Speaker 1: High Scrollers is produced on gaddigul Land.
Speaker 2: We pay our respects to the traditional custodians of this
Speaker 2: country and Elder's past and present.
Speaker 1: Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.
Speaker 2: Well, well, well kids, welcome happy Friday.
Speaker 3: What are you scrunching your face like that? What's going
Speaker 3: on in your world?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: Just the girls work.
Speaker 2: She hates you, she hates well. In the main episode
Speaker 2: this week, we had one of those weeks again where
Speaker 2: we just spoke too much and didn't actually get to
Speaker 2: any main topics.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which we seem to do a lot. I know.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's funny because when we first started
Speaker 1: High Scrollers and Scrollers, if you want to do like
Speaker 1: a little bit of a trip down memory lane, you
Speaker 1: should go back, and it's quite embarrassing, but you should
Speaker 1: go back and listen to our first couple of main episodes. Well, actually,
Speaker 1: when we first started, all we had was main episodes.
Speaker 1: It was no close friends. If you go listen to
Speaker 1: the first the first few, we were obviously new to
Speaker 1: working with Nova. They were getting to know us, and
Speaker 1: I feel like we were so like topic focused and
Speaker 1: we were like in every episode. Sorry, I just burned,
Speaker 1: but we were like I had to make sure we like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it was just so different back then,
Speaker 1: don't you think. And now like Nova really trusts that
Speaker 1: we know what we're doing and that we can talk
Speaker 1: about ourselves for most of the time and people will
Speaker 1: love it. But we still obviously want to cover topics.
Speaker 1: I can see Hannah's doing a funny smile. So you
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about this book.
Speaker 2: Drama, book top drama. I don't know if everyone's across
Speaker 2: this or not. Like, I don't know whether this is
Speaker 2: like a niche little thing that not everyone knows about it.
Speaker 1: I've seen it. I've seen a few videos.
Speaker 3: Okay, so basically.
Speaker 1: Long Oh sorry, yeah, did you see she's doing like Constance?
Speaker 2: Well it's Pride season, okay, so she's doing all the gay.
Speaker 1: So who is this guy that we're talking about today?
Speaker 2: So Luke Bateman, his his name is Luke's Reads and
Speaker 2: he is originally a former NRL player apparently I don't know.
Speaker 1: See, I've never seen this guy before besides on these tiktoks.
Speaker 1: And also he looks like Shrek when Shrek turns into
Speaker 1: a human. Yeah, don't correct.
Speaker 3: People have said that literally.
Speaker 2: He was also the Bachelor in twenty twenty three or
Speaker 2: one of the Bachelor's I'm pretty sure there were. There
Speaker 2: were maybe a couple of bachelors that year Bachelor, and
Speaker 2: he was one of them, was he? Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 2: I'm sure I watched that seat.
Speaker 3: Can you show?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 1: Is it the season with the three bachelors?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I see, I'd.
Speaker 1: Never watched that.
Speaker 3: I didn't watch that one. I watched the other one.
Speaker 2: There was another season where they had three as well,
Speaker 2: and I watched that one with one of them's name
Speaker 2: was Thomas, and I can't remember the other ones. But anyway,
Speaker 2: the point of the fact of the matter is he's
Speaker 2: definitely had like a bit of a public following before
Speaker 2: he made his debut into BookTalk. But twenty second of April,
Speaker 2: It's first video went up on TikTok. It now has
Speaker 2: over two million views. He literally got like one hundred
Speaker 2: thousand followers in less than a week and he makes
Speaker 2: this video. We could play a little bit of it now.
Speaker 3: My first ever TikTok video. I'm excited.
Speaker 4: I've just been introduced to the booktop community. One of
Speaker 4: my friend's Gracy and carda shadow of Gacy and Carter.
Speaker 3: Love books.
Speaker 4: My entire life love fantasy. Fantasy is my main go
Speaker 4: to love of all things fantasy.
Speaker 3: I've never really had anywhere.
Speaker 4: To talk about it or share those things because obviously,
Speaker 4: being a male in a lot of blue collar work
Speaker 4: and from the country, not a lot of emotional depth.
Speaker 2: All right, shat enough, we're done. But you know that's
Speaker 2: he came on with that. Now he looks gorgeous, he's rugged.
Speaker 1: He's in a when Shrek turns into a person on a.
Speaker 2: Fucking farm or something. I feel right up, Hannah's a.
Speaker 1: What are you thinking? Yeah, this is the guy that
Speaker 1: she likes.
Speaker 2: She would she would anyway. The point is that's obviously
Speaker 2: taken off. I've commented on the video at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can see your comment. I'm reading some of
Speaker 1: the So this is literally just from April that he's
Speaker 1: posed his first video. Blue Eyed Kayla Jade said, welcome.
Speaker 1: Another person said, I now identify as a book. You said, oh,
Speaker 1: we're on here, girls. Another person said, oh, the TikTok
Speaker 1: girls is gonna love this. Another person said, are we
Speaker 1: all in love with him or just me? Another person
Speaker 1: said standing ovulation or whatever it's called.
Speaker 3: Incredible. I love that.
Speaker 1: One said do you do you do weddings as like
Speaker 1: the group, Yeah, it was, this made my whole week.
Speaker 1: But hola god.
Speaker 2: So yes, BookTok went a bit fairer for him, and
Speaker 2: understandably so like there's not really a man like him
Speaker 2: on booktop. Book talk is a very is a space
Speaker 2: that is very much queer and women and queer people
Speaker 2: for the most part on book talk, and so him
Speaker 2: coming on cracking one hundred thousand followers in like a
Speaker 2: week was kind of it was there was a reaction
Speaker 2: of obviously a lot of people being like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: this is so exciting, and a lot of people also
Speaker 2: being like, I've been doing BookTalk for five years and
Speaker 2: I can't even crack ten thousand followers, and you know,
Speaker 2: I put my heart and soul into this. But of
Speaker 2: course a straight white man who's conventionally attractive comes on
Speaker 2: and suddenly has all the success in the world. So
Speaker 2: it was a little bit of like not too much backlash,
Speaker 2: but a little bit. So that was the twenty second
Speaker 2: of April. He first uploaded that then a week ago,
Speaker 2: so literally like let's say, just over a month after
Speaker 2: he's started the BookTok account. He's then announced a two
Speaker 2: book deal with Simon and Schuster's publisher at Trio Books.
Speaker 1: Which so, how does this happen so quickly?
Speaker 2: Well, this is the mystery that the Internet is currently
Speaker 2: trying to and this is what has sent BookTalk into
Speaker 2: a spiral, is because this doesn't just happen this quickly
Speaker 2: and without you know, what people are saying is, first
Speaker 2: of all, he's been handed a two book deal by
Speaker 2: a huge publisher. But he says in the video he
Speaker 2: can't wait to write the book. He hasn't written the book,
Speaker 2: he hasn't sent a manuscript. He sent them a floating idea. Evidently,
Speaker 2: allegedly from what people have gathered from the book sorry
Speaker 2: from the video, is that the book doesn't exist. And
Speaker 2: he's scored a two book deal, so he's given them
Speaker 2: the concept. He's gone, hey, guys, this is what I'd
Speaker 2: like to do, and they've gone, that sounds great.
Speaker 3: Sign us up.
Speaker 2: Probably because of the success on BookTalk, et cetera. But
Speaker 2: you know, obviously there are just so many authors out there,
Speaker 2: especially as I said, queer women, people of color, who
Speaker 2: are constantly writing books, have always wanted to be authors,
Speaker 2: have full books written and ready to be published, but
Speaker 2: no one will give them a chance, and this straight
Speaker 2: white man has walked into the space that is usually
Speaker 2: occupied by those people and has been given a deal
Speaker 2: that most of them would only dream of. Granted, a
Speaker 2: lot of people have been defending him, saying he was
Speaker 2: an excellent nurl player and a ex bachelor, so he's
Speaker 2: already had a public profile. Fair enough if this was
Speaker 2: a memoir or this was like a self help or.
Speaker 1: Like the fact that he's just going to write like
Speaker 1: a full on fantasy.
Speaker 2: Okay, So fantasy is like the most critical and or
Speaker 2: criticized and the most intric and the most you know,
Speaker 2: because fantasy is like, you know, a romance book is
Speaker 2: a romance book, is a romance book. You know, where
Speaker 2: are they going? How have they met? They fall in love?
Speaker 2: What happens next? Do they get married? Like it's very
Speaker 2: much the same story but written a hundred different ways.
Speaker 2: Whereas with fantasy is it does get the option to
Speaker 2: be so intricate and so something no one has ever
Speaker 2: heard of before, and like, you know, these days, with
Speaker 2: fantasy you do see people comparing things like the Fourth
Speaker 2: Wing series to perhaps a Harry Potter or you know,
Speaker 2: Hunger Games and taking inspiration from other places. I can
Speaker 2: understand why BookTalk is in shambles over this man getting
Speaker 2: this two book deal. He then also followed up on
Speaker 2: the Morning Show or something and said something silly like
Speaker 2: there's there's no barrier to reading and writing, which again
Speaker 2: is such a straight white man either him.
Speaker 1: To say if he's been just handed this opportunity.
Speaker 2: Exactly, but he's like, there's no barrier to He goes,
Speaker 2: if you can pick up a book or you can
Speaker 2: pick up a pen. Like, if you can pick up
Speaker 2: a book, you can read, and if you can pick
Speaker 2: up a pen, you can write a book. What the
Speaker 2: in what fucking world? Like maybe here in Australia where
Speaker 2: you've been brought up in a good family, who's sent
Speaker 2: you to school, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: There's kids that.
Speaker 2: Don't know how to read and write until whatever year
Speaker 2: they're in. There are people in other countries who don't
Speaker 2: know how to read and write and will never learn,
Speaker 2: you know. So like that response obviously set a lot
Speaker 2: of people off as well, you know. And it's funny
Speaker 2: because I also Dancing Queen. The whole thing about Dancing
Speaker 2: Queen was no one would publish my memoir, so I
Speaker 2: had to take it on the road. And I think
Speaker 2: it's just really funny that like within the space of
Speaker 2: a month he's been able to secure this deal, and
Speaker 2: I can understand why everybody is so frustrated and upset.
Speaker 3: And it's gone.
Speaker 2: Worldwide because BookTok is such a Remember before I was reading,
Speaker 2: I went, how is Dimmicks and Q how are they
Speaker 2: still in business?
Speaker 3: Who's reading books? Now?
Speaker 2: One's reading books? And then once you're actually you discover
Speaker 2: book Top, You're like, oh my god, like everyone's reading
Speaker 2: no wonder, these companies are thriving. So it's made headlines worldwide.
Speaker 2: Everyone is rightfully pissed about it, and I don't really
Speaker 2: know what is going to happen here.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not really much of a fantasy reader either,
Speaker 2: so I don't know whether I'll read Luke's books. We
Speaker 2: are friends on TikTok, so maybe I might send me
Speaker 2: an arc. I like that, I'll give it a read,
Speaker 2: let everyone know my opinions.
Speaker 1: And well, I've seen people also like saying not nice
Speaker 1: things about him online, about things that he's done.
Speaker 3: Oh really like what.
Speaker 1: I don't know specifics because I've just seen them and
Speaker 1: kind of scroll past, but like women coming out of
Speaker 1: the woodwork saying that, like he has been part of
Speaker 1: like bad behaviors in relationships. Oh really yeah, and.
Speaker 3: Then they're seeing much of that.
Speaker 1: Then they're also saying that he's like this is an
Speaker 1: industry plan.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so that I can see, Yeah, that I
Speaker 2: can see.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: So that's actually where we wanted to land with This
Speaker 2: is basically that if you wanted, if you want to
Speaker 2: think about it, think critically about it. I think the
Speaker 2: book talk, in my opinion, was created because this book
Speaker 2: deal may have already been maybe not already in the works,
Speaker 2: because I don't see them giving him a two book.
Speaker 3: Deal without the BookTalk following.
Speaker 2: But I think he's maybe been trying to get this
Speaker 2: off the ground and it hasn't worked. So he's done
Speaker 2: this to get something under his belt, like even him
Speaker 2: thinking maybe I'll get ten thousand followers and that'll still
Speaker 2: look better than zero, but then to get the success
Speaker 2: that he's gotten, it's just kind of worked in his favor,
Speaker 2: and it's like it was all now a ploy to
Speaker 2: And I mean, who can really tell at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, we don't know. We're just hypothesizing here,
Speaker 2: But yeah, I'm thinking, like, isn't it convenient? And I
Speaker 2: would want to that video we played of his he goes, Oh,
Speaker 2: my friend so and so and so and so told
Speaker 2: me to get on BookTalk. I've never heard of BookTalk.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: This is my first introduction to BookTalk. I'm thinking, who
Speaker 2: are they? Are they? Is that your management? You never
Speaker 2: said that were your friends? Is that your management telling
Speaker 2: you get on BookTalk? Because managers will do that for talent.
Speaker 2: They will go, you need to be on this app.
Speaker 2: You need to be saying this. You need to be
Speaker 2: doing this if you want to build a public profile there.
Speaker 2: So it's entirely possible, and not saying this is what happened,
Speaker 2: but it's entirely possible that this whole thing has been
Speaker 2: a ruse from the start to get this book deal.
Speaker 2: It's just bizarre that it's fantasy. He seems to have
Speaker 2: been handed it after four weeks. That's crazy to me,
Speaker 2: with no manuscript, no real fleshed out I don't know
Speaker 2: if there's a fleshed out plot or anything. He speaks
Speaker 2: as if he hasn't written it yet and he's excited
Speaker 2: to write it and go on the journey of writing it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just in like one of his other videos.
Speaker 1: Now the comment it's all very mixed.
Speaker 2: Yes, some people are very supportive yeah, and other people.
Speaker 1: Alive like the amount of jealousy in this community is
Speaker 1: shocking me. Happy for your success for those who don't.
Speaker 1: Another comment for those who don't see the problem with this,
Speaker 1: you are part of the.
Speaker 2: Problem, which I think that it's less his fault more
Speaker 2: the publisher's fault. I would argue that a Trio books
Speaker 2: are the ones that fault here, not him. Any of
Speaker 2: us would take that deal if it was handed to us.
Speaker 2: It'd be stupid to say no, I get it, get that.
Speaker 2: I get that he has been put in this position
Speaker 2: and given this opportunity, whether it is because he's a
Speaker 2: straight white man or not, whatever, But the point is
Speaker 2: he's been given the opportunity. I don't think it's wrong
Speaker 2: of him to accept that and go on that journey.
Speaker 2: But it is a bit of an eye roll towards
Speaker 2: the publisher's Tria books to be handed it out so
Speaker 2: willing now.
Speaker 1: I think it just shows that like followers everything, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter if someone's written ten books and been
Speaker 1: writing for fifteen years. If a guy can just have
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of followers and say that he loves
Speaker 1: reading books, you can get a deal.
Speaker 2: But that's crazy, don't you Reckon?
Speaker 3: Yes, it is, And then that makes.
Speaker 2: Me also think, you know, I mean, we've all spoken
Speaker 2: so much, especially you, I feel your whole career, have
Speaker 2: spoken about the fact that influencers are dying. Our influencers
Speaker 2: are going to die off. They're going to die off,
Speaker 2: They're going to die off, and you think that's happening,
Speaker 2: but then it's not. But then something like this happens
Speaker 2: and goes again. It's just proved that followers mean everything,
Speaker 2: and that's all anyone cares about at the end of
Speaker 2: the day. So I don't know, how do I feel
Speaker 2: about it? Goodn't give a shit. If I'm honest, fantasy
Speaker 2: is not my favorite genre. Will I be rushing out
Speaker 2: to read Luke's book when it drops? Probably not, But
Speaker 2: also in the same respect, like I might, just because
Speaker 2: people are going to want to know what I think
Speaker 2: about it. My friend's on TikTok if he wants to
Speaker 2: send me an arc, feel free, But then it.
Speaker 1: Makes me wonder, like does he know how to write
Speaker 1: a book? Especially like a fantasy for Oh.
Speaker 2: Well, here's the other thing. He's in the tractor all day,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure he also reads books.
Speaker 3: But he made.
Speaker 2: A he made a video about akata A Courd of
Speaker 2: Thorns and Roses, which is a big book talk book,
Speaker 2: and he revealed that he was listening to it in
Speaker 2: the tractor. Now there's a big divide on book talk.
Speaker 2: In terms of our audio books.
Speaker 1: Real books, I think, like I think they're podcasts.
Speaker 2: So that's like the vibe is like, that's the podcast.
Speaker 2: But if you if you've listened to the whole book,
Speaker 2: you know, can you say I read the book because
Speaker 2: it's a whole thing on like you know, obviously it's
Speaker 2: an accessibility thing, so people who are blind can still
Speaker 2: enjoy the same type of media and it's inclusive. Audiobooks
Speaker 2: are inclusive, so we want to use inclusive language and
Speaker 2: say yes, if you're listening to audiobooks, you can also
Speaker 2: say that you've read. But I do think that it
Speaker 2: is okay to acknowledge that they are different mediums and
Speaker 2: different things, and it is way easier to listen to
Speaker 2: an audiobook than it is to read. Yes, because him
Speaker 2: sitting in the tractor listening to Akata while he works
Speaker 2: all day.
Speaker 3: I'm going, babes.
Speaker 2: That's not reading in the sense that it's not sitting
Speaker 2: down and reading page by page by page.
Speaker 1: You can just put it on one point five speed.
Speaker 1: You can get through it a lot.
Speaker 3: Quicker, exactly. So I'm like, I totally get that.
Speaker 2: You know, if you can only listen to audiobooks, or
Speaker 2: you choose to listen to audiobooks, I'm on the same
Speaker 2: page that that means you know, you've you've read the book. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 2: but I think it's also important to acknowledge they're totally
Speaker 2: different things. And so that was also a bit of
Speaker 2: an irol. There's just been a lot of controversy with
Speaker 2: this guy since he's.
Speaker 1: I'm interested to see where it goes.
Speaker 3: Me too, me too, and who knows where it goes?
Speaker 3: But we might keep you updated. Who knows?
Speaker 1: Surely, Matt, when the book comes out, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: the book. You're gonna do videos about it because they're
Speaker 1: gonna go viral. You're gonna milk his views.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I better, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'd do the same if I was you.
Speaker 2: All Right, then well let's start a content plan. Actually
Speaker 2: we should probably go and do that.
Speaker 1: Let's start a content you can be the industry plan
Speaker 1: for us getting views out of his book, because that's
Speaker 1: what everyone's going to be doing too.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow, all right, okay, well I'm gonna have to go
Speaker 2: and sort that out, so I'll see you next Tuesday.