Perhaps you didn’t give much thought to TikTok until you saw the March 20 New York Times article, How Crying on TikTok Sells Books, where publishers say it’s given book sales an “unexpected jolt.” But now you’re wondering: should you jump in? And will it require dancing or singing a song?
With over 100 million US users, TikTok, the video-sharing app launched by ByteDance in 2016, now has an avid BookTok community, where authors connect with book lovers through one-minute-or-under videos. What authors post runs the gamut from cleverly scripted commentary (like that of romance novelist Alisha Rai, who racked up 2.6 million views for a political video tied to the 2020 election) to participating in challenges, responding to other users, and giving book and writing updates. Some, like fantasy author Jessica Cage, share writing prompts and post frequently about new releases, character research, and inspiration.
Authors are flocking to TikTok because it offers an easy way to reach new audiences (many TikTok users also cross-post their content to Instagram and/or Twitter to amplify the reach). YA author Ryan La Sala joined TikTok in 2019 and posts a mix of silly videos along with ones on writing and reading, anime, and games. His following “loves to fight about anime,” and while videos about his books may garner a few thousand views, “if I make a video with an opinion about Sailor Moon [a manga/anime series], it’ll go viral.” La Sala said many of the people engaging with him on TikTok don’t actually follow him. Instead, they use his content to comment or post their own take, which he said is “sort of the point on TikTok.” He hopes some of those people will notice he’s also an author and check out his books.
Self-published mystery author Stella Bixby joined TikTok in November 2020 after hearing about it from fellow authors and began posting immediately. Initially, she spent eight to 10 hours a week (now down to three or four) creating videos with writing tips and conversations with her characters, as well as demystifying aspects of self-publishing, showing viewers how to update Amazon categories.
Romance author Katee Robert joined in 2020 after a video recommending her books went viral, resulting in a sales spike. To “pay that visibility forward,” Robert posts book recommendations of her own, usually grouped by themes, and aims to post two to three times a day, which has boosted her follower count. Robert praised TikTok’s algorithm for showing videos to the right people based on hashtags. Robert said TikTok has readers “craving books and actively looking for recommendations in a variety of sub-genres—and they’re ready to buy.”
Lifestyle publicist Andrea Burnett said authors writing about cooking, home design, or other highly visual categories are poised to succeed on TikTok. “Talent scouts and producers are looking on social media to find the next Joanna Gaines or Ina Garten,” said Burnett, whose client, Whole Girl author Sadie Radinsky, got booked on a TV show after posting a popular make-your-own-Nutella video on TikTok. Burnett recommends that those in interior or graphic design showcase before-and-after videos to highlight their skills and noted that people like to see “fails and gaffes, but not in a mean way.” In other words, perfection and its illusion are overrated.
In the nonfiction realm, experts such as gynecologist Jennifer Lincoln are using TikTok to impart knowledge to the masses. Lincoln rose to fame last year when her TikTok video on medical racism went viral; videos on health topics such as birth control, giving birth, and consent have also reached millions of views and landed Lincoln on Good Morning America and The Today Show.
Lincoln reached out to Joy Tutela, literary agent at the David Black Literary Agency (where agent Susan Raihofer represents viral TikTok comedian Sarah Cooper). Tutela helped her refine her proposal for vaginal health book Let’s Talk about Down There, which sold to Andrews McMeel in June 2020. Tutela said the proposal “sought to capture both Dr. Lincoln’s TikTok voice and persona and the episodic nature of her lessons,” and the book’s content also offers “short, digestible snippets.”
Allison Adler, senior editor at Andrews McMeel, said Lincoln’s book “felt like a natural extension” of what she does on TikTok. Since Adler is always looking for “accessible, fun nonfiction” full of “easily digestible information, presented in an entertaining way,” TikTok is a good fit. “TikTok videos are so short that you have to be able to translate sometimes-complicated concepts into a quick, engaging clip,” said Adler, who praised Lincoln for hitting that sweet spot; Adler hopes to sign more authors with dedicated TikTok followings.
While TikTok is still a relatively new platform for authors (only five Publishers Marketplace book deal listings mention their authors’ TikTok accounts, as of this writing), other editors are also looking to TikTok creators whose work could translate into a wide readership. Abrams released Essentially Charli by the most popular TikTok user, Charli D’Amelio (110 million followers), in December. To Jeremie Ruby-Strauss, VP executive editor at Simon & Schuster, utilizing the fast-growing social media platform made sense. “I’ve tried my hand at acquiring properties from blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch—so it was a natural to explore TikTok as well,” he said. Ruby-Strauss signed TikToker Avani Gregg last year; Gregg has 32 million TikTok followers and won the 2019 Shorty Award for TikToker of the Year.
However, popularity alone isn’t enough to sign someone. In fact, viral growth can be a red flag. Ruby-Strauss prefers to see organic growth and signed Gregg “because she’s got a story to tell,” about living in LA’s Hype House with other TikTok collective members and “being a female person of color dealing with mental health, relationships, bullying, and coming of age.” Still, Ruby-Strauss expects to sign more TikTok creators, as well as those who’ve “migrated there after achieving stardom on other platforms.”
TikTok can help authors build a platform before they’re published. That’s been the case for Amber Morrell, an author and children’s librarian whose middle grade fantasy novel is on submission with her agent, Travis Pennington, at the Knight Agency. Morrell joined TikTok in January 2020 after teen volunteers at her library convinced her to, and she was immediately hooked. Morrell began posting in December and chose the niche of sharing strange and esoteric Wikipedia pages because she was already passionate about it—it’s where she goes to do research for her writing. Morrell now spends about six hours a week writing video scripts, filming, then adding captions. The most popular of her “Wikipedia Rabbit Holes” videos has garnered 3.4 million views. Pennington has started including Morrell’s follower count in submissions. While Morrell is not sure what impact her channel will eventually have on book sales, she’s happy to have dedicated fans who “always show up” when she talks about her books on TikTok Live.
Compared to YouTube, TikTok “gives people a more personal connection to creators” because of its simpler production values, Morrell said. “Big YouTubers have HD cameras and fancy lights and professional-level videos. You don’t need any of that on TikTok.” She added that TikTok viewers “prefer authenticity, like they’re watching real people, not TV personalities.”
Several authors recommend posting on a regular schedule to help get picked up by TikTok’s algorithm. La Sala said the best strategy “is to start conversations on things people already like talking about. If you’re a new author trying to get people to start a conversation about your book that they’ve never read, nor heard of, nor care about, it’ll be a conversation between you and your most loyal followers, and that’s it.” Bixby advises speaking to the specifics of your genre; in her case, that means adding surprise and mystery to her videos, which has gotten “a great response.” Robert recommends putting covers on videos to indicate what viewers can expect and using the hashtags that come up on your FYP (For You Page, a landing page within the app with recommended content).
Both Bixby and Morrell praised TikTok for its accessibility, especially compared to other platforms. In 10 years, Morrell has garnered 2,500 Twitter followers, but she has 264,000 on TikTok, most of them librarians, historians, scientists, or people interested in those subjects.
Bottom line: As with other social media, hard-core selling doesn’t go over well on the platform. Book reviewer Cait Jacobs, who became active on TikTok in 2019, has seen an influx of authors over the last four to five months. She’s observed trends of authors posting jokes about the writing experience and offering behind-the-scenes looks at their writing space or day-in-the-life videos. While she said most authors she knows on TikTok are succeeding, she cautions against being overly promotional. “On TikTok, people don’t like ads, and when your videos are focused solely on selling your book, that’s what they might feel like.” Instead, she offers what should be easy advice, even if most authors find it challenging to follow: “Be yourself.” La Sala said that the unpretentiousness of the app has made him want to keep posting. “It’s helped me get used to just creating stuff without a lot of perfectionism weighing me down. Creation is the point, not pretense.”
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
