BookTok is a community that allows many content creators that use TikTok to advertise their favourite books and give books another life through introducing them to newer audiences. Older books have bounced back onto bestsellers lists due to many becoming fascinated with these forgotten and overlooked book series. The hashtag ‘BookTok’ has been utilized and seen through a combined 18 billion times.
Booktok is a positive, sociable place where there is rarely any negative cyberbullying and encourages open participation. Studybreaks interviewed a 20-year-old Booktok creator by the name of Luz on why he became a Booktok creator. “I created my book account because I was longing to find a connection with people about something I am super passionate about.”
Countless books that were not on the best sellers lists or were not that popular to many before became sold out in numerous bookstores after being shown on TikTok. Adam Silvera, an author who released a young adult science fiction novel by the name of “They Both Die at the End” back in September of 2017 noticed that his book sales were increasing unexpectedly years later in August 2020.
NBC News also interviewed Silvera who replied that when that happened, he thought to himself, ‘Hey, I don’t know what’s happening, but there’s been a surge in sales lately; [I am] so grateful that everybody’s finding the story years later.
They Both Die at the End later ended up being positioned on top of the monthly bestseller list in April and continued to be there ever since. He later realized that his book was quite prominent on Booktok due to a reader saying, ‘I’m seeing it on Booktok.’
When TikTok was released internationally, BookTok was not as popular as today, as many people were unaware of BookTok’s existence. These days BookTok has become so widespread that it has helped boost book sales at Indigo, who added their own “Now trending on #BookTok” section.
Indigo’s CEO Heather Reisman stated in an August 13, 2021, conference call about the company’s earnings that, “the popularity of reading on TikTok created a whole new level of reading excitement, particularly for teens, adding to an already strong performance in books.” BookTok has had a strong influence on many teenagers and helped future authors reach wider audiences.
According to Indigo’s ‘Now trending on #BookTok’ section, as most content creators are between the ages of 13-30 years, many of the books are young adult books, but people who are above or below the age group will still find enjoyable books to read through scrolling down the recommendation section of BookTok.
Indigo’s top adult novels underneath its top 10 books in their ‘Now trending on #BookTok’ segment includes Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera, and Atomic Habits by James Clear.
On BookTok, many content creators post videos of themselves reading the stories like they were experiencing them themselves. Others might talk about the novels that they enjoy while evaluating and reviewing them.
Booktok has begun to flourish through these last few years. Booktok has given a brand-new life to many old books. It began as a plain review place on TikTok and expanded into a vast collaborative place where people can share their beloved books and series.
BookTok surged in its popularity due to the pandemic, and countless have been using it for the past year. Booktok is a suitable place to look at books, learn about them or talk about favourite books with fellow fans.
Feature image courtesy of The Oxford Blue – Nina Skrzypczak
First intext image courtesy of Cliply, PNG Egg, Canva
Second intext image courtesy of RedBubble
