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Khaleej Times

How BookTok single-handedly transformed the literary world

The current scenario of the literary world is such that if you have seen a particular book everywhere, BookTok is likely responsible. For the past five years, BookTok has significantly increased global book sales and broadened the landscape for diversity in the publishing world. A prime example of the former being Colleen Hoover's novel It Ends With Us, which, thanks to its overarching fame, was recently turned into a highly-anticipated motion picture receiving mixed reviews globally. Released in 2016, the novel's sales increased around 700 per cent from 2020 to 2021. In 2024, Hoover was the second top-selling author of BookTok with around 2 million copies sold. The birth of bestsellers 'No one was publishing anything during the pandemic and a lot of books that became popular then were published five to 10 years ago,' says 24-year-old content creator Ayman Chaudhary, who goes by the handle @aymansbooks and has a following of more than 916,000 on TikTok. The hashtag BookTok, a byproduct of the lockdown, saw many young people create book-related content on TikTok which united an international community of book lovers on a scale never before seen, not even on Bookstagram. The power of the BookTok phenomenon was also observed in the case of Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles, the sales of which sky-rocketed after a viral TikTok video made it a first-time bestseller. This was just the beginning of how the bite-sized videos were going to change the way books were being sold. BookToker Ayman was also one of the many who made a viral video of her crying after finishing the heartwarming novel. An avid reader since childhood, Ayman started her BookTok journey in 2020 during the lockdown and became one of the first creators under the hashtag. Bibliophiles obsessed or sobbed over their favourites, ranted, and dressed up as book characters making books instant bestsellers. Publishers were now contacting influential BookTokers and offering payment or free books in return for TikTok videos reviewing and promoting their titles. Authors who have found unparalleled fame thanks to content on BookTok include Sarah J. Maas, V. E. Schwab, Holly Jackson, Emily Henry, Alice Oseman, and even the Russian classical writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In 2024, Sarah J. Maas, author of international bestselling fantasy series Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City managed to sell around 5 million print copies of her works only in the first six months of the year. While relatively popular in the Young Adult (YA) literary world before the BookTok era, Maas admitted that her recent unprecedented fame was all thanks to BookTok. Curiouser still, a few authors on the platform managed to bag major book deals after capturing the eye of publishers with their viral concept videos. Colombian-American author Alex Aster's Lightlark pitch video gained such popularity that she simultaneously landed both a book and movie deal, and her novel reached bestseller lists even before its release. As far as publishers are concerned, BookTok is now responsible for creating bestsellers. 'There are a few books that a lot of people associate with me because I made a video to recommend them and it went viral,' says Ayman of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab which topped charts in the US and Alone With You In The Ether by Olivie Blake. Flourishing era of diversity Ayman, who recently attended the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai, was particularly excited to attend the session of author Zoulfa Katouh who made waves in the YA literary world thanks to her debut novel As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow. The heart-wrenching novel is set in Syria and focuses on the struggles of young people under the civil war. ' As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow was trending on BookTok two years ago and I remember the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian community hyping it up [so much] that people outside the community started reading it,' Ayman mentions, adding that her For You page was filled with videos of the novel. The author, Zoulfa Katouh, was delighted to hear that was how Ayman came across her novel, 'I like Ayman's videos a lot. She's very creative with them,' she says. The author was told by her publisher and readers that her debut novel became popular because of BookTok. Zoulfa says that the platform's word-of-mouth recommendations by readers have paved the way for diversity in representation. She believes that if a reader takes time out of their everyday lives to recommend a book on their TikTok, then it must truly be impactful, 'It feels so organic and real when you see videos of people crying and saying a book is amazing.' New routes to travel She adds that BookTok is breaking communication barriers all around the world, 'The way that diversity is being spoken about in TikTok right now for books is helpful for people to widen their perspective of books that they probably never would have thought of reading or have come across on a bookshelf.' BookTok has evolved by leaps and bounds in the past five years with a strong focus on marginalised communities. Even so, Ayman believes that there is still room for improvement, 'My hope is for it to be more diverse and inclusive. It is great how far we've come but I still think we need a lot of work, and I would like to see bookstores and publishers give more space to minority creators and authors.' With bookstores worldwide now housing tables and shelves dedicated for BookTok recommendations, Ayman remarks that the impact of BookTok is astonishing, 'There's a space for any type of reader and anyone who wants to be a reader. It is one of the most diverse communities I've ever been a part of. It's changed book publishing and bookstores forever.'