Tik Tok

[Ned Marcus]

An author put her fantasy novel (which she self-published two years previously) up on Tik Tok for free, ended up getting a huge amount of attention, a book deal, and a film deal. Yes, I know she's won the book lottery. Here's the Daily Mail article about it.

Does anyone here use Tik Tok? Publish stories for free there?

 

[JGCully]

This is strangely relevant as I have just registered with TikTok to give it a go.

Not expecting the same level of success as our Daily Mail mentioned comrade but going to give it a go!

I intend to post up progress and maybe the odd extract / quote, and see what happens?

 

[Ned Marcus]

I intend to post up progress and maybe the odd extract / quote, and see what happens?

Me too. Perhaps we can share some ideas in the future.

 

[JGCully]

Me too. Perhaps we can share some ideas in the future.

That would be very much appreciated.

I feel like a pilgrim entering an unholy land!

 

[pmmg]

Actually, i do know what tik tok is, i dont think its for me. I dont trust tik tok. The Chinese are probably using it to spy.

i have a plan though. Its called ‘finish the damn thing and hope someone buys it!’ So far its gotten me two pieces of art and 0 dollars. Im still working on ‘finish the damn thing’.

 

[Ned Marcus]

I feel like a pilgrim entering an unholy land!

This made me laugh. And it's true, that is how many people see it.

 

[Ned Marcus]

Actually, i do know what tik tok is, i dont think its for me. I dont trust tik tok. The Chinese are probably using it to spy.

i have a plan though. Its called ‘finish the damn thing and hope someone buys it!’ So far its gotten me two pieces of art and 0 dollars. Im still working on ‘finish the damn thing’.

Finishing is always the best plan.

But after that, you need marketing. Tik Tok's an app for short videos (15s is common). Some of the stuff would probably make you insane. But there's a community of Book Tokkers talking about books. That's the part I'm interested in.

Tik Tok comes from dance and song videos, and this seems to seep into everything. It looks like it could be fun.

About China!!! Yes, I'm sure they collect all the data they can. I don't really trust any of the big social media sites, and in China it's worse because the government can take anything they want from any company. Where I live, government workers are banned from using Zoom because of this fear.

It's just a choice we have to make.

 

[Puck]

I suspect the fact that the TikTok video featured a doggy helped. Stuff with animals in always does well.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I joined Tik Tok a while back but haven't gotten around to doing anything with it. I tend to be free-averse.

 

[JGCully]

Well I'm giving TikTok a go. It's...weird. Plenty of authors and readers on but just not sure if I'll be able to leverage it for marketing. I'll keep trying!

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I'm curious about it, but I've heard a lot of pros and cons, and how you want so a video so often and blah blah blah. That might drive me nuts.

Well I'm giving TikTok a go. It's...weird. Plenty of authors and readers on but just not sure if I'll be able to leverage it for marketing. I'll keep trying!

 

[pmmg]

Not saying its not true, but I am going to predict Tik-Tok gets banned or severely curtailed in the US.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

From what I've heard, it's severely curtailed in China... but then, what the hell isn't? China is a beautiful place, but I wouldn't trust their tech, nor would I email freely while in the country. The last time I was in China was after Google had a kerfuffle with them about privacy, so we had to use a VPN to use Google maps while wandering around, heh heh. Not sure what it's like these days.

Not saying it's not true, but I am going to predict Tik-Tok gets banned or severely curtailed in the US.

 

[R. R. Hunter]

I'm also looking into tiktok. I'm following a bunch of BookTok accounts and plan on contacting them for a free copy. I've seen people post the same video format, trying to advertise a book, and only changing the audio. Looks a little lame. I like the idea of posting lines from the book or a video explaining the writing process. Writing advice is always a good idea too.

 

[Finchbearer]

I don’t do TikTok I hate the premise - BUT, I have heard of book tokkers or whatever it’s called, so might be a viable (free) marketing avenue.

 

[janedoe0018]

I have been a silent participant of BookTok and an active Tiktoker for years now. Personally I think it is a powerful tool but from what I have seen you need two characteristics.

One, your success will vary by genre. BookTok, from my personal experience in the space, caters to a specific audience of 18-30 year old women who particularly love fantasy/romance novels. There’s definitely audiences outside of this, but I think writers in that area will have the most success.

Two, be willing to dive into the community. From what I see, no matter where you are on TikTok, success comes from consistently participating in culturally relevant topics to whatever community you are trying to reach. I have gained success on my personal account from this and I think it’s true no matter the type of account you have.

What’s different about TikTok from other platforms like Facebook or instagram is that you need to establish very quickly why the viewer should keep watching. It’s definitely a hard thing to figure out at first but in my opinion TikTok is so powerful because not only is it emerging as a search engine in younger generations, but if your video is on someone’s screen, you have their complete and undivided attention and the potential to leverage that is unmatched. I could honestly go on for hours about TikTok and should probably dedicate a whole post to what I’ve learned from it.

That being said if anyone has any questions or would be interested in a TikTok audit, I would be more than happy to do that!

 

[pmmg]

I am a far way from shifting to the marketing energy Tik Tok would require. It will probably have been replaced by the next newest thing before I get to it.

Still good to know we have a resource.

 

[janedoe0018]

I am a far way from shifting to the marketing energy Tik Tok would require. It will probably have been replaced by the next newest thing before I get to it.

Still good to know we have a resource.

Yes, I think for the right person it is a place that harbors potential for effective and free marking with a low barrier to entry.

As with any social media based marketing, it takes consistency and a bit of luck!

 

[Ned Marcus]

One, your success will vary by genre. BookTok, from my personal experience in the space, caters to a specific audience of 18-30 year old women who particularly love fantasy/romance novels. There’s definitely audiences outside of this, but I think writers in that area will have the most success.

This was exactly what I thought when I looked into it. I suspect Instagram is similar, too.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Romance dominates book sales and Booktok, from what little I know. (See Maas' books, which I didn't know got pretty smutty until glancing at reviews because my daughter wanted the first book). I don't know the degree of naughty that dominates in romance, because I don't read it, but I imagine it's all over the place in general. Some of the stuff I've seen isn't that far from the old Penthouse letters my friends would read aloud and we would laugh at for being so damned fake. Now it's the women folk digging the naughty groove, heh heh.