‘Huge gripe’: The popular book trend both uniting and dividing Australians

“BookTok” has divided Australian book lovers.

While many see it as a great way to appeal to people who’ve previously struggled with reading, others claim the trend has “oversaturated” the market.

The term refers to an online community of people who use TikTok to recommend books – typically romantic fantasies, coined “romantasy” – to one another.

Where eager readers may have relied on other platforms in the past – including Wattpad and YouTube (BookTube), and more traditionally, a book club or library – the emergence of TikTok has paved the way for short, digestible recommendations, propelling books like Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing series into a viral frenzy.

Dozens of fans queued outside the George St Dymocks in Sydney late on Monday night to get their hands on Yarros’ latest release, Onyx Storm, while some Berkelouw Books stores recorded a month’s worth of sales within an hour following the book’s release, highlighting the true power of BookTok.

Aussies set up camp in a bid to get their hands on the brand new book from Rebecca Yarros, titled Onyx Storm – the sequel to bestsellers Iron Flame and Fourth Wing.

However, not everyone is keen to pounce on the trend, with readers unlikely to run across titles shared in the online BookTok community at Better Read Than Dead in the heart of Sydney’s inner west.

The store’s book buyer, Lexie Eatock, warned the trend could be oversaturating the market, as publishers lean heavily into BookTok and romantasy and stray from works that do well in independent stores.

“That is a huge gripe that I have with the industry at the moment – pages and pages on sale sheets are dedicated to commercial books that will do well on TikTok or that were previously self published,” Ms Eatock said.

“Which is great – it’s good that authors are getting acquired, but it’s an oversaturated market.

“I think that it’s great people are reading … that romance books are finally getting some more recognition … but I do think that places need to lean away from that and not rely (solely) on books that will sell on BookTok.”

She said publishers prioritising BookTok books were “infuriating”, and you often couldn’t tell the books apart as they sported such similar covers.

“Publishers leaning so much into it, it’s slightly infuriating at times, but trends come and go,” Ms Eatock said.

“I think this one will stay, but one day it will die down.”

Ms Eatock said Better Read Than Dead was “an outlier”, as the store didn’t stock or advertise titles typically shared in those online communities as they didn’t work well with their usual demographic.

“I’d buy three of them, and they maybe sell, but there are other books — much more literary fiction, queer fiction, Indigenous fiction — that we do very well with,” she said.

“A lot of those (BookTok) customers are going to Dymocks George St and other book shops rather than us.”

Berkelouw Books book buyer Serina Hajje said while it was “wonderful” to see BookTok bring in new readers and engage with those who may have struggled to enjoy reading in the past, she also agreed publishers might be taking it too far in some cases.

“Because there’s been such great success with some titles (including Rebecca Yarros) … a natural reaction to that is that publishers will now start picking up any book they see people talking about online,” she said.

“And that includes a lot of self-published titles, so it’s definitely flooded the market and we see a lot of these romantasy books that don’t have a great quality to it or haven’t had as much editing because publishers are just trying to find the next Rebecca Yarros.

“It’ll just flood the market and it’s kind of up to us to decide what’s actually a hit or of quality that we want to stock in our stores.”

82-year-old Glenda has taken the online romantasy (romantic fantasy) community by storm, with her hilarious reactions to the sexy literary hit 'Fourth Wing'.

However, the popularity of BookTok titles is undeniable, with people turning up in large numbers for the Onyx Storm release.

The new book generated a month’s worth of sales within an hour at several Berkelouw Books stores this week, Ms Hajje said.

“(Romantasy books are) taking up more space in our stores, and that’s definitely driven by TikTok or had a really big impact because of TikTok,” she said.

“(They’re) incredibly popular in the first week, then it dies down.”

Ms Hajje said she was ultimately a fan of BookTok and its ability to help readers find the right book, with a few Berkelouw stores putting up BookTok displays to help customers find titles more easily,

“Everyone is a reader, it’s just about finding the right book for them,” she said.

The company’s Balgowlah store has even gone a step further, launching a monthly fantasy book club led by 21-year-old Abbey Lawrey in May last year.

Ms Lawrey said the club attracted people of all ages who were “very passionate about the romance and world building that comes with the fantasy side of things”.

“Everybody just loves it, they really get into it – the lore … they love talking about the characters and relationship development between people,” she said.

“It’s really nice to sit down and have a chat with people for an hour or so, we tend to go off and talk about other books.”

She said BookTok had become a great “bridge” for people into romantasy books.

“Romantasy helps engage people and invite people into it. I think BookTok is a big part of it,” she said.

“You like one post on your feed and suddenly you’re flooded with all these other ones, it really does help bring in new readers.

“Romance has long since been very stigmatised, so it’s nice to have a bit more introduction to it and respect surrounding it.”

As a writer herself, Ms Lawrey added that BookTok was also doing wonders for self-published authors by giving them a platform.

“It’s very enlightening for me to see how writers engage with readers on platforms like TikTok,” she said.