Special Topics Paper: BookTok

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 BookTok: How can librarians use it?

    TikTok has had a major influence on the publishing industry. It dictates what books blow up, and which ones don't. Though it has helped a lot of BIPOC authors skyrocket to fame, its algorithm is still racist, heavily favoring white authors like Sarah J. Maas, Colleen Hoover, and Jennifer Armentrout. The nature of TikTok's FYP (For You Page) means that people end up with hyper-curated feeds. 

    This is both a good thing and a bad thing. Extremely specific feeds help people find books that are honed to their exact interests, but this means that people outside certain demographics don't receive suggestions from outside their group as often (especially white women). The easiest results that come up when a person searches the app, using the term "BookTok" mostly are going to show white women reccomending white authors, when the app is actually very diverse (Ukiomogbe, 2022, para. 6). It's just that these other users are getting shadowbanned by TikTok's algorithm!

    A side effect of this honed algorithm, and one of the more positive parts, is that it has created microgenres and aesthetics. One of the more interesting of these is Dark Academia, which is hard to pin down. It's just as much, if not more, of a subculture than it is a literary genre. The book choices are almost secondary to images of dimly lit libraries, studies filled with antique furniture, dark and dreary weather, crackling fireplaces, and copious amounts of tweed. 

    Appeal is much more important to the subgenre, as it spans across various larger genres, including mystery, literary, low-fantasy, and more. The easiest definition is that a Dark Academia novel must take place in a university, school, museum, or library, and have an overarching dark atmosphere (Jaigirdar, 2021, para. 3).

    Some famous books/authors in that genre are The Secret History by Donna Tartt, Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. You might notice that these authors are predominately white, which goes back to TikTok's mixed results on diversifying publishing.  

    There are many suggestions on how we can use this, namely passive readers' advisory to catch patron interest. We could also lean into the TikTok algorithm by making "vibe posts" that go with various microgenres. As far as outreach, the possibilities are limitless. Just making interesting TikToks brings attention in the first place.


Sources

Jaigirdar, A. (2021, September 9). What is dark academia and why is it so popular? BookRiot. https://bookriot.com/what-is-dark-academia/ 

Ukiomogbe, J. (2022, April 22). BookTok is revitalizing the publishing industry. Elle. https://www.elle.com/culture/books/a39787490/booktok-poc-creators-publishing-industry/ 

Comments

  1. KMarch 6, 2023 at 1:31 AM

    Hi Katie!

    This is such an interesting topic to choose! I’ve been trying to get my library to start actively participating in Booktok for a bit now and I almost want to send them a link to this

    While I scroll through Booktok pretty often, I luckily tend to see a mixture of diverse reads (which is probably due to the fact that I seek out books with queer characters and a lot of the time those books also have BIPOC individuals). I am constantly frustrated though, at the constant recommendations of the same authors, as you’ve stated, S.J. Maas and Colleen Hoover. I honestly love Maas’s books but I also think there are so many other things to recommend that it doesn’t make a lot of sense for creators to be posting about the same author everyone else is.

    Because of TikTok’s algorithm, I don’t think I realized how oversaturated the BookTok community is with white author/ character recs. Thanks for opening my eyes to it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Katie Reads BooksMarch 12, 2023 at 1:12 PM

      No problem! This whole thing is fascinating to me. I'd like to get more involved on TikTok, but I absolutely hate being filmed. I'm thinking of doing some of the "vibe post" or book display things if we create one.

      Delete

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