Beyond BookTok

Anyone who works in publishing has undoubtedly become quite familiar with BookTok. Whether that means they’re endlessly scrolling, launching marketing campaigns or just hearing the phrase bouncing around Zoom meetings – it’s definitely having its moment.

In case you haven’t yet done the deep dive and are wondering what all the fuss is about, it’s not so much a question of "what is BookTok?" but rather "who are BookTok?" It’s a fast-growing community of avid readers, mostly in their late teens and early twenties documenting their reads to an audience of loyal followers on TikTok.

Beginning in the depths of lockdown as something publishers were carefully considering, BookTok has now developed into the forefront of the minds of marketers with most of them running several campaigns and more and more launching their own profiles. The recent resurgent success of titles such as They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera and The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller can both be tracked down to the largest voices on BookTok shouting about them.

The truth is that there’s a niche for everything on TikTok, which means your audience is out there and it’s possible to reach them via influencer engagement

The titles that have built the most buzz on BookTok are largely YA, fantasy and many feature an LGBTQ+ narrative. While that may be music to your ears, marketers are constantly asking me how they can work titles outside of the core genres into BookTok campaigns. If you’re working on a memoir, a horror or a summertime women’s fiction – how can you utilise TikTok for your campaign if BookTok isn’t quite right?

Though at Rocket it’s flattering to be at the heart of the BookTok marketing conversation, the strategy behind it is fundamentally an extension of our influencer marketing campaigns. BookTokkers are influencers, and the campaigns we run with them fall under the umbrella of influencer marketing. Campaigns led by these creators are hugely successful because peer to peer recommendation is ranked as the top reason why most individuals are motivated to make a purchase.

The truth is that there’s a niche for everything on TikTok, which means your audience is out there and it’s possible to reach them via influencer engagement. It doesn’t end at BookTok; there’s #studytok, #weddingtok and #foodtok to name a few!  

Outside of the BookTok sphere and permeating all social platforms are what is known in the industry as lifestyle influencers. These are creators who have built a following by posting about their day to day life, through vlog-style content. They often feature what they’re wearing, eating and enjoying at any current time – remember Zoella’s monthly favourites videos?

As BookTok and reading generally is such a massive trend on TikTok, even the biggest creators are getting involved. It’s an exciting world of cross-community influence. Simon & Schuster recently collaborated with Mary Steven (OatMilkLeader) to promote It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover, which has recently taken TikTok by storm. Within the community of BookTok, most avid readers will already have read the top performing titles and therefore it’s time for publishers to start speaking to audiences outside the reading community. When speaking to one TikTok influencer, called Mary, about her experience, she said: "social media has the impact to make you feel like you need to be on board with the latest trends, so when it comes to BookTok, you don’t want to miss out on the books everyone is talking about". She also commented that her followers enjoy hearing about what she’s reading as she "can give honest opinions". Mary echoes the key strength of influencer marketing – that audiences are built on trust.

Another campaign that performed excellently was the hardback release for Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This was positioned as the Hot Girl Summer book, that you absolutely had to read. It’s this type of FOMO (fear of missing out) messaging that really nails an influencer brief.

Ultimately, selling books and raising awareness really sits in the hands of the internet’s loudest voices. Whether that’s on Instagram, TikTok or whatever the next social platform to take the world by storm might be. Peer to peer conversation motivates sales and enables brands to market with the audience rather than at them. The momentum of BookTok has even extended to retailers, with Waterstones, Barnes & Noble and some supermarkets having dedicated "BookTok made me buy it" sections. What we’re seeing on BookTok is hugely exciting, though it has happened before and will no doubt happen again. Let’s expand our thinking and see what the rest of TikTok can do for us.