Booktok’s current and future state
But things have changed since the first two years of the pandemic. When sales of books allocated to Booktok reached 13 million in 2020 and 27 million in 2021, the golden formula for the application for literary marketing seemed to set somewhere around mid-2023. Many managers of the publishing industry have pinned this drop in reduced social distancing protocols that dominated Western culture during the best of the previous three years, bringing the general public to buy fewer books.
Things started to straighten in 2024 again thanks to authors like Rebecca Yarros and Carley Fortune, but Booktok’s future was always doubtful. Then, earlier this year, Tiktok was closed for what proved to be one day in the United States – but content creators and influencers were not sure of the duration of the stop. There are still concerns about the prohibition or closure of Tiktok in the United States, which would put the Golden Marketing mine that is Booktok in Jeopardy.
By reflecting on the current and future state of Booktok, I spoke with Brad Summerville, @bradboughtabook Tiktok and Instagram. A key aspect for content creators with large follow-ups on the application is the Tiktok Creator Fund, which is only available in the United States, in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Spain and France. Users must have at least 10,000 subscribers and have at least 100,000 total video views in 30 days before application. Given the great popularity and domination of the media that Tiktok has generated, there are many content creators that count on the income that their videos bring. When I asked Summerville if he had already earned money from his videos on Tiktok, he said he had sponsored videos and affiliation ties in the past.
“I don’t count on this income at all,” he said. “Content has always been a hobby. I did not start doing it as a source of income. ” When Tiktok was prohibited for a day in January, Summerville just thought he was spinning on other platforms, such as Instagram, including the own hashtag book #boostagram predates #BooTok. But as the platform has not ended up disappearing, he thinks that it has just made it appreciate the users of Booktok more. “I think the closure has put things in perspective for people. There is always the possibility that the application can disappear,” said Summerville. “I think, if something, the fear of losing may have triggered people’s passion to make even more content. It was almost like a renewed sense of goal. ”
Booktokers like Summerville also experience the value that the discovery of a shared passion as reading can bring to people on social networks. “Booktok and social media allowed me to commit and create significant friendships with people I would not have otherwise,” he said. “It is allowed to a creative outlet and gave me a platform to present and highlight something that is very significant for me. I think that with all social media, however, there are negatives. I have received a decline on the highlighting of specific content, or people who do not agree with my opinions. I think it would oppose an impact on the content that I create.
Passionate readers are not the only ones to have benefited from Booktok. Given that several authors have experienced large hikes in their books of books in the years that followed the rise of Booktok, including, but without limiting themselves, Colleen Hoover, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Jenny Han, the authors themselves also found themselves towards the application of social media to market their books for themselves. I spoke to Lyn Liao Butler, author of titles such as What is mine,, Someone else’s lifeand the next The fourth girlWho generated his own suite on Tiktok through literary content and dogs – even if she says that her presence on Tiktok has not exactly increased the sales of her books.
“I started using Tiktok when I started because my publisher at the time wanted us to jump on this trend. I continued to be active on Tiktok because that’s something I can control, ”she told me. “The edition is so slow and when I feel frustrated, I make a video.” Butler had the feeling that Tiktok’s ban in January would not remain. “I save all my social media videos to a hard drive, so I knew I wouldn’t lose any content,” she said. “Although I am on Tiktok especially on dogs, I found new readers because when people realize that I am an author, they tell me that they bought my books, so it would have been sad to lose this connection.” Although there are many authors present on Booktok, Butler says that it is not the writers who generate sales from the application. “(It is) books and influencers that make the books viral. For me, we are right there to establish a presence so that people can see that we are real people and perhaps take our books if they like our personality. ”
When I questioned Butler about the meaning of the community found on Booktok, she said it was definitely the best part. “I have always felt supported by books even if my books do not become viral,” she told me. “For people who do not like social media or who are not comfortable making videos on themselves, it can be a stressful thing, so I always say, do it only if it is something you love. Find a subject that brings you joy, even if it is not necessarily books.” The author is not concerned about the future of Booktok as an author with books for sale. “Any social media platform can disappear at any time, which is why it is so important for the authors to have a website and a newsletter,” she said. “Yes, it will be sad if Tiktok no longer exists, because I feel like I have found my little groove there, but there will always be something else.”
Yes, it will be sad if Tiktok no longer exists, because I feel like I have found my little groove there, but there will always be something else.
It remains to be seen what will be Booktok’s future. With a younger user attack, the literature of young adults always seems to be at the forefront, but only the amounts of time and the dollar will say how much they have affected sales and the greatest literary economy. But here is the thing about books – they don’t express. They won’t spoil. You can recover them at any time. And books know it. Only 30% of books sold In 2022, there were new versions, 70% were older titles. Although this is not good for an author who seeks to become viral with his new version, the inconsistent nature of Booktok and social media in general means that it could always become viral at another time.
