BookTok is a section of TikTok, where people can share their favorite books. Many authors have gained an increase in pre-orders and sales due to their book(s) becoming popular on TikTok. BookTok is gaining the publishing industry and has even helped an author gain a book deal simply because she went viral.
Alex Aster first gained attention in March 2021 when she pitched a book to TikTok called Lightlark. The TikTok said “Would you read a book about a cursed island that only appears once every 100 years to host a game that gives the six rules of the realm a chance to break their curses. To survive, Isla Crown must lie, cheat, and betray — even as love complicates everything.”
The video went viral as the BookTok audience loved the idea of the book she was promoting and only a week after posting the original video, Aster received a six figure book deal.
However, soon after the advanced reader copies of Lightlark started to be released, the readers revealed that many of the scenes and tropes that Aster marketed on her TikTok were not in the book. Aster’s audience also started to learn more about her privileged background and her successes before Lightlark which went against the story of success she presented online. TikTok started as a way for Aster to change how the publishing industry works, but then became the source of her controversy.
The False marketing of Her life and book
When Lightlark received its book deal, a popular article by The Guardian was published where Aster says it was “more zeros than I’ve seen in my life.” Many people also believe that her TikTok’s present herself, whether intentional or not, as a rags-to-riches story. This made her audience upset when information about her privileged background was learned.
Aster presented herself as someone who completely relied on themselves and if her career failed she would have no one to rely on. Her parents are the owners of a successful car dealership, Keith Pierson Toyota in Jacksonville, Florida and Aster is still involved in the business. Aster and her twin sister Daniella became local celebrities due to their appearances in commercials for the dealership. Aster also has no student debt despite going to an ivy league school and was able to live with her parents after college to save money. While coming from a privileged background is not problematic itself, people felt that she was purposefully hiding her privileges to make her audience feel sympathy for her and buy her book. This was only the start of her sketchy marketing techniques.
After the initial TikTok was posted and Aster received her six-figure book deal and soon after a movie deal from Universal, she continued to use TikTok as her main marketing tool to get pre-orders for Lightlark. Aster would post lines from the book that made it seem it would include popular BookTok tropes including enemies to lovers and would also include what BookTok refers to as “spicy” scenes, leading many to assume that it would be a New Adult book.
However, once the ARC reviews started to come out it was revealed that much of what Aster said was going to be in the book was not there and reviewers felt the book had been entirely misrepresented. The book was actually a Young Adult book, meaning the “spicy” scenes could not be included. Reviewers complained about multiple lines and scenes being completely gone, not even rewritten. Some reviewers even complained that the entire plot Aster promoted on TikTok was false, as she said it would be a mixed of Hunger Games and A Court of Thorns and Roses, but many struggled to see the similarities.
The book was officially released on August 23, 2022 and the reviews have been mixed with them leaning more towards the negative. Despite the criticism of Lightlark and its author, the movie deal with Universal is still happening and the producers of the Twilight movies are working on it. Aster has also said there is going to be a sequel which currently little is known about. While the publishing industry needs to make changes, as it has not adapted to consider the power of social media, Aster’s misuse of TikTok led her audience to lose trust in her.