These days, on the shelves of bookstores, both physical and online, apart from book covers with the usual enticing captions (“such-and-such prize,” “dain nomination,” etc.), reader interest is relatively unheard of: a juvenile romance novel is presented as “offering #booktalk“, an online vignette informs readers about the books that “#BookTok made me read”, and the publisher presents on its website “books that conquered TikTok, now in Greek”.

It’s about the popular social media platform with short videos, and in particular its bibliophile community with the #BookTok hashtag, where young readers recommend books, discuss them, make lists, go viral. Somehow #BookTok has reached 90 billion views internationally, while in the Anglo-Saxon world it sometimes boosts sales significantly: Books like Madeleine Miller’s Song of Achilles and Sarah J. Maas’ Thorns and Roses are two notable examples. Recently, specific titles have also been translated into Greek.

Generation Z

“Our editorial planning is influenced to some extent by the new titles that TikTok has made famous, but not by much — less than 10%,” says Konstantinos Papadopoulos of Dioptra Publishing, which released Miller’s Song of Achilles. Dioptra has an account on the platform where she uploads bibliophile content targeted at a specific audience. Moreover, the #BookTok books that the publisher has included in its program also have their own characteristics. “The phenomenon started during the pandemic. The young age of those who had an account also influenced the literary genres that emerged, because they corresponded to the interests of generation Z. Of course, the modern romance novel is becoming more widespread, as well as books that touch on current social issues, but there are also detective stories and fantasy. and more classic readings,” explains Konstantinos Papadopoulos, citing popular titles such as Colleen Hoover’s It’s All Over with Us.

“#BookTok gives the presentation of the books the sexiness it lacks,” says P. Galatula of Psychogios.

Metaichmio publications began in 2022 to include #BookTok books in their program, in which they are also actively involved. The first title was Casey McKinston’s I Kissed Sarah Wheeler, with three more youth novels scheduled for the first half of 2023, with four books currently accounting for about 15% of translated literature at home. Some of the books are LGBTI-themed, others are about mental health, some have been given new life on #BookTok, and some have been read in English and are reaching a wider audience. The work of the Greek author has not yet been found on the platform. In any case, as editor Eleni Papageorgiou points out, the strength of #BookTok is that it “functions like a big reading club, like word of mouth adapted to the digital world. Readers simply and completely authentically, with absolute honesty, without curls and comme il faut, express their opinion about the book, without guilt or regret, whether they liked something or not.

Also active in #BookTok, the Psychogios publications from which Maas’s Thorns and Roses come out, cite not only “romantic” youth reading as a domestic platform trend, but also self-help books such as Why Nobody Told Me, popular TikToker by Julie Smith, as well as titles that are being reintroduced to the audience, such as Wuthering Heights. In general, booktalkers seem to want books “with fast-paced plots, fantasy, romance, spark and love,” explains Popi Galatula, director of public relations for Psychogio. “Undoubtedly,” he adds, “this is a mass media aimed mainly at young people, but older people also constantly enter it. You could say that #BookTok gives the presentation of books the sexiness it lacked.”

friend’s opinion

For Yiannis Konstandaropoulos of Minoas, who currently has #BookTok book contracts, the success of the platform is due to the fact that many people no longer seek the opinion of a literary critic, but the opinion of their colleague, friend. , someone with the same lifestyle. “And while TikTok is consuming reading time, it has managed to promote some titles. Books that have become bestsellers are sentimental, light, but I do not blame: it is better to read this literature than not to read at all. This is the first start,” he emphasizes.

“Greek readers, and especially girls aged 16+, have had a big impact,” notes Asimina Yiannopoulou, director of publishing house Kleidarithmos, who began her relationship with #BookTok by publishing novels and fantasy series like Ana Huang’s Twisted, and they I also have my own account. Readers search for authors featured on the platform, count millions of views, spread word of mouth, and consider #BookTok a guarantee of quality and popularity,” Ms. Yiannopulu emphasizes. And that ends with their characterization, which seems to be able to change the marketing of the book. “There’s a lot of anxiety as the release dates for books like this approach, as evidenced by the pre-orders and the messages we’re getting,” he says. “They instantly know which publisher will release which author, at such a rate that it exceeds the time of established information.”