M.K. Williams | Trying out BookTok for 30 Days | Grow Audience on TikTok for Authors | Can I Go TikTok Viral? @1MKWilliams | Uploaded December 2022 | Updated October 2024, 45 minutes ago.
Everyone in the bookish world is talking about TikTok. So I set out to challenge myself. 30 days on booktok. And over the next year, you’ll see me doing a lot more of these book marketing challenges for you guys so be sure to subscribe so you can catch them all.
The Challenge:
Started on Nov 4
Post every single day for 30 days
Followers:
Week 1: 787 followers
Week 2: 1,000 followers
Week 3: 1,001 followers
Week 4: 1,000 followers
End of challenge (Dec 4): 1,007
All my learnings:
BookTok v AuthorTok
Intentionally trying to make the account about books and booktok not about my author life and authortok. Obviously I mix things in, but I didn’t want my posts to only be served to other authors. Yes, authors are readers, but I wanted my posts to get out to greater booktok
The big thing I‘ve learned is you need to hook the viewer in 1-2 seconds to get them to watch your video. So this is a great challenge for how to get promote your book. We all struggle with it, but it made me think really critically about how to grab someone’s attention. It can’t just be the cover. It can’t just be the hard work you put into it. It is not a meritocracy, its all about that really engaging and grabbing content on that platform.
Original Content
Reposting content from other platforms: way lower on performance. Shared an IG story and a Tweet (before I stoppe dusing that platform) and both did poorly.
How many views is a lot of views?
Around day 10 I started to see my videos were getting below 100 views. Like all the engagement dropped. So that was frustrating.
Apparently getting 100-200 views on a post is considered bare minimum. Like it’s not good in terms of tapping into this massive potential reach.
Learning from others
So I looked at what posts I was seeing that had a high number of views, likes, shares, etc.
Shelby @writers.poets and shelby leigh poetry has so many great marketing pointers. She gives a lot of advice for free on her TikTok channel but also have really inexpensive guides you can purchase as well.
What sells
See a lot of spicy romance and fantasy books on the videos in BooKTok. When I did posts about my vampire short story it got way more engagement than my sci fi posts.
The hype
But the hype around BooKTok is a double-edged sword. We know the TikToka algorithm makes it so anyone, truly anyone could go viral. And it’s like a gold rush. Everyone is hoping for that, but not entirely sure how to do that. And some authors said they had videos go viral, but it was nothing at all about writing or their books so didn’t move the needle on sales.
The end result
I didn’t go viral. My fiction sales did just about what they did the previous month. Now in this time, I did cut off posting on Twitter for… reasons. So maybe starting the TikTok account helped to counteract that.
What questions do you have about BookTok? Are you thinking of starting an account? Are you on BookTok, definitely follow me so we can be buddies! What other book marketing tactics are you hearing a lot of hype about that you want me to try out? Let me know in the comments below!
Follow my TikTok: tiktok.com/@1mkwilliams
Shelby's channel: tiktok.com/@writers.poets
Thank you to Angie Hawkins for supporting my channel and this video:
amazon.com/Running-Slippers-Angie-Hawkins/dp/B0B3P1KT6V
buymeacoffee.com/1mkwilliams/e/6188
Join this channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCjvBO4kjuBSYe6Bi3RYQAQA/join
Music from: bensound.com/ E.R.F.
How You Can Support This Channel and My Work:
👍Like, Subscribe, and Comment on this video!
✉️Subscribe to my monthly newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/52c7cd246b5b/authoryourambition
➕Follow me on my other channels: FB | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads
facebook.com/1mkwilliams
twitter.com/1mkwilliams
instagram.com/1mkwilliams
goodreads.com/author/show/14420756.M_K_Williams
📚Check out my books and purchase them or request them at your library: 1mkwilliams.com or payhip.com/MKWilliamsPublishingLLC
Author Your Ambition Merch on Etsy:
📖etsy.com/shop/AuthorYourAmbition
Need help with your book?
📞You can actually do 1-on-1 coaching with me, learn more about the services available here: calendly.com/1mkwilliamsauthor/author-coach-consultation
Need help with your author business?
📈 You can book time with me to go over your author business and overcome your current roadblocks: calendly.com/1mkwilliamsauthor/author-biz
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you, but it can help me continue to create and put out more content. Thank you for supporting my channel so I can continue to provide you with free content each week!
Everyone in the bookish world is talking about TikTok. So I set out to challenge myself. 30 days on booktok. And over the next year, you’ll see me doing a lot more of these book marketing challenges for you guys so be sure to subscribe so you can catch them all.
The Challenge:
Started on Nov 4
Post every single day for 30 days
Followers:
Week 1: 787 followers
Week 2: 1,000 followers
Week 3: 1,001 followers
Week 4: 1,000 followers
End of challenge (Dec 4): 1,007
All my learnings:
BookTok v AuthorTok
Intentionally trying to make the account about books and booktok not about my author life and authortok. Obviously I mix things in, but I didn’t want my posts to only be served to other authors. Yes, authors are readers, but I wanted my posts to get out to greater booktok
The big thing I‘ve learned is you need to hook the viewer in 1-2 seconds to get them to watch your video. So this is a great challenge for how to get promote your book. We all struggle with it, but it made me think really critically about how to grab someone’s attention. It can’t just be the cover. It can’t just be the hard work you put into it. It is not a meritocracy, its all about that really engaging and grabbing content on that platform.
Original Content
Reposting content from other platforms: way lower on performance. Shared an IG story and a Tweet (before I stoppe dusing that platform) and both did poorly.
How many views is a lot of views?
Around day 10 I started to see my videos were getting below 100 views. Like all the engagement dropped. So that was frustrating.
Apparently getting 100-200 views on a post is considered bare minimum. Like it’s not good in terms of tapping into this massive potential reach.
Learning from others
So I looked at what posts I was seeing that had a high number of views, likes, shares, etc.
Shelby @writers.poets and shelby leigh poetry has so many great marketing pointers. She gives a lot of advice for free on her TikTok channel but also have really inexpensive guides you can purchase as well.
What sells
See a lot of spicy romance and fantasy books on the videos in BooKTok. When I did posts about my vampire short story it got way more engagement than my sci fi posts.
The hype
But the hype around BooKTok is a double-edged sword. We know the TikToka algorithm makes it so anyone, truly anyone could go viral. And it’s like a gold rush. Everyone is hoping for that, but not entirely sure how to do that. And some authors said they had videos go viral, but it was nothing at all about writing or their books so didn’t move the needle on sales.
The end result
I didn’t go viral. My fiction sales did just about what they did the previous month. Now in this time, I did cut off posting on Twitter for… reasons. So maybe starting the TikTok account helped to counteract that.
What questions do you have about BookTok? Are you thinking of starting an account? Are you on BookTok, definitely follow me so we can be buddies! What other book marketing tactics are you hearing a lot of hype about that you want me to try out? Let me know in the comments below!
Follow my TikTok: tiktok.com/@1mkwilliams
Shelby's channel: tiktok.com/@writers.poets
Thank you to Angie Hawkins for supporting my channel and this video:
amazon.com/Running-Slippers-Angie-Hawkins/dp/B0B3P1KT6V
buymeacoffee.com/1mkwilliams/e/6188
Join this channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCjvBO4kjuBSYe6Bi3RYQAQA/join
Music from: bensound.com/ E.R.F.
How You Can Support This Channel and My Work:
👍Like, Subscribe, and Comment on this video!
✉️Subscribe to my monthly newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/52c7cd246b5b/authoryourambition
➕Follow me on my other channels: FB | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads
facebook.com/1mkwilliams
twitter.com/1mkwilliams
instagram.com/1mkwilliams
goodreads.com/author/show/14420756.M_K_Williams
📚Check out my books and purchase them or request them at your library: 1mkwilliams.com or payhip.com/MKWilliamsPublishingLLC
Author Your Ambition Merch on Etsy:
📖etsy.com/shop/AuthorYourAmbition
Need help with your book?
📞You can actually do 1-on-1 coaching with me, learn more about the services available here: calendly.com/1mkwilliamsauthor/author-coach-consultation
Need help with your author business?
📈 You can book time with me to go over your author business and overcome your current roadblocks: calendly.com/1mkwilliamsauthor/author-biz
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you, but it can help me continue to create and put out more content. Thank you for supporting my channel so I can continue to provide you with free content each week!
