The most popular books on social media, according to BookTok
By Natasha O’Neill/CTVNews.ca Writer
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Toronto, Ontario (CTV Network) — TikTok is bringing book lovers together and some novels are being viewed more than a billion times, a new report suggests.
Aura Print, a U.K.-based printing company, gathered a list of the most popular novels on #BookTok, an online community using hashtags that have brought in about 163.1 billion views since the app was launched.
Canada’s biggest bookstore chain, Indigo, has seen rising sales in part thanks to the online community that shares reviews of books and recommendations on TikTok.
Aura Print created a list of the top 15 books on the social media platform just ahead of National Book Lovers Day on Aug. 9.
The company says it compiled a list of 62 popular books from websites like Barnes and Noble, Penguin and Book Riot, then cross-referenced that list with TikTok. It then ranked the titles based on most- to least-viewed posts on the social media platform, using videos on or before Aug. 2.
Topping the list is “Shadow and Bone” by Leigh Bardugo, with about 15 billion views on related TikTok content.
The young adult novel follows Alina, who is fighting in a regiment to defend her home country of Ravka when she discovers she has supernatural powers, a summary by GoodReads says.
The story is also a Netflix Original series and surpassed the second book on the list “by a landslide,” a press release from Aura Print says.
“It Ends with Us,” a popular book by Colleen Hover — also known as Co-Ho— placed second on the list, with 2.7 billion views.
A summary on GoodReads says the novel focuses on Lily, who is navigating a crush on a neurosurgeon who doesn’t seem interested in relationships, when someone from her past resurfaces.
Hoover’s name shows up on the Aura Print list three times, showing the author’s popularity on TikTok.
In third place is “The Cruel Prince” by Holly Black, which garnered 1.3 billion views.
The fantasy novel recounts the story of three human sisters who are taken to live in the High Court of Faerie, a summary on GoodReads says.
The top three books on Aura Print’s list were written before 2018, showing how the online #BookTok community resurfaces older novels.
This trend has been credited by Indigo with re-popularizing books after the initial hype has died down, which benefits book retailers and the publishing industry at large.
Fourth and fifth spots go to Hoover’s novels “Ugly Love” and “Verity,” with 879.9 million and 652 million views each.
“Ugly Love” follows Tate and Miles, who don’t have time for relationships but share a mutual attraction for one another.
“Verity” is the story of a struggling writer who gets the opportunity to finish the book of another successful author.
MOST POPULAR GENRES ON TIKTOK A separate list compiled by Aura Print says romance books are the most popular on TikTok.
Amassing 8 billion views of content tagged as romance, the interest in the genre online has ignited the careers of some authors, like Hoover, Aura Print said in a press release.
According to the company, Hoover has seen a 66.1 per cent increase in sales for her romance novels.
Short stories are also popular on TikTok, with 1.8 billion views, followed by the dark romance genre with 1.6 billion views, and comics with 872.9 million views.
Self-help books, horror, young adult, fantasy, crime/thriller and science/nature make up the rest of the top 10 genres compiled by Aura Print.
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