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TikTok is getting into the publishing business.
Well, it’s ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok that is getting into the publishing business. ByteDance is apparently distressed that it has a vehicle capable of minting bestsellers but no direct way to profit from this roaring engine of book commerce.
As reported by The New York Times, sales driven by more than 100 authors with large TikTok followings totaled $760 million in 2022, a significant increase over the previous year, with even greater gains on tap for 2023
ByteDance started by approaching self-published romance authors, offering them small advances and what seems to be below industry-standard royalty terms. But at the same time, it dangled a chance at some souped-up online marketing to TikTok’s 150 million users in the United States.
Reader, you might be wondering what a columnist with better than a decade of observing and writing about books and publishing might think about the prospects for this new venture. If the columnist you have in mind is me, here’s my answer: Heck if I know!
On the one hand, it could totally work. One thing I do know about books is that the most powerful driver of sales always has been and always will be word-of-mouth. If TikTok is word-of-mouth marketing turbocharged, why couldn’t they break authors from their own publishing arm into broader consciousness and big sales?
On the other hand, strong word-of-mouth tends to be an organic phenomenon, an outgrowth of genuine and powerful reader sentiments. Colleen Hoover has been very savvy about cultivating her online fandom even before TikTok, but without that fandom being, you know, big big fans, word-of-mouth doesn’t happen.
The legions of “CoHorts” who post videos of themselves crying until the snot flows after going through the emotional wringer of one of Hoover’s books are experiencing a genuine passion they feel compelled to express. That kind of response is not easy to come by. If it was, we wouldn’t be talking about Colleen Hoover as a phenomenon.
It’s like the owners of stadiums across America looking at the overwhelming response to a Taylor Swift tour and thinking they could make a few more bucks if they owned Taylor Swift in addition to the stadiums themselves. There’s only one Taylor Swift. There’s only one Colleen Hoover.
Sure, ByteDance has a decided advantage in its ability to attract eyeballs, but with books, that’s only part of the game. Amazon, a company that not only attracts eyeballs but also has customer credit cards on file, has had very limited success as a publisher as opposed to an online seller of books.
And as a bricks-and-mortar bookseller, Amazon was an abject failure.
As someone depressingly middle-aged who can sometimes find the new ways of the digital world disorienting and off-putting because of my lack of familiarity and understanding, it is reassuring to know that some things don’t change, that when it comes to books and reading, success comes down to the quality of the core product, the book itself.
So, if ByteDance puts its time and effort into identifying and developing authors who write stories that readers will find compelling, it has the same chance as any other publisher of selling lots of books. You do your best to produce good work. You throw it at the wall to see if it sticks.
But if it’s operating under the theory that because it can control the number of eyeballs on a platform, it doesn’t matter if the stuff it throws at the wall is sticky or slick, it’s in for some unpleasant times.
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “The Power” by Naomi Alderman
2. “Defenestrate” by Renee Branum
3. “Tracy Flick Can’t Win” by Tom Perrotta
4. “Social Creature” by Tara Isabella Burton
5. “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” by Mohsin Hamid
— John M., Chicago
For John, I’m recommending Percival Everett’s delicious satire of publishing, the media and life itself, “Erasure.”
1. “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It” by Richard V. Reeves
2. “When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm” by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe
3. “The Covenant of Water” by Abraham Verghese
4. “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver
5. “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell
— Betty T., Chicago
Betty’s taste in fiction runs to the long and saga-ish, so I’m going to lean into that and recommend what is, as of yet, the only book by this author, a big bestseller in its time that you don’t hear much about anymore, “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle” by David Wroblewski.
1. “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare
2. “Harlem Shuffle” by Colson Whitehead
3. “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead
4. “Babel” by R.F. Kuang
5. “Wonderbook” by Jeff VanderMeer
— Eliza P., Milwaukee
OK, this is a bit of a risk, but it’s a mix between fantasy and noir, which feels like a good fit with Eliza’s list: Haruki Murakami’s “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.”
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com