The rise of BookTok is reshaping the publishing world
On social media everything becomes a performance: we go to festivals so that we can post pictures of ourselves on Instagram. Those of us with big record collections tweet pictures of obscure albums above the words “now playing”. Some of us publish pictures of the dinner we’re about to eat.
Hence I guess BookTok shouldn’t come as a complete surprise. This section of the shortform video-hosting service TikTok sprang up during the pandemic, when a bunch of young women temporarily confined to barracks began devouring fiction and, being of the performative generation, wanted somewhere they could share their enthusiasm.
The tone is often excitable – “five books you should start with if you’re entering your reading girlie era”, “books bfs give their girl”, “an amazing new series if you’re new to reading”, that kind of thing. Publishers certainly aren’t complaining because it helps to sell books. Some of the bigger bookshops now have entire tables labelled “BookTok” to take advantage of this enthusiasm while it lasts.
BookTokers, it turns out, are particularly keen on the genre known as Dark Academia, which is popular with people who grew up with Harry Potter and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. There are pages upon pages of young women ofering guides to the works of BookTok superstars like Colleen Hoover.
In the world of BookTok how things look is all- important. Here video- genic young women pose cosily with pristine piles of their favourite books. They prefer to snuggle down as they read; you get the feeling they definitely want to keep romance alive.
Witness the big trend of this year, which they call “the door frame lean”. All over BookTok young women have been cajoling the men in their lives to emulate the popular romantic fiction cliché whereby the hero corners the heroine in a doorway, places one muscly arm on the door frame and then leans down to kiss her. So far #doorframelean has had more than 50 million views, which is a whole lot of home entertainment.
See David’s pick of the week, Fairy Meadow, top left opposite page