Two years ago, Jeneane O’Riley self-published her fantasy romance novel, “How Does it Feel?,” an enemies-to-lovers tale about a woman who meets a handsome, unhinged fairy prince. Without a publisher to help market her novel or get it into bookstores, she decided to promote it herself on TikTok.
Pretty soon, TikTok users started posting their own viral reactions to the book, and sales shot up. One post from a reader shocked by the novel’s plot twists got more than six million views. The book hit No. 1 on Amazon.
“That type of free marketing for a small, independent author is unheard-of,” said O’Riley, who later signed a deal with Bloom Books, a romance imprint at Sourcebooks.
Now, with a law banning TikTok in the United States set to take effect on Sunday, O’Riley and other authors are scrambling to keep their networks of fans intact. O’Riley, who has more than 52,000 followers on TikTok, has been urging people to find her on Instagram, Threads and Facebook. But she’s concerned that her close-knit TikTok audience will disperse.
“I worry about the effect it will have on my readers and friends as their sense of community gets destroyed,” she said.
Over the past few years, publishers, authors and booksellers have grown increasingly dependent on TikTok to drive sales. Many of the top selling fiction writers in the United States — including Colleen Hoover, Sarah J. Maas, Freida McFadden, Ana Huang and Rebecca Yarros — owe their success in part to exposure on TikTok.
“If TikTok goes away, there’s going to be a real hole in the market,” said Dominique Raccah, the publisher and chief executive of Sourcebooks, which publishes BookTok breakout authors like Scarlett St. Clair, McFadden and Huang.
TikTok’s future has been uncertain ever since President Biden signed a law last year that required the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform or be banned in the United States. Supporters of the law argue the app poses national security risks because the Chinese government could use the platform to spread propaganda or to conduct surveillance on Americans.
On Friday, the Supreme Court unanimously voted that the law can take effect, rejecting TikTok’s argument that a ban would violate the First Amendment. Questions remain about how a ban will be enforced. Some lawmakers have pressed Biden to extend the deadline for a sale to save the app, while President-elect Donald J. Trump is said to be considering issuing an executive order to allow TikTok’s operations to continue. But it looks increasingly likely that the platform, which is used by 170 million Americans, will soon go dark in the United States.
With a ban looming, some in the publishing business are preparing to pivot, and are hoping that other apps will fill the void, noting that they’ve seen social platforms wax and wane. Others fretted that nothing will replicate the alchemy of TikTok, where a single viral video can send an author soaring up the best-seller list, and readers evangelize to other readers, a far more effective form of marketing than traditional advertising.
“Will it be replaced by something that has the same value and impact? No, it won’t,” said Thad McIlroy, a book industry analyst. “Something unique happened with BookTok.”
Over the past several years, TikTok has dramatically reshaped nearly every aspect of the book business. Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart created store and online displays of books that are trending on TikTok. Booksellers track what’s bubbling on the app and stock up on titles that have gone viral.
And publishers have found new writers on the platform. Authors like Lucy Score, Hannah Grace and Jasmine Mas, who all got their start self-publishing and saw their books take off on TikTok, signed major deals with publishers.
“It dragged a lot of publishers into the 21st century,” said Shannon DeVito, the director of books at Barnes & Noble. “It’s pushed them to be more flexible and pay attention to what readers are looking for.”
TikTok became a major driver of print sales, since influencers want physical objects to display in videos and on their shelves. It converted younger and reluctant readers into heavy book buyers and obsessive fans. And in some ways, it democratized book marketing, giving readers as much or more influence as traditional gatekeepers.
“Anyone can go viral in an instant, and that gave users that power to vocalize what they want to be reading,” said Anna Hall, the director of digital marketing for Zando, an independent publishing house. Zando has been helping its authors to cultivate more followers on other platforms, including Patreon and YouTube, Hall said.
“We’re just watching closely and are ready to adapt,” she said.
The BookTok bounce hasn’t been evenly distributed across the industry. The most popular genres on the platform are plot-heavy romance, thrillers and fantasy. But there have also been viral frenzies around older works and more literary titles, like Madeline Miller’s “The Song of Achilles” and Hanya Yanagihara’s “A Little Life.”
Many publishers and authors are now frantically scrambling to bulk up their networks on other social media sites like Instagram, Threads and Facebook.
“If everyone goes on Substack, we’ll work with our authors on Substack, if everyone goes on Reels, we’ll get even better at Reels,” said Molly Waxman, vice president and executive director of marketing at Sourcebooks.
BookTok creators — some of whom have made lucrative careers as influencers — are bracing for a ban and are distressed over the potential loss of income and networks.
Cait Jacobs, 26, started recommending books on TikTok in late 2019, and gained an audience at the start of the pandemic. Jacobs now has some 314,000 followers on the platform, and has made sponsored content for major publishers like Penguin Random House, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to talk about my favorite books and scream about my favorite authors every day,” said Jacobs, who typically makes a couple of thousand dollars a month as an influencer. “I owe everything to TikTok.”
Now, Jacobs is aiming to maintain a network of followers on other platforms like Instagram, but worries it won’t be the same.
“There’s a lot of mourning and a lot of stress,” Jacobs said of the mood among BookTok creators. “We’re losing a community we’ve built up that’s become a part of our daily life, where we’ve made lifelong friends.”
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