What is BookTok: A complete guide to TikTok’s viral reading community

You might have heard about BookTok from your online friends or even from teens, and are wondering: What is BookTok? Well! As the name suggests, it’s related to books. However, the tok in this name means it comes from TikTok. So, yes, a part of TikTok, and here people mostly share book-related content in the form of short videos.

In this post, we’ll discuss all about the bookTok, including its origin, type of content, and much more. Also, we’ll weigh down its benefits and risks for teens, so you may decide better whether it’s appropriate for teens or not.

What is BookTok?

“BookTok is basically a part of the TikTok platform, allowing you to create and watch short videos related to books and literature.”

If you notice the name BookTok, then you would also find that it’s actually a combination of two words, like Book and Tok from TikTok, right? Well! You know, as of the 2025 survey report, TikTok has reached 1.5 billion+ worldwide monthly active users. According to the survey results, 5-10%  of these users are related to the BookTok community.

How did BookTok start and get popular?

Well! There are also book lovers who even post videos on TikTok regarding book recommendations and reviews, etc.

Thus, around 2020, some of such book review-related videos got viral and gained millions of views. As we all know, nowadays everybody is in search of ways to go viral for fame. Thus, this virality not only benefits the video creators but also the publishers and authors of the book shown in the videos.

As a result, that books began to sell more and more. Also, it gives an idea to publishers to post such videos on TikTok to increase their book sales. I must say that this connection between creators, publishers, and book readers is actually the base of the BookTok community.

What are the popular genres and themes in the BookTok community?

Next, you also need to know that the BookTok community has a number of genres and themes on which people post videos on a daily basis.

However, for your information, some genres like fantasy, romance, young adult fiction, thriller, and mystery are famous on BookTok. Moreover, the most common and most popular theme on BookTok is emotional reading. Thus, people share books with emotional stories that make people cry and emotionally connect, even within 15-60 second videos.

Also, some video creators choose books related to mental health or self-improvement, which attract the attention of viewers. This is because nowadays everyone is actually suffering from mental issues and looking for ways to have peace in their life. Thus, they think that by reading such books, they would feel happy.

How does BookTok work?

Don’t think that BookTok is a separate community that you can search and join like Reddit or any other. Actually, BookTok is just a part of TikTok and works like the same. For instance, you just scroll the ForYou page, which basically shows you the type of videos according to your interests.

You know TikTok has an algorithm according to which if you spend more time watching one video, then it will start suggesting the same videos. So, if you want to see the BookTok videos, then like, share, and comment on such videos, so it would help TikTok understand your preference.

Also, you can use hashtags like #books, #BookTok, #fantasybooks, #Yabooks, #RomaceReaders, etc.. Thus, all these would also help you a lot in finding books according to your interests.

Why can BookTok appeal to people?

Now, you might have developed some idea about what the BookTok community actually is. So, let’s have a quick look at its features that basically make it so appealing!

• Quick and engaging content: First of all, in this era, we are all in search of shortcuts, whether it’s for growing rich or reaching to destination quickly. Similarly, some people avoid reading books because they are too long and time-consuming.

However, BookTok videos are very short, like just about 15-30 seconds, in which you get a clear idea about what the book is about.  

• Personal connection and relatability: Next, in bookTop videos, mostly people share their own personal experiences. These are all ones that you can easily relate to your own life. Thus, you feel like this book is just for you and wish to read it once.

• Discoverability through trends and hashtags: Furthermore, the best thing about BookTok is that you just have to search the hashtags like #Booktok, etc., and TikTok will instantly categorize the content. For instance, it shows you only those videos that use this hashtag or ven related to it.

Also, its algorithms also help a lot in the ease of finding desired videos. As mentioned earlier, if you completely watch the video and also like, share, and comment on it, then it will show you the same kind of videos.  

How to access and use BookTok?

• Step 1. If you want to use BookTop, then you must have the TikTok app installed on your device. If you have not. Don’t worry! You can download it from your mobile Play Store easily.
• Step 2. The next step is account creation on the TikTok app. For this, you have to choose the sign-up method, for instance, via phone number, email, or other social media accounts. Then you can set a username, birth date, passwords, profile picture, or add a short bio of yourself. That’s all!
• Step 3. Now, you will click on the search icon at the top right corner of the screen and type #BookTok, etc. Thus, it will show videos related to the book content.

Step 4. Now, if you want to upload your one video, then you have already seen what people actually share in book-related videos, like their reading experiences, book reviews, book collection, etc. So, you can also choose any one of these and add sounds in the background.

Also, you have to add proper book-related hashtags to target a broad audience.

Tips for Professionals to use BookTok

• Authors and writers: First of all, this BookTok is best for book writers who put a lot of effort into writing. This is because it gives them the opportunity to know the interests of people. Thus, they can write books accordingly and make book lovers happy.
• Educators and teachers: Moreover, teachers can also use the BookTop platform to guide students to choose the age-appropriate books. For instance, you can create a mini clip sharing that his books is best for teens because of the following advantages.
• Publishers and marketers: Furthermore, even publishers can take advantage of BookTok. Yes, they can monitor what kind of books people mostly love and go viral. Thus, they would contract with creators to give them only those kinds of books. Thus, their sales would increase. Also, book publishers can talk to the creators to start a campaign related to their books on BookTok. That’s also the plus point for them.
• Researchers and analysts: Moreover, we see different survey reports published on platforms by researchers regarding book-reading trends in young people.

Thus, going to this platform, it would be really easy for researchers and analysts to predict which genres young people like most. Also, they can understand the engagement metrics.

Is ok for teens to join BookTok?

If you are a parent and are concerned about whether BookTok is okay for teens, or not. Then, to help you in this case, here I’ll weigh down both positive and negative aspects for better understanding.

Benefits for Teens

• Encourage reading: First of all, teens mostly find it difficult to find books according to their interests. Thus, this platform gives them the opportunity to get to know about a variety of new books that match their interests.
• Creative expression: Furthermore, while making videos on BookTok, teens find and try their best ways to truly deliver their message that people admire. This effort, in turn, boosts their critical thinking skills and also their communication skills, which help a lot in their future career and personality.

Risks for Teens

• Exposure to inappropriate content: If you are a parent, then keep in mind that on BookTok, kids would find all types of content, including mature one. Thus, if teens happen to read such books the it greatly impacts their mental well-being and actually hinders their personality.
• Time management issues: Moreover, using BookTok, teens may get so involved that they wouldn’t even guess how much time they have spent while scrolling. Thus, this would affect your kids’ school performance or even other real-life essential activities.

In short, I must say that the BookTok platform would be best for teens’ learning if you actively engage with their digital activities. Don’t worry! In the next section, I will share with you detailed tools and strategies to ensure a safe digital experience on BookTok.

Tips for parents to safeguard minors in BookTok

Let’s see which strategies you can adopt to keep your kids safe and secure on BookTop!

• Have an open discussion: Keep in mind that kids only explore mature content owing to curiosity. So, you have to make kids clear about the risks of early exposure in your own language. Also, make your kids feel that you are always with them, so that whatever the situation they are in. They should always come first to you.
• Set boundaries: Furthermore, you have to restrict kids from using BookTok all day long. Thus, you can set small, simple rules regarding this with the consent of the kids. For instance, no one can use a phone on the dining table, or even before sleeping.
• Use parental control tools: Now, if you want more reliable control over your kids’ digital activities, then using parental control tools would be a smart move. However, among all, FlashGet Kids parental control app is the parents’ favourite app as it combines many advanced monitoring features. For instance;

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• Keywords alerts: Also, Flashget Kids allows you to set keywords related to inappropriate content on TikTok. Thus, if kids try to find such content, then this app will send you an alert instantly.

Wrap up

After all the above discussion, you might know: What is BookTok, right? So, yes, we can say that it brings back the book-reading culture. Moreover, it also encourages publishers and markets to boost their book sales using the audience engagement ratio on BookTok.

However, being a parent, you have to actively engage in your kids’ digital activities to help them explore the Internet in a safe manner.

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