Have an idea for a story? Mlifeandstyle@theotherpress.ca Benkyou douga livestreams » Anew trend hitting Twitch and YouTube Brittney MacDonald Life & Style Editor Raw translated, “benkyou douga” is Japanese for “study clips.” For those unaware, it is the new Korean and Japanese livestream trend in which you watch someone study in real-time. This type of stream can also be called “Issho ni benkyou shoyou,” which translates to a friendlier “Let's study together.” However, I’m not talking a study group or “study along with me’ type of setup—which implies interaction between the streamer and the audience. Most of these livestreams are silent and feature users simply reading a book or taking notes for hours on end. Despite their relatively basic content, these livestreams have an impressive following. One pioneer of the genre, a Korean man known as Bot-No-Jam, has garnered an impressive 320,000 YouTube subscribers since starting to livestream himself studying for a state exam last April. Bot-No-Jam never speaks but will sit and read on camera for up to six hours at atime. Other popular streamers in this genre—such as Japanese YouTuber Hajime Shacho—don‘° really deviate from this method. They may read or take notes, but they almost never interact with their viewers despite it being a live broadcast. Honestly, when I heard of this trend, my first reaction was: First there were mukbang (livestreams of people eating copious amounts of food)—now we have benkyou douga. What is with people wanting to watch others do mundane tasks? Really, I have yet to find an answer. The logic behind this baffles me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see the appeal. I will admit, I watch a lot of livestreams. As a writer who also works a day job outside of the nine-to-five, I tend to spend a lot of time alone. When taking breaks—which is important, so don’t short-change yourself—I will often put ona livestream so that I have background noise while I work on plot notes or research things for an article. The users I follow on Twitch tend to be pretty varied—I have everything from Overwatch players to horror game streamers, artists, and costume makers. What I put on depends on my mood and my level of concentration. I will admit, a few of them are mostly silent broadcasts—but that’s part of the appeal. Users who dont talk aren't distracting. However, these streams I watch still have Book agents » What are they, and are they dying out? Brittney MacDonald Life & Style Editor n September 2017 I wrote a feature for the Other Press titled “So you want to write a book: The trials and tribulations of extensive creative projects,” where I let everyone in on the secret that I was currently working on my second book. Before you ask, it’s still a work in progress and probably will be for the next year or two. However, as I progress through writing SUZANNE mE my manuscript, I’ve come up against a very fair question: What is a book agent? Literary agents, or book agents, are people who can represent you when attempting to contact publishers. They vouch for you and let the publishers know that you're worth looking at. Agents also do a lot of other things like help negotiate deals—and can even be an asset when dealing with potential film production or management of literary rights. Basically, they are the go-between, the middleman, md SLT HR RLE something visually stimulating to look at. Some online publications have speculated that these types of livestreams might hold an ASMR element to them. ASMR stands for “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response” and is another popular YouTube genre—though these videos tend to be prerecorded. The intent of ASMR is to use certain sounds or repetitive noises to cause a tingling sensation in the body. Not everyone experiences this reaction to this type of stimulation, but for those affected, they find the sensation incredibly relaxing. Among the sounds that cause this response are pages turning and the scratching of pens—hence the association with benkyou douga. However, I find it more likely that between you and a publisher or anyone else who wants to use your work. They can give you a tremendous advantage if you have decided to go the traditional publication route. When I published my first book, I never attempted to contact a book agent and instead took my chances with the “scrum pile” The scrum pile is what I call it when you send your manuscript directly to a publisher and have to wait the indeterminate amount of time before some gp | CATCHING §MOEKINGUAY of a F SUZANNE COLLINS ‘Hunger Games' Trilogy covers life & style // no. 9 ¢ The Pour Boy: Cocktails ¢ A beginner's guide to cross-stitch ¢ A look at the new restaurants coming to New West ..and more! _ © Screenshot of Bot-No-Jam live stream people enjoy the companionship offered— or rather, the reminder that there are other people in the world. It’s the same idea as inviting someone over to “co-work,” or going to a public place to read or study. Often you don’t end up talking but it is nice to have someone there, and sometimes you can be more productive than when you're alone. I’m not sure why, but I’m not going to question it. Whatever works for you. poor intern picks it up and reads it. Luckily my novella managed to find its way out, but the process is pretty shitty and it means waiting possibly years before you ever get an answer. A book agent will bypass that process, especially if they are one with a history of success—such as Rosemary Stimola, the literary agent behind The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. However, due to more and more people crowdfunding their own books— and authors using services like Inkshares —less and less people are becoming aware of book agents and what they do. I think that the problem with book agents and traditional publication in general is that it suffers from gatekeeping. If you are looking to experiment or write something out of the norm, there isn’t a lot of room for that unless you find the right agent or publisher who is willing to take a chance on you. Those willing to do so become fewer and farther between as the old-school literary world is threatened by the new-media generation. As more authors choose independent productions, rather than the expectation of a multi-book deal contract with a publishing house, you see the risk-takers jump ship. Like with any transition, those who remain become more set in their ways. Unless literary agents can adapt with the times—and are willing to take some risks on new or different literary voices—I’m betting they will fall by the wayside.