BookTok primarily a reader space, ComicCon hears

BookTok is primarily a platform for readers, and can be tricky for authors to navigate, audiences heard at ComicCon this weekend.

Authors speaking on the panel "Going Viral: Behind the Scenes of BookTok" on Sunday 28th May at the ExCel Centre, reflected on the authenticity and fickle nature of the platform’s algorithm and discussed how, while they enjoy posting on TikTok, some feel pressure to self-market their books.

Fantasy author Saara El-Arifi joined fellow writers Laura Sebastian, Laura Steven, Rosie Talbot and BookTok creator Faith Young on the panel hosted by Kat Delacorte to examine the “career-changing” impact of the digital community.

Steven, Sebastian and Talbot all post regularly on the platform, and have much larger following numbers than El-Arifi who commented “I don’t use TikTok in the way majority of authors do in that I don’t make that much content”, adding that BookTok is “predominantly for readers”.

However, El-Arifi added the caveat that she was “lucky” her debut, The Final Strife (HarperVoyager), was published when BookTok was a relatively new phenomenon and was included among the “heyday of debuts” on the platform. “I’m really lucky that The Final Strife has like four million views on TikTok […] there was this snowball effect that had nothing to do with me, but unfortunately [now] we are in a situation where so many people, authors, have to start that snowball, or feel like they need to”.

Host Delacorte concurred with El-Arifi: “I think as authors we’re very much told now that BookTok means you can change your sales by yourself which I think is not always true. It’s a myth, but it’s a very powerful myth and it’s very alluring. I think that you feel sometimes pressured to also perform on TikTok to potentially change our careers.”

Sebastian, author of Stardust in their Veins (Hodderscape), explained how she felt “initially pressured” to be on TikTok. “I did not want to be there,” she added. “I wish there was less pressure on authors to promote their own books because I think that it’s always a drop in the pan compared to what a healthy marketing budget can do.” However, Sebastian added how she now enjoys posting on TikTok, adding later that: “I think people who are watching TikTok know when they’re being marketed to, and you have to be mindful of that and also bring something else to the table [when] trying to sell someone something. You can’t just be a commercial for your book.”

Although Steven said, “it’s not an obligation [to be on TikTok]”, she is “very mindful about how powerful it is”. Before The Society for Soulless Girls (Electric Monkey) was published and prior to Steven opening her own account on TikTok, she noted how it was “not a big book for my publisher, it didn’t have a big marketing spend and there were no events scheduled – that kind of thing – so I can really attribute the sales I’ve had to TikTok".

In a video made prior to publication on her TikTok channel, Steven revealed The Society for Soulless Girls was listed on the Waterstones website under "our best coming soon teenage and young adult books" and said: "I really thought my Sapphic re-telling of Jekyll and Hyde was going to fly below the radar and, to be honest, it kind of did before I started talking about it on TikTok." Now #thesocietyforsoullessgirls has now received 2.5million views on the platform.

Talbot, author of Sixteen Souls (Scholastic) and a bookseller, explained how “it’s very interesting to see how much power BookTok has. We will suddenly have 50 people walking into the shop and asking for a book because they saw it two days ago on BookTok […] It really has a shockingly big impact on the market”.

Talbot’s debut novel is case and point. Initial plans to self-publish Sixteen Souls were scuppered when a cover reveal and exposure on BookTok resulted in an offer from traditional publisher, Scholastic.

In the announcement with The Bookseller, Yasmin Morrissey, senior commissioning editor, said it was a “once-in-a-lifetime acquisition”. 

Yet, Steven, Talbot, Sebastian and El-Arifi do not actively search the hashtag for their respective books to “stay out of readers’ spaces”, said Talbot. As Steven added: “That way madness lies”.

“I love TikTok because of the community it fosters and the ability it gives you to interact with fans in a much more organic way than any other social media platform,” noted Sebastian, “but we do need to make sure we have boundaries because that can cross the line”.

El-Arifi added how “the majority of the time I try and stay out of readers’ spaces”, saying she "freeze[s]" when videos of her books are shown on her "For You" page when neither her account nor her name has been tagged. "I nearly dropped my phone in the bath the other day because I don’t want to know if it’s a five-star or one-star [review] and that happens and that’s so terrifying [...] In those situations I absolutely do not engage with that person."