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Texas | Culture

The Humanity in BookTok: Real or AI?

Elizabeth Glasper Student Contributor, University of Texas - Austin
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Texas chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic, the year 2020 saw an incredible surge in web-based activity. BookTok, being one of many online entities that benefited from no one being able to go out and “touch grass”, likewise saw a rise in viewership. For those who make the personal decision not to be chronically online, “BookTok” is a subgenre of TikTok that focuses specifically on discussing, recommending, and reviewing books. However, many authors have also gotten to launch their careers on the platform. The New York Times bestselling novels Lightlark and Powerless both rose to popularity thanks to the overwhelming support that the authors generated on the app. While the supportive and uplifting nature of BookTok can create a wonderful sense of community, the space is not without its flaws.

Where some may see the opportunity to become a bestselling author as a dream come true, others see instant dollar signs. What better way to get rich quickly? The cash incentives are just enticing enough for everyone to want a piece of the action.

However, while some authors may take months or even years to write and edit a book, AI can generate one in a couple of minutes. Just last year, so many people were peddling their AI-generated books on Amazon that it flooded the website, displacing authors that put their own thought into what they created. Amazon’s response was making crackdowns on how many books authors could release on kindle per day. The new self-publishing maximum was set to three, which still seems considerably high when you take into account all the effort that usually needs to go into writing a book. 

One of the major concerns with AI dominating artistic industries is that it eliminates human competition by using human work. AI models feed and learn from existing data, so a lot of writers have to fear that someone may be feeding their work into an algorithm without their consent. Right now, it may seem easy to tell apart what is and isn’t AI-generated, but in the future, that might not be the case. Not being able to tell what is the work of artificial intelligence and what is the work of humans is something that is already happening.

Some scammers online do generate books from the ground up, but other authors use them to generate ideas and shape their stories. It’s difficult to accurately gauge who is and isn’t using it because if the author doesn’t blatantly admit it, it can be hard to tell. Some authors of TikTok are even known to stand in support of it. Victoria Aveyard, author of the bestselling series Red Queen, has taken to TikTok in the past to state that “Using GenAI to come up with characters, plots, and story ideas isn’t writing. It’s theft. Using GenAI doesn’t make you a writer. It makes you a thief.” However, with loose laws concerning the validity of AI writing, there isn’t much that can be done. 

When looking into buying books, we should be careful to make sure that they aren’t the product of AI. Buying artificially generated books can be harmful to authors who care about their craft. Whether it is the entire book, the cover, or the idea for the story, we should make the conscious decision not to buy. Looking at the table labeled ‘BookTok’ in the bookstore, it’s better to think twice. 

Elizabeth Glasper

Texas '29

Elizabeth Glasper is a student at the University of Texas and is set to graduate in the spring of 2029. She may have entered UT as a philosophy major, but she also enjoys learning and studying literature, history, and the Chinese language. Her favorite Shakespeare play is 'Much Ado About Nothing,' and she can quote scenes from it by heart: word for word, letter for letter.

She joined her school's Her Campus chapter in fall of 2025 because she has a passion for both writing and journalism. In the future she hopes to not only write in her spare time, but also incorporate the skills she has attained into a career.

Elizabeth’s favorite genre of literature comes from early 20th century American writers, however she will dabble in a few other genres. Easily influenced, she has had the misfortune of stumbling across BookTok but has since made a full recovery and will not make the same mistake twice.

Originally from southern New Mexico, she moved to Texas during her early high school years where she lived in the Houston Area. Her favorite color is pink, her favorite vegetable is zucchini, and her favorite word phrase is “unsavory characters.” Most importantly she is willing to try anything at least once.