Booktok and Bookstagram: Reaching the public where they are

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The success of BookTok and literary content on social media in general has forced the publishing industry to question the preconceived notion that young people are not interested in books and reading. It has also broken down the elitist ideas that previously held back categories such as romance, young adult and fantasy fiction, which dominate influencer and social media content in the category.

Young adult fiction, for example, has been a major beneficiary, with global sales expected to grow 3.5% annually over the five years from 2022 to 2027, faster than any other category.

One of the main drivers of the growth of literary content on social media is the fact that traditional means of literary communication and advertising are failing to reach young audiences, says Fabrice Fadiga, Director of Communications and Web Partnerships at independent publisher Bamboo Edition.

Read also: Is TikTok becoming the main source of information for younger generations?

"What do young people look at the most? Influencers, their phones. So the reason for the exponential growth of literary content on social media is purely practical, it's about reaching young people where they are on social media," says Fadiga.

«The Song of Achilles completely exploded after a TikTok video. Publishers saw it and, without knowing exactly how and why the book was liked, are trying to reproduce the same miracle.»

Aside from new titles, publishers have also realised that literary content creators offer a new opportunity to revive old titles. Classics such as Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby or Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, for example, are finding new audiences and readers thanks to content creators.

“Bamboo Edition is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year; we have a series with 20 volumes that are still going strong. Inevitably, when you get to volume 20, 21, 22… we have regular readers who wait for the book to come out, but the challenge for us is to reach new readers, especially on social media, where the audience is generally quite young,” says Emma Gatto, community manager for Bamboo Edition.

BookTok, BookTube or Bookstagram: Which one best suits your goals?

Another key challenge for influencer marketers in publishing is adapting to the specifics of each platform, from algorithmic reviews to the emergence of new players such as video streaming platform Twitch, which is seei vp risk email database ng creators mix books and gaming content.

From BookTube to Bookstagram to BookTok and back to Bookstagram, literary content and creators are tailoring content to the specifics of each platform.

Read on the Kolsquare blog: Meta: Short videos are growing rapidly on Facebook and Instagram

“On TikTok, literary communities have grown much more than on other platforms, they are much larger, not only because of segmentation but also because of trends. The evolution has gone from blogs to social networks, and posts that focus on photos or staging. It is something very ephemeral that is less based on the content of the book,” says Huguet.

While on TikTok you might see content creators dancing to a trending song with a book in hand, book content on Instagram offers more opportunities to create and join more conversations.

“People go on Instagram, for example, to talk about what they are reading. There is no ambition to become an influencer in three months. It is almost like a reading diary before being an account that aims to influence people,” says Bamboo Edition’s Gatto.