#BookTok

TikTok is a social media platform that has gained popularity due to its algorithm, which targets users with videos that match their interests on its “For You Page.” This approach has led to the creation of “Toks,” which are niche groups of users who are seeing similar content based on a shared interest. 

For example, "GymTok" is a community of fitness enthusiasts who enjoy watching workout routines and exercise tips, while "ArtTok" is for creative people who enjoy watching art studio tours and craft supply hauls.

“BookTok” is another community that has emerged from the platform. Here, users post about their reading habits, share book reviews or recommendations and rant or rave about popular authors. Since its rise to popularity, BookTok has had a significant impact on the literary industry, readers, content creators, publishers and writers.

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Even though many bookstores were forced to close during the COVID-19 pandemic, BookTok has helped to increase global interest in reading since 2019.

According to The New York Times, BookTok helped raise book sales by 50% in 2022. That was also the first year that Barnes & Noble began an official partnership with TikTok and created the #BookTokChallenge, a summer reading challenge that called upon users to read promoted BookTok books and post about them online. 

Today, at Barnes & Noble and many other bookstores across the nation, it’s not uncommon to find shelves decorated with #BookTok signs advertising the latest trending titles.

The popularity of BookTok has also reached Miami University. Anna Mayschak, a junior biology and premedical studies major, is an avid reader and BookTok viewer. Even with her busy college schedule, Mayschak finds time for fantasy novels.

“Reading for me is kind of like a self-care moment because it’s escapism,” Mayschak said. “It’s a break from real life where I don’t have to worry about school.” 

Mayschak said she has been reading her whole life, but BookTok has made her want to read more often and has exposed her to many new series she never would have picked up before.

“My ‘to-be-read list’ is so much longer after joining TikTok,” Mayschak said. “Whenever I need a book to read, I go to my saved videos and find recommendations. People will have giant lists of ‘if you liked this book, read this book.’”

Mayschak’s favorite thing about BookTok is that it provides a sense of connection and understanding between book lovers from all around the world. She especially enjoys theorizing with other readers about the endings to their favorite series. Mayschak also likes laughing at funny bookish content that keeps her in the atmosphere of her favorite stories long after she’s finished reading. 

“Every time I finish a book, I’ll have a ‘book hangover,’ so I’ll go to TikTok and type in the name of the book and just scroll through the videos to keep me in that world,” Mayschak said.

For Mayschak and many others like her, the BookTok community creates a space for readers to connect and share their passions, tailoring a personalized online experience that keeps them coming back to the app.

“I didn’t really like TikTok at first, until it found that niche where it’s showing me things I actually like,” Mayschak said.

While BookTok has recently gained popularity on TikTok, readers have been utilizing social media for years to express their opinions and share their insights about books. Instagram’s reading community is called “Bookstagram,” or “#Booksta” for short. Here, people post photos and videos about recent reads, reviews, recommendations and thoughts on their favorite fictional characters.

Jorryn Gauthier, a sophomore strategic communication major, has been running her Bookstagram account since she was 13. Since then, she has gained almost 10,000 followers on her account, @fromthelibraryofalexis. 

Gauthier posts about what she’s reading every week and uses her Bookstagram as a creative outlet to practice photography, sharing aesthetic photos of her favorite book covers or recent reads.

Gauthier also shares her reading journey on her growing BookTok account, @libraryofalexis. She expressed that TikTok has a lot of advantages over Instagram, especially for rising creators. Gauthier said that unlike TikTok, Instagram’s algorithm has strict rules, and only a small percentage of followers actually see a creator’s posts. 

“TikTok shows your posts to all your followers and even people outside of your followers,” Gauthier said. “It’s more fun with more people to talk to and more engagement.”  

Gauthier has no close friends or family who like to read the same kind of books she does, so making content and talking to other Bookstagrammers is her way of connecting with people who share her love for romance books. 

“There is something special about talking in-depth about something you love so much, especially when there is no one near you who can share that experience,” Gauthier said.

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Lily Wahl, a first-year English literature, creative writing and Spanish triple major, is an avid reader who has written book reviews for The Miami Student. She also runs a Bookstagram account, @lilymariereads, that she started in high school. 

“I started my Bookstagram because I felt like I didn’t have access to a literary community,” Wahl said. “I just decided to take that step to meet new people and learn about new books.” 

Wahl enjoys creating inventive bookish content — like recommendations based on songs from Taylor Swift’s latest album, “Midnights” — but they mainly focus on sharing reviews.

“I don’t necessarily think that my opinions about the books should make people decide to read the book or not,” Wahl said. “I want to create a space to open those conversations about them.”

Despite their presence on Bookstagram, Wahl chooses not to create content on BookTok. Wahl prefers Instagram over TikTok because it allows her to organize her thoughts in writing instead of just speaking to a camera in a short, informal video format. 

“I haven’t really ventured into BookTok because it requires you to put so much more of yourself out there … in a way that Instagram doesn’t,” Wahl said. “I don’t have to worry as much about how people are going to perceive me, and I think people can focus more on my writing about the books and the pictures themselves.”

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These students’ social media accounts are a reflection of the changing relationship between artist and audience in the digital age. However, BookTok has also changed the way publishers and readers interact. 

Both Gauthier and Wahl receive free advanced reader copies of upcoming books before they are released. Publishers send books to content creators in the hopes that they will promote them to their audience, creating a positive pre-release buzz.

Wahl collaborates with Atria Books, which is an imprint of Simon & Schuster. 

“It’s been really cool to feel like I’m part of the journey for those books to come to publication, especially because I’m a writer as well,” Wahl said. “I’d like to think that maybe a few years down the line I’ll be in their shoes.”

Despite the benefit of receiving books earlier, Gauthier said she would like more content creators to think about the kind of books they promote.

“People who have a platform should be critical about who we are supporting,” Gauthier said. “Media is important and can define how we see the world.” 

Gauthier, like Wahl and many other book content creators, keeps a “no-post list” of controversial authors that she chooses not to promote on her page. This list includes Colleen Hoover and J.K. Rowling due to their controversial comments and writing. 

Colleen Hoover, the famous author of “It Ends With Us,” has dominated the top three spots on various bestsellers lists in 2022 thanks to her success on BookTok. At the same time, readers have voiced concerns that her novels portray toxic relationships as romantic to a young audience. 

Meanwhile, since 2020, J.K. Rowling, author of the “Harry Potter” series, has been at the center of online controversy after making transphobic comments which she continues to spread on Twitter. 

It is for reasons like these that Gauthier has rejected deals from publishers requesting she review books from other controversial authors who go against her personal values.

“It feels morally wrong to say ‘read this book’ if I don’t agree with the content,” Gauthier said.

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Overall, the bookish side of social media has become a remote community where both writers and readers have the opportunity to stay connected wherever they are. Joseph Bates, an associate professor in the English department at Miami, has seen BookTok’s effect, both online and in the classroom.

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“These online spaces have become the communal meeting space, the virtual book club,” Bates said. “[These spaces] might not be ordinarily available to readers, especially as we’ve seen brick-and-mortar spaces come under threat in the last 10-plus years and coming out of lockdown with the isolation of Covid.” 

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Bates said he has seen more and more students in his class about the literary marketplace reflecting on BookTok in addition to other social media niches. Many of them even see the community as an important part of their reading journey.

“These online platforms have, to some degree, helped democratize book marketing,” Bates said. “They have an effect not just on our reading habits, not just our spending habits, but the ability of art and artists to reach new audiences.”

At the same time, BookTok also highlights the reading community’s tensions and negative qualities. Mayschak expressed concern about how the BookTok community can make viewers feel like there is a right or wrong way to read. 

“It’s literature. It’s art. It’s open to interpretation,” Mayschak said. “No one’s opinion is inherently wrong or better than anybody else’s.”

Bates, a published author himself, also has concerns about BookTok. He believes it may be adding to the belief that writers need to have a social media presence in order to succeed in the publishing world.

“It can be extraordinarily empowering, but it can also be somewhat nerve-racking thinking about the necessity of having an online platform or even that disappearing line between the private life and one’s creative work,” Bates said.

Because BookTok is still fairly new, there are many uncertainties going forward.

“Part of the burden and joy of [the literary marketplace] is that it sort of requires us all to stay on our toes,” Bates said. “The marketplace changes quickly; things we were talking about last year, we might not be talking about this year.”

Despite its challenges, the popularity of BookTok is a testament to the passion within the reading community, which is full of people who are always looking for new ways to fuel their love of literature.

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