The so-called "TikTok sales", in which products that have become a hot topic in video sharing apps popular with young people record explosive sales, are also affecting young people's reading.
In the wake of the introduction in the video, the novels published in the past have been hit again one after another, and this winter, a new award was given to the creators of the video to select the recommended book, and major publishers also cooperated.
We interviewed why young people choose books with short videos.
A novel 32 years ago is a hit
"TikTok" is a popular video sharing app that shows celebrities and young people dancing in a short video of several tens of seconds.
This time, the so-called "TikTok sales", in which products were introduced in the video and led to explosive sales, became a hot topic.
Recently, the number of videos introducing recommended novels has increased, and as a result, there are conspicuous cases where past works have rapidly increased sales.
The topic of discussion was the novel "Zanzō ni Kuchikomi" published by writer Yasutaka Tsutsui in 1989.
It became a hot topic after being introduced in the video of TikTok, and since July, it has been reprinted with more than 110,000 copies.
Until then, it was a long-selling work that had been published in about 270,000 copies in about 30 years, but it can be said that reprints exceeding 100,000 copies in just a few months are exceptional sales.
Creator "How to get interested in the first 3 seconds"
Kengo (23), a popular creator of novels, is said to have had a major impact on sales.
As of December 2021, the video that Kengo introduced this work has been viewed 8.9 million times.
Why did so many people watch the video?
I interviewed Kengo-san.
"Lipstick for afterimages" is a so-called experimental novel in which the number of words that can be used from around the world decreases as the chapter progresses.
In the video, we start by asking the following questions to explain the settings:
"What do you think would happen if the word" a "disappears from the world?"
In this way, pay particular attention to the opening remarks so that you will be interested in the book in a few seconds. It seems that he is paying.
After that, I will convey it with expressions that attract interest in books, such as "If the word" a "disappears, neither the word" love "nor the word" you "can be used."
On the other hand, the video itself takes only 31 seconds, avoiding the essential "spoilers" and making you want to watch it.
Kengo talks about the charm of TikTok and the tips of the video as follows.
"TikTok will flow freely with recommended functions without playing it by yourself, so even people who are not interested in books can see it. However, if you think that you are not interested, it will be scrolled immediately, so I am conscious of how interested you will be in the first 3 seconds. "
Grand prize established Bookstore fair
On the 15th of this month, the "Kengo Grand Prize" was announced, which Kengo-san himself chose.
For this award, Kengo-san said he wanted to make a grand prize himself, but major publishers and others offered to cooperate.
The selection committee is one Kengo-san.
The first "Best of Kengo Award" is the novelist Shun Ayasaki's "A Story to Give to You Who Want to Die".
Ten more works were selected for the Grand Prize and Special Award.
The announcement of the grand prize was broadcast live on TikTok, and 12,000 people watched the video for about 30 minutes.
From the 16th of the next day, a fair featuring award-winning works began in conjunction with this grand prize.
Special corners will be set up at about 800 bookstores nationwide.
(Person in charge of "SHIBUYA TSUTAYA") "When I set up a shelf, I see young people talking about novels with friends, so I'm really grateful that they play a good role as an entrance to get people interested in books and print. It's a good flow to keep the culture of reading books, so I want to make it more exciting as a bookstore. "
Why a book with a short video?
Why do young people pick up a book with a short video introduction?
I asked high school students in Shibuya, Tokyo.
At first, I was worried if I could find a person looking for a book on TikTok, but in less than an hour I found a total of three people.
It seems that the first grade high school girl bought "lipstick for afterimage" just by watching Kengo's video.
"It is good speech, to outline also feel all the interesting, drawn a word to ask, the old days of the Toka I think the nice thing that makes us think to buy also Toka author of books that do not know at all,"
a book Some high school students didn't have a habit of reading, but started buying books because of TikTok's videos.
(A boy student who goes to a high school in Tokyo)
"I was motivated to buy a book because I could watch it quickly without taking time and the contents were conveyed."
(1st grade high school girl)
"The works that won the Akutagawa Prize There is a great difficult image, but did not read until now, because it can be seen that the easy to read and does not mean a higher degree of difficulty when viewed in the video to be introduced will be the opportunity to try to read to buy "
is introduced in TikTok There are also surveys that show that TikTok has permeated high school students.
This is the "School Reading Survey Report" that the National School Library Council and others have done.
Keisuke Uyama's "My lover like a cherry blossom" was selected as the first place in the "books I read in the current grade" for girls in the second and third grades of high school.
According to Ichishi Iida, a writer familiar with young people's reading, this is a work that became popular on TikTok, and in this survey, several other works that became popular in the video were ranked high.
Sometimes I don't understand ...
On the other hand, there are some aspects that have not yet penetrated many generations.
Kengo himself announced that he would stop publishing on TikTok in the future because he was often criticized for introducing the book in a short video.
Kengo says that he will continue to send messages other than TikTok.
Providing "accidental encounters" with books
How will the introduction of books by TikTok develop in the future?
Mr. Iida says that he has great potential as an opportunity to introduce books to young people such as high school students who tend to have less reading opportunities.
"Up to elementary school students have events such as reading aloud, and there are opportunities to meet books that they were not interested in, but when they become high school students, the number of readings decreases sharply. By being played, young people are watching an introductory video of the book that happened to flow, but for those who have diminished their reading habits by TikTok offering an "accidental encounter" with the book. It gives me an opportunity to read the book again. I think this is very important. "