“Wow did you see the new enemies to lovers, dark romance, five-star, romantasy releases
for this month?”
“Omg you’re reading that? That’s so dark academia of you!”
“Guys, isn't it weird how we’ve all started reading about ‘chosen ones’ for the first time since
the 2012 dystopia craze?”
In the last four years the world - especially the internet - has seen a huge uptick in readers,
specifically in the fantasy, and romance fiction genres. Pre-2020, the decline in popularity of
print books was massive, and many in the publishing industry were facing very real concerns
about the longevity of its relevance. Then COVID quite literally spread across the globe,
followed shortly after by TikTok. As with any internet platform, niches and communities were
formed fairly quickly on the app, resulting in the birth of ‘BookTok’.
Fast forward four years and now we have a wealth of creators, massive audiences, and
endless content being produced, all informing readers where they should focus their
attentions, what book they should collect next, what tropes fall into which genres and
subcategories. With this, comes a litany of hyper-specific language, almost morphing into its
own social and marketable dialect. Phrases that were far less popular 4 years ago now have
a collective social meaning, things like ‘enemies to friends, to lovers’, ‘high fantasy’, and
‘dark romance’. Now, to be clear, I'm not discounting the fact that these plot devices and
terms existed long before the internet and have been popular at many different points in
history. I’m more specifically talking about the limitations that arise when a book is marketed
and portrayed as merely a limited combination of these tropes and buzzwords.
I also think it’s critical to acknowledge that BookTok serves to discuss more than just the
fantasy and romance genres, however, these have significant cultural marketability and
increased commercial success so more content is produced about them and therefore they
take up more of the online space.
Now when watching reviews or consuming content on TikTok each book is described using
combinations of these key phrases. It’s almost like a tagging system, selecting which
pre-determined combination of terms best describes the author's story. Now I’m not here to
talk down to this style and strategy of content creation, it has been widely successful in
bolstering readership and ensuring the continuation of a healthy publishing industry, beyond
just romance and fantasy. Some of the world’s largest and oldest publishing houses such as
Penguin Random House, Hachette, and Harper Collins have integrated this 21st-century
language of books into their marketing and publicity campaigns - once again with great
success.
The other stakeholders to consider within this system are our wonderful authors. To spend
years of your life working on a book, working to get your work traditionally published, going
through all the stages of editing, looking at projected sales, sending out your ARCs
(advanced reader copies - here is yet another example of a phrase that has grown in
exposure due to BookTok influencers ;)), all to open up an app and see someone deem it the
latest ‘roman empire of BookTok’. For many authors, this is the dream and secures a high
degree of commercial success.
And while yes, I am sure a good deal of authors are somewhat miffed that their work is being
reduced to key phrases and drivel that often fails to capture the depth or nuance of their
100,000 words, there are many more who simply enjoy writing in adherence to these
formulas. Those who do write in the romance genre are also aware that it is one of the
categories with the highest turnover of books, with fewer people inclined to reread and more
merely wanting to move on to their next read. Fantasy authors do not have the same issue,
however, there is still often a culture of consumerism and moving through extensive TBRs.
Perhaps the most obvious example of these phrases and tropes is the romance genre as a
whole, yes there are still a variety of plots out there but the majority tell stories of
heterosexual love forming between two people, who develop and prove these feelings in the
face of danger or adversity. Marketing has now changed and instead of focusing on the
romantic journey as a whole, grabs key moments that occur along the way and uses these
small, hyperspecific plot points as a means of categorising the novel. At the moment this
strategy is wildly successful and readership is on a continuous rise. I would argue that it’s
not a change in the content or language of the books being produced, but rather a marketing
and communications strategy that has developed out of the birth of BookTok and short-form
video content.
I’m not an expert in trends or online marketing strategy, I’m also not an adjudicator of ethics.
As with everything in life the rise of buzzwords and ‘trope’ based reviews impacts those who
write and read in both good and bad ways. I think it’s great to be able to identify specifics
within a work that you stumble across online, and then can pursue with the knowledge that
you will enjoy reading it.
I think it’s great to have some idea of what to expect when diving into a book. I also think that
mass consumption of literature limited to the same handful of repeated plots is not ideal,
however, who am I to yuck anyone else's yum? There are still hundreds of incredible,
complex, and diverse books being discussed and read daily. TikTok has not changed that. It
has just shown that certain genres are more accessible and attractive to larger groups of
readers.
I think as readers we need to remain aware of how we are interacting with books and
content targeted at us as a demographic, I don’t think the answer is condemning successful
marketing - after all, we all benefit from a publishing industry that makes money. Maintaining
that level of critical thinking and cognisance is integral to keeping the community authors,
publishers, editors, marketers, and readers alive and well in the real world, not just in
inherently performative and limited online spaces.
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