Almost ten years ago, Madeline Miller released her debut novel, The Song of Achilles, to critical acclaim. A retelling of Homer’s The Iliad, Miller even managed to win the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2012. Almost a decade following publication, The Song of Achilles has found its way back onto the New York Times Best Sellers List as number four on the paperback fiction list and, as of September 2021, it has remained on that list for the past 46 weeks. The Song of Achilles sales did relatively well when it was originally published but now, almost a ten years later, it’s selling roughly 10,000 copies a week according to NPD BookScan, which is about nine times more than when it won the Orange Prize. What exactly has caused this drastic change in sales? Tiktok. More specifically, a rapidly growing side of the social media platform commonly called BookTok.
When the COVID-19 pandemic caused schools to shut down in March of last year, teenagers were bored. With nothing else to do, many of them decided to pick up a book, most of them for the first time in years. From there BookTok was born. In order to discuss their new favorite books with others, young readers, whether it was a new hobby or a lifelong love, fled to TikTok. Currently on the app, #BookTok has 20 billion views with countless videos underneath it. Readers are able to share their favorite books across the world with just the press of a button, and people are listening. The Song of Achilles is far from the only book to be impacted by this new phenomenon. Number one on the NYT paperback fiction list (and number two on the combined print and e-book list) is Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us, a difficult story about a young woman trapped in a violent marriage, reminiscent of her own parents, trying to finally end the cycle of abuse. It Ends with Us was released in 2016 with decent success but, like most releases, started to lose momentum after about a month. In that first month, NPD BookScan reported that it sold about 21,000 copies. Now, it’s selling almost 30,000 a week. It Ends with Us is easily one of the most recommend books on the app with over 92 million views under the #ItEndsWithUs hashtag alone.
While readers are constantly searching for the next bestseller on their ‘for you page’, they aren’t the only ones. Book sellers are taking notice of this as well. Now, whenever you walk into a Barnes and Noble or Waterstones, you will inevitably find a #BookTok table with all the most popular books. Some stores even have entire displays dedicated to Colleen Hoover alone since It Ends with Us sparked interest in her entire bibliography, with three of her backlist books currently taking residence in the top ten of the NYT paperback fiction list. While many book sections of social media have existed for years (BookTube, Book Twitter, Bookstagram), this is the first time it has reached far enough into the real world that even those uninvolved in this niche online community are starting to notice.
Several other backlist titles that have had a second chance at success thanks to BookTok include The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (an old Hollywood starlet recounts her infamous seven marriages to a young journalist) which was published in 2017, They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera (two total strangers spend their last day alive together) which was also published in 2017, and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (a teenage girl spends her summers with her mysterious and wealthy family on their private island) which was published in 2014.
A lot of people in the publishing and book selling professions are seeing BookTok as a beacon of hope in an industry that has been struggling. Barnes and Noble has been losing more and more sales to Amazon every year, but they are finally starting to go back up, thanks to BookTok’s love for the store. As a reader, seeing this outpour of love for books I have read and loved years ago, along with finding countless new recommendations, is so exciting. There is a lot of constant discussion surrounding social media and how bad it is, but this is an example of something wonderful it has given people. It has given readers a platform to share their favorite books with the world, it has given countless authors an overwhelming amount of love for books they have published years ago and books they have published yesterday, and it has reached people of all ages and allowed them to fall in love with reading again or for the first time. In my opinion, that is the greatest gift of all.
HCXO, Maeve
My favorite BookTok books:
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- Adult Historical Fiction
- Retelling of Homer’s The Iliad through the eyes of Patroclus, Achilles’ companion, from their childhood through the Trojan War.
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
- Adult Historical Fantasy
- France, 1714: a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever, only to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
- The Grishaverse novels (Shadow and Bone trilogy, Six of Crows duology, King of Scars duology) by Leigh Bardugo
- Young Adult Fantasy
- A young girl grappling with her new powers to be the savior her nation needs, a deadly, impossible heist lead by a criminal prodigy and his unassuming crew, and a young king fighting the dark magic inside of him to protect his country, all set in Bardugo’s expansive Grishaverse.
- Shades of Magic trilogy by V.E. Schwab
- Adult Fantasy
- Unofficial smuggler and official Antari to the king, Kell Maresh is one of two magicians alive who can travel between the four parallel Londons (Red, Grey, White, and Black).
- The Mirror Visitor Quartet by Christelle Dabos
- Young Adult Fantasy
- Ophelia, who has the power to read objects and move through mirrors, finds herself as a pawn in a political game when she is sent off to marry a man she has never met.
- Beach Read by Emily Henry
- Adult Contemporary Romance
- A romance writer and a literary fiction writer switch genres to battle their writer’s block.
- Normal People by Sally Rooney
- Adult Literary Fiction
- The relationship between Marianne and Connell over the course of multiple years, made complicated by their social and class differences.
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- Adult Literary Fiction
- An inverted detective story narrated by a former classics student as he reflects on the corruption and betrayal within his inner circle leading up to and following the murder of his classmate.