Have you ever heard of #BookTok? If you’re an avid reader, and a Tik Tok user, chances are you have. BookTok is a common hashtag used by people who post Tik Toks about anything and everything to do with books, such as reviews, recommendations and hauls. So, it is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. But what is most interesting about it is the power and influence that is has over the book industry.
Adam Silvera’s young adult novel ‘They Both Die at the End’, is just one example of the influence of Tik Tok. Originally published in September 2017, this LGBTQ+ drama was successful enough to have earned a spot on the New York Times bestsellers list, where it stayed for a few weeks. However, in August 2020, the author noticed a sudden spike in sales, and subsequently, the book surged to the top of the New York Times’ young adult paperback monthly bestseller list in April 2021, where it still remains. Silvera told NBC he had no idea what had prompted the sudden surge in sales, until he was told by one of his readers that they came across it on Tik Tok.
This is not the only book that has had a big second win like this. Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles, E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars, and Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, were all published well before the influence of BookTok took hold of the industry, however, have experienced the similar impact of BookTok.
American publishing company Simon and Schuster have a page on their website titles ‘#BOOKTOK 101: Your guide to a major new force in publishing’, where they have published similar statistics. However, #BookTok does not just give books that may once have been considered past their prime a second peak. It also affords recognition to new authors, helping launch them into successful careers. This was observed when American author Tracy Deonn released her Young Adult Fantasy, and debut novel Ledgendborn in 2020. It promptly went viral on #BookTok, and there have since been over 6.5 million views on videos about the book, and subsequently, its sequel Bloodmarked is set to be released in July next year.
In an article posted in August this year Central News refer to the profound impact that #BookTok has had on the publishing industry, in addition to retailers as ‘the BookTok effect’. With such a powerful reach, it is impossible for retailers not to take notice. Online retailers such as Booktopia, and American retailer Barnes and Noble have pages dedicated to books that are currently trending on Tik Tok. As NBC concur in their article, retailers are also adapting in store to keep up with the trends by creating shelves dedicated to featuring books that have gone viral.
I don’t think there is a better was to summarise the impact, and distinctiveness of #BookTok than how Simon and Schuster did, so I will leave you with this:
“The rise of #BookTok is an exciting and unpredictable development in how people find new books to connect with – and a true reminder that when it comes to publishing, readers hold the ultimate power”.
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