#BookTok: A hashtag changing the book industryMaria John Sánchez10/19/2022October 19, 2022Young people are posting about their favorite books on TikTok. Publishers and the Frankfurt Book Fair are now picking up on the influential trend.https://p.dw.com/p/4IOifCopy linkAdvertisementWho would have thought that TikTok, an app that started out as a platform for dance videos and funny clips, would give the book industry a new boost?Following the Bookstagram trend, thousands of young people are posting about their favorite books on the social media app using the hashtag #BookTok. Altogether, the videos with the hashtag have obtained more than 84 billion views. There definitely seems to be an interest for books among young people, as it’s mainly Generation Z, born in the late 1990s or 2000s, who hang out on TikTok.TikTok has grown rapidly in recent years. In Germany, it is estimated that half of all 12 to 19-year-olds and a third of the population in their 20s use TikTok regularly.Belonging to a Chinese company, the app has been accused of censorship by using word filters.Bookshelves sorted by colorThe hashtag #BookTok appeared on the platform in late 2020. Instead of dry reviews of books, TikTok users shoot creative short videos, mostly shorter than 60 seconds. In them, they present what they’ve recently read, play out novel plots or take part in challenges — like reading a book in one day.Many BookTokers have organized their bookshelves by color. A nice cover is definitely a purchase criterion for them.This may sound superficial at first, but hypes created through TikTok are having a real impact on sales figures and bestseller lists. An example is “The Song of Achilles” (2011), written by Madeline Miller. To the astonishment of the industry and the author herself, the novel became a bestseller years after its publication after being reviewed on BookTok.
Source: #BookTok: A hashtag changing the book industry – DW – 10/19/2022