New retailer partnerships, live events, and book clubs are all planned to capitalise on the platform’s vibrant community of literature lovers
A #BookTok table at a Barnes & Noble shop in Scottsdale, Arizona. Photograph: Tali Arbel/AP
Social media app TikTok is making increased efforts to tap into the power of its books content, with new retailer partnerships, live events and clubs.
Social media app TikTok is making increased efforts to tap into the power of its books content, with new retailer partnerships, live events and clubs.
“BookTok”, as users have dubbed TikTok content about books, consists of everything from videos of creators’ to-read piles to livestreamed crying at emotional novels. BookTok can be credited with a number of hits, sometimes reigniting interest in older titles such as the 2016 novel It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (dubbed “CoHo” by TikTokers) which was launched back into bestseller charts after BookToker Aliisha Keens posted about it in March.
TikTok estimates that the BookTok hashtag has had nearly 65bn views to date, and described it as “one of our most active communities”.
