TikTok has been taking the world by storm and with that creating popular sub communities within. “Booktok” is considered one of those TikTok subcommunities. This subcommunity is similar to ones seen on other social media platforms such as Instagram with “Bookstagram” and Youtube with “Booktube.” According to The Cornell Sun, “Booktok first formed around 2020.” Social media has affected what things are trending whether that be clothes or television shows and movies. In this subcommunity across the different social media platforms, it sets trends for books, authors, and what tropes are popular amongst the masses. These trends have started to influence what some bookstores carry in-store.
TikTok has had a large impact on the book community due to the accessibility it offers for creators and followers. It’s easy to make a short video about a book that was just read, or about an author who has a new book coming out. It’s even easier to go on TikTok and find a book recommendation by looking up a genre, trope, or author. A representative of Pearl’s, a local bookstore in downtown Fayetteville, was asked about “Booktok” or “Bookstagram” having an impact on the store and its popularity. Pearl’s manager, Hallee Israel, said, “I wouldn’t say ‘booktok’ has necessarily increased our store’s popularity, but it has certainly influenced which titles are popular in the store.” The Cornell Sun did mention that “by 2021, book sales in the U.S. rose 9 percent to reach 825.7 million print sales which was the highest reported statistic since BookScan started recording data in 2004.”
The majority of the books trending on “Booktok” are romance, fantasy, and the genre that combines the two that most refer to as “romantasy.” The popularity of these genres are not difficult to spot when pursuing the book sections of stores like Target or Walmart, and are even more apparent when going to a bookstore like Barnes and Noble. Smaller, locally owned bookstores like Pearl’s carry these popular genres, but also “try not to advertise books with a lot of traction online because they don’t need our help, so [they’d] rather focus on smaller titles and authors”, according to Israel. When it comes to advertising books, Tiktok has made that easy.
Authors have used “Booktok” to their advantage to help promote their books. When asked about how the TikTok ban might affect sales, Israel responded, “I wasn’t concerned about the Tiktok ban impacting sales, but I was interested to see how it would impact authors. Authors have gained a lot of traction on TikTok and use it to promote themselves, in a way that I don’t think can be replicated, so I was definitely concerned for up and coming authors looking to build an audience”. Smaller authors like to read or show excerpts from their books that include a trope that is currently trending on “booktok” to gain the attention of potential readers. A trope is a recurring plot device or character archetype. Popular tropes on TikTok include enemies to lovers, found family, grumpy sunshine, and Hallmark cliche. Authors also go live on TikTok and show themselves writing their books as a way to connect with the communities they’ve created. There, they are able to ask their community for opinions on different aspects of the book that they are currently working on and get immediate responses.
“Books have always been a great way to bring people together, and while ‘bookstagram’ and ‘booktube’ have been around for ages, Tiktok is a force unlike any other,” according to Israel. “People bond on that app and trust the creators they follow, so ‘Booktok’ influencers have a lot of influence.” Although there doesn’t seem to be a direct correlation between “Booktok” and the recent jump in numbers seen from publishing and physical booksellers, that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any impact whatsoever. “By streamlining word of mouth, rekindling excitement for reading and romanticizing the art of the home library, Booktok has brought young people back to bookstores,” The Cornell Sun reported.
