Key Takeaways
- BookTok began with rather saucy content, but quickly grew beyond to include various genres, creating a diverse niche.
- BookTok’s rising popularity is shaping the book market, with creators having significant influence on bestseller lists.
- BookTok highlights physical books, fostering appreciation for the traditional reading format, providing insights into the hottest books.
You’d think in a world of streaming video and digital gaming, reading plain old words on paper would have fallen out of fashion, but thanks to social media like TikTok, the idea of snuggling up with a page-turner seems more popular than ever. Leading the revolution is BookTok—a viral book-loving sub-community on TikTok.
It Started Saucy, but Grew Up Fast
BookTok is a loose community of TikTokers who make videos all about books. Their favorite books, parts of books, book setups, or really anything related to books.
BookTok started to grow during the pandemic, which makes sense since people were stuck at home and needed new hobbies. For the most part, BookTokkers are teenagers and young women, though certainly not exclusively! There also seems to be a common focus on young adult fiction, especially fantasy, and romance novels. In fact, it seems a lot of BookTok, at least at first, were focused on the saucier, female-focused romance novel. You know, the sort with shirtless folks on the cover. However, today you’ll find BookTokkers who specialize in just about everything, including LGBTQIA+ genres or BIPOC-focused books.
BookTok Is Making Reading Cool Again
TikTok has always been a trendsetter in just about every subcategory of content it contains, and books are no different. Many BookTok creators have absolutely massive followings, with hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers. BookTok has over 200 billion views as of the end of 2023.
This sudden popularity has made a big impact on the book market, and getting your book covered by a prominent BookTok creator is a surefire way to make it onto bestseller lists. It’s like there are suddenly hundreds of little Oprah Book Clubs, each with the potential to turn an otherwise obscure book into a viral sensation.
It’s Bringing Appreciation for Physical Books
To me, one of the most surprising aspects of BookTok is the focus on physical paper books. Not that I personally have anything against this, since I’m a lover of paper books! You’d think that, in the modern age, BookTok would be referring people to Kindle editions of books, or even audiobooks, but for the most part it’s physical books you’ll see on screen.
I suppose it makes sense considering TikTok is a visual medium, and it’s hard to discuss a virtual object visually. Physical books let the creator interact with them, and they form an essential part of the backdrop or collection to show off to viewers.
It’s Actually a Great Way to Know What’s Hot Right Now
As BookTok matures and different creators find their audiences, it’s turning into an especially effective way to find out what books are really making a splash. Sure, websites like Goodreads have always been a great resource, but that lacks the dynamics of the BookTok community. Not to mention, BookTok followers are probably now heading over to sites like Goodreads anyway and influencing the ratings.
Books have always had hyper-specific niches within larger genres, and if you can find someone on BookTok who matches your particular tastes, you’ll likely never want for your next book to read.
The Downsides of BookTok
Overall, as a lifelong bookworm myself, I think BookTok might be one of the most positive things to come out of TikTok. Although truth be told, the bar for TikTok isn’t particularly high. That said, there’s always a less than positive side to any new social media subculture, and BookTok is no different.
I think my biggest bugbear is probably the bandwagon phenomenon you get whenever someone discovers new gold to mine on social media. In other words, lots of people who failed to make it big on other platforms have suddenly become book fans and purchased small libraries of popular trash. So, in other words, Sturgeon’s Law applies here too.
The other major issue is that most BookTok creators are pretty uncritical about the material they promote. Now, I can’t overstate enough that there’s nothing wrong with being a fawning fan of something and sharing your passion with an audience, but people run the risk of mistaking BookTok for critical reviews. If you’re looking for thematic analysis or even plain old Sunday book club discussions, TikTok probably isn’t the place to get it.
With a looming TikTok ban in the USA, the age of BookTok might be over soon in the West, unless, of course, all those online book lovers move over to YouTube.
