Take advantage of TikTok trends to promote your book. This is probably one of my favorites!
You have to spend some time on TikTok to understand what this means. Once you watch TikTok videos for a while, you’ll start to notice that many people post videos that are similar—similar sounds or similar themes. These are trends or “challenges.”
If you find yourself thinking, “Didn’t I just see someone else do that?” Or “Why is everyone in my feed doing this same thing?” Those are TikTok trends.
To proactively seek out current trends on TikTok, open the app and click the Discover button at the bottom. There you’ll see a list of top trends—hashtags, effects, and sounds.
You can also follow users on TikTok who highlight the upcoming trends. A couple of my favorites are @wavewyld and @jera.bean.
Look for ways you might be able to take advantage of those themes to promote your book. There are endless opportunities here!
Below are some examples of ways authors are using TikTok Trends to promote their books.
TikTok Trend #1:
The sound is a drum beat that includes a couple of pauses and increases in speed over the course of the audio. The theme of the trend is to stage a back and forth disagreement with increasing drama and a climax. At the end of the audio there is applause and the sound of people cheering.
In this trend, many people stage themselves typing on a computer for a virtual discussion as their part in the disagreement. They type during the times when the drum beat is going.
Brooke Fox (@brookekfox), who writes under the pen name Kennedy Fox with a co-author, used this trend to illustrate a disagreement they had when writing one of their romance books. Throughout the video, her outfit switches back and forth each time the character changes.
During the video, the text rolls out as follows:
Headline: “How my writing partner and I co-write”
“Me: Knocking up the heroine after a one-night stand.”
“Her: Telling me it’s too soon for her to get pregnant and deletes it.”
(Pause in drum roll.) “Me: Reading the new scene and sad there’s no accidental pregnancy trope.”
“Me: Deciding to add in another love interest and HE knocks her up.”
“Her: Telling me this isn’t a love triangle and she can’t get pregnant yet.”
(Pause in drum roll.) “*Deletes my scene*”
“Me: Adding in a sub plot where she DOES get pregnant and it’s TWINS!”
(Sound of applause and cheers.)
“THE END :)”
TikTok Trend #2:
The sound is part of the song “Praying” by Kesha. The lyrics for this clip are:
“…you’re gonna get what you give
But some things only God can forgive”
<ends with a dramatic high note>
In this trend, users create a story that has an element of suspense and ends in the dramatic scream.
Victoria Aveyard (@victoriaaveyard) hopped on this trend and illustrated a dialogue between two people (both played by her) talking about her book.
The first character asks (text on screen) “What part are you at?”
The other responds, “Uh close to the end?”
The first looks at the camera and raises her eyebrows with a little smirk.
The other, looking at the book, suddenly screams.
The caption of the video says, “I wish I could’ve been there for every reading of Ch. 26.” In a video of only about 10 seconds, Victoria tells the viewer that her book is suspenseful and that there’s a surprise ending. It capture our attention and piques our interest. All inspired by a TikTok trend!
I could probably find thousands of examples like this. They are much easier to understand when watching the actual videos, though. I often duet authors on my TikTok profile to show great examples of book marketing videos they are creating, so be sure to follow me on TikTok for more examples.
TikTok trends move fast. The trends above are probably long gone by the time you’re reading this, so use the tips above to find current trends and be sure to jump on them quickly. The earlier you adopt the current trends, the more you will stand out in a user’s feed.
For more tips, see this post on 19 ways to promote a book on TikTok.
Hi. I noticed one thing, please tell me if it’s true. The day I created my TikTok account, my views exploded, 600 views in 2-3 hours. The second day, the initial videos and new similar ones were almost invisible – 1-3 views, 20 in the best cases. Is this a TikTok algorithm? I mean to promote new accounts? Thanks