And the instant she took a break from doing 1 video/day her future videos went down to a trickle of views (like around 100), so it seems you have to go pretty hard and consistent on it to get the algorithm to keep throwing eyeballs your way.
She finds book swaps in newsletters and parties and takeovers of Facebook communities to be more effective and easier to keep up with, and she can take breaks from it without suffering too much from it.
That may not be true for all regions or genres, though. And she's a pretty new author still, working on finishing up her third book in her first series, although her first two did pretty well.
The real power of TikTok is that you can get 100k+ views even when you're not really that famous and once you see those kinds of numbers you might be able to drive more attention to whatever you're trying to sell. It might also be a bit soul crushing but creativity doesn't really help. If you have a viral video that gets 100k views then you need to make the same kind of video as many times as you can until it stops working.
This was multiple videos she was getting those numbers for (like for a couple of weeks), and she was seeing her preorders go up exactly 0 from it, while seeing better returns for her time on other social media, she ended up with several hundred preorders from other sources. I don't doubt you can get some numbers from TikTok, especially if you can regularly get 100k views.
But it seems to be very fickle and require constant (and as you say, uncreative) spammy videos on there to get that (at least from her experience).
And it's not like it doesn't take time even to make the seemingly low-effort videos. While she was doing it, she was spending time watching other videos to get ideas and get a feel for the TikTok voice/zeitgeist, checking trending audio sources, coming up with how to do something similar yet link that idea to her book, preparing for it (like putting on make-up, making props, etc), filming it (sometimes requiring multiple takes), editing it (within the app), and then posting it. It was taking her somewhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours each day.
I still think she could have gotten to the 100k+ views if she stuck with it, but it was taking significant time and energy away from other things, and as is she's trying to write books while also working a full-time job, so she has little energy for much else right now to begin with.
But you have the put in years of costumer engagement and marketing throufh through tiktok and other platforms and that in and of itself is a full time job that you have to do in addition to writing books.
There are quite a few stories of books going viral through BookTok, Bookstagram, and BookTube. But it does feel like slightly different. On TikTok, a random user can make an unknown book go viral. But on Instagram, it’s usually an already established influencer that makes a book go viral and often it’s their own book lol. YouTube is more for longform discussion and the level of virality has changed. But some influencers do still sell books similar to what the influencers on Instagram do.
Related to books being sold in Britain, I wonder how the demographics of these communities affect the stats. Most of the members are white teenage girls and women that live in the United States.
Also, related to books being sold in general, many of the members of the various book communities have similar opinions to HN’s users. They don’t like ads or affiliate links. They’d prefer to go to the library or buy from a local/indie bookstore. They’re anti-Amazon. They discuss overconsumption. On YouTube, they really dive into the ethics of it all.
I do believe that TikTok has gotten people to read more. But that’s different than recommendations and selling.
(I’ll admit that I started reading Cain’s Jawbone due to TikTok. I had heard of it before for years but never bothered to try it out.)
As the article mentions, romance authors are doing the best, but there are authors like AP Beswick (writes dark fantasy retellings of popular legends) who have gone full time indie off the back of TikTok sales.
Maybe they would have been successful without TikTok, but right now it’s how they find an audience.
There are lots of ways to buy books that aren’t clicking affiliate links.
I see book recommendations on HN all the time and regularly buy something I see… by searching Amazon or a local store, nobody would ever link that purchase back to HN.
this is just the standard playbook for all social media though. it doesn't matter if your message is true or not. just say your message boldly and keep repeating it ad nauseam. people will promote it, and followers will follow it. as long as a follower likes the person saying it, it will be believed. if the viewer doesn't like the speaker, it will be hated.