Short, emotional videos of reading experiences last year led to both the American and British book markets breaking new sales records.
At the time of writing, the Booktok phenomenon has around 60.9 trillion views, and in Sweden the phenomenon is increasingly visible among both publishers and in the bookstore.
- In the spring of 2021, we received some cautious signals from the stores that told us that some youth gangs were coming in and looking at their phones and saying 'I have seen this as a Booktok at Tiktok', but then it really started last summer, says Anna Austin, category manager at Bokusgruppen.
Thought Norstedt's publisher made jeans
One of the publishers who jumped on the Booktok trend early on is Norstedts.
During the past year, the publisher has experimented with two different Tiktok accounts and learned what works.
- The relationship you build on Tiktok is much more based on being close to each other and authenticity.
Advertising on Tiktok does not work for us at all.
It should feel genuine and spontaneous, says Olle Lidbom, communications manager at Nordstedts.
As the face of the publisher's tiktok account, Olle Lidbom believes that Booktok has become an important tool for reaching other types of readers than Nordstedts usually does.
- For example, someone wrote 'this is my favorite account, but I did not know that Norstedts was a book publisher.
I thought they made jeans'.
And we will never reach that type of reader otherwise, says Olle Lidbom.
Hear more about the Tiktok phenomenon Booktok in the clip above.