Don't Be Scared of BookTok: Let Others Help You

One of the most frequent questions I get from library staff revolves around BookTok. How can they keep up with all of the BookTok titles and have copies ready? Where do you go to find out what is trending? And, most importantly, how can we use BookTok to our advantage?

The issues here are multi-faceted. First, many library workers are simply overwhelmed by the success of BookTok as a discovery tool-- there are many books that seem to pop up without rhyme or reason. People are coming in and asking for titles and we don't know why. This is not only overwhelming, but over time, it can feel like we are failing at our basic job. 

Second, many simply just don't have time to worry about one more platform. It is not easy to get on TikTok and use it as a resource to filter out the videos and titles that will be most useful to us. Since everyone's TikTok is tailored to them, we cannot recreate our patron's experience of using it as a book discovery resource as easily as we can do this with other resources.

Third, there is a lot of pressure from managers to make sure we have the titles that are most popular, to appear responsive, but not all of them are new, some are old enough to have been weeded, and not every library has money to add copies. You are under pressure to have all the books, but often don't have the budget to add them. Also, if it is a book that went out of popularity a few years ago, was rightfully weeded, and now it has found new life on BookTok and you have to buy it again....well there are feelings there ranging from, again, feeling like you have failed to managers chastising staff for this "mistake." (Yes, I have heard this.)

There are more issues but these appear to be the most common. And my answer to every one of these questions harkens back to one of my 10 Rules of Basic RA Service-- Use Resources. 

You should not spend you time on BookTok trying to anticipate what books will rise to viral status. That is  NOT where your limited time should be spent. Rather, you need to rely on those who have skin in the game-- meaning money-- who are paying people to cull BookTok for this information, such as Book Riot or Barnes and Noble. 

That's where I come in to assist. I have compiled the most useful resources for you and started a tag here on the blog for BookTok so you can easily gather all future posts as well:

• For publishing industry news revolving around BookTok go to LitHub for coverage.
• Book Riot is a site that prioritizes having the content people want. Their writers are encourged to write pieces that will get the most possible clicks. This is something we do not have time to do, and yet, it is something that is highly valuable to us as a resource. Their staff writers have done the work to figure out what content will be the most useful to the widest swath of readers. So, use this link to access all of the BookTok related content. It is ready to use immediately.
• Crowdsource the thoughts of actual readers by following the lists they are making on Goodreads with this link. The fact that these readers took the time to move their suggestions from BookTok to Goodreads, means that these titles rose to the top.
• Barnes and Noble has a regularly updated page where they post the most popular titles on BookTok  because they want to sell copies of these titles to the most number of people. Their editors add bonus content and they break it down by genres and subjects. Again, they want to sell these titles. Follow their lead. They did the heavy lifting for you already.

Next, now that you have the resources, what are you going to do with them? Well, your goal is to make displays and lists that show your patrons that you not only have these books but also, that you are aware of how they are being marketed. 

For example, if you are regularly using the BookTok tag on Book Riot to stay informed, you would see a post like this, "All the Horror Books That Scare the Sh*t out of HorrorTok." Now you can turn around and make your own display in the building and lists all over your digital platforms called, "Books too Scary for BookTok." 

Or their version of a readalike list for some of the most viral BookTok titles, such as this post "11 Unforgettable Books like Carrie Soto is Back."

You get the point. Use the resources to not only keep you in the know about specific viral titles, but also to stay on top of the larger book conversations that are happening there. Use what you learn to populate your book discovery tools at your library. It will make it easy for your users to help themselves, yes, but it will also show them, in no uncertain terms, that you care about the titles they have discovered on BookTok. You are legitimizing their personal experience. You are making them feel listened to and valued. You are providing excellent service to leisure readers without adding to your already full work load.

One final point. I know some of you are still not convinced because another popular question I get, which I purposely left out of the list at the top is -- Why should I care about BookTok? I left this question off the top because it is toxic and I didn't want to poison the post, but I would remiss not bringing it up.

You should care because BookTok has done more than we every have to energize people, especially younger adults, to read for the pure joy of it. Their results are literally our dream. People are excited about reading for the fun of it in numbers we have never seen. As a result, we have more library visitors coming to check out books, and more at an age that we have been trying to get to come back to the library. We often lose those 25-40 year olds. They leave us after school ends and don't come back until they have children to bring to storytimes. And if that is the only reason they come back, we have failed because we have lost them as users for themselves. We often never get these users back, or when we do, they are already retired. The implications for our budgets is huge. We cannot only be for the young and the old and expect to stay funded.

The pure joy and excitement BookTok is generating is infectious-- literally-- it's gone viral. LitHub sent a reporter to the first annual Barnes and Noble BookTok festival to capture that joy. Read their article entitled "BookTok is Good, Actually: On the Undersung Joys of a Vast and Multifaceted Platform."

This article, the quotes from participants, everything there, this is why you should care.

Please get the BookTok bandwagon by using resources. And check back here on RA for All for more BookTok content. I have gone back and added the BookTok tag to every past post where it came up as well, so there is already a solid archive of RA for All BookTok content if you click here.