I was actually trying to get into BookTok and I find myself disappointed by what’s actually popular there.
One of the most recommended genre were either romance fantasy or just book about romance in general, which isn’t my cup of tea at all. I could care less about those that have love scenes being majority of the book.
Some of my most favorite books tend to be faster reads and in either fantasy (minus romance), action or mystery genre, and I very rarely see them getting as much hype as romance fantasy or romance genres on BookTok.
A lot of the most hyped books were mostly books about romance, like Colleen Hoover ones. even ACOTAR (a Court of Thrones and Roses) series didn’t seem to attract me despite it’s overhype.
by QuietFoundation5464
28 Comments
So don’t use booktok. You’re not missing anything. It’s basically just an advertising platform that exploits FOMO to make you think advertisements are user content.
Overhype isn’t a bug, it’s the primary feature
It’s advertising and it’s geared towards light reading. Just don’t use it. You can just roll to your local library and talk to a librarian, they love to recommend things.
If every recommendation you see is not your thing then maybe you’re subscribed to the wrong people. Makes sense that a certain kind of demographic (that is, people who make TikTok book content) are going to be fans of certain kinds of books, doesn’t it?
It sounds like you are in the wrong side of BookTok. Unfortunately you might have to wait around to like a bookToker that likes other books than described or you can actively try to change what it suggests to you. You are liking those videos so that is what is going to be suggested to you.
You can change what is getting suggested to you. For example, if you want hard sci-fi books you need to search some hard sci-fi titles, watch and like those videos in the search and then like them as they come up on your FYP. After that the algorithm will pick up you like sci-fi.
Just like Reddit there is a community in tiktok for everyone some just need a little extra effort to find. The most popular book tok creators will be the ones promoting the most popular books, but there are so many others that find really interesting recommendations and do nice reviews of them if you dig for them a bit. Maybe search for fantasy book tok and dig around a bit more to find creators who fit your interests better?
Arkana Books is one I can think of for sort of off the beaten path recs
You first had to train your algorithm to show you bookt9k in general
Now you need to continue to make it more specific to get the genres you like
But yes, romance/romantasy are currently the biggest genres on there to my knowledge
If you have preferences like fantasy and scifi or want to diversify your recommendations you have to curate your for you page. Whats popular/mainstream in reading is romance, so thats what pops up. And for everyone saying that EVERYTHING is an ad; one, it depends on who you follow and two, y’all know if it’s an ad they have to say as much to be compliant under FTC law right?
That’s fine… you reading a book in a genre you don’t enjoy and then not enjoying the book is not the romance side of booktoks fault though
It goes off of your viewing history. Don’t engage with content you don’t like (don’t like, comment, save, nothing lol) but do all of those things with posts you DO like. Find the authors you like (if they have TikTok) and follow them. You can also search for specific books and like those posts so you see more of them/more like them. Or don’t use TikTok lol I search on google for book lists and follow a few people on instagram who have similar book interests as me.
So search the name of your favorite books and interact with the people who post about them. You’ll get more relevant recommendations.
I think a lot of people on here just search “books” and then assume they’re seeing all of booktok and nothing else exists. It’s like clicking on “books” on Amazon and wondering why you’re only getting overhyped best sellers.
Something to remember is that romance is the genre in fiction that makes the most money. Sales are practically double the next best-selling genre. So, of course, there are going to be a lot more people talking about romance than other genres.
That being said, you’re probably on the wrong side of book tok. Maybe do a search for a book you do like on tik tok and see if you can find someone talking about that book, which will lead you to more people talking about books you like.
But book tok isn’t all romance. In fact, there are plenty of book snobs on book tok acting like people who read romance are somehow less of a reader, which is ignorant take.
However, even as someone who actually reads romance, most of the popular suggestions aren’t my cup of tea either.
As others have said, depends on who you follow.
I also reckon that tiktok is a lot more cheaper and easy(?) to advertise on for newer authors and hence more debut books, which are often delightful but also often a lot to improve on. More clickbaity than normal book descriptors I find. Which finds me exactly what I want, but also disappoints a lot from exaggeration in my experience.
Even if content isn’t sponsored, many publishers have influencer programs where participants are given books for free in exchange for making content about it. Even if there is no expectation to say something good about a book, people will usually not bash a book, or will soften their critique because they feel bad for saying something negative about a product they received for free from a company they want to continue to get free stuff from.
Social media also functions in a way that the lowest common denominator will always rise to the top. That means the things that appeal to the broadest range of people possible. The things that a casual reader likes are not the same as someone who is obsessed with literature.
There are a lot of great creators making excellent content and honest reviews about books on all social platforms, but they’re usually much smaller creators in terms of following and influence.
I have found that a good part of the recommendations on BookTok/Bookstagram aren’t for me either.
I hated every Colleen Hoover book I read, but I’ve loved each Tessa Bailey so far – as an example. I like some romance but I have to be in the mood.
I also haven’t really liked anything that’s a “Reese’s Book Club” book either.
But I loved ACOTAR and have it in my top-series-of-all-time list FOR ME. It hooked me immediately and didn’t let go. But that’s just my personal opinion.
But I normally read thrillers so I found an IG that’s called “The Creepy Bookclub” and once I started interacting with them, my algorithm changed and now I get mostly thriller/horror recs.
I also joined Fable and they have SO MANY virtual book clubs where I’ve found some amazing reads.
If you want to see what I’ve read so far, my book IG is @readwithkarafun
[Brooklyn Public Library’s Bookmatch](https://www.bklynlibrary.org/bookmatch) service is open to all, I believe, and they’re *very* good.
the reason it all gets so popular in the first place is because it’s media for the lowest common denominator
you can use tik tok. just go to the search bar, type in your favorite authors and books. like all the posts you see. and then you will start to get different recommendations. that’s what i had to do
We have totally different algorithms on our FYPs. Mine is horror recs and people talking about how problematic Colleen Hoover is lol. My horror TBR is now super long.
I don’t get the point of this post. If you don’t like tik tok don’t use it.
Also I’m on booktok and see plenty of recommendations that aren’t what you describe. Just saying the algorithm reflects back what you interact with.
Booktok, like reddit, is not a monolith. If you wanna use tiktok for books, I suggest you start with trying to find creators who are taking or have talked about books you already like and go from there. Rememeber it has an algorithm, so the suggestions will probably improve the more you use it, but also don’t rely on it. Use hashtags to find creators you like. Good luck!
I’m very much a similar reader. I prefer fantasy or medieval type stories without a ton of romance distracting from the plot. I like action and storytelling, but I don’t need sex every chapter or overly flowery romance just to fill in the gaps between plot points.
I did read all of ACOTAR and while I thought it was okay, a lot of the “spicy” scenes were very repetitive to me. I’d call it a hate-read because while I didn’t enjoy it like the super fans, I also finished all of them in less than 2 weeks. Kinda hated it, kinda loved it, so that’s an okay from me.
I totally thought the same thing! But then I just starting liking the videos even of books I already read & enjoyed & curated my booktok to be much more my style.
I also joined some FB groups for psychological thrillers, historical, memoirs, etc & they share videos too & now my BookTok is much more to my preference.
It takes some digging, but eventually you’ll find creators that aren’t gushing about the same damn books that show up on the BookTok table at B&N.
And then you’ll find people who review those books pretty honestly.
I gave up on BookTok because all the YA fantasy recommendations were just so boring. And then I realized most of them are in their 20s and I just hit 40.
I will throw myself through he nearest window the next time some BookToker recommends me a Colleen Hoover book.
I’ve literally never used tiktok, but you have to figure that anything recommended to most people is going to be pretty unchallenging and very generic, right? It seems to me hardly surprising that the social media equivalent of morning chat shows recommends mostly dreck.
My book taste really started to improve when I stopped listening to booktok and instead read classics or recommendations from smaller creators who just share their fav books who aren’t that popular.
Although some of the popular ones are really good. I started to read the comments on Goodreads with lower stars to get multiple views on the books and stopped reading books from Colleen Hover or any with those comical figures and dazzling colors who are just supposed to get your attention but it’s always the same plot.
If you don’t like romance I can recommend thrillers or classics. My favorites are „If we were villains“, „Dead Poets Society“, „The Picture of Dorian Gray“ and „The Book Thief“.
All very popular books but the main topics aren’t romance.
Hope this helps
I’m not a fan of booktok, it seems all about consuming as much as possible and it doesn’t resonate with the way I read
To me BookTok is just fanfiction for adults. All of the tropes and everyone are pulled directly from fanfiction.net. All of the girls who wrote fanfiction in their teens are now adults who can write for a living and are just reliving all those stories.
Also, BookTok very much is a quantity over quality business. I tried one BookTok book and I had to DNF (I NEVER do this).