From Hashtag to Best-Seller How #BookTok is Changing the Publishing Industry

Welcome, book lovers! Are you ready to join the exciting and dynamic community of #Booktok? That's right, we're talking about the marriage of the oldest form of media - books - and the newest - TikTok.

BookTok is a community that blossomed from the convergence of the oldest and newest forms of media in society: books and the popular platform TikTok. In this online community, the most passionate readers share, review, and recommend books in a creative way on TikTok. But its unique characteristic is that it has transformed from being an online community where people identify and gather through a hashtag, and has become a powerful tool for boosting sales in the publishing industry.

This online community has overtaken traditional book clubs as the go-to space for book enthusiasts that grows daily, reinventing new ways to attract an ever-widening audience and inviting them to explore -or better said, buy- some of the famous books that are most mentioned in the community. Fantasy, science fiction, and romance genres have carved out a brand new niche on TikTok, where authors, bookstores, and book influencers create content daily and millions of people share, comment, and, most importantly, buy books. Forget about those old-fashioned book clubs, this online community is growing by the day and reinventing new ways to attract a wider audience and invite them to explore - or better yet, buy - the most popular books in the community. This thriving social network is home to a diverse audience, but has become particularly popular among Gen Z, although it's worth noting that not all TikTok users belong to this generation.Despite the diversity of its users in terms of age, gender, economic level, and geographic location, what brings them together is their shared interests, values, and passions. This way, a sense of belonging and therefore community is born.

In this online community, avid readers share, review, and recommend books in the most creative ways on TikTok. But here's the real kicker, it's not just a community where people come together through a hashtag, it's also a brilliant sales tool for the publishing industry.

Among these communities, BookTok stands out not only for the promotion of reading in young people, but also for the enormous increase in sales in bookstores and the emergence of new authors. There is no structured organization of the community, but as it is a community on a social network, the content revolves around trends, filters, or songs of the moment. Being part of the community does not necessarily imply making content, but you can participate passively by giving likes, commenting, sharing and feeling interest in the books that are talked about.

Being part of the community does not necessarily imply making content, but you can participate passively by giving likes, commenting, sharing and feeling interest in the books that are talked about. Since the beginning of 2021, #BookTok has had an engagement increase of 39.4% and has increased the view count of its videos by 4568% since July 2020 (Chadha, 2021). As mentioned earlier, different content creators -among them, bookstores, authors, and book influencers- have joined this trend and have used the platform to promote their books and connect with their audience. BookTok has become a powerful tool for the publishing industry, revolutionizing the way books are marketed and sold, and fostering a love for reading in the digital age.

A community is a space (not necessarily physical) where a connection flows between a group of people where ideas, interests, values, beliefs, or other characteristics are shared and there is some degree of sense of belonging. In the case of #Booktok, being a virtual community, it becomes a digital ecosystem where the people who make it up give it meaning and build their own identity spontaneously. So get ready, book lovers, to embark on a journey of laughter, puns, and silly shenanigans as we explore the historical reality and precedents of #Booktok. TikTok, originally called Douyin, meaning "shake the music" in Chinese, was designed to be a platform for lip-syncing and teenage dancing, but has evolved into so much more...