2 Years / 32,634 followers / 1.3 Million likes / 1,650 videos
2 years ago, today, I posted my first book related video to tiktok. At the time I never thought I would find such an amazing community and find so many people to talk about books with. I especially didn't think my page would ever gain more than 500 followers, let alone over 30,000! In honor of my anniversary I thought I would talk a little bit about my journey, and things I've learned over the past two years.
My journey didn't really start until December 15, 2020. Up until then I had posted 38 bookish videos (and 7 others) over the course of 8 months. At first glance, 38 videos is a lot. However, that only averages 1 video per week, which really isn't a lot. Especially for tiktok. On December 15, 2020 I posted a video inviting people to join the 'Star Wars Canon Challenge'. A book club I was putting together to read all of the Star Wars novels. I thought I would attract maybe 20 people, 50 at most. I woke on the 16th to hundreds of new followers and over 20,000 views. I was not expecting the video to blow at all. I quickly realized hosting the book club on Instagram wasn't working since there were so many people. I ended up creating a discord, where over 1,000 people joined from more than 15 countries & 45 states.
By December 30, 2020 I made it to 3,000 followers on tiktok. I started to make merch for the book club, post more tiktok's, and make new friendships. I know one of the things people always want to know is how to grow your follower count. In all honesty, it's random. While I made it 3,000 by the end of 2020, it took me almost three months to make it to 4,000. Then in April, I had another video blow up. This time, it was explaining the reading order of the Grishaverse. In total it received roughly 850,000 views! That video pushed me from 3k to 8,000 followers within a week! So when I say it's random, I truly mean it. You can go from gaining hundreds, even thousands of followers in a single day, to weeks, even months of only a hundred.
That all is to say, don't give up! The past two years have truly been amazing. BookTok has literally sent me to Disneyland, Angie Thomas (Author of The Hate U Give) reached out to me and sent me signed/personalized copies of each of her novels, Colleen Hoover bought my ENTIRE Wishlist. I've had multiple authors reach out to me and send me ARC's of their novel, I've been apart of Stormi Lewis' BookTok Murder series & game, COLIGO preorder campaign, and so much more! I recently even had a publisher reach out to me to send me a book.
Two years ago, when I first started my page, I had been out of work for two months. What I thought would only last for another month at most, lasted an additional twelve. BookTok was something that I was able to do that brought me so much joy during such a difficult time. The people I met through BookTok were so supportive when I decided to go back to work and search for a job, and they celebrated with me when I got my new job! BookTok isn't just a social media app, it's a community.
I am so happy to be able to be apart of the community, and hope to continue to be apart of it for as long as I can. Starting this website, and soon a podcast, is an extension of my BookTok account. My goal is to be able to post more reviews on here, which will help me to articulate what I want to say in my video later on. In addition, I plan to interview authors, fellow BookTokers, and others about all things books. Which is something you can most definitely expect from my podcast. I already have the first to authors lined up; the first is a close friend who is writing a memoir, and the second is the author to one of my favorite novels.
This post wouldn't be complete without me thanking you. Weather you have been following me from day one, or just started today, I appreciate you more than you know! So many of you have helped me grow in confidence to be able to feel more comfortable posting photos and videos of myself. At the start of my account it was difficult, mainly because I don't like the way I look. I am not as skinny and in shape as I would prefer to be. It's something I've felt for a long time. However, over the past two years I have been able to feel more and more comfortable in my own skin, I do equate a lot of that to the BookTok community. With that being said, I am trying to loose weight and get into better shape, but I don't feel as self conscious as I once did.
So, thank you. Thank you for being here, and being apart of my journey.
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