Many of this year’s best-selling books have something in common, but that’s not a normal factor. Partnerships with well-known or well-established writers, movies and TV shows.
This is TikTok.
Earlier last year, the publishing industry began to notice that books in a hurry for readers were on the best-selling list on TikTok, a social media platform that traffics with short videos. The publisher was surprised, the author was surprised, and even the readers making those TikTok videos were surprised.
A year later, the hashtag #BookTok has become a lasting and powerful force in the book world, helping to create the largest sellers on the market.
For example, the author Colleen Hoover’s book created a sensation on TikTok, and Hoover is currently one of the best-selling authors in the country. NPD BookScan, which tracks the sale of the best-selling books in the United States, says it wrote four of the ten best-selling books so far this year.
Kristen McLean, Executive Director of Business Development at NPD Books, said TikTok “has moved from novelty to a true anchor in the market.” “The whole idea of dominating supermarket shelves, dominating airport stores, and dominating bookstore front tables is just as unrealistic.”
According to BookScan, BookTok, now one of the leading forces in adult fiction, has helped authors sell 20 million printed books in 2021. So far this year, these sales have increased by another 50%. NPD Books said that other forms of social media have never affected this type of sales.
BookTok is not dominated by the usual powers of the book world, such as authors and publishers, but many of them are young readers and their recommendations and videos talking about their favorite books. Sharing. The other side of the room.
Most popular videos generally do not provide information about the author, author, or even plot of a book, as traditional reviews do. Instead, the reader speaks clearly about the emotional journey that the book offers.
Milena Brown, Marketing Director at Doubleday, found that it was exactly what many people were looking for.
“This is the way I feel, and this is the way you feel,” Brown said, explaining the content of many videos. “And people are.” I want to feel it. Give me! “
In essence, BookTok supercharges word-of-mouth, which is always essential to selling books.
Rainey Rose Riser, Assistant Store Manager at East City Bookstore in Washington, said: DC with 70,000 followers on the platform. “When words start to spread, that’s how books grow.”
The books that take off there are mostly fiction, generally years old. This is unusual in publishing, and most titles are readily visible, even when sales are skyrocketing.
According to BookScan, sales were initially focused on young adult titles, but BookTok is now even more powerful in adult fiction. Romance is another major category, followed by science fiction and fantasy. But even classics like “Wuthering Heights” and “The Great Gatsby” can get the love of Tik Tok.
Another major beneficiary of TikTok’s enthusiasm is the writer Madeline Miller. Miller’s most successful book, a former high school teacher with a master’s degree in classics, is “Achilles’ Song,” a love story between two young people, Achilles and Patroclus.
Published in 2012, the initial print was 20,000. This month, its publisher, Ecco, announced that it has sold 2 million copies in all formats.
Miriam Parker, Ecco’s associate publisher, said this kind of sales record for books like “The Song of Achilles” is more than remarkable.
“It never happens,” she said. “This is a book about Iliad!”
Miller, who owns another book, Circe, which is also popular on TikTok, said her work is now taken more seriously in the literary world because of its high profile. I was relieved to sell it at a very difficult time.
When the pandemic began, her speech and tour opportunities were exhausted, and she thought she might need to return to education to earn a living. She said she has been suffering from a long Covid since February 2020 and is worried about her ability to work. Her “Song of Achilles” ignited Tik Tok, allowing her to take care of herself and her family and continue working on her next novel.
“It really changed my life,” she said. “It gave me time to write, and to remain a writer.”
According to McLean, some of TikTok’s success in selling books can be traced back to bookstores, which began to focus on which books were in the spotlight on the platform. Especially Burns & Noble caught early. Many of the stores set up tables with a selection of trendy titles. These displays continued the cycle, spreading information about BookTok to new readers.
This week, TikTok and Barnes & Noble Official partnership — A summer reading challenge designed to post about the books people are reading and encourage readers to cross-pollinate. BookTok’s landing page provides users with a selection of carefully selected videos, including a selection to “Get to Know Your Local B & N Book Seller” and a list of recommended titles that link to the Barnes & Noble website. Barnes & Noble stores have a QR code that directs customers to the Book Tok landing page.
Barnes & Noble stores, like many publishers, have their own TikTok channel. Publishers also send free books to TikTok creators or pay them to create videos for specific titles. But just as BookTok has become so powerful, it’s as difficult for publishers to use it as a sales tool.
“It’s not just one video that explodes book sales,” said Brown of Doubleday. “This is this grassroots explosion of the people who make the video, and then grow organically from it by word of mouth.”
Obtaining an author on the platform, for example, does not guarantee the success of the book. That is not a requirement either.
“I haven’t participated in TikTok yet,” Miller said. “I’m not very good at social media.”
