How to Use BookTok to Grow Sales

Social media marketing can feel overwhelming and confusing. In our digitally saturated world, it seems everything revolves around the latest trends, and TikTok is the current eye of this whirlwind. But it doesn’t have to be as daunting and bone-chillingly intimidating as you think! Here, we’ve amassed twelve straightforward tips on using BookTok to your advantage, and fingers crossed, using this knowledge to increase your book sales. 
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• Firstly and most importantly, simply engage in BookTok! Keep up to date with the hashtags and trends, watch and follow popular BookTok creators, like and comment on videos. It’s important to make yourself a presence in the community. If you start making videos promoting yourself and your book without first investing time into the community, then it will fall flat and you won’t have any audience to engage with.  
  
  
  
• There are plenty of imaginative and stimulating ways to promote your book on the app. Post an unboxing video of your new book, or a cover reveal video to highlight your aesthetic and brand. You can also use videos to summarise the synopsis of your book, or post engaging quotes that will draw readers in. Simply asking your audience to read it unfortunately won’t cut it – you need to deconstruct different aspects of the book and dedicate individual TikToks to these features in order to boost engagement. Remember: think outside the box!  
  
  
  
• But also, don’t limit yourself to purely self-promotion, as people will undoubtedly get bored quickly! Invest time in alternative videos, for instance ‘A Day in The Life: Writer’s Edition’ where you take your audience through your regular daily schedule, like this beautiful example from @AvenVetch – or perhaps ‘My Writing Space’, like this from @johnmarrs.author, where you show off your writing desk and creative space to inspire others. You could also make a video discussing your publishing experience or writing tips. Your audience will invariably enjoy this deeper level of intellectual or literature-based discussion, especially if you have aspiring authors amongst your following who are looking for this kind of practical advice. 
  
  
  
• You could also run a book giveaway on your TikTok. This will stimulate interest and excitement around your book release – and if the book is received well, will hopefully generate some positive reviews and lead to a wider discussion about your book. 
  
  
  
• If you’re involved in any kind of literary event – possibly a book reading or an award ceremony – make a video about this too. Show you’re actively involved in the literary community and are relevant in the real world. Chances are people will find this kind of content unusual and engaging. 
  
  
  
• Try to establish relationships with fellow content creators in the community. These relationships are invaluable, and can lead to other creators reviewing your book. This kind of coverage is so important in widening your outreach and will most likely gain you followers, which might then translate into book sales! 
  
  
  
• A keen eye for graphic design and social media aesthetics will really benefit you here. BookTok accounts with an artistic and cohesive aesthetic tend to be more popular and have more followers. Pay attention to lighting and editing when filming videos, as well as making sure your background is picture perfect. It’s little details like this that go a long way. A great example of this is the BookTok account of @AmyJordanJ, with beautiful but simple videos such as this and this, which have both racked up around an incredible 10 million views. 
  
  
  
• You have very little space in the description box for TikTok videos, so a good tip here is to create a LinkTr.ee so you can amass all your relevant links into one space; i.e. your personal website, your book on Amazon, your other social medias, and so on. For instance, here is Rowanvale’s! 

• If your book does happen to get a video review or you find a TikTok video of a creator discussing or referencing you or your novel, make sure to engage. Duet or stitch the video to boost engagement on the original post, and draw its viewers to your own page where you have links to your Amazon page or wherever your book is being sold!  
  
  
  
• One of the most crucially important aspects of using TikTok effectively is staying aware of trends, challenges and trending ‘sounds’. These cycle through very quickly on the app, with trends going in and out of fashion within mere days, so it’s extremely important to stay up to date. Use different sounds and trends to your advantage, drawing in references to literature and to your own book whilst catering to a wider audience. This will keep your videos high up on ‘For You’ pages, and generate more views. 
  
  
  
• Similarly to the above point, make sure you’re using hashtags to their best effect to stay on trend and easily discoverable on the app. The current most popular hashtags for BookTok are #BookTok, #BookReview, #AuthorsonTikTok and #TikTokBookClub, so make sure you’re including these so you remain in the relevant sphere and are hitting your target audience. 
  
  
  
• And finally, this is the same advice we will give for all social media platforms but it remains critically true: stay active, and post regularly! TikTok itself claims you only need to post two to four times a week to stay relevant, however research has shown you want to be posting at least once a day. If you can spare the time in your busy schedule, then even twice a day is preferable. Perhaps if you have a day off, take the time to create a backlog of videos that you can then simply post across the next week or so without having to take the time out of your daily schedule to create content.  
  
  If you need any tips on book marketing, head here to speak to one of our fantastic Marketing Advisors, who are always on hand to help!