What is BookTok and How Can You Join It Too?

Our love for books and reading has taken many forms lately, and it is only natural to embrace every single aspect of this amazing passion and explore it. Probably one of the most surprising developments in the world of reading is the fact that it seems to have taken over a certain part of each social media website, video streaming platform, and other corners of the internet where nobody would have expected reading to become the center of attention.  

So, what is BookTok and why should it be of any interest to you?

We all know what TikTok is and, as readers, I believe we can all agree that TikTok accounts dedicated to books and reading are the last thing we expected to see on this platform. 

Here at Basmo, we are open to anything that comes as a positive development or improvement in the world of reading, so we naturally decided to explore BookTok in-depth and see what it’s all about. 

What is BookTok?

The BookTok meaning is pretty straightforward: it is a subsection of TikTok dedicated to books and reading in general. 

BookTok, as the name suggests, is a part of the Chinese giant short video hosting service TikTok, owned by ByteDance. There are many accounts focused on and dedicated entirely to books, where users share their thoughts about certain titles, recommend authors, and present the beauty and importance of reading in the most creative ways. 

The BookTok community is active, constantly creating highly engaging book-related content and one you should definitely consider being a part of if you’re passionate about reading. There’s quite a lot for you to gain if you take a look at BookTok.

Is BookTok an app?

One thing we get asked quite often here at Basmo, is whether there is such a thing as a BookTok app. The clarification that needs to be made here is that BookTok is not a separate app that you will need to download on your mobile device in order to gain access to the book-related content. You just need to access the TikTok app and follow the accounts that you find interesting for your reading habits.

BookTok is simply a sub-community on TikTok, consisting of accounts that are dedicated to books and reading, so gaining access to it is quite easy.

How to get on BookTok

Whether you are looking to learn how to start a BookTok yourself, or just looking for ways to simply join the community and become part of the phenomenon as a follower of the best BookTok accounts, we are here to teach you everything you need to know and to support you all throughout the process.

Here at Basmo, we love books and reading above everything else, and we are 100% dedicated to instilling a love for reading and healthy reading habits in every single one of you. So we took a close look at how BookTok works and everything you need to know. 

How to join BookTok as a follower

Becoming a part of the BookTok community as a follower is easy to do and brings a series of benefits. 

Here’s how you do it:

1. You download the TikTok app from the App Store or Google Play store and install it on your mobile device
2. You create your account (either via email or join directly with your Google or Facebook account)
3. You start following the most relevant content creators for your particular interests (we will provide a list of the most popular BookTok accounts further below)

As you can see, the process is very simple and will only take you a couple of minutes to finish. Once you’re all set up, you can start enjoying the benefits of being a follower on BookTok. 

Here are the most important ones:

• You will enjoy creative content related to your passion for reading
• You will be able to watch bite-size videos with book recommendations
• You will gain access to book reviews done in a completely different way than you’re used to
• You will have tons of fun, relaxing, and learning new things about the reading you are so passionate about.

How to become a BookToker yourself

Starting your own BookTok is an amazing experience and it will give you a chance to get creative, to express yourself in ways you would have had a hard time to find anywhere else, and it will clearly push you to become a better reader. 

Here is our step-by-step guide to creating a successful BookTok account and keeping it interesting for your followers.

1. Know what you want your BookTok to achieve 

Knowing your motivation for becoming a BookToker is the very first step of the process, just like knowing what you want to achieve through your BookTok. Why do you want to join this creators’ community and what are you hoping to gain from it? If you’re just doing it for fun, you can easily get it done as a hobby without investing too much time, money, and thought into it. 

If you’re planning for some financial gains or at least some commercial benefits for your business, things change. Considering the huge amounts some TikTokers manage to earn through their videos and the level of exposure they gain for their businesses, it’s easy to understand that the competition on the platform is quite fierce.

Prepping for your future BookTok, if you’re looking to earn some coffee money, is absolutely essential and one thing that is particularly important is finding and understanding your niche. You should not shy away from creating a highly niched BookTok, you would be surprised to know how many people are going to relate to your content. 

2. Choose the right handle

It goes without saying that you will need to set up a creator account on TikTok in order to be able to become part of the community. The most important thing about the registration process is choosing the right username or handle for your TikTok account. 

The importance of your handle should not be underestimated. It should tell the exact story of the BookTok you are managing, and should be as short and relevant as possible. Don’t try to overcomplicate this process of choosing the handle, the simpler, the better. 

3. Make sure you are using the right equipment and have an adequate filming space

Since TikTok is entirely based around short video content, BookTok is no different. And if you want to be competitive and be able to get as many followers as possible, you need to make sure you are able to provide them with quality content. And by that, I mean having a good camera, some lighting, editing skills, and a filming place that is visually pleasing. 

If you want the people who watch you to become your fans, you need to treat them the same way you would like to be treated: with respect. Good quality on your videos is essential. Most phones these days will meet the criteria for providing a decent enough resolution for the videos and capturing the colors and movements in an aesthetically pleasing way, but you will definitely need to add some lighting equipment and a nice decor for your videos.

4. Learn to use TikTok to its max potential

Despite what you may think about it at first, you should know that TikTok is a very complex app that comes with a huge range of options for content creators. You can edit videos, add special effects, sound effects, filters, and animations, and you have endless possibilities to post videos exactly how you want them to look. 

Get familiar with all the features TikTok has to offer, see how they work and when they can be used. It would be a total waste to not take advantage of them since they are already included in the app and are quite easy to use. 

5. Be organized

If you’re serious about creating a successful BookTok, one essential thing to consider is the frequency of your posts. Ideally, you should post new content as frequently as possible as long as this doesn’t affect the quality of your posts. Being organized helps a lot, so creating a clear schedule for your posts is going to be a great idea. 

But you won’t be able to manage a successful BookTok unless you are also very passionate about your reading. You should also take your reading seriously, and since we are on the subject of being organized, one thing that will take your reading habits to the next level is to create a reading schedule.

And here is where Basmo steps in, to provide you with the best solution.

Also, as you read, Basmo encourages you to take notes and facilitates a simple and smooth process of doing so.

6. Be creative with your content

Make sure to always follow relevant BookTok accounts to see what they are posting and either use them as inspiration for your future posts or as a counterexample to make sure your posts are adding missing pieces for the bookish community. Basmo can help you in your creative process as well.

The app provides you relevant information about your reading habits, such as your reading speed and other interesting statistics you can later use in your videos to share your reading experience.

Not only that, but you can also use the Quotes feature to extract the relevant sentences or paragraphs that moved you so you can easily share them with your community.

When it comes to what kind of videos you should be posting, the sky is the limit. You can review books, share your reading experience, post interesting motivational messages for readers, share interesting facts about reading, or whatever else you feel that your community would appreciate. 

What are the best BookTok accounts?

Since, as I mentioned, inspiration is important, here are our favorite BookTok accounts we highly recommend you follow. They are appreciated by huge communities and supported by readers from all over the world. There is a lot to gain from watching their content, whether you just want to be a follower or if you are using them as an inspiration source. 

• Abbysbooks – (430k followers)
• Amyjordanj – (313k followers)
• Caitsbooks (300k followers)
• Sydneyyybooks – (230k followers)
• Kevintnorman – (172k followers)

Last, but clearly not least, we want to tell you that we are also particularly proud that we are as well a part of the BookTok community. We strongly encourage you to take a look at our very own Basmo BookTok account, we are pretty sure that you will find some interesting videos. And if you do, make sure to follow us as well, because we tend to post new things quite regularly, it would be a shame to miss them.

Final thoughts

So, what is BookTok? It is a bookish community on one of the most popular video social platforms, where you can also choose to become a part of the story. Using Basmo, and following some of the advice I provided above will certainly help you become a successful BookToker.