Word-to-watch is not new. Even today, the recommendations of other people can push us to see a film, get into a series or read a book rather than another. This is how Tiktok or X (ex-Twitter) now have a right of life or death on a film. In 2023, the Chinese social network allowed the feature film Consent An increase of 39% of its box office entries during its second week of operation, a feat in the world, especially for an independent drama.
But social networks also play a decisive role when we talk about literature. On Tiktok, the hashtag #Booletk has become a full movement. Content creators multiply and share their reading recommendations. And it works: Internet users attach special importance to these often perceived opinions as more authentic. It is undeniable, the rules of the game have changed.
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Booktok: phenomena factory
With social networks and the popularity of Booktok, it is a whole new way of discovering books that emerge. Almost 80% of 15-30 year olds say that a “booktok” recommendation will encourage them to choose such a novel rather than another. Currently, the success of a book therefore goes through Tiktok and Instagram. Beyond offering a summary, members of the Booktok community share their feelings and it is these fundamentally human recommendations that convince readers. This is how social networks have created real literary phenomena, and not simple success. Because when Internet users love a book, they love it with intensity.
A few years ago, Madeline Miller saw the sales of her novel Achille’s song Spread thanks to the crucial word of mouth of social networks. I must admit that I myself bought and devoured this novel because everyone was talking about it on Tiktok and X (ex-Twitter) and that the recommendations and reactions of other readers managed to persuade me of making it my next reading.
More recently, Freida McFadden stands out as Booktok’s new darling. With his saga The cleaning ladythe American author seems to have agreed. Even without having read one of his novels, we necessarily visualize the coverage now emblematic of his saga, with that eye that observes us through a lock. Success is such that The secrets of the cleaning lady is the 10ᵉ best sold in France last year, only three months after its publication, while the first volume of the literary saga approaches 2 million copies sold in France in two years. Sacred phenomenon.
For his part, Colleen Hoover owes a large part of his success to social networks, and Booktok. The American author is aware of it and never fails to thank the Chinese social network which allows her books to always touch more new readers.
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By: opera
