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Publishers are increasingly acquiring books from influencers on TikTok and using "BookTokkers" to promote new works, but while the platform is clearly booming, many are still uncertain how best to use it and cracking its algorithm to boost sales remains a mystery to even the most savvy users.
The BookTok phenomenon, and crucially its effect on sales, properly came to the attention of the publishing industry in the last year, according to The Bookseller’s data and charts editor Kiera O’Brien. Suddenly books published a few years ago began dominating the charts because videos of readers weeping and raving about them on TikTok had gone viral.
They Both Die at The End by Adam Silvera (Simon & Schuster Children’s) is probably the biggest and best known, and was the children’s number one until the summer. It has sold 171,180 copies in paperback since March 2021, but its real numbers are likely to be much bigger, according to O’Brien, as those figures exclude lockdown periods
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury) has also been huge, with 111,105 copies sold for its 2017 paperback edition in 2021, while the new anniversary edition published in September to “capitalise on the enduring appeal” of the book has sold 13,147 copies. A new edition of Taylor Jenkins Reid's The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Simon & Schuster) has sold 118,804 copies since its publication in April.
O’Brien said: “It does seem like readers have discovered these books organically through TikTok as opposed to publishers marketing them that way. As they were all published at different times, it's only now become a coherent trend.”
Rachel Denwood, m.d. of Simon and Schuster’s children's division said the BookTok effect is particularly “potent” because books which go viral on TikTok have seen high sales for a long period of time, "a year rather than for the month or two that a TV series or movie typically drives sales”.
Some of the best publishing opportunities come from savvy acquisitions of backlists or books that have already been self published. Molly Crawford, commissioning editor for S&S’ adult fiction team acquired Elena Armas’ The Spanish Love Deception after seeing the book mentioned on TikTok. Although it had already performed well after being self-published, she knew a traditional publisher "could help reach new heights and a much larger audience".
Others are using the platform to find books that are taking off on TikTok that don’t yet have a UK publisher. Darcy Nicholson, editorial director for fiction at Sphere, said this is how her team first found The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood: “It’s rare that a brilliant romcom makes it to US publication without a UK publisher so we were lucky to find this one but we’re certainly keeping our eyes peeled for more opportunities and considering the TikTok effect in other acquisitions,” she said.
Publishers are also increasingly looking to TikTok to sign new writers, as they did with YouTube stars almost a decade ago. But it’s not as simple as choosing people with the biggest followings, according to Emily Barrett, publishing director for Sphere's non-fiction team: “Large numbers of followers and large amounts of likes and comments on posts are important, but actually just as important is consistency. If posts differ a lot then there’s a question mark over how engaged users are with the person or platform – they perhaps only saw one or two of their videos but aren’t faithful to the profile in general."
She added: “In non-fiction I’m looking for TikTok users who have a bigger story to tell outside of what they’re posting and which will be of interest to people who don’t yet know the TikTokker, which is why I published Evie Meg. She posts content about living with Tourette’s Syndrome alongside other co-morbidities and her book covers the wider story around that."
But selling books on TikTok still remains a mystery for much of publishing. Martha Ashby, editorial director, at HarperFiction, told The Bookseller: “The truth everyone says in publishing is you reach readers through Facebook and you reach the trade and the media and the book bubble on Twitter. What we don’t know yet is where TikTok fits in that. Nobody has cracked that algorithm I don’t think. It’s so organic.”
“Because of the way TikTok works, either you’ve got to be the most amazing creator to be able to twist your style and work out the hook that’s going to make every reader want to buy every kind of book that you’re reviewing. Or, and what my instinct is, is it just random people like the Cain’s Jawbone girl who I don’t believe had a big following before she put her murder wall up in her bedroom. She just did this and all of a sudden she had this enormous following and the book has sold out everywhere. But it was the originality of her video.”
For indie publisher Angry Robot Books, TikTok is most useful on the publicity side, although the publisher has recently acquired a fantasy debut from BookTok reviewer turned author Stacey McEwan. Caroline Lambe, lead publicist, said the press started its own TikTok account earlier this year, and has used a marketing executive to help build up an Excel spreadsheet to record different reviewers across social media platforms who may be interested in their work.
She explained that this makes it slower to build up connections, but they get a “high rate” of responses and content feels more organic. “For some publishers with massive money behind them it can be an easy way of doing marketing-led work because you’re paying them to look at your books,” she said. By focusing more on the relationship side, Angry Robot aims to give specific books to reviewers who are fans of certain genres, and more likely to enjoy the book and share it on the platform rather than being paid to do an advert for it.
She said the publisher’s own TikTok account is also used as “another way of genuinely connecting” rather than as a selling platform. The team will post videos such as “five favourite mythological retellings” and, while two books will be their own, three of them will be completely different publishers. “We’re all in publishing because we love reading and nobody just reads their own books,” she explained.
This is something BookTokkers want to see more of. Brittany Guy, who has been using the platform since May 2020, said she thinks it’s “often hit and miss with publishers. Obviously they’re trying to promote their own books. A lot of their content can get repetitive and it does just feel like a massive advertisement rather than them just trying to have fun on the platform and connecting to readers.”
Fellow BookTokker Emily Russell agreed. She told The Bookseller: “Sometimes I think it would be best if instead of using someone already in their team they reach out and use creators who are suited to their books as they know the platform best and understand how to make the videos not such obvious advertisements.”
Both have been approached by publishers with free proofs or even to do advertisements. Russell, who started her account in June 2020, said publishers started getting in touch in October that year through the Rocket marketing agency. She said she gets paid a set fee of “over £100 per video” to put on her account, but said in the US creators get paid triple the amount. She has since created an Instagram account as well, where publishers contact her “far more frequently” by sending proof copies, new hardbacks, and goody bags to promote on her Instagram story without a fee.
Guy first started getting contacted by publishers when she reached 35,000 followers. She said it is usually agreed beforehand what a publisher is going to send you and what they expect from you. She told The Bookseller: “Anything paid is required to say ‘AD’ somewhere on the video. Anything gifted comes with no obligation to read or review what they send you, but people are usually pretty happy to unbox their post on camera and so the publisher still gets advertising that way. It’s almost always a business transaction — it’s cheaper for them to just send you free books rather than fork out for a paid campaign.”
An example of where publishing is successfully engaging with TikTok effectively is Penguin Random House's Lit in Colour account, which launched in 2021 to tie in with the scheme of the same name.
The account works with UK-based TikTokkers, such as Coco and Carla from Cult of Books, and Kemi and Busayo from Compulsive Book Buyers and has gained 6,700 followers since June 2021, gaining more than 65,000 likes. Its most successful posts focus on 'Books on Black identity" and "'Books by East Asian authors". The publisher pays all of the content creators who contribute to posts on the account.
Sharifah Grant, creative responsibility executive, told The Bookseller: “As an account that delivers publisher-agnostic book recommendations, we focus on creating content that introduces or spotlights books from a spectrum of genres. Our ultimate goal through Lit in Colour is to engage more young people with books and reading, which is a long-term aim, rather than focusing on marketing for specific titles. The more organic our approach, the more likely success of the post. We've found that organic posts allow for conversation with our audience leading to genuine interest.”