Abstract:
BookTok has gained popularity over the pandemic period on the social media platform TikTok. A particular genre, romance, not only saw a resurgence but also became an instant favorite genre in bookstores because of the BookTok community. With the new technologies the way of forming a community and becoming a part of it has changed and brought people together in a comfortable environment, which is their homes. This paper will talk about how “BookTok played a huge role in the number of romance genre book sales because of the immense popularity amongst the reading community on Tik Tok.”

The power of Tik Tok in today’s generation is enormous, whether it is to promote, raise awareness or talked about a common interest, it is one of the go to social media platforms. However, just like any popular social media platform, such as Instagram, Facebook etc. it has many different communities that users are part of. One of the most popular communities is “BookTok” which is particularly for users that have a passion for reading books, be it fictional or non-fictional. There is one genre in particular gaining immense popularity within this community which is the romance genre (fiction). This essay will discuss how the BookTok community formed and what it is about. Then, talking about the popularity of romance genre and the increase of the books sales in this genre because of the community. Furthermore, we also get some insight on some popular influencer in this community, how they have contributed to the boom of the romance genre. Lastly, the books “The Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood (2021) and The Spanish Love Deception” by Elena Arms (2021) which are from the romance genre going “viral” on BookTok will be covered. Alongside, some analysis on why both books had gained so much popularity in such a short period of time they were released in. With that being said, I will argue that BookTok played a huge role in the number of romance genre book sales because of the immense popularity amongst the reading community on Tik Tok.

As mentioned previously about “BookTok” to get a better understanding this is what the community is called on Tik Tok, where users that love reading share content about books they read and then make a video to convince other to read it. Before the pandemic, book lovers met face-to-face in a community which was often known book club however, to adapt to the new lifestyle, this community learned a way to embrace the digital world, social media. Hampton (2018) mentions that as technologies is developing with time it is changing the nature of communities as well. In addition, Weiderhold (2022) compellingly states, that BookTok is a “reinvented” way of those monthly book clubs, “gathering around the campfire”, to “today’s world”. The vast popularity of this community is because of the sense of belonging and connection it brings to the users that are a part of it. As a result of that, BookTok has over 77 billion views on Tik Tok, as recorded last on September 20 2022 (Tik Tok, 2022). Tik Tok (2022) also mentions that this community is for all those passionate readers that are into genres from sci-fi to romance, they are all welcomed to be a part of this online community. Moreover, bookstores have picked up on this community’s power on the book sales and influenced them to create special displays BookTok in their stores (Reddan, 2022).

In the introduction I briefly mentioned that the romance genre has gained a massive popularity, that has gotten the book sales of this genre to increase. Carpenter (2023) mentions that romance is a big sub-genre on BookTok, this particular community is growing very rapidly over time, making the genre boom. An interview was conducted with the HarperFiction marketing manager, Maddy Marshall, where Marshall stated that because of BookTok the romance genre in fiction has seen a resurgence, adding on to that she further says that she has seen bookstores openly display this genre now compared to before where it was “tucked away” (Carpenter, 2023). Not only that but Rice (2022) suggests that the surge of the romance genre market in the past few years is because of the “need for self-care” during the pandemic time. Another standpoint which Carpenter (2023) talks about is how Jenny Ayre, a campaign manager in a digital marketing agency, says the reason for romance to gain a strong following is because of it is ““an easily accessible genre”” and having “short, quick reads”” that have plot lines that are easy to follow. Furthermore, the way the BookTok creators make their Tik Tok videos about a specific book grabs the attention of the viewer/users. Wiederhold (2022) mentions that the creators on Booktok make videos that target the plot and characters of the books with appealing imagery and soundtrack for other users to be persuaded to read that book. Having said that, the statistics says that there was 36% increase in the printing of romance novels, moreover, the sales of romance novels were 47 million (in 2021) which included not only print but also digital form as well (Wordsrated, 2022). Another reason for the popularity of this genre is also because a high percentage of the demographics, about 82% from BookTok are females (Rice, 2022). Because of the massive popularity, romance genre can be found on Tik Tok with the hashtag (#)romancebooks which is gaining more than 5.4 billion views (Carpenter, 2023).

Every community has those users that are influential and can convince/attract others towards something, which in this case is to purchase a book based on their Tik Tok video. With my own research and knowledge a few of the popular “BookTokers” that promote the (fictional) romance books are Thebooksiveloved, Larryreads, Salmaslibrary, Maditasbiblioteca, thebookthief28, Melissasbooks, bookishwbomberry, itsashtaylor. These few BookTokers that promote the genre of romance in the reading community on Tik Tok. However, all these influencers have different following, ranging from 65K to 600K followers. Most of these BookTok creators have millions of likes on their Tik Tok page which shows that their content is persuasive and engaging the right audience, who are willing to buy the book the Tik Tok is based on. There are statistics that state that romance is one of the highest earning fictional genre with over $1.44 billion revenue (Wordsrated, 2022). These BookTok creators create videos in creative ways like comical skits, fan art, reactions, cosplays, thoughts, specific quotes from books etc. attracts users into buying a book (Prytko, 2023).

Schwartz and Sullivan (2022) explain how sales of books have gone up because they had gone viral on BookTok. One of the viral books from the fictional romance genre is “The Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood despite being her debut book (Schwartz & Sullivan, 2022). With the help of hashtags which gives users and creators more specific ways to separate different “tropes”. Another term that is vastly used in the BookTok community is ‘tropes’ which is getting specific about the type of romance the book entails. Prytko (2023) refers to the trope “enemies to lovers” which is extremely popular on BookTok. In addition, the popular trope mentioned and one of the viral BookTok book; “The Love Hypothesis”, are connected because the book is considered as part of the trope. Dividing the different types of romance books into sub categories allows the users to then easily pick what they want to read.

Another example of a viral book from Tik Tok is “The Spanish Love Deception” by Elena Armas that gained a lot of attention through recommendation Tik Toks (Rice, 2022). Furthermore, the popularity of the romance genre in BookTok is because there is more diversity in the “romance readers” than other fictional genres in the community (Rice, 2022). What Rice means by this is that this romance community has more powerful impact as there are different people from various cultures and ages that read romance rather than any other fictional genre. When visiting a some of the reading website the description given of the book starts with “Tik Tok sensation” which automatically shows the power that this community on Tik Tok has. Through more research on this trending book, it has countless Tik Tok videos made by several users that are part of BookTok sharing their reviews/thoughts, plot of book, characters aesthetics, quotes from the book etc. convincing others to read the book as well. The title of the book has become the hashtag itself which then allowed users to share their content about the book on. Having that said, there are different language Tik Tok videos that are made regarding this book, which goes to show exactly how viral the book has gone and may even continue to grow. In connection to the previous topic of “enemies to lover” trope, The Spanish Love Deception also falls under it. The immense popularity of this trope and the books that fall under it tend to go viral and see an increase in the book sales as well.

“The Love Hypothesis” and “The Spanish Love Deception” both have a few evident similarities even though they are written by two different authors. Which is the reason for why they had seen an increase in the book sales for the two. As we have already established that both books are from the romance genre, specifically from the “enemies to lovers” trope, and are both authors’ debut books. Furthermore, the release dates for both books were in the same year (2021), even though they were new releases they received great amount of popularity due to BookTok. This could be because romance readers look for new books that offer something different in the story. Some of the other books that had gotten immense popularity were older publications by authors. In addition, these books became bestsellers with also getting nominated for the “Best Romance 2021” category for the “Goodreads Choice Award”. With some more extended research, the description for the books on some of the reading websites suggest one book if the readers have enjoyed the other. The reason for this may be because they both belong to the most favorable trope on BookTok which is “enemies to lovers”, hence why readers enjoyed both the books and want to own both of them in paperback. However, there are difference to the stories with the characters, setting, climax etc.

In conclusion, it was covered that BookTok played a huge role in the number of romance genre book sales because of the immense popularity amongst the reading community on Tik Tok. Firstly, to understand what BookTok is and how it came about allowed to understand what the thesis wants to cover. Tik Tok had allowed book lovers to still stay connected from the safety of their home. Further, this essay explored the most popular fictional genre on BookTok, which is romance. Gave more insight on why this genre saw a resurgence in book sales, with the help of BookTok. In connection with that there was also some popular romance BookTok creators and how it contributes to the sales of romance books. Lastly, two immensely popular romance books titled; “The Love Hypothesis” and “The Spanish Love Deception”, going “viral” with the help of BookTok, were discussed. In addition, some of the similarities and differences of the both of these books were analyzed, to see why these books had gained so much popularity in a short amount of time they were published. With these points that were made it is evident that BookTok is the reason for romance genre book sales had increased as it is popular amongst the reading community.

References:
A new way to tap into the #BookTok community. (2022). Tik Tok. https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/a-new-way-to-tap-into-the-booktok-community
Hampton, K.N, & Wellman, B. (2018). Lost and Savd… Again: The moral Panic about the Loss of Community Takes Hold of Social Media. Comtemporary Sociology, 47(6), 643-651. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094306118805415
Carpenter, C. (2023). Publishers and Marketeers laud impact of BookTok in the resurgence of romance: As Nielsen data shows Romance & Sagas to be in rude health in print, trade figures spoke to The Booksellers about how readers on TikTok have galvanized the once-maligned genre. The Bookseller, (6006), 6+. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA737696187&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00067539&p=LitRC&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7Eac30686c
Wiederhold, B. K. (2022). BookTok Made Me Do It: The Evolution of Reading.” Cyberpsychology, Behaviour, and Social Networking, 25(3), pp. 157-158. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2022.29240.editorial
Schwartz, D & Sullivan, M. C. (2022). Gen Z is driving sales of romance books to the top of bestsellers lists. Wabe. https://www.wabe.org/gen-z-is-driving-sales-of-romance-books-to-the-top-of-bestseller-lists/
Prytko, W. (2023). Marketing Through Microcultures on Social Media: An Examination of BookTok And Independent Bookstores [Honors Program, Assumption University]. Digital Commons @ Assumption University. https://digitalcommons.assumption.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1111&context=honorstheses
Rice, S.M. (2022). Epitome Love Every Story. https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/63975/2/Samantha%20Rice%20Capstone.pdf
Romance Novel Sales Statistics. (2022). WordsRated. https://wordsrated.com/romance-novel-sales-statistics/