Understanding Booktok: How a Corner of Tik-Tok Created a Publishing Phenomenon

In 2021, a shift occurred in the book publishing industry which saw unexpected books growing increasingly popular and becoming best-sellers, seemingly out of nowhere. This phenomenon has been attributed to BookTok, the book related segment of social media app, TikTok. On BookTok, users create and engage with videos relating to books, sharing recommendations, opinions and entertaining content. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how BookTok has been able to impact book sales in the publishing industry and understand how its content has been so successful in shifting the patterns observed in the industry for decades. Due to a lack of literature pertaining directly to BookTok’s influence on publishing, a literature review covered material involving BookTok in relation to library sciences and literacy, social media use in the publishing industry, and the existence of bookish communities. A qualitative methodology used a textual analysis conducted on ten TikTok videos related to two books most notably impacted by this phenomenon. Criteria focused on analyzing visual, auditory, plot/storytelling and viewer response components of each video. Results uncovered three key themes amongst the videos: authenticity, emotional displays and community building. Together, these themes form a level of trust amongst BookTok users creating the perfect environment for sharing book recommendations and acting upon them. Ultimately, these themes point to the reason why readers engage with this content, and explain how BookTok has been so successful in influencing book sales. The organic and trustworthy nature of this community and platform has and will continue to influence the publishing industry in the coming years. For this reason, it needs to be continued to be studied and understood.