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"Last year in Britain one in four book buyers used TikTok. The slice of sales directly attributable to the app is still small. Video platforms like TikTok and Y

by neaden 3y ago

"Last year in Britain one in four book buyers used TikTok. The slice of sales directly attributable to the app is still small. Video platforms like TikTok and YouTube drove only around 3% of sales in 2022 in Britain, according to Nielsen, a research firm" - Obviously this can grow, but the article just feels like the publishers are rushing to jump on the new thing rather then TikTok changing the way things are done.

colechristensen 3y ago
But how was this 3% attribution done? There are lots of ways to buy books that aren’t clicking affiliate links. I see book recommendations on HN all the time and regularly buy something I see… by searching Amazon or a local store, nobody would ever link that purchase back to HN.
- AndersSandvik 3y ago
  Interviews and statistics.
- heavyset_go 3y ago
  Nielsen does things like surveys that don't necessarily depend on affiliate links.
cableshaft 3y ago
My wife did book promotion on TikTok last year and didn't really see it result in too many preorders, despite a few of her videos going somewhat viral (about 5-10k views). And the instant she took a break from doing 1 video/day her future videos went down to a trickle of views (like around 100), so it seems you have to go pretty hard and consistent on it to get the algorithm to keep throwing eyeballs your way. She finds book swaps in newsletters and parties and takeovers of Facebook communities to be more effective and easier to keep up with, and she can take breaks from it without suffering too much from it. That may not be true for all regions or genres, though. And she's a pretty new author still, working on finishing up her third book in her first series, although her first two did pretty well.
- xmprt 3y ago
  Not to ruin things but 5-10k views on TikTok is not nothing but it's also not very viral so I wouldn't expect that to drive any sales. You'd probably expect with TikTok viewer retention, maybe 1/100 viewers would actually be interested enough to watch through the video as well as be in the target audience and then another 1% might actually buy the book. Likes are a more accurate metric since it's kind of the bare minimum for audience interaction. The real power of TikTok is that you can get 100k+ views even when you're not really that famous and once you see those kinds of numbers you might be able to drive more attention to whatever you're trying to sell. It might also be a bit soul crushing but creativity doesn't really help. If you have a viral video that gets 100k views then you need to make the same kind of video as many times as you can until it stops working.
  - cableshaft 3y ago
    I said somewhat viral. I'm not claiming these are crazy high numbers for TikTok. I've certainly been shown some dumb videos on there that somehow have 70million+ views. But it was certainly a big jump from the 300-ish views she was getting for her videos the day before. This was multiple videos she was getting those numbers for (like for a couple of weeks), and she was seeing her preorders go up exactly 0 from it, while seeing better returns for her time on other social media, she ended up with several hundred preorders from other sources. I don't doubt you can get some numbers from TikTok, especially if you can regularly get 100k views. But it seems to be very fickle and require constant (and as you say, uncreative) spammy videos on there to get that (at least from her experience). And it's not like it doesn't take time even to make the seemingly low-effort videos. While she was doing it, she was spending time watching other videos to get ideas and get a feel for the TikTok voice/zeitgeist, checking trending audio sources, coming up with how to do something similar yet link that idea to her book, preparing for it (like putting on make-up, making props, etc), filming it (sometimes requiring multiple takes), editing it (within the app), and then posting it. It was taking her somewhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours each day. I still think she could have gotten to the 100k+ views if she stuck with it, but it was taking significant time and energy away from other things, and as is she's trying to write books while also working a full-time job, so she has little energy for much else right now to begin with.
bluepod4 3y ago
Yeah, I can definitely believe that TikTok is changing the way that books are being recommended. But I’m not sold (haha) that TikTok is changing the way books are being sold. There are quite a few stories of books going viral through BookTok, Bookstagram, and BookTube. But it does feel like slightly different. On TikTok, a random user can make an unknown book go viral. But on Instagram, it’s usually an already established influencer that makes a book go viral and often it’s their own book lol. YouTube is more for longform discussion and the level of virality has changed. But some influencers do still sell books similar to what the influencers on Instagram do. Related to books being sold in Britain, I wonder how the demographics of these communities affect the stats. Most of the members are white teenage girls and women that live in the United States. Also, related to books being sold in general, many of the members of the various book communities have similar opinions to HN’s users. They don’t like ads or affiliate links. They’d prefer to go to the library or buy from a local/indie bookstore. They’re anti-Amazon. They discuss overconsumption. On YouTube, they really dive into the ethics of it all. I do believe that TikTok has gotten people to read more. But that’s different than recommendations and selling. (I’ll admit that I started reading Cain’s Jawbone due to TikTok. I had heard of it before for years but never bothered to try it out.)
- yojo 3y ago
  I follow what independent authors are trying for marketing, and some of them are having great success with TikTok. For them it absolutely is changing how books are sold, as before finding success on TikTok, they literally weren’t selling much of anything. As the article mentions, romance authors are doing the best, but there are authors like AP Beswick (writes dark fantasy retellings of popular legends) who have gone full time indie off the back of TikTok sales. Maybe they would have been successful without TikTok, but right now it’s how they find an audience.
  - bluepod4 3y ago
    That’s good to hear!
kevincox 3y ago
Yeah, it seems like non-news. Any popular site is going to share opinions and product reviews. It doesn't seem like TikTok is especially effective here, it is just popular.
dylan604 3y ago
>but the article just feels like the publishers are rushing to jump this is just the standard playbook for all social media though. it doesn't matter if your message is true or not. just say your message boldly and keep repeating it ad nauseam. people will promote it, and followers will follow it. as long as a follower likes the person saying it, it will be believed. if the viewer doesn't like the speaker, it will be hated.

by neaden 3y ago

colechristensen 3y ago

But how was this 3% attribution done? There are lots of ways to buy books that aren’t clicking affiliate links. I see book recommendations on HN all the time and regularly buy something I see… by searching Amazon or a local store, nobody would ever link that purchase back to HN.

AndersSandvik 3y ago
Interviews and statistics.
heavyset_go 3y ago
Nielsen does things like surveys that don't necessarily depend on affiliate links.

cableshaft 3y ago

My wife did book promotion on TikTok last year and didn't really see it result in too many preorders, despite a few of her videos going somewhat viral (about 5-10k views). And the instant she took a break from doing 1 video/day her future videos went down to a trickle of views (like around 100), so it seems you have to go pretty hard and consistent on it to get the algorithm to keep throwing eyeballs your way. She finds book swaps in newsletters and parties and takeovers of Facebook communities to be more effective and easier to keep up with, and she can take breaks from it without suffering too much from it. That may not be true for all regions or genres, though. And she's a pretty new author still, working on finishing up her third book in her first series, although her first two did pretty well.

xmprt 3y ago
Not to ruin things but 5-10k views on TikTok is not nothing but it's also not very viral so I wouldn't expect that to drive any sales. You'd probably expect with TikTok viewer retention, maybe 1/100 viewers would actually be interested enough to watch through the video as well as be in the target audience and then another 1% might actually buy the book. Likes are a more accurate metric since it's kind of the bare minimum for audience interaction. The real power of TikTok is that you can get 100k+ views even when you're not really that famous and once you see those kinds of numbers you might be able to drive more attention to whatever you're trying to sell. It might also be a bit soul crushing but creativity doesn't really help. If you have a viral video that gets 100k views then you need to make the same kind of video as many times as you can until it stops working.
- cableshaft 3y ago
  I said somewhat viral. I'm not claiming these are crazy high numbers for TikTok. I've certainly been shown some dumb videos on there that somehow have 70million+ views. But it was certainly a big jump from the 300-ish views she was getting for her videos the day before. This was multiple videos she was getting those numbers for (like for a couple of weeks), and she was seeing her preorders go up exactly 0 from it, while seeing better returns for her time on other social media, she ended up with several hundred preorders from other sources. I don't doubt you can get some numbers from TikTok, especially if you can regularly get 100k views. But it seems to be very fickle and require constant (and as you say, uncreative) spammy videos on there to get that (at least from her experience). And it's not like it doesn't take time even to make the seemingly low-effort videos. While she was doing it, she was spending time watching other videos to get ideas and get a feel for the TikTok voice/zeitgeist, checking trending audio sources, coming up with how to do something similar yet link that idea to her book, preparing for it (like putting on make-up, making props, etc), filming it (sometimes requiring multiple takes), editing it (within the app), and then posting it. It was taking her somewhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours each day. I still think she could have gotten to the 100k+ views if she stuck with it, but it was taking significant time and energy away from other things, and as is she's trying to write books while also working a full-time job, so she has little energy for much else right now to begin with.

bluepod4 3y ago

Yeah, I can definitely believe that TikTok is changing the way that books are being recommended. But I’m not sold (haha) that TikTok is changing the way books are being sold. There are quite a few stories of books going viral through BookTok, Bookstagram, and BookTube. But it does feel like slightly different. On TikTok, a random user can make an unknown book go viral. But on Instagram, it’s usually an already established influencer that makes a book go viral and often it’s their own book lol. YouTube is more for longform discussion and the level of virality has changed. But some influencers do still sell books similar to what the influencers on Instagram do. Related to books being sold in Britain, I wonder how the demographics of these communities affect the stats. Most of the members are white teenage girls and women that live in the United States. Also, related to books being sold in general, many of the members of the various book communities have similar opinions to HN’s users. They don’t like ads or affiliate links. They’d prefer to go to the library or buy from a local/indie bookstore. They’re anti-Amazon. They discuss overconsumption. On YouTube, they really dive into the ethics of it all. I do believe that TikTok has gotten people to read more. But that’s different than recommendations and selling. (I’ll admit that I started reading Cain’s Jawbone due to TikTok. I had heard of it before for years but never bothered to try it out.)

yojo 3y ago
I follow what independent authors are trying for marketing, and some of them are having great success with TikTok. For them it absolutely is changing how books are sold, as before finding success on TikTok, they literally weren’t selling much of anything. As the article mentions, romance authors are doing the best, but there are authors like AP Beswick (writes dark fantasy retellings of popular legends) who have gone full time indie off the back of TikTok sales. Maybe they would have been successful without TikTok, but right now it’s how they find an audience.
- bluepod4 3y ago
  That’s good to hear!

kevincox 3y ago

Yeah, it seems like non-news. Any popular site is going to share opinions and product reviews. It doesn't seem like TikTok is especially effective here, it is just popular.

dylan604 3y ago

>but the article just feels like the publishers are rushing to jump this is just the standard playbook for all social media though. it doesn't matter if your message is true or not. just say your message boldly and keep repeating it ad nauseam. people will promote it, and followers will follow it. as long as a follower likes the person saying it, it will be believed. if the viewer doesn't like the speaker, it will be hated.