In May of this year, BookTok and Bookstagram were taken by storm by the release of Rebecca Yarros’s novel, Fourth Wing. Yarros, who traditionally wrote romance, decided to test the waters of the new genre “romantasy” (romance set in fantasy words), and she hit gold. It’s rated at 4.65 stars for over 700 thousand ratings on Goodreads. The book raked in praise for how fun and consuming it was, bringing back the nostalgia of the fast-paced novels with the underdog young girl who happened to change the world. The gripping cliffhanger of the first book had people lining up in droves to get the sequel, Iron Flame, which was released on November 7th, 2023. However, the reaction to the sequel was much more critical and negative.
A large part of the buzz around the first book centered not on the content of the book, but the design of the book. The first print of the novel featured black sprayed edges with dragons stenciled on the spine of the pages. It became a trend for social media users to travel to various bookstores and find these unique editions. When Iron Flame was announced, fans were excited to see what unique details would be on this first print. The book ended up featuring plain black sprayed edges — something that’s fun, but definitely not as much of a draw. Despite this, fans were still excited to find these books. When copies came in the mail or were picked up at the bookstore, fans were disappointed to find the majority of the copies had errors in production. The paint on the books would be uneven and rub off on the hands of readers. In addition to this, people found that copies of the book were missing pages or design details, were upside down, or even labeled the wrong book (copies of Iron Flame were printed under the name “Fourth Wing”). Fans took to social media to call out the publisher on the lack of uniformity with the print run. The whole thing seemed like a rush job, which was frustrating to fans who paid significant amounts of money for the book. Continuing with the theme of rushed production, fans found that the writing quality had dipped from the first book. The book was apparently riddled with grammar and structural errors that took away from the enjoyment of the book for some fans. While many still enjoyed the story itself, there was clear frustration that the book felt under-edited and rushed.
Rushed content is a new staple of modern publishing. Just as streaming services lend themselves to binge-able content, publishing companies have been leaning more towards quantity over quality for certain styles of books. This is especially seen in the romantasy genre, where authors will release two or three books a year. While this is exciting when it comes to getting past cliffhangers, the quality of the writing and story gets sacrificed oftentimes. In addition to this, once one book goes viral on social media, competing publishers rush to release a similar book. For example, Alex Aster, a social media influencer and author, went viral for TikToks she released relating to her debut novel, Lightlark. She quickly received not only a publishing deal but also had the rights to her novel purchased by film companies before the novel was even released. However, when the book was released, reviewers expressed their disappointment that the book seemed unedited and rushed — almost as if the first draft of the novel was released (@caricanread on youtube has a great video on this and Fourth Wing!). While this era is exciting as reading and book buying are becoming popularized once again, it is disappointing that the quality of writing does not stay the same. It introduces concerns about the originality of work, the integrity of authors, and the reliability of marketing.
This doesn’t mean the impact of BookTok is negative. BookTok has been the driving force for supporting indie authors. Authors like B.K. Borrison, Tarah Dewitt, Sarah Adams, and so many more have gotten publishing deals from some of the biggest names in the industry, thanks to Booktoks that spotlighted these books. Fourth Wing was Yarros’s first mainstream successful book; she had written nearly 20 books before this. This spotlight on indie authors and their issues has been hugely supportive of many smaller writers. In addition to this, BookTok has stemmed important conversations related to books. Back in the 2010s, there was no genre separation between young adult novels and new adult novels. Because of this, novels, such as A Court of Thorns and Roses, which contained content that was not appropriate for younger audiences were originally marketed towards teens and could be found in middle school libraries. However, these novels were meant for older young adults, around the ages of 16+, and there was no way to separate this. Bookish communities, especially on BookTok, advocated for this separation, which helps parents and educators keep content in their libraries or homes that is actually intended for their children. BookTok is also a huge platform to advocate for or against causes. Most notably, book bans are often challenged on BookTok and there have been great movements against censorship in these communities. Finally, BookTok has revived the bookstore industry, by creating trends and movements around supporting local bookstores. These movements have caused more author events to be hosted at indie stores and have brought signed and special editions to these stores. This has been huge in supporting indie bookstores, rather than large retailers like Amazon.
BookTok doesn’t have an overall beneficial or detrimental effect on the book community. It can help promote small books, but it can also have negative impacts on publishing models. The era of reading is back and it is exciting to see how the community will grow and change over the next few years. Fourth Wing has been a great example of the impact of BookTok, and if it has shown us anything, it is that these communities are loud, proud, and here to stay.
