I’ve considered myself a bookworm to some degree since the day I started reading. I’d read whatever book was in my house, whatever was recommended to me by word of mouth. But for periods I would have nothing to read, I simply had nothing and didn’t know which book I should pick up. Today I have over 80 unread books sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. The day I run out of books to read is when pigs fly. But what changed? Why suddenly did I go from having nothing to having too much?
The answer is Booktok.
What is Booktok? TikTok has different genres or sections. Baketok for videos of cake and cookie recipes, dance tok, a range from trendy popular TikTok dances to ballet. Booktok is where people talk and recommend their favorite books.
People make funny skits with the characters, they tell you specific scenes meant to make you want to read it, or a certain quote that defines the fandom. Every time a book caught my eye I would add it to my tbr (to-be-read) list. Suddenly I went from getting 1 recommendation every week to getting dozens every day. The ones that especially caught my eye I would buy to read later.
And I am not the only one who relies on Booktok for recommendations, really everyone on booktok does. Now they’re saying that because of this, Booktok has huge sway over the book publishing industry and future authors. But how much of a sway exactly?
In 2021 25,000,800 books were sold- a 9% increase from the previous year- and according to NPD Bookspan, it was the highest number they had recorded since 2004. In 2020 book sales reached a 20-year peak. In 2022, sales went up almost 50%. And how were these crazy statistics reached?
Once again: Booktok.
And this can be seen in individual authors too such as Colleen Hoover. Almost everyone knows her name now, she has sold more copies of her books than the Bible; 7.3 million copies to be exact. However before 2020, before Booktok, she had sold barely over 200,000 copies. She is a perfect example of the power Booktok has. And what is especially special about booktok is the power of the book-selling world has been taken out of the hands of major publishing power handlers such as publishers and authors and instead has been placed into the hands of the readers themselves. Indie and self-published authors who in the past struggled to sell compared to traditionally published authors now have more of a chance of making it big.
However, there is always a dark side to power. While Booktok can raise up books and authors it can also tear them down. A good example is Alex Aster’s book Lightlark. A video she made advertising it went viral and people were anxiously waiting for the release until arcs were sent out and a bad review made on Booktok caused the popularity to almost denigrate before booktok raised it up again. Further examples are authors such as Sarah J. Maas and Colleen Hoover who were made very popular by Booktok until a few videos revealed that they are problematic started to circulate and their popularity decreased.
Which raises the question: Does Booktok have too much power?
It really depends on who you ask. Right now, Booktok has a big monopoly on the book publishing industry and if it wasn’t them then it would be someone else. Most likely the major publishing companies. So most likely to them, yes, Booktok does have too much power. While the companies have learned to adapt. For example, sending Arcs (Advanced Reader copies) to booktokers to review and pay for sponsor content, the TikTok algorithm is truly unpredictable and that loss of control may be difficult for these companies. On the other side of the spectrum for readers and authors, Booktok has just the right amount of power. People are exposed to books they may not normally read, and the algorithm itself isn’t biased or holds and prejudges so minority authors have an equal shot at selling their books as majority authors do. Readers and authors now have more control over the industry.
With trends constantly changing, and the possibility of TikTok getting banned forever looming over the community, we may soon witness what the industry will look like with the sudden departure of Booktok. We can only hope despite the hardships authors and readers will continue to have a voice.
