Trying out BookTok for 30 Days | Grow Audience on TikTok for Authors | Can I Go TikTok Viral?

Everyone in the bookish world is talking about TikTok. So I set out to challenge myself. 30 days on booktok. And over the next year, you’ll see me doing a lot more of these book marketing challenges for you guys so be sure to subscribe so you can catch them all.
The Challenge:
Started on Nov 4
Post every single day for 30 days
Followers:
Week 1: 787 followers
Week 2: 1,000 followers
Week 3: 1,001 followers
Week 4: 1,000 followers
End of challenge (Dec 4): 1,007
All my learnings:
BookTok v AuthorTok
Intentionally trying to make the account about books and booktok not about my author life and authortok. Obviously I mix things in, but I didn’t want my posts to only be served to other authors. Yes, authors are readers, but I wanted my posts to get out to greater booktok
The big thing I‘ve learned is you need to hook the viewer in 1-2 seconds to get them to watch your video. So this is a great challenge for how to get promote your book. We all struggle with it, but it made me think really critically about how to grab someone’s attention. It can’t just be the cover. It can’t just be the hard work you put into it. It is not a meritocracy, its all about that really engaging and grabbing content on that platform.
Original Content
Reposting content from other platforms: way lower on performance. Shared an IG story and a Tweet (before I stoppe dusing that platform) and both did poorly.
How many views is a lot of views?
Around day 10 I started to see my videos were getting below 100 views. Like all the engagement dropped. So that was frustrating.
Apparently getting 100-200 views on a post is considered bare minimum. Like it’s not good in terms of tapping into this massive potential reach.
Learning from others
So I looked at what posts I was seeing that had a high number of views, likes, shares, etc.
Shelby @writers.poets and shelby leigh poetry has so many great marketing pointers. She gives a lot of advice for free on her TikTok channel but also have really inexpensive guides you can purchase as well.
What sells
See a lot of spicy romance and fantasy books on the videos in BooKTok. When I did posts about my vampire short story it got way more engagement than my sci fi posts.
The hype
But the hype around BooKTok is a double-edged sword. We know the TikToka algorithm makes it so anyone, truly anyone could go viral. And it’s like a gold rush. Everyone is hoping for that, but not entirely sure how to do that. And some authors said they had videos go viral, but it was nothing at all about writing or their books so didn’t move the needle on sales.
The end result
I didn’t go viral. My fiction sales did just about what they did the previous month. Now in this time, I did cut off posting on Twitter for… reasons. So maybe starting the TikTok account helped to counteract that.
What questions do you have about BookTok? Are you thinking of starting an account? Are you on BookTok, definitely follow me so we can be buddies! What other book marketing tactics are you hearing a lot of hype about that you want me to try out? Let me know in the comments below!
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Shelby's channel: / writers.poets
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[@SDHuston]

OMG! So great that you kept this so under the radar. What I would love to know (if you're willing to share) is did you interact with others while uploading content - like comment on other TikToks? Hey, that's my goal: When I get on TikTok next year, I plan to upload content to readers vs. writers. One thing I heard from different podcasts was the idea that you should use ideas you see on TikTok and copy them, so hearing your thoughts turns that advice on its head. And yes, I've heard that there is a lot of negativity in the BookTok community there, which makes me hesitant to get on the platform. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences!!

[@1MKWilliams]

Yes, I did my best to like and comment when I could. Some times it was harder than others. Also, maybe it is the best to emulate/mimic/copy other ideas out there but I'm not sure that is the way to stand out in general. But I clearly didn't go viral so maybe that is what I did wrong. I also did not see any negativity on the videos I was served. Yes, some booktokers will do "books I didn't like that everyone else did" posts, but those are honest reviews and they made it clear that lots of other people did like the book. Happy to keep sharing. If I ever do go viral, I'll let y'all know.

[@rileyraspberries]

@@1MKWilliams I legitimately think you will. You have a unique niche and while we're kinda getting into boomer territory (I won't tell anyone if you won't) we're still young and cool looking when we try LOL. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I'll make sure I'm followed on there!

[@1MKWilliams]

I prefer elder millennial lol. Yes, should be a fun 2023 trying out new content :)

[@rileyraspberries]

Do it!!!!!! Excited for you. I'm getting back in the game real soon as I'm going free across as many digital platforms as possible. Let's make some noise in 2023 :]

[@1MKWilliams]

Yes, hoping to learn more as I post more... when I get back to posting lol

[@KnoxBronson]

Thanks for this! Just followed you on TikTok.

[@1MKWilliams]

Thank you!

[@hypersanitybooks]

Thank you for sharing friend

[@1MKWilliams]

Happy to help!

[@kyliekapchinsky4638]

I got shadowbanned on my old account so I made a new one. Posting 3 times a day consistently and my views aren’t much better than they were.

[@1MKWilliams]

That's a bummer!

[@businessmogul4026]

😂😂😂The intro

[@1MKWilliams]

I try 🤣

[@guillaumemaurice3503]

Thank you for sharing this video it was very interesting and informative. I have just joined TikTok and I am a fictional author. ❤

[@1MKWilliams]

Glad it was helpful!

[@guillaumemaurice3503]

@@1MKWilliams 👍💕

[@ahmedhesham5700]

Can the personal development books be sold in TikTok or it's difficult for the TikTok audience age?

[@1MKWilliams]

Not sure. I see more people joining every day across age groups. May be worth a try. You never know

[@tinawill93]

I post three videos a day and it's not working at all

[@1MKWilliams]

Oh no!! That's the worst. I'm sure the algorithm has changed so much since I made this video. Always a moving target

[@OOoKarmaoOO]

It's so hard and I just made a single video yet it's a fail and doing a faceless booktok seems complicated. I have no video ideas and 3 likes for 200+ views 😭

[@1MKWilliams]

Im so sorry to hear that. It really can be so discouraging but if you keep at it I'm sure you'll find your style and best practices.

[@OsmigTorres]

When I'm done writing my book and publish it, can I buy you a coffee ☕?

[@1MKWilliams]

Absolutely!! www.buymeacoffee.com/1mkwilliams

[@OsmigTorres]

@@1MKWilliams I'll be back when I'm done!

[@angiehawkins808]

❤️🙏

[@JewishRockMusic]

I just got my Sellers account but it doesn’t say “BookTok” - is this the same as the Tiktok sellers account?

[@1MKWilliams]

Yes it's just the tiktok shop you then sell books on it

[@JewishRockMusic]

@@1MKWilliams Thanks for this info. Can you tell me what I should use as a shipping address on TikTok when my books are shipped from Amazon in the US? I've been getting the run around at Amazon trying to find out this simple detail.

[@1MKWilliams]

@@JewishRockMusic I don't know, I dont believe Amazon does drop shipping to tiktok shop.

[@JewishRockMusic]

@@1MKWilliams the books are mailed to the customer from US Amazon Fulfillment Centers.

[@adventureswithtime]

I've published 4 children's activity books via KDP. I now want to add some social media promotion to increase sales. I've never used TikTok before. I'm going to sign up. Is BookTok a way of setting up a TikTok channel or a hashtag? Or do I just set up a regular or business account of TikTok? ALSO, how to you link to your book or author page on TikTok? Thanks

[@1MKWilliams]

I'd actually push back and ask if your purchasing audience (parents and grandparents) are on tiktok and which vertical within tiktok would be best to reach them? Instead of using BookTok hashtags you'd likely want to focus on kids activities, momtok, parenttok, etc to be able to get the books in front of your purchasing audience. Best of luck.

[@adventureswithtime]

@@1MKWilliams That's great input. Are these all just hashtags put on Tiktok videos? Can you add multiple hashtags to a specific video? Thanks again.