It’s a normal dorm room. There’s an oil warmer lit in the corner, inviting those into the room with a sweet and refreshing smell. Once inside, dozens of books line the walls on shelves. Books ranging from classics like Lord of the Rings to popular series like Divergent are stacked up along each other, waiting to be read. A white desk overfilled with make-up supplies takes up another corner of the room. Alongside the make-up sits a camera on top of a stack of books, the recording light turned on as Whitney Atkinson, English junior, prepares for her next YouTube video.
Atkinson, or known on YouTube as “WhittyNovels,” has taken it upon herself to make book review videos on YouTube, along with other tips and tricks that go into reading and writing. Since 2013, she’s been making an appearance on the video sharing website, gathering upwards of nearly 45,000 subscribers.
“I was young, but I knew I wanted to do something with YouTube since I first began to become familiar with it around 10-years-old,” Atkinson said. “It’s a free program for me to be silly and I can get attention for doing something I am passionate for; why not try and shoot for it?”
Atkinson said she credits the success to the time she joined YouTube. While it was a slow climb to the thousands of viewers she eventually earned, the website was a growing community when she first joined, which allowed her to expand with it and form a brand along the way.
“It took a lot of time to get to where I am now. I remember it took me six months to get my first 100 subscribers. At that time, I was so impressed with myself, ” she said. “I joined the website at a really fortunate time. YouTube was still a little small, and it was growing at the time I had just joined. The timing, making sure I was doing regular uploads and creating an exciting area for my channel is what benefited me the most, I think.”
Since her channel has a large following, Atkinson does make revenue from her videos and gathers a paycheck every month from it. She said while it isn’t enough to live off of as of right now, it still helps with other expenses she pays for, including food and gas money. She makes her money through the number of views she gets on videos with ads, as well as how many visits are made to the ads on the videos.
“My revenue comes from Google AdSense. It corresponds with the ads that pop up on videos. The money I make comes from clicks and the ads that overlay on or near my videos. Most people close out or skip the ads, but I do make fractions of cents for every ad that gets clicked,” she said. “I also do sponsorships with publishers in which I get paid to talk about books, but AdSense is the majority of my earnings.”
Not only has she made a place for herself on YouTube, but Atkinson also met with real life fans and has gone to conventions for book signings that she has been personally invited to. One of these real life fans includes her current dorm roommate, Caylan Deutsch, early education sophomore.
“I had just recently followed her on Twitter and knew she also lived in Texas, so I got nosy and wanted to know what college she was going to. Then she posted her acceptance letter to Midwestern and I had just gotten accepted the week before,” Deutsch said. “I replied to her tweet announcing her acceptance and told her I was also going to Midwestern, and we just clicked after that.”
According to Deutsch, the first time the two of them met up was at freshman orientation in June of 2015. Roommates had already been picked for freshman at that point, but the two were able to room together after the first year and now currently reside in Legacy.
“At first when we roomed together, it was pretty interesting being in the same area as she recorded her videos. Now it just feels normal when she does it. It’s just an everyday thing,” she said. “I do make sure to make appearances in her videos. Lets just say her subscribers are also my own personal fans.”
Being an English major has helped Atkinson along the way by creating content for her channel. While she said she “cheats” and will sometimes use books from her classes to review on her videos, she mainly just enjoys pouring out her passion for reading and writing and using that to educate her followers.
“Tackling both school and YouTube is a constant battle. I recently did a video on how to balance reading while in college. My channel isn’t just a YouTube thing. It’s not just about finding time to film and review a book,” Atkinson said. “I also have to read books in order to make content and then film a video and then post it. It’s a 3-part process, but my being an English major can make it easier for me to find books to review.”
She said that through her experience with YouTube, she hopes she can someday go into publishing and make videos for a company to work full-time with.
“I would love to keep with YouTube for as long as I can, but I don’t know if as soon as I graduate if there will be time to manage it with a full-time job at my side,” she said. “I want to work with publishing. In an ideal situation, I could make videos on publisher’s books, I think it could satisfy that part of my life and I could detach from YouTube and do it for my job. It is something I’d like to keep for as long as possible since I have created such a following for myself.”
Outside of her roommate, professors have also been aware of Atkinson’s success with YouTube. John Schulze, English assistant professor, has watched her grow for three semesters and expressed how impressed he is with what she has done with her channel.
“I like the way she edits it, there’s a nice flow to the cuts. She keeps her videos funny and serious while also being smart. Her videos just blend so nicely and I enjoy watching them,” Schulze said. “She keeps her channel open-ended, uploading content that she feels like doing and still making it entertaining.”
Schulze said he sees her channel not only as a way to share her passion, but also as an asset to her work experiences.
“I pointed it out as an asset in a recent letter of recommendation because she’s so engaged in the conversation about books. She’s not waiting to have her degree or waiting to get paid, she’s doing it because she loves to do it,” he said. “Those are the kind of employees that publishing houses want to hire. The people who are driven and self-motivated, who have a love for literature. So much so, they would do it on their own time, which is exactly what Whitney is doing.”
According to Schulze, her time on YouTube has also helped her work toward an internship with HarperCollins, which is one of the world’s largest publishing companies.
“She earned an internship with HarperCollins in New York City, which is fantastic since she wants to get into publishing. To graduate with that experience would definitely help her in the real world,” he said.
For those aspiring to what Atkinson has achieved, she gives the advice that in order for people to notice, it’s important to stand out and be different from the thousands of others who are also doing the same.
“There’s a lot of up-and-coming people. You have to make yourself stand out, somehow. Whether you are being original or unique, do it for wanting to add something to the community rather than wanting the subscribers and the recognition. That authenticity will shine through more than anything else,” she said.
Finally, for equipment purposes, Atkinson advises that a phone’s video recording works well as a beginner’s camera. Anything expensive at the start-up risks a chance of not becoming as popular as originally thought and possibly losing money in the process.
“For cameras, people assume you have to have this massive camera, but when I first started filming I used my iPhone’s camera. You don’t have to have this amazing camera or lighting set up. I literally just use my mirror lights as lighting for my videos,” she said. “If you can build up to buying nice equipment after seeing yourself seriously pursue making videos, then you can start to think about spending money on fancy things. Just think, financially, how it will benefit you.”
Upcoming Video Schedule
- April 27: Idiot Verse by Keaton Hensen review
- April 29: mUrder song by AURORA Ukulele cover
- May 1: The One Memory I Never Want to Forget
- May 4: The Value in Not Finishing Books | Discussion
- May 7: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Book Review
- May 10: Book Haul
- May 13: Critiquing You Favorite Books | Discussion
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