BookTok Influencing Avid TikTok Users
While opening up TikTok to get more titles, a pile of TikTok-recommended books can be seen in the back. Big names such as “They Both Die at The End,” “Norwegian Wood” and “Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe” have been shared through the entertainment app.
In recent years, screen time and social media use has risen drastically. During the COVID-19 pandemic, screen time increased by more than 50 percent compared to years prior.
Although many people may just see the negatives of more social media usage, there have been some positives. One of the most popular social media platforms, TikTok, has created different positive outlets for people to explore different ideas.
“I think TikTok is an app that is really going to revolutionize how we browse content on the internet,” TikToker Ana Clara said. “I think that, as for every social media, it has its downs and lows. But overall, I think TikTok has allowed people to be very vulnerable about personal experiences and create a sense of community and belonging online. There is a ‘Tok’ world for everything, from DogTok to BookTok and even grief groups like GriefTok. It’s a very interesting app, and I believe it will continue to grow.”
On TikTok, BookTok videos have grown popular. Clara is one of many BookTokers. On her account, @betteroffread_, she has just under 30,000 followers.
“I have always been a very creative person, and I’ve wanted to have a creative outlet for a very long time,” Clara said. “But storytelling has always been my passion. I’ve always loved movies, shows and books, so I just thought it would be fun to be able to have a space to talk about something that I am extremely passionate about. I have a degree in professional writing, so storytelling lives very close to my heart.”
On this side of TikTok, BookTok creators focus on reviews and discussing all things about books.
“Currently, I make a lot of sit-down videos with recommendations and bookish chats,” Clara said. “I used to make a lot of quick trendy videos using popular sounds with jokes, but I don’t do much of that anymore. I prefer to film sit-down videos because they allow me to build connections with my audience and engage in conversations more than just trends. As with everything on the internet, the feedback is mostly positive, but there are always one or two people that want to disagree with you and tell you why. You just learn how to deal with it over time.”
Another popular BookToker is Sophia. On Tiktok, her account @sophiareadstoomuch has 99,600 followers.
“I’ve always been on social media,” Sophia said. “I had a slime account in fourth grade, and then Wattpad/Instagram in middle school. For me, TikTok was just adventuring into a different part of social media. I had a bit of a presence on Instagram prior to BookTok, so I kind of started BookTok as a clean slate to post whatever I want. But eventually, that transformed into recommending books.”
As of Feb. 2023, the hashtag #BookTok has 111.3 billion views, while #BookTokChallenge and #booktokreccomendations have 223.9 million and 133.4 million views.
“I’ve had way more kids request books from things they have seen on BookTok,” English teacher April Beene said. “I know a big one was ‘They Both Die at the End,’ and I had several other ones. I’ve seen a positive influence in it and more students becoming interested in reading because of the things they see on BookTok. There are no negatives that I can see. I don’t care what people read as long as they are reading.”
Not only are book communities a thing on Tiktok, but they also are present on other platforms as well.
“Most of the books I find I usually get from online sources,” Beene said. “I listen to podcasts on books a lot. I see them pop up on Twitter or GoodReads. So, most of my book recommendations anymore come from online. I also get on BookTube. It’s like a YouTube version, but a lot of the time they will touch on the way that the writer writes or what their style is like and compare it. It helps me choose if I want to read it or not.”
While these book communities are present on Twitter, Instagram and Youtube, TikTok is arguably the most influential as it is easier to reach a bigger audience. Users on TikTok are shown videos at random, which then can get more directed as the user starts to interact with specific videos. To find certain communities on other platforms, users have to often seek them out themselves.
“I think TikTok is a pretty good social media in my opinion,” senior Yazetl Dominguez- Lopez said. “I think it’s pretty cool the way you can market on there because you don’t really have to do much. Just present whatever you need to present, and eventually, it will reach a crowd of people.”
People enjoy BookTok for various reasons.
“BookTok is great in my opinion,” Dominguez- Lopez said. “I like how people can leave reviews on books and summarize them. Seeing people leave their opinions and own personal ideas is pretty cool. At times, it gets you thinking about what other people are getting from different books.”
With social media and BookTok, readers have been influenced by exploring different ideas with reading.
“BookTok has definitely changed the way I pick out books,” Sophia said. “I used to just go to the library and walk around and read the blurbs until I find something I like, which isn’t a really effective way. But with BookTok, I’ve been mostly reading popular books, even if it’s not a genre that I typically read. But recently, I’ve been receiving a lot of ARCs (advanced reader’s copies) and books from publishers, so they’re definitely what I reach for first. BookTok has also influenced me to start annotating because it’s just so aesthetic. It’s also made me read a lot more. Although, I’ve been in a reading slump recently.”
With reading, slumps occur. This is why many people see that introducing this activity through widely viewed platforms is beneficial.
“I can’t really think back to when I first started reading, but I know that I’ve always loved it,” Sophia said. “The ‘Warrior’ series and ‘Dork Diaries’ were my favorite books ever in elementary school. But, I do feel like that from fifth grade to middle school, I’ve fallen a bit out of love with reading, and I think that’s a phenomenon that many people experience. But, I then discovered BookTube, which got me back into reading, and BookTok just really made me fall back in love again.”
Another person that fell off of reading was Dominguez-Lopez.
“Growing up, I didn’t really know English that well, so once I hit like second or third grade, I started learning English more fluently,” Dominguez- Lopez said. “So, I actually started reading a lot more and enjoy reading. I took a break for a while in middle school but once I got back into it, I found new series of books. BookTok really helped this as well and influenced what I’ve been reading.”
BookTok has influenced the readers by allowing them to actually choose what they are reading.
“I think that a big thing with reading is choice,” Beene said. “I try to do more choice in all of my classes and even in AP this year. I used to pick all the books for AP, and this year we have a lot more book clubs sort of units. I think that’s a big thing. Even for me, it’s hard to read and be excited to read a book if you didn’t pick it. It just feels like a chore. So, I think choice is really big.”
BookTok is not just influencing people directly, but also by word of mouth.
“I’ve seen a lot of more students reading, and I think it’s actually from recommendations from their peers or online,” Beene said. “I think that’s a big thing. I could recommend a book, but I don’t know if it has the same weight if a friend does it. So, I’ve seen kids passing books around. I know Colleen Hoover is really big right now. So, I think those names go around, and they trust their friends with books they may enjoy.”
Like different authors going viral, there have been a great number of books that go viral for different reasons.
“I’ve seen a bunch of different ones go viral,” Beene said. “Usually it has to do with genre or identity representation. So, I’ve seen a lot of books in the LGBTQ kind of vein go viral because I think more kids can identify with those, so they choose them. Then, also, even specific genres. I’ve seen thriller horror a lot right now, and I see a lot of that online. I think those are the two big things, representation and genre.”
As books continue to go viral, this has tremendously impacted the publishing industry. The book “The Songs of Achilles” by Madeline Miller was published in 2011 but collected over 19 million views in 2021. E. Lockhart’s “We Were Liars” re-entered book charts after being on shelves for nearly seven years.
“I think BookTok is the reason a lot of bookstores have been able to remain open, including big stores such as Barnes and Noble and Waterstones,” Clara said. “It has definitely highly impacted publishing and the book industry, which I think is great.”
Despite their influence, BookTokers are getting little to no recognition for their help in promoting these books.
“The only problem is that there is very little recognition when it comes to all of the work that BookTokers put into the platform,” Clara said. “For example, there was recently a Barnes and Noble event called ‘BookTok Festival’ where many big authors were invited to participate in panels, but not a single BookToker was invited. It just goes to show that a lot of bookstores and publishing houses take advantage of the BookTok name without giving proper recognition to BookTokers.”
Even though book companies may not be recognizing these BookTokers, that is not their goal.
“I hope to get people into reading because there is such a stigma around reading,” Clara said. “ A lot of people see it as something inaccessible and difficult to achieve. But, reading can be fun, and it doesn’t have to be reading a 500-page classic. It can be something done as a hobby. My main goal is to get people to read diversely because that’s one of the best ways of engaging with other cultures and empathizing with people that are different from you. Books are so fantastic, and I just want to get people to find that one story that makes them fall in love with reading.”
Clara explains that there is a place on BookTok for everyone, even if they haven’t found it yet.
“A lot of people tend to assume that BookTok only recommends the same 10 books, but that’s very untrue,” Clara said. “TikTok is an app that is very personalized. There are so many creators out there who recommend incredible books that I had never even heard about. So, take your time searching for genres that you’re interested in, stories that you’re interested in, and I promise that there is a side of BookTok that is for you.”
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Kylee Langley is a senior and the Editor-in-Chief of Magpie. She has been on the staff for four years and has previously been the section editor for Arts...
