What began as a niche online community for book lovers during the pandemic has evolved into an influential force and Ottawa’s bookstores are benefiting.
For example, Sam Piercy, of Singing Pebble Books in Old Ottawa East, says the store has experienced an increase in demand for romance, fantasy, science fiction and mysteries since 2023.
“While BookTok began skyrocketing during the pandemic, we started noticing an uptick in demand for romance and romantasy at our store mid-2023,” said Piercy, who assists the store’s owner with purchasing. “We have essentially doubled the amount of fiction books that we have in the store.”
Romantasy, a genre that combines romance and fantasy, is one of the genres popularized on BookTok, the TikTok reading community that emerged during the pandemic.
Danielle Fuller, a professor at the University of Alberta who researches reading culture, said social media communities like BookTok and Goodreads do end up influencing publishing decisions.
“Once publishers realized the sales potential, they paid more attention to the genres that BookTokers were promoting,” she said.
Canada’s publishers experienced a revival between 2020 and 2022, which is when BookTok gained popularity, with an 8.3 per cent increase in operating revenue to $1.6 billion, the largest increase since data became available in 2014, according to Statistics Canada.
In the same study, Statistics Canada recorded an 11 per cent increase in new titles between 2018 and 2022, from 10,859 published books to 12,045, although the numbers still haven’t quite caught up to levels recorded in 2014 and 2016.
BookTok isn’t just promoting new books, however, according to Fuller’s research.
“We have evidence of BookTok putting titles, especially young adult books, back onto bestselling lists years after their initial publication,” said Fuller. “Two famous examples are They Both Die at the End and The Song of Achilles.”
Both are romance novels depicting gay relationships with fantasy or science fiction elements.
The Song of Achilles, a romantasy novel following the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles during the Trojan War, reached the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller list almost 10 years after its initial publication, after it trended on BookTok in 2021.
Piercy said Singing Pebble works closely with publisher representatives to keep track of what genres and books are trending online.
“We’ve even toyed with the idea of a romantasy section so that customers find them more easily,” she said.
Recently, BookTok has been criticized by some readers who say that the community popularizes romance novels and tropes that promote unhealthy relationship dynamics.
In an article for the Broad Street Review, Chhaya Nayyar called romantasy “a TikTok-fueled romance/fantasy mashup wildly popular with women readers.
“Women today have more freedom than ever to choose their partners, yet romantasy novels depict a regressive world in which that choice is taken from them.” Nayyar said.
BookTok has also been criticized for promoting low-quality writing and repetitive stories, eliminating diverse perspectives.
“I’m not the first to be frustrated at the number of poorly written books which have [gone] viral on BookTok,” Gladys Lai wrote in an article for Vogue. “Typically comprising a smorgasbord of the same few characterizations, tropes and plot devices.”
Ottawa author Rob McLennan, a finalist in this year’s Ottawa Book Awards, which took place Nov. 15, stressed the importance of a diverse bookshelf.
McLennan said Ottawa has a long history of diverse writing and reading communities.
“Reading develops empathy, it’s good to be aware of perspectives beyond your own boundaries,” he said. “Otherwise, how do you understand another person or another point of view, especially those that you might disagree with or just find confusing.”
Piercy said the changes they’ve seen on BookTok have not only increased their sales but helped the store better cater to readers’ interests.
“I’m optimistic that authors commit themselves to their work regardless of what’s trending,” she said. “We are a community hub for the neighbourhood, and appreciate the excitement for books and reading that the online communities foster.”
