If You're A Writer, You Can't Afford To Ignore Booktok

Oct 4, 2024

2 min read

Recently I attended a writing conference. If you’re a writer you’ll know the set up. A bunch of writers getting together for inspiration and solidarity as you try and navigate your way through living a creative life where half of your day is spent living an imaginary one. Well, your characters are at least.

One of the things I was struck by was the amount of writers I spoke to who had no social media presence and even more who discounted tiktok as a waste of time. As someone who teaches content creation as part of their day job, I can’t understand why more authors are not embracing this platform.

‘Have you not heard of Colleen Hoover?’ I wanted to ask. ‘Or seen the ‘booktok’ shelves in bookstores.’

Interestingly, I’ve had many conversations with author friends, some of which are signed with the big 5 publishers about marketing and the lack of it. The thing is, with so many books published every year, whether you’re backed by the big 5 or whether you’re an indie author, you’re going to have to take marketing into your own hands. You can’t assume that a big budget is going to be allocated to promoting your work.

So here are 5 reasons why you should get your sweet butt on over to Tiktok:

Exposure. The #BookTok hashtag has over 200 billion views on TikTok, which is the equivalent of everyone in the world viewing it 25 times
Direct access to your audience. The algorithm will bring your audience to you if you post about the right things that interest them.
Building a community. Aside from promoting books you get to build a community with other writers and readers from all over the world. Without even leaving your home! How amazing is that?
Sales. 58% of tiktok users say they’ve had inspiration for shopping from Tiktok. That’s great news for all authors.
A way to get feedback. You can use social media to get feedback on opening pages, book covers, all manner of things: direct from the mouths of your audience.