TikTokWe are excited to announce that Irish author @czaronline's book, The Rachel Incident, has been shortlisted for ‘Book of the Year’ at the 2024 TikTok Book Awards. Recently, we had the pleasure of chatting with Caroline about BookTok, her journey on TikTok, and her top summer book recommendation. Dive into the details below!
Q: What first inspired you to create content on TikTok? As a millennial, trying out new platforms is second nature to me. I’m still completely entranced by the feeling of putting a message in a bottle and throwing it out to sea—pure magic. TikTok is unique in that it allows your bottle to travel further than anything else you’ve ever thrown before. It used to be that your message would go out to whoever was following you; now the bottle washes up to anyone who might need it.
Q: Tell us about your journey with TikTok/BookTok? A: I first became aware of BookTok when I started publishing my Young Adult books, the All Our Hidden Gifts trilogy. My publishers informed me that fans of the series were posting their fan art, their aesthetic videos, and even their cosplay of my characters. The series was popular, but it wasn’t on Holly Black levels. I always thought you needed millions of readers to get that kind of fan creativity. It was gorgeous to see that BookTok could create movements out of more niche or cult books. It’s so important, especially for genre fiction like fantasy or horror, which often struggles to find placement in the media or in bookshops.
Q: How does it feel to be shortlisted for the TikTok UK and Ireland Book Awards? A: Fabulous! Lots of awards exist but they don’t really put the book on a new audience’s radar. I’m excited for more people on BookTok to discover it.
Q: What is your favourite TikTok video you have made to date and why?A: My mum owns a small sweet shop in Cork City, and I set up a TikTok account for her. I made her first video, which is just a tour of me going around the shop and narrating everything I found. The video got 30k views – which might not sound like a lot, by TikTok virality standards, but it actually had a huge real-world effect on her business. Cork is a small place, and dozens of people came in and bought stuff because they had seen the video.
Q: How do you decide what content to create and share on your TikTok account? A: Honestly, I’m lazy when it comes to posting. My favourite kind of videos to make are just my dog and I out for a walk. I like to narrate her movements as though she were a Pokémon. It might not sell more books but it makes me smile.
Q: Which other BookTok creators on TikTok inspire you? A: I really like @alwynhamilton. She has a very straightforward and un-dramatic way of talking about what life is like as an author, and her videos often make me feel less alone in this crazy profession.
Q: In your opinion, what has the BookTok community done for Irish authors and readers? A: It’s so interesting: “Irish” has become a genre now. So often when I see a TikTok about my work, the poster will say something like “and the author is Irish, which is a major plus for me.” Then the comments will say, “Oh great, I love Irish authors, I will read this right away.” It’s crazy to me, especially as someone who was trying to break into writing in the early 2010s. I remember sharing with UK editors all of the articles I had written for the Irish press, and they would smile as if these articles didn’t really count or were inherently provincial or funny because they were Irish. It was crushing. Compare that to now, where everyone wants to read Irish authors.
Q: If you could recommend one Summer read for us, what would it be? A: I’m currently in a book club with two friends – we’re reading Stephen King’s It. It’s obviously a very famous book, but I think readers have forgotten how incredible and immersive it is, how expansive it is about childhood and repressed trauma. I’m waiting for ‘It’ to become a TikTok sensation the way ‘The Secret History' did. I would love to see what the BookTok community makes of it.
Q: Finally, what advice would you give to authors who want to establish a presence on TikTok? A: The BookTok community doesn’t like feeling advertised to and I don’t think having a very sales-heavy approach works. BookTok is great because it’s a grassroots thing, and comes from genuinely passionate readers. The authors I like are the ones who talk in a very frank, honest way about their experience, their expertise, and the stuff they learned while writing their books.
