I
feel like I’m always a little behind on the social media train. Way back when I
first learned about Twitter, I hesitated. How many people would really want to
tweet? Guess I should’ve jumped on the bandwagon earlier.
Another
social media I’m hesitant to try is TikTok. I have a hard time with the energetic
pace of the moving images in the short videos. On the other hand, TikTok is very
popular. As of May 2020, it had over two billion downloads and boasted over
eight hundred million monthly active users.
It
also has a strong bookish community, BookTok. These people are highly authentic
in their videos and do not filter out their emotions. In fact, TikTok
users crying over books have led to huge
sales for a few book titles.
A
lot of the focus in the BookTok community is on YA books. This makes sense
because many users are either in their teens or are young adults. They’re
definitely rising influencers, and now you can even find BookTok tables in some
Barnes & Noble bookstores.
My
audiobook narrator for my Sassy
Cat Mystery series, Natalie
Naudus, also joined TikTok recently. She’s a superstar there, at least by my
standards. She’s got over 62,000 followers and 1.2 million likes. Natalie
keeps everything real in her short videos and often gives enlightening
behind-the-scenes insight into the business of recording books.
I
got to dip my toe into TikTok by proxy last week. A writer acquaintance of mine
offered to make me a BookTok video on her profile. All I had to do was send Stephanie
images that tied to the themes in my book. I even got the chance to choose a
background song for it. Fun!
My
Mimi Lee Reads Between the Lines
video has garnered
198 views, so nothing stellar. I definitely won’t be having a huge book sales
spike from it. Although, truth be told, the books that took off on BookTok earlier
were the same ones that had already sold really well when they were first
published (think: We Were Liars).
At
least I can now say that I have my first #BookTok video. However, it’ll also
probably be the end of my adventure with TikTok.
What’s your opinion on TikTok or other new social media?
