‘Booktok’ responsible for reshaping the book industry
There’s a hashtag on TikTok responsible for around 206.9 billion views. And it’s completely reshaping an ancient industry.
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There’s a hashtag on TikTok responsible for around 206.9 billion views. And it’s completely reshaping an ancient industry.
The popular TikTok Subcommunity, ‘BookTok’ is reshaping the publishing and book world.
Currently holding the spots of some of the most watched content, the ‘BookTok’ community’s hashtag #BookTok has around 203.9 billion views and 19 million posts on TikTok. They have an additional 4.4 million posts on Instagram and 132 thousand videos on Youtube as well.
This is how it works.
The BookTok community prides themselves on their personal collections, recommendations and most importantly their interests in beloved authors. They produce videos with ‘teasers’, memes and artworks, all to convince you to read particular books.
Their word of mouth promotion of their beloved books gets others in the community talking. They promote books incessantly, increasing publicity until their roots are embedded across most social media platforms. Their promotion sparks sales, the sales spark advertising and the advertising promotes more readers.
Aymansbooks, a verified and highly followed Booktoker, told news.com.au that she discovered booktok a few months before she created her account in 2020. She said she decided to create her account at random. Little did she know it would take off.
“It was honestly due to quarantine boredom. I had a lot of time on my hands since I was at home and out of work. I picked up reading again since it’s one of my favourite hobbies,” she said.
“I had no set goal or reason to start making content. It was purely random.”
Ayman said that she too has fallen to the charms of booktok.
“I’m very easily influenced. If anyone could convince me to read a book simply based on its aesthetics, quotes, or tropes… I am reading it,” she said.
Ayman noted that Booktok has influenced their audience through more than just buying a book,
“This (Booktok) has resulted in numerous books going viral and people falling in love, or rediscovering reading again,” she said.
So just how much has BookTok influenced their viewers?
A prime example of BookTok’s reach is Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing. The novel was published in April of this year. After it became overwhelmingly popular on BookTok, it was almost impossible to buy the book in stores.
Fourth Wing flooded BookTok. Almost every known ‘BookTok’ creator had gotten their hands on the novel. The author, Rebecca Yarros, prompted more people to get involved, sharing sneak peaks and acknowledging theories. Readers shared their beloved moments of the book as well.
What wasn’t expected was that this book would become so popular that it charted on Goodreads top books of the year, as well as other reputable book retailers. The book also became the Dymocks 2023 book of the year.
In just over a month of being published the Fourth Wing novel became number two in the New York Times’ print hardcover best selling list. It quickly reached the top and has now held the number one spot for 30 consecutive weeks.
Aymansbooks commented on just how quickly a book recommendation can spread.
“It’s crazy to me how I’ll take a recommendation from someone’s video that they made and the next day, that book has gone viral, and everyone’s reading it,” she said. “I love how booktok can make any book go viral, whether it was published one year ago or 10 years ago.”
Another key example of how BookTok is single handedly changing the way readers read, is with best selling author Sarah J Maas and her interlinked series. Publishing the first novel from her most popular series in 2015, Sarah J Maas has amassed a cult-like following.
A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) has pretty much buried itself amongst BookTok’s most prized books and is currently one of the most promoted books online.
The hashtag #ACOTAR currently has just under eight billion views on TikTok and countless posts on Instagram. The ‘BookTok’ fans of ACOTAR have created songs, cosplays and even developed their own mini series on Youtube, which displays key scenes from the first book.
The series in itself has become so popular over the past years that there are even rumours of it being developed into a TV series with streaming giant, Hulu.
Film adaptations is just one of the many ways in which Booktok has influenced the literature industry. Author Alex Aester was able to promote her first novel ‘Lightlark’ so efficiently on Booktok that her novel is now in the process of being adapted into a film.
Aester’s popularity from Booktok was so great that she was even invited onto the Kelly Clarkson show alongside actress Kristen Bell. Her book became a New York Times bestseller and she currently has 1.2 million followers on Tiktok.
The BookTok followers and creators’ constant discussion of popular series and their extensive videos begging for live action series has reflected greatly with other films. Movies such as Red White and Royal blue, The Hating Game and TV shows such as Shadow and Bone, Heart Stopper and the newly awaited Percy Jackson series are just some of the prime examples of BookToks’ eagerness to have their beloved series adapted onto the screen.
Their popularity helped streamline production to produce quality transformations from paper to film.
There are even other rumours of popular novels being adapted into movies with reputable celebrities such as Colleen Hoover ‘It Ends with Us’.
The viral book, which helped bring Hoover to fame, is anticipated to be adapted into a film, with Gossip Girl star Blake Lively expected to play the main female role, Lily.
“I think in just the past two years alone, I’ve seen more books being announced for adaptation, than any time before. especially romance books. The romance community pretty much runs booktok, so it’s cool to see all these books I’ve loved being announced for adaptation,” said Aymansbooks. “I never thought they would and booktok has a big role to play in that”.
It is clear that BookTok has a significant sway in getting people talking about novels and boosting their popularity. BookTok is so popular that reputable book stores such as Barnes and Noble, Dymocks, Booktopia and publishers such as Penguin have all created pages on their website dedicated to books popular on BookTok.
The series, The Prison Healer has a large association with BookTok. On Booktopia’s ‘Best of #Booktok’ web page, The Gilded Cage (the second book in the series), is one of the first books visible.
Australian author of The Prison Healer series, Lynette Noni stated that she truly did not know the depth of TikTok’s influence,
“A few months ago, an author friend of mine who is much more TikTok-savvy told me that my Prison Healer series had millions of views on that platform, and I kind of laughed and thought they were joking. It wasn’t until they opened the app and made me look for myself that I realised they were right,” Lynette told news.com.au.
“My mind was (and still is) blown just thinking about how many people have heard about my books because of TikTok!”
BookToks platform has not only changed the way we as readers find books, but it has also helped authors become more recognised for their entertaining and quality works.
“BookTok is the social media equivalent of a wild animal — it’s not something that can be controlled. As much as authors and publishers wish there could be a step-by-step guide for going viral on TikTok, that kind of magic formula just doesn’t exist,” Ms Noni said. “Any popularity is purely up to the readers. And there’s something really beautiful about that, in my opinion.”
“It’s readers talking about my books that makes the most difference — I haven’t personally gone “viral” on TikTok through anything I’ve posted. I try to come up with interesting and fun content, but ultimately, the BookTok magic is entirely in readers’ hands,” said Ms Noni.
Lynette Noni stated she intends to continue to use social media such as TikTok, as a way to promote her works. She found that after her global release of The Prison Healer series her platforms have grown a lot more. She insists though, that it is not about the amount of followers, but it is about the readers,
“It’s rarely a large increase, but I’m the kind of author who loves to interact with my audience, so every single person matters to me. I’m not about the numbers. I’m about making people feel safe and welcome and part of my little bookish family”.
Her outlook is just one of the reasons why Booktok promotes her work.
Amazon has also taken this on board with their sites and apps such as Audible, Kindle and their storefront all catering to the BookTok name. When you search Booktok on any of those pages, they produce countless popular Booktok books.
Store giants such Kmart and Big W have also dedicated pages to the Book Tok search. Just a simple search of ‘BookTok’ on google will indicate the level of affluence BookTok has brought the associated book industry.
Aymansbooks expressed that she had noticed just how much of an impact Booktok has had: “I’ve been reading for most of my life and I believe Booktok has had a huge impact on book sales, bookstores, and authors. I believe books translate better on TikTok than any other platform,” She said. “In my opinion, it’s much easier to get a recommendation from booktok than any other book community online”.
BookTok has definitely taken buying and reading books to a whole new level.
Originally published as ‘Booktok’ responsible for reshaping the book industry
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