How BookTok Is Changing The Narrative of Reading
Written by Amelia Cropley
In the last very recent years, a new kind of literary critic has emerged. This one does not have a degree in journalism, is not an acclaimed film or book critic, nor do they reside in the pages or screens of The New York Times Book Review or The Guardian… no it belongs on TikTok, and can be anyone, including you and me.
In general, consumerism has changed immensely by the growth of social media. The everyday person can influence the masses by a simple tap of record, post and like buttons. And this growth of course, does not stop with the act of reading or the books we choose to read.
At one time, we’d browse the shelves, read the blurbs and choose the novel that struck our curiosity the most. Now, one or one hundred TikTok users tell us to read a book, we take their word for it and buy it for ourselves. Maybe it’s trusting another’s review, or simply trend hopping to what is popular, but there is no denying that platforms like TikTok are making these forgotten pages popular – and we are buying into it like a moth to a flame.
“…[TikTok] is transforming not only what books are being read, but how books are being discovered, re-discovered and even the way they are sold.”
Through the side of TikTok that concerns reading, recommending and reviewing books, the well-named ‘BookTok’, reading has been approved again. By a vast, passionate community of readers, the platform is transforming not only what books are being read, but how books are being discovered, re-discovered and even the way they are sold.
Booktok, as a platform, has become a potent marketing engine capable of reviving backlist novels and elevating them into bestselling successes. For example, Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles was first published in 2011 and from its debut was acclaimed a valuable novel by many mainstream media outlets.
However, resurfacing to a new level in 2021 due to TikTok. By 2022, two-million copies were sold worldwide and weekly print sales skyrocketed, selling 10,000 print copies a week – nine times more than its earlier rates.
Due to TikTok, or BookTok, Miller’s novel reached #3 in New York Times paperback fiction back fiction list and appeared in the Top 10 most read books in 2021. And this impressively, is all down to social media.
Similarly, BookTok phenomenons such as Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, first published in 2017, became trending on its rise to fame in 2020. Likewise, A Little Life was published in 2015 and only hit our scrolling thumbs encouraging us to pick it up in 2022. And one of the most popular books of the YA queer genre, They Both Die At The End became a massive phenomenon three years after its publication, becoming the top selling YA book of 2021 and selling 4,000 copies per week in March 2021. And that was all because of a few readers posting themselves saying how much they loved these reads.
“It’s igniting and representative to see that person sharing the same experience you did, to feel so deeply about the same words…”
All these facts and figures are impressive. These anecdotal examples of how an authors hard work resurfaces years later and receives the love, recommendation and exposure it so deserves, are delightful. And it’s the everyday person who makes it happen – no publishing house deciding what makes the cut or literary critics crafting the top ten based on their own preferences. These trends are curated by the people, and the people have spoken – BookTok, it seems, is the way to go if you need your next book.
But why? Why are we more likely to trust the words of a BookTok-er rather than just walk into Waterstones and see what takes our fancy? But emotional connection works wonders, even on other sides of a screen. If you’re scrolling TikTok and someone is holding the book that utterly devoured you, made you think of nothing else and kept you up reading until 3am, it’s igniting and representative to see that person sharing the same experience you did, to feel so deeply about the same words, or offer an interpretation that makes you rethink everything. And for the opposite, to see someone offering such generous insight into a novel you have never opened, it’s like they are reading the blurb for you, and already it’s on your wish list.
So, BookTok is changing the narrative on how we choose our next reads. And it’s not a bad thing. We are entering a world where consumerism and pluralism defines content, publishing companies and bookshops know what genres and styles are trending, how to cater to what’s popular and authors even know whats going to gage their readers the most.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, you can’t escape this new generation of reading even if you tried – if you are still a shelf browser or a shop peruser, you’ll often find shelves catered to the online sensation, with ‘BookTok made me buy it’ shelves and stands, as seen in shops like Waterstones or Barnes & Noble.
BookTok isn’t just for its readers either – but for the creators too. E.Lockhart, the author of bestselling YA thriller, We Were Liars, released her prequel, Family of Liars in 2022, and became very outspoken that it was the positivity in which her initial book was received on TikTok by fans and readers, that inspired her revisit and continue writing about the Liars universe; ‘When We Were Liars became popular again thanks to TikTok… I spent some time thinking about how I might write another story set on Beechwood Island’, Lockhart told She The People in 2022. In a feature piece for Female First, Lockhart wrote herself after the release of her prequel, she humbly wrote that ‘All these videos [on TikTok] put the book back on the bestseller lists seven years after it was published. I had nothing to do with it.’
“Readers are not just consumers now, they are influencers, tastemakers and even co-creators of a new literary conversation.”
I think it is decided that BookTok is changing the narrative of reading, how a single viral video of someone rating a book five stars or crying at the ending, can send sales surging overnight. With this exposure, BookTok has elevated underrepresented voices such as creators focusing on books by queer, black, indigenous, people of colour and indie authors. There are community focused curated posts and creators which makes big the voices that were once small. And with just the right content, a debut author can go viral just as easily as someone with a major book deal.
BookTok is still in its infancy, but it is changing our to-be-read lists for the better, with wider, representative and well-recommended books. BookTok isn’t a trend – it is a fundamental shift in the way we connect with books. Readers are not just consumers now, they are influencers, tastemakers and even co-creators of a new literary conversation.
All content is original to The Literary Lounge.
In-article images courtesy Solen Feyissa on Unsplash and Waterstones Merry Hill on X. No changes were made to these images.
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