The #BookTok hashtag has exploded recently with an increasing number of readers posting reviews and chatting with writers as writers use it to promote their work.

For some, it may seem counter-intuitive that a platform, known for its playful little videos, encourages reading, an activity that requires a certain concentration.

The usual format on TikTok, a short video with visual effects or music, certainly does not lend itself to traditional literary criticism.

But it is much more effective for presenting "favorites" and boosting the popularity of certain works.

With the growing influence of #BookTok, the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest literature fair, has for the first time made TikTok one of its partners.

This trend "is super important to me", says Sarah Sprinz, author of the bestseller "Dunbridge Academy", which takes place in a boarding school in Scotland.

"I think it contributed to my success because I saw a lot of videos recommending my books," she adds, during an interview with AFP at the German city's book fair.

It is a particularly effective channel for attracting a new audience and giving young people a taste for reading, believes the 26-year-old author.

"Impact on book sales"

"I really believe that you have to be on all the channels that allow you to read and have others read", for his part said in a video Joël Dicker, Swiss author of bestsellers, including "The Truth about the Harry Quebert affair".

According to TikTok -- which is owned by China-based ByteDance -- #BookTok has garnered more than 84 billion views.

It has become "a place where we recommend books and where we discover them but also where we share reviews and where we exploit the fan culture", explains Tobias Henning, manager for TikTok in Germany and in Central and Eastern Europe.

German writer Sarah Sprinz, in Frankfurt (Germany) on October 21, 2022 ANDRE PAIN AFP

"It really has an impact on book sales around the world," he says.

"Never again" (It Ends With Us in English), the fictional reality book by American Colleen Hoover, saw its sales explode after being praised in the TikTok community.

A typical review shows a woman sobbing while reading the novel, with music and a voiceover claiming "I've never cried so long after a book".

"Multiplier" effect

"I like new adult novels and I try to upload one or two videos every week," Sofia Reinbold, 17, a TikTok user, told AFP, who came to the Frankfurt Motor Show after being warned about it on the platform.

“I very often get comments from subscribers who read my recommendations and end up buying the books,” she continues.

Sarah Sprinz partly explains the #BookTok phenomenon by the fact that TikTok is a visual platform, allowing people to show what they think of a book.

And with the lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic, that likely accelerated the trend, she says.

"A lot of people may have felt lonely and isolated," she says, noting that the platform has made it possible to "network again and find common hobbies like reading."

For her, there is no major contradiction between spending more time on social networks and trying to promote literature: nowadays people read in different ways, on e-books and smartphones and not only on paper works.

But a book cannot be successful only thanks to social networks, she underlines.

"TikTok and #BookTok are kind of multipliers and a good opportunity to recommend books," she observes.

But "there has to be something more: a book must of course be good".

© 2022 AFP