Usually known for viral dances and cooking tips, TikTok rose to popularity in 2020. Just a few years later, a special community has taken root within TikTok for current and future book lovers. The BookTok hashtag has over 79 billion views and holds a variety of bookish content including recommendations and reviews created by readers and even bookshops and publishers themselves

I’ve attended my fair share of book related events. From signings and author meets to attending a children’s book award ceremony, but I had never attended a publishing industry event. So, when given the opportunity to attend the Bookseller’s Children’s Conference I jumped at the chance. Even though it was online, I was excited and prepared to learn something new which is why I was drawn to the TikTok panel.

Despite growing up with the internet, I’ve always been a bit wary and don’t use TikTok but even I haven’t avoided the BookTok sensations. I was excited to learn how the platform has changed book sales and what the industry thought. I always assumed BookTok was full of sponsored posts like other platforms, so I was surprised when I found out content is mainly led by book buyers and not just industry professionals using it as another marking campaign.

When the panel began discussing the TikTok book club and how many people were searching for recommendations, over 150,000 on a monthly basis, I couldn’t believe how I had missed something so big in the book world so started my own research.

I think almost everyone knows Colleen Hoover, author of multiple TikTok successful books, but what I didn’t know that her book “It Ends with Us” was originally published in 2017 in the UK and found BookTok fame in late 2020 and eventually became the second bestselling book of 2021. I thought only new books were recommended but it appears that BookTok does not prefer newer books but promotes backlist books as much as frontlist books. Adam Silvera, author of BookTok famous “They Both Die at the End,” showed this when, at the closing talk of the conference, revealed how himself and his publisher had no idea what was causing the spike in sales 3 years after the initial release!

It seemed obvious that BookTok was causing more book sales, but I was elated to find BookTok is causing swarms of young people to descend on bookshops and not just buy online. It did not take long for bookshops to catch on to this trend and advertise with displays instore and sections of their websites specifically dedicated to the BookTok bestsellers, some shops even creating their own accounts.

BookTok has created a community that inspires people to actively seek books and bookshops are bustling after years of COVID related uncertainty. People have the ability to search for the books they want instead of what they are shown on the shelves.

Before attending the panel and doing my own research, I thought BookTok was filled with creators who were paid to recommend and advertise books. But what I found was a book lover led, welcoming space for those who share a passion and are sharing all of that, with an international community who are showing publishers the books they want to read.

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