Fantastic video. The bias in the algorithm is the major factor why people need to be consciously active in seeking out diverse authors; they aren’t going to just pop up in your feed, you have to look for them!

@shelleys.corner

29 күн бұрын

Well said! And thank you 🥰

@zvikomboreromukamba3389

29 күн бұрын

That happen in my Pinterest feed. This algorithm somehow learnt to recommend diverse reads to me

I try to read diversely, but I definitely think you're right. Books by POC are just not being pushed the same way. It feels like I have to go out of my way to find them. It does seem like books by Asian authors do get pushed more, especially fantasy books. But fantasy books by black authors do seem like they're a bit harder to find, or maybe that's just me. I just ordered The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste and Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi and The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, and I've barely heard anyone talking about these books.

@shelleys.corner

29 күн бұрын

Outside of The Poisons We Drink (which is fairly new), those other books should have spooo much hype, not just because they're older but because they're by amazing authors. I know in the Black booktok community, we definitely highlight them, but they need more attention brought to them for sure. Same with the Poisons We Drink. I've not read it yet, but it's on my TBR, and I've heard nothing but good reviews about it.

@MsKatze

29 күн бұрын

@shelleys.corner I'm not on TikTok (I don't want to get sucked into another brain drain lol), and I did find out about The Reformatory from a black Booktuber. But IDK, I just feel like most people just hype the same books, and they're hardly ever by black authors. Unless it's Octavia E Butler or The Fifth Season by NK Jemison.

I still have a lot of things I need to change in regard to my reading, but once I saw the issue it became glaringly obvious. SO many booktubers I watched when I started watching booktube would read nearly the same books, and the majority (or sometimes all) were books written by white authors. It’s still the norm to this day, and I’m hoping that changes because I’m honestly getting tired of it. Best thing I can do is try to change up my own reading and show my local library as well as book publishers that this is what we want more of

@shelleys.corner

29 күн бұрын

I love this because you are genuinely trying to read more diversely after noticing the issue 💓

@BooksToAshes

28 күн бұрын

@@shelleys.corner I still think I have a lot to work on since it’s still not enough BUT I want to do better, and I’d love to see more work from the community in that regard too ♥️

@arinad2

28 күн бұрын

I would recommend @thisstoryaintover, she’s a POC and reads diversally

@BooksToAshes

28 күн бұрын

@@arinad2 Oh I appreciate the booktuber rec, I’ll check them out!

@Readatrix

23 күн бұрын

Same books, same tags, same aesthetic. The people I followed in the beginning don't show up for me now because I stopped engaging when I found creators more relevant to my interests.

I remember watching an interview from a youtuber channel called written in melanin, and the person being interviewed is Bethany Bapiste, a ya fantasy writer who talked about her journey in the publishing industry.

@thewrittenlibrary

29 күн бұрын

I watched that video too! It was very insightful and frustrating hearing her experience.

@shelleys.corner

29 күн бұрын

Yes! I also saw the podcast and it really was so insightful but also really hit home how hard it can be for diverse authors in the traditional publishing world

I watched alot of "diverse" East Asian book influencers but boooooooy so many of the big ones get mad when you try to take away their white savior love interests.

@shelleys.corner

29 күн бұрын

The whole love for the white saviour is something I've been realising as I see more reviews and it really is concerning 😭

In a similar line, I've been researching booktubers to send my epic fantasy to, and I really want to have a diverse list, but truly most of what I see is not diverse at all for epic fantasy (fantasy in general/romance fantasy definitely has more diversity from what I've seen). I'm not giving up though lol! If anyone has recommendations, please send my way! Absolutely love your videos Shelley! I don't think I've missed one since I discovered you haha (apart from Bridgerton because im not a Bridgerton girlie....yet)

@shelleys.corner

29 күн бұрын

Omds, you're writing an epic fantasy? That's super cool. I'm in the middle of writing a few fantasies of my own, but who's know where they will go. What's your epic about??

@shelleys.corner

29 күн бұрын

And thank you so much for the love ❤️

@asmrglow

28 күн бұрын

@@shelleys.corner you write??? that's amazing!!! you're right, you never know where it could take you!! Mine is about an undead commander of a cursed legion who has to help the good guys when she becomes mortal! haha kinda dark fantasy but still wholesome! I always wish that could align with your tastes because I love listening to your commentary videos 🤣🤣 I'll open ARCs soon if you're ever into that kind of stories (with little romance though!!! hahahahahah)! What type of fantasy do you write??

@RosseRue

27 күн бұрын

I am HERE for an ASMRGlow epic fantasy! Keep us updated! 👀

@shelleys.corner

26 күн бұрын

@asmrglow this sounds like the most amazing epic 🤩🤩 I'd 100% be down for reading that. I love a chaotic fantasy and definitely need the wholesome aspect 😆 I'd say I dabble in a range of types with my writing. Currently working on a dark fantasy about the seven deadly sins that delves deep into the eternal struggle between light and darkness. Basically, a tale of ambition, temptation with, of course battles and betrayals, and an ensemble cast of characters 😅 Quite a lot going on, I know!

BIPOC are so underrepresented in the currently trending fantasy/romance Adult genre. 99% of the fantasy romance recommendations that I get are either YA or not by BIPOC. The few that are get either no promo or are lowkey review bombed.

I have too much to say, so I’m going to just…not. But it’s crazy to think about the things that AREN’T normal. I said a character lotioned up. Oh, lotioned as a verb isn’t a thing? Well it is now 😂. You don’t know what the itis is?? I…it never occurred to me that it isn’t universal. I remember having to record myself making a statement so the five white editors would stop trying to correct it, because when you’re used to hearing us and not reading us, you read us all the way wrong. There’s just so much that goes into being a non-white author.

@shelleys.corner

29 күн бұрын

It really can make you want to pull every hair out of your scalp, I know 😭

@ReneeLP

28 күн бұрын

This comment should be pinned because 👏🏾👏🏾Yes!

We're in a much brighter age of diversity in some genres so I'm always baffled when voracious readers (as in ten plus books a month) don't read at least one author of color a month. BIPOC authors, Queer authors, neurodivergent and disabled authors, Jewish and Muslim authors, so many people who have been locked out of genres are now getting a chance and it's incredible the things they bring to the table. I've found some new faves from just giving debut authors a chance and it's a real issue how the algorithm is so focused on white creators and books from white authors and the system seems to treat every intersecting identity an author of color might have as a negative instead of a positive because that's a whole other facet to their lived experience. Romance is getting some SWANA authors (Maya's Laws of Love was so cute), Africanfuturism is getting more and more attention in the sci-fi and fantasy space, and book boxes seem to be putting in some effort to diversify their catalogues (though there have been cases of subscribers complaining about 'three Asian books in a row', quite sadly, despite all three books coming from very different authors and cultures). Videos and lists making active efforts to point out books from a variety of backgrounds and viewpoints, reviewers who make a point to search out those authors from historically marginalized communities, and other authors promoting debuts are really so vital to helping spread the word that these books even exist and it's a constant battle to get eyes and ears on those books.

I loved this! You're on a roll with all these video topics. Really glad you mentioned the only reading East Asian books. Watching Asian readathon tbr videos and every single one was majority East Asian authors and books, some even being completely just East Asian authors, made me both angry and sad. But I can't express that feeling without being seen as an angry racist hater despite me being Asian myself. We're not allowed to criticize poc authors because it's "so hard for them and they can write about their own culture and history anyway they want" and that's racist. Viewing poc as a monolith and exceptionilizing them is dehumanizing. This is a tool of colonialism and empires. It's great that so many Asian authors are getting published and receiving marketing and support from traditional publishing and readers. But we have to ask ourselves, why are these types of stories and authors the only one getting pushed? Why are these kinds of stories and authors 80% of what the western publishing chooses to publish and push towards readers? Why is it almost always poorly researched and poorly written self orientalizing works written to be palatable and enjoyable for a non Asian western audience? The trend of publishing mediocre to downright bad self orientalizing Asian fantasy books catered towards a western audience needs to stop. I'm so tired of Asians and Asian culture being a trend and out history and culture being bastardized for marketability and aesthetics and caricatured to be pleasurable for a western/commercial audience. Just because they're diaspora Asians doesn't mean they can't be disrespectful and racist to their own culture. Asians aren't a trend. Our cultures aren't an aesthetic backdrop. I wish diaspora Asian authors would stop self orientalizing and do some research and truly reconnect with their culture and people and stop catering to western audiences and selling us out just for us to get called illiterate, stupid misogynist racists when we call it out. How do people not see how racist that is to consider us Asians so primitive old fashioned conservatives because we criticize their orientalism? People don't need orientalist racist stories to survive. Why do readers escapism and diaspora Asian authors' careers and income come at the cost of commercializing and orientalizing our culture and history? Also, because of how lucrative and fast paced writing and publishing books have become, I've noticed a disturbing amount of plagiarism in many newly published books that it's almost normal now and nobody really calls it out.

@shelleys.corner

28 күн бұрын

This was so perfectly written 👏🏾 I'm really hoping that with more attention brought to these problems, people can start to change how they interact with literature!

@Readatrix

23 күн бұрын

There are always Asian countries that don't get mentioned/suggested.

I love this video. I've made a couple of videos talking about Indigenous creators and the need for inclusivity and diversity. ⚪️ everywhere. And I participated in a couple readathons as an admin and some people just throw an absolute fit when told to read Indigenous books along with other BIPOC author's. Weaponized incompetence at its finest because theyd say "Where can I find titles?" As if there aren't resources for this everywhere. 🙃 thank you for talking about this!!

@Readatrix

23 күн бұрын

You need to provide them with a list and then read the books for them. 😉

It genuinely bums me out that Fourth Wing is the big dragon thing right now and not To Shape a Dragon's Breath. I love your videos. Thank you for what you do.

@Srbthmlnsmth

19 күн бұрын

Shape a dragons breath and dragonfruit too!!!! Soooo good compared to FW trash

I’m so glad I found this video. I wasn’t sure where to go with the culture and look of my unicorn girl, but now I do.

@shelleys.corner

28 күн бұрын

It definitely is a struggle, but I'm hoping more and more that kids like your little 🦄 girl can see themselves in books as time goes on

I sat down this year and looked at all the books I read since I’ve started reading again and I saw how few POC authors I’ve read. Since then I sought out BIPOC KZreadrs and tiktokers for recommendations. Intentionally purchased and curated my TBR to be more inclusive. I’m not saying that to get a cookie, I’m saying that it’s crazy how because of the algorithms and what books/authors are pushed harder, in order to have my reading experience balanced I have to seek it out intentionally. I am a huge champion of diversifying reading and looking at my reading history was the kick in the ass I needed.

There has never been a limitation on how I read diversely. I’m always curious about cultures outside of my own and how different stories are told. Regardless if it is nonfiction or fiction I think we can learn a lot. Life is too short to keep our minds closed to what is out there because the world is vast!

Oof, you are right about East Asians being overrepresented when it comes to Asian representation, so much so that I have seen (White) people not know that South Asians and Southwest Asians are even Asian in the first place. (And pple dont even want to read them becos colorism, colonial mentality, anti arab racism and islamophobia etc). There's still a lack of wellknown authors from Central and Northern Asia as well.

They need to do a reading rainbow type of thing but for grown people and teenagers. I would watch the f*** out of that.

@shelleys.corner

28 күн бұрын

That would actually be so cool now that you mention it! So many people never had a chance to learn those skills as kids, so why not do it as teens and adults.

As a newly published author who is 16 and autistic, has OCD and so is part of that underrepresented community this video really spoke to me, I’m trying to get my book out there but it’s so hard! ❤

also white mediocrity is hyped up so much. i don't read booktok related books (except a few) but i do watch videos tearing books apart because i am a hater lol and i have read amazing fanfics for free on ao3 abs theyre way better. also shelley! can i ask if you can make the sound of your voice louder when editing? the intro is louder and then i can barely hear your commentary with my earphones all the way up :(

@shelleys.corner

29 күн бұрын

White mediocrity is really overtaking literature, and it's so frustrating 😭 Also, someone else made the comment about sound in another video, but I really don't know how it happens. But I'll look at the settings again 🙏🏾🥰

@captainbaekho

28 күн бұрын

@@shelleys.corner 💖💖

Thank you, great video! After watching I have been inspired and added new tags into my book tracking app for diverse authors and foreign authors (if anyone has a better name for the second tag please share, its early here!). Because for me the axiom "what you monitor you manage" is very true, and looking now and adding the tags in I haven't been reading as widely as I would like to so I'm going to start working on that. Thanks again so much, your videos are always so smart and thoughtful. Looking forward to the next one!

@shelleys.corner

28 күн бұрын

Thank you so much! And that is absolutely amazing to hear you taking action like that🙌🏾

I’m really glad I got this video recommendation!

@shelleys.corner

29 күн бұрын

Thank you ❤️❤️

Absolutely in love with this video, you said it all sis.

@shelleys.corner

29 күн бұрын

Thank you so much!!

As a reader who is also striving to be more intentional about the books I pick up, I appreciate you making this video even though I know it’s a topic that is brought up in the book community year after year, it’s still so valuable ❤

@shelleys.corner

28 күн бұрын

It is repeated but we have to keep repeating it until real change is made 💯 Thank you for watching 🥰💓

Thank you for making videos like this! I keep looking for other South Asian BookTubers like myself and have only found *two*…if anyone seeing this has more recommendations-send them my way please!!

@shelleys.corner

13 күн бұрын

It really is a fight to find diverse booktubers. Followed to show support and hoping you find more diversity 💗

Great video! I just wanted to thank you for making this because, as a white person, I've found that looking through my collection I really DONT have a lot of poc books, and I'd certainly like to fix that... I think a lot of folks who say "I don't read based on race" aren't considering that the books they randomly find and pick up are found because they're accessible (aka, trad published and promoted) and very likely to be by a white author. I can see a lot of parallels between this and how queer authors have been treated over the years, the public wants queer stories but not by actual queer people, and it's only now that folks are starting to have more queer books on their shelves through community action. If we could do it for queer books, why not for poc books? The same goes for other types of rep in books being sorely lacking, especially for neurodiversity though of course I'm in no way saying that's a bigger or equal problem to the lack of poc books being promoted, more that like... Even as a white person I never saw myself in books as a teen because there was no autism rep, I can't imagine what a poc with neurodivergence must've felt, with even LESS in common with the main characters of most books. Shit sucks, why can't people just get excited about diverse stories. Like European fantasy is fun and all, but for example holy SHIT African folklore is fantastic and I need to see more of that being promoted in fantasy circles rather than just the same voices and the same stories. Sorry that was long 😅

I'm really enjoying tumblr atm since there are some people who would give diverse books/manga/manhwa/comics recommendation but regardless of that I still have to really go out of my way to still look for diverse books by diverse authors. As a queer filipino, most asian books I see are usually east asian ones and, though I still read regardless if I liked it or not, it is still frustrating since south east asians are just as rich in terms of story, myths, and culture the same way as east asia or any parts of asia in general. Also side note, not all asians are light skin 😭 like everytime I read books they are always describe as light skin, like where my tan and brown asians at?!

@pauieeepau

27 күн бұрын

I'm Filipino too, and even Filipino/FilAm authors/comickers will be making stories and comics with pale-skinned MCs. Which, they can, some of us are pale, but I wanna read more brown stories. Do you read on Webtoon? There's a Filipino-inspired action fantasy GL that launched called Katlaya Rising. Eaternal Nocturnal is also by a Filipino, and the MC is pinay. There's also the novel The Spear Cuts Through Water, which is Achillean fantasy by a Filipino author. I'm also looking forward to a couple of queer Filipino novels (Escape Velocity[scifi] and Saints of Storm and Sorrow [fantasy]), but they aren't available in the PH yet afaik. Sorry for the unsolicited recommendations lol.

I watch so many booktube videos (I don't have tiktok) because they entertain me, but boy do they not touch on the books I read almost ever. Like 1 out of every 100 books I see come up on booktube is something I have/would/will read. The reason is because I almost exclusively read sapphic books (not necessarily romance) and booktubers rarely care about them. It's not because the publishing industry is dropping the ball. There are actually a lot of sapphic books being published, but in the reader-space they're so invisible. It's a different type of diversity (though there's overlap - sapphic books have the same racial makeup of predominately white authors, then east asian authors, and then everyone else), but I'm nodding along to your criticisms of the book community because what's popular really is so narrow. And just like with sapphic books, books by BIPOC authors are being published at much higher rates than what you'd guess from what the book community focuses on. I don't know... it's just frustrating. I grew up in a time where diverse books rarely got published, and I look at what's available now and it's amazing. It's a dream! Yet I look at what's popular in this online reader space and so little of that is reflected. 😞

Sorry late to the party as always but thank you for explaining this so articulately. As a white woman I try to read diversely and from own voices but I also need to try harder and do better. My recommendations don't go beyond my in real life friends but I have tried to explain the reason people need to make more of an effort to seek more diversity in their authors, but I never manage to be as logical and clearly spoken so I will be referring back to this video 😊

Another great (and necessary) video!

I'm so glad I'm in the side of booktok that gives me diverse recommendations. I've recently started reading memoirs because I want to understand experiences living in different countries while being non white even more. I also own quite the few memoirs I'm reading for historical purposes. I'm also on the side that recommends me diverse mythology books (currently reading mythology from west Africa in the form of two different books and tales I find online). I barely know about my own countries mythology though, so I might need to start reading Austrian mythology, because that's what I want to write about. Also, the first book in the diverse recommendations I got, was Cinderella is dead, which is just a good book and it's what made me realize my local library lacked some great literature, because all their books were by white authors and most by famous people.

I’ve been making an effort over the last couple years to read more diversely. As a white bookstagrammer and booktuber, when I talk or write about a book by a Bipoc author, do you feel I should mention that the book has a Bipoc author?

@Sammy-fmhky

28 күн бұрын

I personally don't think you should mention it every time because I notice when white booktubers do that and they only do it with poc authors. It kind of others poc books and authors in a way. We should treat it as normal.

As a white person i really dont get how people not read bipoc authors, they always bring so much culture, food and environment into the books that makes you learn and explore and its sooooo exciting, while the white author books „only“ have holidays we all celebrate anyways. Yeah christmas is cool, but having chinese new year in a book is so much more fun. What i can recommend for other cis white people is when you make wishlist for your birthday set a rule. for example i am only allowed to have 20% of white authors in my wishlist or if they are white they have to be lgbtq themed. It helped me so much to diversify

Your opinons are value but at the end of the day its what you want to read and what they want to read. If you want to read a diverse book then read it.

Just found your channel. Subscribed

Check out tommy orange if y'all want an 2:11 native/indigenous author.

I don't see what the problem is with booktok and book KZread

@shelleys.corner

24 күн бұрын

I mean it's right there all in front of you

i also feel like there isnt enough intersectionality. im a mayan lesbian and my gf is black and i cant even find and enjoy sapphic books bc the majority that are pushed are always about white bi girls, which is fine but i want to see so much more diversity! like mixed race queer couples where one ISNT white please!!

❤❤❤

Idk what to say, but I'd like to give this vid some engagement bc it's an inportant topic to talk abt. Anyone has bipoc authors to recommend? I'd like to diversify my reading but idk where to start since I, like, am not active in the community at all lol I got especially a knack for adventure novels (realist ones and fantasist ones)

@Srbthmlnsmth

19 күн бұрын

I have some recs if you’re really into hard magic and high fantasy. Also maybe anime

@adrasthe314

19 күн бұрын

@@Srbthmlnsmth i'm all ears!!!!!! :D

@Srbthmlnsmth

18 күн бұрын

@@adrasthe314 you like YA or adult fantasy or both? Also do you like hard magic systems?

@adrasthe314

18 күн бұрын

@@Srbthmlnsmth both work for me, and any magic system works :)

ok maybe I’m a horrible person..??? but I do not choose the books I read based on the author’s race, nor do I pick based on the character’s race…??

@Sammy-fmhky

28 күн бұрын

Yeah you are.

@lesserknowngems7736

28 күн бұрын

I will take your comment in good faith, and I'll try to explain why not thinking of diversity cn be harmfull, and will make you end up picking books based on colour/ethnicity/sexuality/class and all that good stuff. In every culture and country in the world different groups will have different amount of power. We tell ourselves (especially in democracies) that everyone is equal, but we're not. There will always be people in power who are the ones who give chances like jobs and access to spaces. This is what Shelly was refering regarding Barns and Nobel. Someone picks the books to go on the table where we know most people will pick that book up. You see, humans are lazy and people are social creatures. Our instinct is to do certain behavour, and the stores knows this. Tables and bookshelves at eye height will sell more books. This isn't about being a horrible person or not, because it just makes you human, but when you act within these systems you are making choices. The easy choice is to not think avout it. That means picking books based on what the system wants you to pick, or you can actively choose to act against the system and pick things against the system. Either way, you are making choices based on skin colour, class, ethnicity, sexuality and all of these things that plays a part in the system when picking books, because the way things are organised doesn't give you a choice to not do that. And again, not about being a horrible person. And I get that it's unfair because you didn't create the systems, but they are still there and you are a part of them as a book buyer. Life just sucks that way.

@ls1563_

27 күн бұрын

she addressed this exact thing in the video.. 18:45

So many people talk about diversity, but something I’ve found is that a lot of this diversity isn’t actually…. Diverse. I can only speak to the LGBTQ+ side of things, as that’s most on my radar, but booktok and such, while it does throw queer books at me, always throws queer books written by straight (white) women. And a lot of the time it’s the most disgusting, fetishizing crap I’ve ever heard, but people in the comments (again mostly straight white women) are raving about how good and “sexy” it was. So many people want the brownie points of reading diversely without actually reading anything that might actually challenge them and their subconscious biases at all- it’s all incredibly performative

I grew up in such a mixed community growing up, so it was really lovely being involved with so many cultures and communities. I read so much too. Was there a single book I read by a Poc? No. The only books we had available were by white authors. Which isn’t bad by itself, but white population was about 35% where I lived. There needs to be more accessibility in local stores and more creators spreading a wider verity of books from loads of cultures so we can recognise ourselves in books and experience diverse cultures 🤍

American gods & Anansi boys : n.gaiman