggers.
We live in a market economy where the sale and production of goods is largely determined by demand, and YouTubers have evolved into big-business celebrities with dedicated fan bases that are constantly keen for content. Zoella had already produced her own profitable line of home and bath products before jumping into the book game, the success of this first foray into merchandise providing ample indication that a novel with her name on it would prove equally as lucrative.
An online ‘influencer’’s accrual of ‘likes’, ‘views’, and ‘followers’ is already used as a gauge for potential profit, which is evident in the proliferation of sponsored content and product advertisements on social media. Higher audience reach equals higher chance of financial gain, and this is a factor that the publishing industry is privy to.
The proliferation of celebrity culture within publishing is not a new phenomenon, and certainly not something that began with YouTube and social media. Autobiographies by rock stars and sporting stars (ghost written or otherwise) have long been a lucrative staple for the book industry, who capitalise on the pre-existence of a fan-base hungry to know the story behind the idol, and the inherent marketability of somebody already in the public eye.
Like any industry, book publishing is ultimately a capitalistic enterprise, and the wide audience reach and marketing opportunities that accompany the signing of an online celebrity to a book deal would provide undoubted temptation to imprints that struggle with fickle readers and dwindling sales.
The fact that YouTuber-written books are able to provide such high profit margins for the publishing industry is in many respects a positive thing. Anything that gets people reading – especially teens and children – should be encouraged and celebrated. High profits from shoo-in YouTuber-written bestsellers provide publishing houses with greater capital to sign unknown authors and commission new books.
However, publishers need to ensure that in this age of ‘YouTuber as author’, up-and-coming writers with zero public profile and social media reach need to be supported just as much as the famous faces being approached for book deals. Placing too much importance on the fame of an author devalues the art of books, and creates a publishing culture that dissuades many young authors from writing and sending in a manuscript.
YouTubers are deserving of the success they reap, having created their brand from scratch and built audiences over long periods of time through hard work and dedication – driving their channels from hobbies to thriving businesses in the process. Though many may view books by YouTubers as little more than marketing ploys, there is nonetheless still a place for them in the book industry. There just needs to be a secure spot for the non-‘instafamous’ aspiring authors too.
Have you read any You-Tuber-written books? What are your thoughts on this trend in the publishing industry? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!
Juliet Francesca Mentor 