Abstract
BookTok is one of the most recognised and used hashtags within today’s social media sphere. Providing billions of users with access to a book-loving community where they can connect, communicate and share opinions/thoughts about anything reading, writing or literature-related.
This conference paper will explore the concept of TikTok’s #BookTok and how it’s become a tool for connecting ‘Gen Z’ with a passion for reading. This will be discussed through unravelling BookTok’s origins – exploring how it came to be and its rise to popularity. Understanding the sub-community of BookTok, its power and importance to users both on and offline. And how this book-loving community has shaped and impacted bookstores and best sellers – putting bookstores on the map and giving older published books a second chance due to short, catchy videos.
The book world is very much alive due to the dedicated and respected BookTok community. Through research conducted for this paper, it is prominent that Generation Z or ‘Gen Z’ (age range approximately between 12–27) are the most common individuals interacting with the sub-community of BookTok – over 48 million users of this generation are expected to connect with BookTok by 2025. Emphasising an acknowledgment that TikTok as a platform can become a positive tool in connecting ‘Gen Z’ with a passion for reading.
Has TikTok’s ‘#BookTok’ become an impactful tool in connecting ‘Gen Z’ with a passion for reading?
Introduction
Whoever said books are dead, clearly hasn’t encountered the viral world of BookTok, nor been inside a bookstore within the last three or four years (Global Business Review, 2023). The hashtag ‘#Booktok’ is known to be the most influential book/reading-based hashtag used within the social media sphere, racking up over 200 billion views by transporting users to a virtual readers’ nook (Inham, 2023). Emphasising the powerful reality of social media platforms and the influence they carry. This conference paper will discuss the origins of the #BookTok hashtag, the creation and impact of #BookTok communities and how BookTok has influenced best sellers and bookstores. All with the purpose to explore how TikTok’s sub-community of #BookTok, has become a successful tool in connecting Generation Z [Gen Z] with a passion for reading.
The Birth of #BookTok
The #BookTok hashtag has been an impactful tool in fostering Gen Z’s passion for books and reading. But it raises the question about #BookTok’s creation and how one platform can be so successful. In 2016, TikTok made its social media debut as an app devoted to sharing 1–minute (maximum) long videos to an online forum (Kjellberg, 2022 & Wiederhold, 2022). The platform, originally famous for its dancing trends and lip-syncing videos, expanded in popularity during the pandemic. Generating over one billion users by September of 2022, and turning it into one of the world’s most influential and downloaded apps (Kjellberg, 2022).
Interestingly, more than 60% of TikTok’s users are of the Gen Z (also known as iGeneration or the internet generation) decade (Wiederhold, as cited in Low, 2023 & Rahardyan et al., 2023). This spans the current ages of approximately 12–27 or those born in the years of 1995–2010 (Rahardyan et al., 2023). Please note that the above ages and years are a guide. Generations tend to differ slightly depending on what resource is used. Astonishingly, by the year 2025, BookTok is estimated to cater for over 48 million Gen Z users (Wiederhold, 2022).
The platform’s success seems to link to the current ‘trend’ that videos with limited text are ‘in’ and still-based images with long text or captions (such as Instagram or Facebook) are ‘out’, or are not as popular in this current moment (Inham, 2023). It seems that TikTok can adhere to and keep up with the fast-paced technological society of today, making it the go-to social media platform for Gen Z users.
In extension to this, the platform has turned into an impactful device that is able to connect individuals with their interests, due to TikTok’s unavoidably alluring algorithm (Kjellberg, 2022). The algorithm takes note of the user’s activity on the platform, responds and then provides or suggests content to the individual that is thought to be a match (Kjellberg, 2022). For example, a user may search or watch several book/reading-based videos. This subconsciously suggests to the algorithm that ‘books’, ‘reading’ and/or ‘literature’ are of interest and therefore, more of this content will appear on the individual’s feed.
This leads to the introduction of #BookTok, which is a sub-section or category on the TikTok platform, and, essentially, is an online space dedicated to the discussion and viewing of anything book, literature and reading related (Jaakkola, 2023). It’s generally associated with users providing their personal thoughts and opinions about a book/s or an individual providing book recommendations to others in a quick and catchy video. After the hashtag’s debut in 2018, #BookTok continued to rise in popularity with an extensive jump from 3.4 billion views in February 2021, to over 200 billion by the end of 2023 (Wiederhold, 2022 & Inham, 2023). With 2021–2023 being classified as pandemic years, it very much reinforces the idea that Gen Z turned to TikTok to connect to book-related content.
In regard to the association of Generation Z and literature, it’s understandable that this audience has a connection to both TikTok and BookTok due to the nature of their upbringing with technology. As Rahardyan et al., states ‘[they are] considered the first generation born into a globally connected world and [are] familiar with technology and instant information’ (2023, p.362). Therefore, when something like reading becomes visual and virtually communicative, it changes TikTok from being ‘just’ a social media platform and turns it into a tool that can promote curiosity towards books, reading and literature (Rahardyan et al., 2023).
BookTok Communities
BookTok has become an important tool towards the creation and building of an empowering online community for book lovers of every genre. Reading is generally associated with being an independent or introverted activity, but it certainly is no longer an isolated task (Delanty, 2018). Especially now that a book has the ability to continue beyond the pages, with TikTok’s #BookTok community for book lovers to interact and connect daily.
As discussed above, BookTok is the biggest and most popular of the book-based platforms (Inham, 2023) and is often referred to as ‘a big virtual book club where there’s always someone who wants to read the [same] book you do…’ (Bogan, as cited in Mulroy, 2024, p. 1). Which is comforting for users if they wish to be a part of a more specific niche or genre-based community (Mulroy, 2024). BookTok can be seen as a blanket or umbrella term until the algorithm gets to understand and know the user (Mulroy, 2024). For example, if a user enjoys the romance genre and is wanting recommendations, they may search ‘Romance BookTok’; the more the individual interacts with creators and their content, the more BookTok will provide of the romance genre (Mulroy, 2024).
Although the idea of using #BookTok as a book club may denote from the traditional processes of an original in-person book club: select a book, read book, meet up and have a group discussion about the selected book. There are parallels seen within BookTok that offer these staples but in a more visual and interactive way. Firstly, If the user is a part of the BookTok community then they are continuously being introduced and recommended various book options, depending on their genre and trope interests. Secondly, if a book captivates the reader, the most likely outcome is that the individual will seek out the book and read it. And finally, there will be some sort of discussion about the book – predominately through commenting or content creation. The benefit of having BookTok as a book club is that it is a virtual community. Allowing users to have round-the-clock access and the ability to communicate from anywhere in the world. And because TikTok is a downloadable app, the book club becomes portable helping ‘reignit[e] an enjoyment of reading…’ (Wiederhold, 2022, p. 158) at the click of a button.
A reason why the BookTok community has become so recognised is because it’s a platform where users feel a sense of safety and homeliness (Wiederhold, 2022). It’s somewhere people can openly express emotion towards characters, plots, settings, tropes and genres in an authentically messy, honest, humorous, interactive and genuine manner (Wiederhold, 2022). The other reason the BookTok community is so widely recognised is due to the way it’s operated and designed. Because of TikTok’s fast-paced and everchanging content, publishing houses and corporate companies struggle to dictate or push their opinions and ideas onto the community (Parkinson-Bennet, as cited in Irish Times). Limiting their say and sway towards the books or literature that they want to be promoted (Parkinson-Bennet, as cited in Irish Times). This means that content creators and BookTok viewers are left with a predominant amount of power and admire the genuine nature of real people, responding and reacting to their favourite books (Parkinson-Bennet, as cited in Irish Times). The BookTok community has become so influential and imperative to the book world, that publishers have begun to reconsider their marketing techniques (Wiederhold, 2022). Contacting and sponsoring book influencers to read, review and promote books to ensure their manuscripts reach as wide an audience as possible (Wiederhold, 2022).
BookTok is pushing the boundaries and forcing publishers to engage with social media and to listen to their readers (Wiederhold, 2022). It is this influential power that aids in the connection and creation of a passion towards reading. But, as the notion goes, power comes with responsibility and with Gen Z building a community as empowering as BookTok, it has started to redefine and change the structure of how virtual communities now operate (Hampton & Wellman, 2018).
Best Sellers and Bookstores as Destinations
The impact of TikTok’s #BookTok has changed the way best sellers are decided and the way bookshops are viewed. Creating the question of how these components engage and connect Gen Z individuals with reading.
One of the biggest flow-on effects from the BookTok community is the platform’s ability to become a tool to find new and back-listed authors; with BookTok being considered a creditable point of call in the discovery of books (McLean, as cited in Milliot, 2023). When an online or virtual community is as recognised as BookTok, it has the ability to influence the popularity of books, giving them the potential to become a bestseller (Inham, 2023). As Gen Z have grown within a technology-information-filled world, it is only natural that a community with this generation as its prominent audience can make books go viral (Hampton & Wellman, 2018; Rahardyan et al., 2023). Demonstrating TikTok’s ability to be an impactful tool towards fostering reading.
The power of this platform hasn’t just helped emerging authors find their fame but is turning ‘atypical’ or older back-listed books into best sellers (Wiederhold, 2022). For example, Collen Hoover’s romance novel ‘It Ends With Us’ was originally published in 2016 and sold around 21,000 copies (Nilanjana, 2022). But due to the popularity it gained through the BookTok community it has gone on to sell over 308,000 copies, created a sequel and has been adapted into a film that is due for release later this year (Nilanjana, 2022). And on top of all that, several of her other books became New York Times best sellers (Inham, 2023).
With back-listed books regaining their time in the spotlight, a wide variety of genres and authors are circulating on the platform, with even titles from classic literature such as Jane Austin’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ making a comeback (Global Business Review, 2023). Giving older stories the chance at a new life (Kjellberg, 2022). With Generation Z being involved in such a diverse community, they are able to explore the world of books with the platform becoming an invaluable tool (Milliot, 2023).
With the population of BookTok increasingly rising, there was concern that physical bookstores would suffer. Instead, the platform’s sub-community has done quite the opposite. With BookTok, content creators have encouraged viewers to visit and support local bookstores through the use of #BookTok challenges (op de Beeck, 2023). Where users are expected to read books in timed sittings or collect limited edition copies. The challenges foster the idea of owning physical books – to the point where people are interested in buying more books (Phelan as cited in Irish Times, 2023). Bookstores are now becoming destinations, with staff joining the BookTok community to stay ‘on trend’ but also to promote their stores and their stock, to close the gap between ‘online enthusiasm and in-store purchases’ (Irish Times, 2023; op de Beeck, 2023). Alongside this, bookstores now cater to BookTok through the use of displays and signage; for example, ‘As seen on BookTok’ banners, in the hope this can connect with the Gen Z demographic (op de Beeck, 2023; Global Business Review, 2023).
Conclusion
The purpose of this conference paper was to discuss if TikTok’s sub-community of #BookTok has become a successful tool in connecting ‘Gen Z’ with a passion for reading. The birth of the #BookTok hashtag has stretched limits and broken social media-based records. The fact that one sub-community can warrant over 200 billion views and counting, proves the immense power and influence that virtual communities and technology hold (Inham, 2023). In addition to an online community, TikTok is the biggest in the reading realm (Inham, 2023). As a ‘Gen Z’ myself, seeing literature and social media combined makes it so much easier to access and connect with reading. Most of what is recommended on social feeds decides what is to be read and initiates a trip to the bookstore – #BookTok is incredibly influential. With this community promoting and recommending books both new and backlisted, a Generation Z audience is gaining exposure to all genres. As outlined, there are various reasons and research that determine that the use and exposure to #BookTok can prove to be a positively impactful tool in connecting ‘Gen Z’ with a passion for reading.
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