Surprising figures from the BookTok ranking reveal: Among the top 50 authors on TikTok, only five are men. Why do women dominate this platform?
In the world of #BookTok, a subgenre on TikTok dedicated exclusively to books, it is mainly female authors who top the charts. A recent analysis by the online secondhand bookseller Bookbot shows that Sarah J. Maas dominates the top of the rankings with over 650,000 hashtag mentions. Her works, especially the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series, have achieved impressive reach and popularity on the platform.
BookTok: Female authors dominate
While Sarah J. Maas (“Flames and Darkness”) reigns supreme, Colleen Hoover, whose film adaptation of “Just One More Time” does not live up to the hype, follows her with over 400,000 hashtags. Ana Huang and Penelope Douglas, also authors from the USA, also enjoy great popularity on TikTok with their New Adult novels. These figures illustrate a clear preference among TikTok users for female narrative voices in literature. Interestingly, the most well-known German author on TikTok, Cornelia Funke, is only in 42nd place with her hashtag #corneliafunke. This shows that even established names can lag behind the new social media darlings. For some BookTok bestsellers, it also means a leap into the film business. Holly Jackson's bestseller “A Good Girl's Guide to Murder” lands on the TV screen.
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#BookTok: Why are male authors so rarely represented?
The ranking also reveals a remarkable discrepancy between male and female authors. With only five men in the top 50, the question arises as to why male authors are less present on TikTok. Robert Greene, the most successful among them, is only in twelfth place. His self-help literature and non-fiction books achieved around 40,000 hashtag mentions.
One reason for this discrepancy could be TikTok’s target audience, which consists predominantly of younger users who may identify more strongly with the themes and narrative styles of female authors, Bookbot.com in a statement. In addition, the interactive and visually engaging nature of TikTok may be a better fit for the dramatic and emotional storytelling often found in the works of authors like Maas and Hoover. Here are the nominees for the 2024 TikTok Book Awards.
These trends not only reflect the preferences of TikTok users, but could also indicate that reading habits and literature selection are changing due to social media. The dominance of female authors on TikTok could be a harbinger of larger shifts in the literary world. The young readership is saving the book market in many genres.
