January 15, 2025
Are you looking for a fun, proven, professional way to boost your readership and connect with your real and potential audience? Then it’s time to explore BookTok, the literary side of the popular app TikTok, where authors, readers, and genre lovers come together to watch videos, talk about books, and discuss everything book-related. As a self-publishing author, you can utilize BookTok strategies that will help you increase your BookTok presence while connecting with readers in an authentic, brand-growing way.
While TikTok is full of every kind of one to five-minute imaginable, from silly animal videos to travel influencers bringing viewers along on their adventures, BookTok is the side of this app where readers, authors, and even publishers and retailers interact with each other about books, genre interest, characters, authors, writing styles, and undiscovered authors. Users create videos talking about books, reading books, reviewing books, and even creating imagined visuals to go along with books they love to create a vibrant community of literary lovers from around the world.
Authors and readers alike also do live videos that allow real-time interactions with other users in a relaxed atmosphere that encourages authentic, supportive dialogue. These short-form videos are usually filmed with a smartphone, and their informality makes them both easy to make for even the most novice TikTok-er and fun to watch since almost anything goes. But just because most are not professionally produced doesn’t mean they reflect poorly on the creator or the content.
Small tools like a ring light that produces consistent lighting in a video and inexpensive microphones that make it easier to hear speakers can turn newbie users into pros quickly in the eyes of their viewers.
One of the easiest ways to instantly connect with other users is by including a hashtag in the text portion of a video post with keywords and phrases that viewers are searching for. The TikTok search bar allows users to look for content about anything book-related, including author names, book titles, and genre or thematic terms.
Creators can attach those terms to help viewers find their videos, but mastering hashtags can increase the visibility of a video and attract interested viewers. Using a handful of well-chosen hashtags can help authors reach more potential readers, increase your BookTok presence and enhance any of the proven BookTok strategies to help you market your book.
These five tips can help you connect with more readers, grow your brand, and learn more about your genre and its devotees so you can increase your visibility within the literary community.
The first and most important strategy is to simply engage with the BookTok community regularly. Daily, or as often as you can, interact with other users by commenting on their videos, creating your videos, or hosting a “live” to widen the number of users that see you and learn about your content and books.
Search key terms within your genre as well as popular themes, authors, and topics that will interest your genre enthusiasts to help you find BookTok users to follow and interact with. Be sure that your username reflects your authorship, book name, or genre interests and that your bio includes links to your author’s website, other social media platforms, or any other key links that will help you connect with readers. Some fun ways to engage with other users are:
The “For You” page can help you identify trends on BookTok, and occasionally participating in a viral video trend is a great way to reach a bigger audience, especially when a specific hashtag, background audio, or “challenge” is included in the video. Increased views can result in bigger visibility as an author, and often, an increase in book sales, too.
One of the reasons why BookTok strategies help authors sell more books and grow their audience is because they are authentic with their readers and BookTok users. Offering up an unfiltered opinion, discussing your challenges as an author, or responding honestly to questions posed by BookTok users demonstrates your authenticity and builds credibility as an author.
Sometimes the unpolished version of a video is the one that viewers will connect with the most, so don’t be afraid to post a video that includes little mistakes or imperfections because your realness as an author can be refreshing in a world of overly-polished content.
BookTok allows authors to support writers from all backgrounds, races, cultures, nationalities, and religions. Using the platform to promote inclusivity can grow your visibility with a new audience while helping spread literary love across the platform.
Interacting with BookTok users is fun and easy to do when you have even just a few minutes to devote to scrolling through videos and responding to interesting or compelling videos others have created. But the real payoff for you as an author is to become a regular creator that users want to follow, like the videos of, and engage with regularly.
Even though you may not initially feel confident writing video scripts or planning out video content, filming and posting visually appealing videos is key to attracting followers that will help you turn these BookTok strategies into a solid audience and strong book sales.
Even if your book hasn’t been sent to the printer yet, you can begin creating your author brand and presence on BookTok to jumpstart your relationship with potential readers. But partnering with a trusted brand like Publishing Xpress will ensure that your book looks fantastic when you do your unboxing video, unveil the cover of your new book, or give readers a peek into your beautiful bookshelf complete with your titles on the shelf.
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