26 Oct BookTok revolutionises the publishing industry with 82 billion views in the last month
The literary world has been abuzz with talk of BookTok – TikTok’s newest sub-section of influence where avid readers share their favourite reads and recommend books based on popular demand. This month, the BookTok hashtag saw a staggering 82 billion views. Its impact is measurable – with bookstores across the nation marking a notable uptick in sales since the hashtag took off. It has been reported that books that used the term BookTok in their sales keywords collectively sold 2.2 million copies in the first four months of 2022. This democratisation of the publishing industry marks a trend in ordinary people penning their extraordinary stories – following the ethos of the UK’s top biography writing service, StoryTerrace, which has helped thousands publish their biographies in just under six years.
Journalists are starting to write about the ‘BookTok effect’ which is when a novel in relative obscurity gets pushed into the stratosphere by influencers on the platform raving about it. What this also signifies is a gradual movement to demystify the process of publishing – with Amazon’s release of the Kindle Direct Self-Publishing in 2007, which allowed anyone to publish their own e-book, the power of publishing was given to the masses. Biography-writing company, StoryTerrace, have a mission to make the process of publishing one’s own book more accessible and streamlined – with the rise of subcultures like BookTok, this suddenly brings the idea of being a bestseller within grasp.
A social survey from StoryTerrace, showed that 39% of respondents hope to accumulate enough life experience by the time they are 40 to write a biography. Often we think of the moments that make up our lives and realise the dramatic credentials in them – sometimes ordinary lives take on narratives stranger than fiction. StoryTerrace’s service matches clients with a professional ghostwriter and presents them with a beautifully bound biography, giving clients full rights to then go on and sell their book on Amazon – and who knows, even BookTok might pick it up?
Rutger Bruining, CEO and founder of StoryTerrace comments on the importance of giving the power of publishing back to the people:
“Growing up I was saturated with grandiose stories of fictional characters and historical figures – and whilst I devoured books as a child, it made me realise that there are qualities in not only my life, but the lives of my family and friends that had enough dramatic and heroic qualities to make for a compelling novel.
“When wanting to write one’s own story the often nebulous and impenetrable nature of the publishing industry deters a lot of people from taking the plunge. This is partially why I started StoryTerrace – to give ordinary people the chance to publish their extraordinary stories.
“The rise of BookTok and social media’s grasp on publishing in general shows that readers nowadays are less concerned with the reputation of an author or a publishing house, but the quality of a story.”
