When I first learned about TikTok from my teenager, I didn’t believe it could do anything for me, or I for it. I can’t dance to save my life, and the social media platform – on which users post short videos – seemed to me to be merely a pleasurable pastime replete with pop songs and enviable hip hop routines. How wrong I was.
TikTok, which originated in China in 2016, helps spotlight the creative work of an international cast of actors and singers, artists and writers, scholars, activists, and, yes, dancers. While Gen Z and millennials make up much of its user base, plenty of older people use it as well. (See veteran actor Mandy Patinkin, @mandypatinktok, twerking to get out the vote in October 2020.)
#BookTok serves as both a hashtag enabling authors to promote their work to readers on the platform and a landing place for book lovers to meet and get to know one another in a casual atmosphere that feels less formal and less inflammatory than, say, Twitter. The platform costs nothing to use, and it’s done plenty to launch the literary careers of debut authors, as well as boosting book sales for established writers. Below, three authors share their experiences and plenty of tips so that you can launch your own TikTok channel…no dancing required.
CASEEN GAINES, AUTHOR OF had no interest in TikTok despite encouragement from his wife to make
