Here’s how local bookstores are responding to the BookTok, Bookstagram, BookTube trends

In the early days of the pandemic, many young people discovered a fascination with the world of reading.  It was a fascination that soon started to gain popularity online, to the point where a new book-focused community found a home on TikTok, the short-form video sharing platform. Thus, “BookTok” was born. While larger book retailers […]

In the early days of the pandemic, many young people discovered a fascination with the world of reading.  It was a fascination that soon started to gain popularity online, to the point where a new book-focused community found a home on TikTok, the short-form video sharing platform. Thus, “BookTok” was born. While larger book retailers such as Indigo are going all-in on the BookTok trend, with their feature tables showing the hottest titles, independent Ottawa bookstores are not quite as keen to keep up with latest social media trends. 

For Joe Zador, manager of Black Squirrel Books on Bank Street, a few dedicated customers fill him in on what’s trending online so he can fine-tune the store’s curation process.  “We’ll all try to keep our finger on the pulse but I’m not a really active TikTok user. We’ll use Instagram to keep an eye on trends through ‘Bookstagrammers,’ but sometimes we’ll get requests and start to pick up on a pattern,” Zador said.  For Jim Sherman, owner of Perfect Books on Elgin Street, the curation process is focused on reviews. “We pay close attention to book reviews. Things like (The) New York Times, (The) Guardian, The Globe and Mail, all those kinds of book reviews. Customers will come in and order something that maybe we’ve missed and we will jump on that as well. Our curation is for the serious reader, the passionate reader, not the flavour-of-the-month kind of thing,” Sherman said. The BookTok community – which sees creators sharing book reviews, listing their favourite titles, and everything in between –  had predecessors on Instagram and YouTube, known as “Bookstagram” and “BookTube,” respectively.  While Sherman says it’s early days to see the effect of BookTok on his store’s sales, Zador has picked up on a few genres that seem to be flying off the shelves.  “We have definitely noticed (BookTok) affecting certain genres or titles. I’ve noticed an increase in popularity for romance and fantasy writing … what used to be considered young adult writing, but specifically read by people of all ages, which is great to see,” he said.  Zador says he has also noticed an uptick in demand for books in the horror genre.  “It’s a shocking pick, but I guess that has become quite popular on BookTok,” he said. More recently, BookTok has gained traction online for its fascination with the romance-fantasy, or “romantasy,” genre, with titles such as Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros and the A Court of Rose and Thorns series by Sarah J. Maas consistently topping best-selling charts.  Data published by Booknet Canada shows that books in these genres were responsible for half of book sales for adult titles between July 2019 and June 2022. Marketing on BookTok is powerful for authors, with data showing sales for trending titles on BookTok increasing 1,047 per cent.  Some books have even been adapted for the silver screen. This past summer, It Ends With Us, a novel by Colleen Hoover that was among the top three highest-selling titles in the Booknet report, was made into a big-budget movie starring Blake Lively. Zador says things people read or see online can encourage them to seek hobbies away from their screens.  “People will ask, ‘Do people even read anymore or are they just on their phones?’ I’ll kind of say a similar thing, but very often they’re actively trying to seek out books because they’re spending too much time on their phones … or they’re being encouraged to read because of something they see online,” he said. An increasing number of younger readers are crossing the Black Squirrel’s doorstep, according to Zador, most of them students from nearby Carleton University. “There’s a common misconception that kids don’t read, which I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that. Book sales in general have increased over the past few years, at least nationally. For the most part, a large portion of our customer base would be considered gen Z or millennials, or younger … It’s not always super noticeable, but it’s definitely helped,” he said. Not only are more books being sold, but more people are coming back to in-person shopping as well. The Canadian Book Consumer Study 2023 by Booknet Canada showed that 70 per cent of people said they visited a bookstore in-person, up from 64 per cent in 2022. This, of course, helps independent local bookstores such as Black Squirrel and Perfect Books. Still, Zador and Sherman agree that their shops remain more interested in a curated experience, outside the world of social media trends.  “Our model is that we want people to come into the store and spend some time there, looking around, pulling a book off the shelf and considering it. Not just coming in, grabbing the newest book because there’s a lot of chatter about it, and leaving,” Sherman said.  “We kind of like to create the illusion that we’re aware of things without actively participating in them … that we have spies. A lot of the appeal of a used book store, at least in our case, is that there’s something kind of spontaneous about it. There’s an element of, ‘Oh, you just kind of happened to find this,’” Zador said.  Part of the local bookstore experience is the ability to allow local or underrepresented authors to shine, a philosophy that is present at Black Squirrel and Perfect Books.  “We try to showcase works by marginalized voices, or at least stuff you don’t necessarily always see being published. We try to keep an eye on international literature and works written by people of colour and members of the queer community. We also stock books that the staff has a personal connection to, because we can kind of have a bit of a personal connection to the work itself when we’re selling it to people,” Zador told OBJ. Perfect Books carries many political and historical works, but also dabbles in local and “unusual” works as well.  “The main thing that draws people to our store are the books that haven’t been publicized, things that not everybody is reading. They’re coming in, looking for something that they don’t necessarily know they want,” Sherman said. Where BookTok markets mostly new titles in the “romantasy” genre, some readers crave the classics. “We have a section of Penguin Classics and they fly out of the store. People come in and find things that they’ve heard about for years and never got around to reading and there they are for under 15 bucks,” Sherman said. Sherman says all are welcome to get an introduction to the reading community.  “Come on in, take the time, and ask some of our younger staff members … Quite frequently, we’ll do an interview with (someone inquiring about books to read). We’ll ask what they’ve read before, what their age is. From that, we can put a package together,” Sherman said. Though independent bookstores may not be chasing trends on BookTok, Zador says that exposure online has been great for the industry as a whole. “We give BookTok a big thumbs up. If there’s any BookTokers reading this, we appreciate what you’ve done for the industry and the culture, so thank you,” Zador said.