BookTok

[TheBookishBabe]

I don’t agree with anyone above. There’s way more work put into the tiktok clips than in yt videos. As one have to make cuts and fit sequences with music write text and do transitions, rather than just prop the camera on a tripod and start talking for 10 minutes, and the limited time forces the creator to resume many books in a few words to convince the watcher to read those books, opposed to most of the booktobers who could talk 30 minutes about a book and still making the viewer not give a chance to that book. Also I don’t see why it’s not a good thing that old books are brought back around? What’s the problem with that? It’s not like yt creators only talk about books that come from sponsors and you see the same book over and over again, and in the end it’s a mediocre book. If you spend some time on tt you can find quality recommendations, it’s just that they’re not on the top of the # list

Youtube editting is a lot of work. You spend more time editting a longer video than you do is a shorter one. And very few booktokkers are doing anything but pointing to music in their videos

[BookLurker]

I don’t agree with anyone above. There’s way more work put into the tiktok clips than in yt videos. As one have to make cuts and fit sequences with music write text and do transitions, rather than just prop the camera on a tripod and start talking for 10 minutes, and the limited time forces the creator to resume many books in a few words to convince the watcher to read those books, opposed to most of the booktobers who could talk 30 minutes about a book and still making the viewer not give a chance to that book. Also I don’t see why it’s not a good thing that old books are brought back around? What’s the problem with that? It’s not like yt creators only talk about books that come from sponsors and you see the same book over and over again, and in the end it’s a mediocre book. If you spend some time on tt you can find quality recommendations, it’s just that they’re not on the top of the # list

I understand where you're coming from, but editing a 20 second video in time with the song that was already chosen and filmed to fit around isn't more work than making full length videos.

I do agree that depending on the type of videos you're used to watching then it can seem like a lot. Some people will literally just sit and film without hardly any editing for around 10 minutes - that I agree the booktok videos are more work.

There are plenty of high quality booktubers that you can tell a lot of prep, editing and time has gone into them and they're 15-20 minutes long.

[flagitdown]

[…] and the limited time forces the creator to resume many books in a few words to convince the watcher to read those books, opposed to most of the booktobers who could talk 30 minutes about a book and still making the viewer not give a chance to that book.

So many videos I've come across were just holding five books into the screen that fit a certain theme (i.e. 'Enemies to lovers', 'Grumpy/Sunshine'-trope) and if you're lucky the creator puts 2-5 bullet points with the basics about the story. The times I've seen a creator discuss deeper themes of the book or the story itself were very rare.

[PumpkinPoison]

Of course this is from booktok, of course.

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I find the fact that they included Lolita in their list of "female manipulators" absolutely disgusting

[TheBookishBabe]

[…] and the limited time forces the creator to resume many books in a few words to convince the watcher to read those books, opposed to most of the booktobers who could talk 30 minutes about a book and still making the viewer not give a chance to that book.

So many videos I've come across were just holding five books into the screen that fit a certain theme (i.e. 'Enemies to lovers', 'Grumpy/Sunshine'-trope) and if you're lucky the creator puts 2-5 bullet points with the basics about the story. The times I've seen a creator discuss deeper themes of the book or the story itself were very rare.

Exactly. Let's not pretend people are talking about books in depth on Tik Tok. Usually they're just displaying books to music or sound.

[tubeornottube]

I don’t agree with anyone above. There’s way more work put into the tiktok clips than in yt videos. As one have to make cuts and fit sequences with music write text and do transitions, rather than just prop the camera on a tripod and start talking for 10 minutes, and the limited time forces the creator to resume many books in a few words to convince the watcher to read those books, opposed to most of the booktobers who could talk 30 minutes about a book and still making the viewer not give a chance to that book. Also I don’t see why it’s not a good thing that old books are brought back around? What’s the problem with that? It’s not like yt creators only talk about books that come from sponsors and you see the same book over and over again, and in the end it’s a mediocre book. If you spend some time on tt you can find quality recommendations, it’s just that they’re not on the top of the # list

I can make a tiktok with transitions, music, and text in 5 minutes and get 10k+ views, whereas making a youtube video takes lighting & camera set up, a script, filming, transferring footage, editing, finding royalty free music, exporting... that takes 5 hours. The majority of tiktoks are autosynced to music by tiktok too, so it literally takes zero effort. Regarding convincing an audience to buy a book, tiktokers just list the tropes or use a trending sound as a reaction, whereas (some) youtubers make in depth reviews and work on their essay-like scripts for weeks. Tiktok has a higher recommendation success rating, definitely, but they don't put more work into their videos. If it takes you longer than 10 minutes to make a tiktok, you're doing it wrong.

[bookreader13]

I’m very lucky that my tastes in books means that I’m only following horror BookTok creators because I get in-depth reviews and recommendations. Sometimes it’s harder to find people who talk about horror books, but because it’s more niche than other genres and not as popular, you don’t have to suffer through the hundreds of videos of mainstream BookTokers reducing books down to their tropes or using their books as an excuse to capitalize off of a new song or trend.

[sofisticat]

I mean, it definitely depends on the person of course but in general it is much easier to create a tiktok than it is a youtube video. Lol. Tiktok has a limited amount of time and adding on all the extra bells and whistles varies from person to person. Not everyone adds captions, and there are outside apps to help with that if you do. Plus, you can basically do all your editing in-app fairly easily.

Youtube's studio editor is known to be shit and hard to edit in, plus uploading can be inconsistent and take forever.

[TheBookishBabe]

As far as what books are popular on Tik Tok it's mainly white books.

[bookreader13]

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMNYXpUxk/?k=1

This TikTok by Marines sums up exactly how I feel about BookTok as a platform and how people don’t use it properly before judging it as a whole (while also giving recommendations for reviewers who go in-depth about books).

[Nefret]

I feel bad for people who are only using BookTok/BookTube and giving up after only seeing the mainstream surface level side of each platform. Mainstream book spaces are echo chambers so naturally they are all going to read and recommend the same popular books. As a horror, thriller and science fiction fan, I always have to dig deeper and follow lesser known creators in order to get newer recommendations and find hidden gems. Horror BookTok has given me so many new recommendations, and after liking and following certain creators, the algorithm adapted to my tastes and I never see the mainstream “quirky” surface level side of BookTok that everyone seems to complain about. I think it’s probably because the genres I like don’t attract the attention of mainstream creators so I don’t get recommended videos or TikToks by them.

Same. Once I got on indie book TikTok, I enjoyed the content a lot more. I've still gotten recs for books that I ended up DNFing but that's happened in every corner of the bookternet I've been on.

It is annoying to have to train the algorithm for what you want, but TikTok's algorithm is MUCH more responsive than Youtube's these days.

[bookreader13]

I feel bad for people who are only using BookTok/BookTube and giving up after only seeing the mainstream surface level side of each platform. Mainstream book spaces are echo chambers so naturally they are all going to read and recommend the same popular books. As a horror, thriller and science fiction fan, I always have to dig deeper and follow lesser known creators in order to get newer recommendations and find hidden gems. Horror BookTok has given me so many new recommendations, and after liking and following certain creators, the algorithm adapted to my tastes and I never see the mainstream “quirky” surface level side of BookTok that everyone seems to complain about. I think it’s probably because the genres I like don’t attract the attention of mainstream creators so I don’t get recommended videos or TikToks by them.

Same. Once I got on indie book TikTok, I enjoyed the content a lot more. I've still gotten recs for books that I ended up DNFing but that's happened in every corner of the bookternet I've been on.

It is annoying to have to train the algorithm for what you want, but TikTok's algorithm is MUCH more responsive than Youtube's these days.

Once I followed Horror BookTok creators and all my favorite booktubers on TikTok, the algorithm quickly adjusted to me and I’ve found so many insightful, excellent BookTok creators from all genres. I’ve found some of the best and most interesting books off of TikTok. I wish YouTube’s algorithm was anywhere near TikTok’s algorithm. I always have to dig and actively search to find new BookTubers that I like.

[TryingAgain]

Allie just let it slip she is a reporting troll on all platforms. I don't know about the other reports but the TikTok reported at the bottom is about how to use the settings to stop people from downloading your TikToks so they don't end up on a stock Youtube channel. We can guess what Allie likes to do with other's TikToks because there was no bigotry in the video. It isn't bullying to stop someone from using their content.

[just a cat]

Allie just let it slip she is a reporting troll on all platforms. I don't know about the other reports but the TikTok reported at the bottom is about how to use the settings to stop people from downloading your TikToks so they don't end up on a stock Youtube channel. We can guess what Allie likes to do with other's TikToks because there was no bigotry in the video. It isn't bullying to stop someone from using their content.

Just for further context this is the video that started this, along with allie's thread. It is weird why she reported that one video because it doesn't seem to break any guidelines.

[DeathArcana]

alliewithbooks is just a whiner lol literally all they do is complain so I just do not take anything they say seriously. peak white woman.

[sofisticat]

I can't recall where I know that name from and it's bugging me. Does she have a booktube channel too?

[Nefret]

I can't recall where I know that name from and it's bugging me. Does she have a booktube channel too?

Yeah, alliewithbooks is the name of her booktube channel. Her content is pretty stock standard, so it's possible you've seen it recommended against other videos, but didn't look further.

[Givemethajuice]

[soratyrus]

I think this is the push I needed to finally get Legendborn off my shelf and read the damn thing...of course people are focusing on the white boys. OF COURSE.

[TheBookishBabe]

I think this is the push I needed to finally get Legendborn off my shelf and read the damn thing...of course people are focusing on the white boys. OF COURSE.

They're focusing on the white boys because the love triangle was a huge part of the book and the author forces you to focus on them. She introduces them with these very descriptive paragraphs about how beautiful they are. They have more character growth during the story than Bree. And Sel has bonus chapters in the B&N paperback edition.