We hear a lot about BookTok's positive influence on the creative world, especially among nascent young readers (alongside what we hear about its deleterious influence on the world's youth). In a scenario as old as Socrates, we have booksellers crediting BookTok with rescuing an industry as legislative crackdowns and curfews the world over would have us believe TikTok is an existential threat to the world's young (and some whisper from op-ed columns whether those two statements might refer to the same thing).
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
This week we actually have a figure to put to that putative influence. £175 million (US$233 million). In the UK alone. Admittedly, like the surveys I reported on last week, this is rooted in a report where you don't have to follow the money very far: it was produced for TikTok by Public First, and sets out the ways in which the company claims to benefit the economy as a whole. But on page 8 of the eleven-page report you will find the statement:
“#BookTok and the community of readers on TikTok is turning a new generation back onto reading. This is a global phenomenon, but in the UK specifically this has seen TikTok drive an additional £175 million in spending on books.”
Reading as Aesthetic
I found it fascinating to read that figure alongside this piece in the Guardian outlining a new growth in literary clubs and a marked increase in the interest of fashion in the literary world. It's interesting how cyclical these things are: when I started as an indie author, the literary salon was at the start of another wave of renewal, of which I was delighted to be a part. When it comes to fashion, the thought of a luxury brand smearing literary allusion on a high-priced bag feels a long way from the prized “Books Are My Bag” totes I see around town. If you want a Dior bag printed with the cover of Pride and Prejudice or The Very Hungry Caterpillar (is nothing sacred?), it will set you back £2,200–£3,000!
But all of this fits in with the trend toward “reading as aesthetic” that I've reported on so frequently, and which offers numerous opportunities to nimble indies looking to make a deep connection with readers who love what they do. You might not want to charge thousands for bags with your beloved cover art, but there is clearly a market to tote your totes!
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