The Indecisive Readers – A Multi-Project
By Miya Elkerton and Kayley Stanbrige
In this issue, we have asked Bryony Thorogood questions about her two projects: a blog and a YouTube channel, The Indecisive Readers. The blog is posted twice a week, with one review and one other article and the channel has a new video up to twice a week. Bryony’s projects were started alongside her partner, with whom she creates podcast episodes to discuss their recent reads, but she has personally been able to dedicate the most time.
Bryony was inspired to begin the projects after spending a fortnight with the Transworld publicity team and finding blogs and bookstagram accounts to send proof copies of books to. During this time, she realised that book blogging was very useful for getting into book publishing as it shows a genuine interest in the industry. This encouraged her to create her own Instagram account and blog as soon as she finished university. The blog celebrated its second-anniversary last week.
During this process Bryony found her YouTube channel to be the biggest challenge, admitting she knew nothing about video-editing, but she has learnt along the way; it became clear that she enjoys pressing buttons and googling until she figures it out. Because of such challenges, Bryony hopes this project results in her becoming more organised as she has found herself becoming very busy. Working on the channel has also prepared her for working in lockdown. Her new video-editing skills helped with her mother’s preparations for class and also developed her confidence to be able to speak on camera, which will give her useful skills for video interviews.
When starting the projects, she was inspired by Ashleigh at A Frolic Through Fiction, the co-host of the first book club she joined. Bryony loved the content and books she recommended. In terms of blogs, she has found that she is more inspired by blog posts rather than blogs as a whole, taking inspiration from Brittany’s writing at Book Ramblings. Having now been completing the projects for over two years, Bryony aims to become even more organised by having content ready at least a week in advance to stop any late-night writing and editing. She would also love to make the channel more accessible and surpass the small goals she has set herself.
In terms of looking for contributors, Bryony admits she has never thought about this before but would love to hear what more people say about books. She believes it would be fun to make a podcast episode with someone else, perhaps discussing a book they’d both read or have people write a discussion post on the blog. Last year, Bryony and her partner ran a short story competition on the blog, which she loved.
Like many publishing hopefuls The Publishing Post has interviewed, Bryony shares the adoration for the process of making books and admits she has dreamed of working with books after feeling that becoming an author was unachievable. Her heart flutters whenever she thinks of spending time around other bookworms, books and authors. Furthermore, she has always loved books and storytelling and dreams of being able to bring that magic to other people having the opportunity to show others new books. She says that she has never felt more at home in a job setting than at Transworld or when interviewing for a children’s publisher as she immediately felt comfortable.
When asked what her ideal role would be, Bryony states that when she was twelve her friend told her she was a pedant, so she always assumed she would work in editorial. However, she now thinks she would prefer to work in publicity or marketing as she loves shouting about books all the time and would love to do this in a professional setting. As well as this, Bryony would love to experience production as she would love to know the thought processes involved in the hands-on parts of publishing. She also feels that a literary agency would appeal to a lot of her skills and believes this indecisiveness relates to her blog name. The publishing industry appeals to her not only because she is excited by the idea of early access to upcoming books, but mostly because of the people; she loves everyone’s enthusiasm and how they love the work they do. This is something, Bryony says, that can be seen in the Publishing Hopefuls Facebook group as even though the members are competing for the same roles, they have made the group a place of support instead of negativity.
You can get in touch with Bryony and her partner through their Instagram and Twitter accounts, visit their YouTube channel and blog, or contact them via email.