Two Irish authors have been nominated in the second-ever TikTok Book Awards as BookTok becomes a “modern-day book club”.
Cork author Caroline O’Donoghue has been nominated for Book of the Year in the UK and Ireland for her coming-of-age novel The Rachel Incident.
Claire Wright, known for her breakout fantasy novel A Realm of Lore and Lies, was nominated for Breakout Author of the Year.
This is the second TikTok Book Awards, a ceremony giving special recognition to the writers of BookTok and their fans.
Ms Wright agreed that the social media trend is like ‘the modern-day book club in digital form’.
“It's global – you can connect with anyone across the world, and you’ll just find new reads of books you’d never normally hear about,” she told Lunchtime Live.
Through #BookTok, TikTok users can find book reviews, recommendations, fan-made videos and other content centred around their favourite stories.
Several new and old books have gone viral through the trend – catapulting them to new levels of fame.
From fantasy romances like They Both Die at the End to 90s thrillers such as The Secret History, BookTok has been praised for exposing readers to more diverse genres.
The rise of BookTok
In particular, Ms O’Donoghue said queer literature has been popularised thanks to BookTok.
She explained US author Madeline Miller became one of the original BookTok authors for her novel The Song of Achilles, an LGBTQ+ retelling of the Greek legend.
When the book was first published in 2011, it “came and went”, according to Ms O’Donoghue – but then BookTokkers found it in 2020.
“Young people interested in queer literature have made this book a number-one bestseller,” she said.
Ms O’Donoghue, who has also previously written fantasy novels, said there’s much more “scope for creativity” on BookTok.
“They make fan art, they make ‘trailers’ [for the books] with other videos, they do cosplay,” she said.
“It helps [authors] find their community so much quicker and have to jump through less hoops.”
BookTok section of Barnes & Noble, The Grove, Hollywood. Image: Wikimedia CommonsBookTok has also more footing in the real world, with several book shops around the globe now advertising a ‘BookTok section’.
Ms Wright, an independent author, said this supports writers who do not have the backing of major publishers.
“[BookTok] has given me an opportunity to get into bookshops,” she said.
“It has changed the game completely.”
Irish bookshops such as Eason’s, Hodges Figgis and Chapters currently have a BookTok section.
The 2024 TikTok Book Awards will take place in London on July 25th – with TikTok users themselves voting for the winners through the app.
Last year, over 160,000 people had their say and now the 2024 voting hub is officially open.
Listen back here:
Main image: Splitscreen of authors Caroline O'Donoghue and Claire Wright.
