From Digital Book Tours to BookTok: The New Era of Publishing Marketing

There’s no doubt that the rise of social media has changed the marketing landscape and has had a significant impact on the way publishing houses market their books. Once, traditional publishing houses relied heavily on book tours, print advertisements and word-of-mouth to drive their book sales. Now, getting a number one bestseller can be as easy as having a TikTok go viral.    

Book tours, while still used, have seen a shift over the years with digital book tours becoming increasingly popular during and after the pandemic. These online-only tours see authors promoting their books by popping up on various social media accounts and blogs on certain days, showcasing a multitude of different content including reviews, guest posts, excerpts and interviews. Getting rid of the need to lug books and luggage around the country, digital book tours are a cost-effective alternative to the traditional book tour that many publishing houses have taken on board in the last couple of years.  

Newspaper reviews have become a small (if it not almost entirely non-existent) driver of book sales, replaced significantly by online reviews from established social media sites like Goodreads, Amazon and, more recently, TikTok. Likewise print runs in newspapers and magazines, though not entirely extinct, have been significantly replaced by marketing campaigns ran on social media, and the reasons as to why are quite simple: it’s more cost effective. These campaigns have a broader reach, and platforms such as Instagram and Facebook allow publishers to implement targeted advertisements to specific audiences.  

In addition to using social media for targeted advertising, digital marketing has also allowed publishers to reach out to influencers in the bookish space, offering Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) in return for being showcased on their social media accounts by ways of reviews, unboxings or aesthetic photography and videos. This allows publishers to take advantage of the buzz these influencers create and tap into the bookish communities, making their marketing strategies more genuine instead of overly promotional.   

An example of a publishing house that has jumped on board of the rise of social media popularity is Penguin Random House’s creation of “The Penguin Podcast”. In each episode, authors are interviewed, a variety of topics are covered, and viewers have the chance to send in questions to be answered. This interconnectedness between business and customer once again demonstrates how publishing houses can now create and promote communities instead of focusing solely on driving book sales, which has been a major contributor to their marketing success. If someone feels connected to a publishing house and they trust them, then they’re more likely to feel motivated to buy the books that publisher is advertising.  

The rise of BookTok, the niche section of TikTok that is primarily catered to reader’s algorithms specifically, has had a tremendous impact on not only the way publishing houses market a book, but also the reading sphere as a whole, with research suggesting that BookTok helped sell over 20 million books in 2021 alone. Many bookstores have created designated “BookTok” stands in their stores, and the big five publishing houses (Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Simon & Shuster, Hachette Book Group and HarperCollins) have TikTok accounts, with their videos ranging from book reviews to humorous trends that allow them to remain relevant in the current zeitgeist. These days, it’d be rare to find a publishing house that doesn’t have a TikTok (follow us @elephantpage!).  

However, BookTok’s success has been suggested to have had a negative impact on the sales of Australian fiction. As literary agent Alex Addett explains, TikTok is significantly American-centric, and most books going viral are books written and produced in the United States. This in turn means that the books that end up high on the global best seller lists are mostly US books, driving Australian authored books to the bottom. But hope is not lost! The Australian writing and publishing industry have been making an effort to combat this, with movements such as Writing WA’s recently announced BookTok competition, a competition that is looking to engage with WA books through TikTok.  

While traditional marketing hasn’t disappeared, publishing houses have been forced to adapt to the rapidly changing digital landscape, and as the digital landscape and current trends continue to change, they will have to continue to adapt. But this just means that publishing houses are always kept on their toes, and creative juices can continue to flow, providing a fun and engaging atmosphere for those of us who work there – I mean, how many of you can say you get to clock into work to make TikTok’s? 

Tammie Watts 
Marketing & Digital Associate