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Well, well, well kids, welcome happy Friday.
What are you scrunching your face like that? What's going on in your world?
Oh?
Just the girls work.
She hates you, she hates well. In the main episode this week, we had one of those weeks again where we just spoke too much and didn't actually get to any main topics.
Yeah, which we seem to do a lot. I know.
I feel like it's funny because when we first started High Scrollers and Scrollers, if you want to do like a little bit of a trip down memory lane, you should go back, and it's quite embarrassing, but you should go back and listen to our first couple of main episodes. Well, actually, when we first started, all we had was main episodes. It was no close friends. If you go listen to the first the first few, we were obviously new to
working with Nova. They were getting to know us, and I feel like we were so like topic focused and we were like in every episode. Sorry, I just burned, but we were like I had to make sure we like, I don't know, it was just so different back then, don't you think. And now like Nova really trusts that we know what we're doing and that we can talk about ourselves for most of the time and people will love it. But we still obviously want to cover topics.
I can see Hannah's doing a funny smile. So you wanted to talk about this book.
Drama, book top drama. I don't know if everyone's across this or not. Like, I don't know whether this is like a niche little thing that not everyone knows about it.
I've seen it. I've seen a few videos.
Okay, so basically.
Long Oh sorry, yeah, did you see she's doing like Constance?
Well it's Pride season, okay, so she's doing all the gay.
So who is this guy that we're talking about today?
So Luke Bateman, his his name is Luke's Reads and he is originally a former NRL player apparently I don't know.
See, I've never seen this guy before besides on these tiktoks. And also he looks like Shrek when Shrek turns into a human. Yeah, don't correct.
People have said that literally.
He was also the Bachelor in twenty twenty three or one of the Bachelor's I'm pretty sure there were. There were maybe a couple of bachelors that year Bachelor, and he was one of them, was he? Yeah, I don't remember. I'm sure I watched that seat.
Can you show?
So?
Is it the season with the three bachelors?
Yeah, I see, I'd.
Never watched that.
I didn't watch that one. I watched the other one.
There was another season where they had three as well, and I watched that one with one of them's name was Thomas, and I can't remember the other ones. But anyway, the point of the fact of the matter is he's definitely had like a bit of a public following before he made his debut into BookTalk. But twenty second of April, It's first video went up on TikTok. It now has over two million views. He literally got like one hundred thousand followers in less than a week and he makes
this video. We could play a little bit of it now.
My first ever TikTok video. I'm excited.
I've just been introduced to the booktop community. One of my friend's Gracy and carda shadow of Gacy and Carter.
Love books.
My entire life love fantasy. Fantasy is my main go to love of all things fantasy.
I've never really had anywhere.
To talk about it or share those things because obviously, being a male in a lot of blue collar work and from the country, not a lot of emotional depth.
All right, shat enough, we're done. But you know that's he came on with that. Now he looks gorgeous, he's rugged.
He's in a when Shrek turns into a person on a.
Fucking farm or something. I feel right up, Hannah's a.
What are you thinking? Yeah, this is the guy that she likes.
She would she would anyway. The point is that's obviously taken off. I've commented on the video at all.
Yeah, I can see your comment. I'm reading some of the So this is literally just from April that he's posed his first video. Blue Eyed Kayla Jade said, welcome. Another person said, I now identify as a book. You said, oh, we're on here, girls. Another person said, oh, the TikTok girls is gonna love this. Another person said, are we all in love with him or just me? Another person said standing ovulation or whatever it's called.
Incredible. I love that.
One said do you do you do weddings as like the group, Yeah, it was, this made my whole week. But hola god.
So yes, BookTok went a bit fairer for him, and understandably so like there's not really a man like him
on booktop. Book talk is a very is a space that is very much queer and women and queer people for the most part on book talk, and so him coming on cracking one hundred thousand followers in like a week was kind of it was there was a reaction of obviously a lot of people being like, oh my god, this is so exciting, and a lot of people also being like, I've been doing BookTalk for five years and I can't even crack ten thousand followers, and you know,
I put my heart and soul into this. But of course a straight white man who's conventionally attractive comes on and suddenly has all the success in the world. So it was a little bit of like not too much backlash, but a little bit. So that was the twenty second of April. He first uploaded that then a week ago, so literally like let's say, just over a month after he's started the BookTok account. He's then announced a two book deal with Simon and Schuster's publisher at Trio Books.
Which so, how does this happen so quickly?
Well, this is the mystery that the Internet is currently trying to and this is what has sent BookTalk into a spiral, is because this doesn't just happen this quickly and without you know, what people are saying is, first of all, he's been handed a two book deal by a huge publisher. But he says in the video he can't wait to write the book. He hasn't written the book, he hasn't sent a manuscript. He sent them a floating idea. Evidently, allegedly from what people have gathered from the book sorry
from the video, is that the book doesn't exist. And he's scored a two book deal, so he's given them the concept. He's gone, hey, guys, this is what I'd like to do, and they've gone, that sounds great.
Sign us up.
Probably because of the success on BookTalk, et cetera. But you know, obviously there are just so many authors out there, especially as I said, queer women, people of color, who are constantly writing books, have always wanted to be authors, have full books written and ready to be published, but no one will give them a chance, and this straight white man has walked into the space that is usually occupied by those people and has been given a deal
that most of them would only dream of. Granted, a lot of people have been defending him, saying he was an excellent nurl player and a ex bachelor, so he's already had a public profile. Fair enough if this was a memoir or this was like a self help or.
Like the fact that he's just going to write like a full on fantasy.
Okay, So fantasy is like the most critical and or criticized and the most intric and the most you know, because fantasy is like, you know, a romance book is a romance book, is a romance book. You know, where are they going? How have they met? They fall in love? What happens next? Do they get married? Like it's very much the same story but written a hundred different ways.
Whereas with fantasy is it does get the option to be so intricate and so something no one has ever heard of before, and like, you know, these days, with fantasy you do see people comparing things like the Fourth Wing series to perhaps a Harry Potter or you know, Hunger Games and taking inspiration from other places. I can understand why BookTalk is in shambles over this man getting
this two book deal. He then also followed up on the Morning Show or something and said something silly like there's there's no barrier to reading and writing, which again is such a straight white man either him.
To say if he's been just handed this opportunity.
Exactly, but he's like, there's no barrier to He goes, if you can pick up a book or you can pick up a pen. Like, if you can pick up a book, you can read, and if you can pick up a pen, you can write a book. What the in what fucking world? Like maybe here in Australia where you've been brought up in a good family, who's sent you to school, do you know what I mean?
There's kids that.
Don't know how to read and write until whatever year they're in. There are people in other countries who don't know how to read and write and will never learn, you know. So like that response obviously set a lot of people off as well, you know. And it's funny because I also Dancing Queen. The whole thing about Dancing Queen was no one would publish my memoir, so I
had to take it on the road. And I think it's just really funny that like within the space of a month he's been able to secure this deal, and I can understand why everybody is so frustrated and upset.
And it's gone.
Worldwide because BookTok is such a Remember before I was reading, I went, how is Dimmicks and Q how are they still in business?
Who's reading books? Now?
One's reading books? And then once you're actually you discover book Top, You're like, oh my god, like everyone's reading no wonder, these companies are thriving. So it's made headlines worldwide. Everyone is rightfully pissed about it, and I don't really know what is going to happen here.
I don't know.
I mean, I'm not really much of a fantasy reader either, so I don't know whether I'll read Luke's books. We are friends on TikTok, so maybe I might send me an arc. I like that, I'll give it a read, let everyone know my opinions.
And well, I've seen people also like saying not nice things about him online, about things that he's done.
Oh really like what.
I don't know specifics because I've just seen them and kind of scroll past, but like women coming out of the woodwork saying that, like he has been part of like bad behaviors in relationships. Oh really yeah, and.
Then they're seeing much of that.
Then they're also saying that he's like this is an industry plan.
Oh okay, so that I can see, Yeah, that I can see.
Okay.
So that's actually where we wanted to land with This is basically that if you wanted, if you want to think about it, think critically about it. I think the book talk, in my opinion, was created because this book deal may have already been maybe not already in the works, because I don't see them giving him a two book.
Deal without the BookTalk following.
But I think he's maybe been trying to get this off the ground and it hasn't worked. So he's done this to get something under his belt, like even him thinking maybe I'll get ten thousand followers and that'll still look better than zero, but then to get the success that he's gotten, it's just kind of worked in his favor, and it's like it was all now a ploy to And I mean, who can really tell at the end of the day, we don't know. We're just hypothesizing here,
But yeah, I'm thinking, like, isn't it convenient? And I would want to that video we played of his he goes, Oh, my friend so and so and so and so told me to get on BookTalk. I've never heard of BookTalk.
I don't know.
This is my first introduction to BookTalk. I'm thinking, who are they? Are they? Is that your management? You never said that were your friends? Is that your management telling you get on BookTalk? Because managers will do that for talent. They will go, you need to be on this app. You need to be saying this. You need to be doing this if you want to build a public profile there.
So it's entirely possible, and not saying this is what happened, but it's entirely possible that this whole thing has been a ruse from the start to get this book deal. It's just bizarre that it's fantasy. He seems to have been handed it after four weeks. That's crazy to me, with no manuscript, no real fleshed out I don't know if there's a fleshed out plot or anything. He speaks as if he hasn't written it yet and he's excited to write it and go on the journey of writing it.
Yeah, I'm just in like one of his other videos. Now the comment it's all very mixed.
Yes, some people are very supportive yeah, and other people.
Alive like the amount of jealousy in this community is shocking me. Happy for your success for those who don't. Another comment for those who don't see the problem with this, you are part of the.
Problem, which I think that it's less his fault more the publisher's fault. I would argue that a Trio books are the ones that fault here, not him. Any of us would take that deal if it was handed to us. It'd be stupid to say no, I get it, get that. I get that he has been put in this position and given this opportunity, whether it is because he's a straight white man or not, whatever, But the point is
he's been given the opportunity. I don't think it's wrong of him to accept that and go on that journey. But it is a bit of an eye roll towards the publisher's Tria books to be handed it out so willing now.
I think it just shows that like followers everything, and it doesn't matter if someone's written ten books and been writing for fifteen years. If a guy can just have hundreds of thousands of followers and say that he loves reading books, you can get a deal.
But that's crazy, don't you Reckon?
Yes, it is, And then that makes.
Me also think, you know, I mean, we've all spoken so much, especially you, I feel your whole career, have spoken about the fact that influencers are dying. Our influencers are going to die off. They're going to die off, They're going to die off, and you think that's happening, but then it's not. But then something like this happens and goes again. It's just proved that followers mean everything, and that's all anyone cares about at the end of the day. So I don't know, how do I feel
about it? Goodn't give a shit. If I'm honest, fantasy is not my favorite genre. Will I be rushing out to read Luke's book when it drops? Probably not, But also in the same respect, like I might, just because people are going to want to know what I think about it. My friend's on TikTok if he wants to send me an arc, feel free, But then it.
Makes me wonder, like does he know how to write a book? Especially like a fantasy for Oh.
Well, here's the other thing. He's in the tractor all day, and I'm sure he also reads books.
But he made.
A he made a video about akata A Courd of Thorns and Roses, which is a big book talk book, and he revealed that he was listening to it in the tractor. Now there's a big divide on book talk. In terms of our audio books.
Real books, I think, like I think they're podcasts.
So that's like the vibe is like, that's the podcast. But if you if you've listened to the whole book, you know, can you say I read the book because it's a whole thing on like you know, obviously it's an accessibility thing, so people who are blind can still enjoy the same type of media and it's inclusive. Audiobooks are inclusive, so we want to use inclusive language and say yes, if you're listening to audiobooks, you can also
say that you've read. But I do think that it is okay to acknowledge that they are different mediums and different things, and it is way easier to listen to an audiobook than it is to read. Yes, because him sitting in the tractor listening to Akata while he works all day.
I'm going, babes.
That's not reading in the sense that it's not sitting down and reading page by page by page.
You can just put it on one point five speed. You can get through it a lot.
Quicker, exactly. So I'm like, I totally get that.
You know, if you can only listen to audiobooks, or you choose to listen to audiobooks, I'm on the same page that that means you know, you've you've read the book. Yeah, sure, but I think it's also important to acknowledge they're totally different things. And so that was also a bit of an irol. There's just been a lot of controversy with this guy since he's.
I'm interested to see where it goes.
Me too, me too, and who knows where it goes? But we might keep you updated. Who knows?
Surely, Matt, when the book comes out, you're gonna get the book. You're gonna do videos about it because they're gonna go viral. You're gonna milk his views.
Yeah, I better, Yeah.
I'd do the same if I was you.
All Right, then well let's start a content plan. Actually we should probably go and do that.
Let's start a content you can be the industry plan for us getting views out of his book, because that's what everyone's going to be doing too.
Yeah.
Wow, all right, okay, well I'm gonna have to go and sort that out, so I'll see you next Tuesday.