Instead of blabbing about me (Read: My life is as interesting as watching paint dry) I’m using today’s post to spotlight an awesome author, John Green. John Green has written quite a few well known books (Looking For Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, The Fault in our Stars) and he has a very unique and comical voice/style of writing. However, this post isn’t about his books at all, but about his YouTube channel: Vlogbrothers
The channel started as an experiment of sorts in 2007. John and his brother, Hank, decided to cease all text-based communication for one year and instead communicate by vlogs. (Video blogging) At the start of their channel each vlog had a certain time limit. (I believe it was three minutes. If a vlog went even a second over the vlogger would be forced to play a punishment game.) The brothers have vlogged about everything from politics, to nuclear energy, to scientific discoveries.
The main reason I’m bringing up the Vlogbrothers is because heir channel has spawned a fandom known as NerdFighteria–an online community that follows, comments on, etc the Green brothers’ vlogs. I think Vlogbrothers is a perfect example of an author effectively using social media in a nontraditional way. John doesn’t promote his books in the videos, but the channel works as an incredible networking tool. Hank is the more musically inclined brother, and he also uses the channel to promote his music by performing in it. Publishing houses, eat your hearts out! Authors can build their own following without you.
The brothers are true nerds, and their opinions might not match up with yours, but I find the channel to be refreshing and (le gasp) even educational in the usual muddle of Youtube.