We live in strange times, indeed. We “meet” new people via email, we “get together” with people via Zoom, and we control our environment by talking to a cute little round box. Our lives have become a weird cross between the Matrix and Wall-E.
I was on the phone with a friend yesterday getting her advice about a new business venture, and suddenly I heard someone in the background say “I didn’t understand that.” Don’t worry, my friend said, that wasn’t Alexa — it was Siri. Great.
Now, I’m all for technology, and I’m double-all-for leveraging your time and effort, but I’m also a little worried about who might be listening in on my conversations, even if it also allows me to turn off the lights in another room or get the weather report while I’m cooking dinner. (Nope, that wasn’t Alexa you just heard, that was my husband laughing when I said I was cooking dinner.) Have all these devices become a little too “smart?” You know the old saying: just because you’re paranoid, that doesn’t mean they’re not after you.
I tell you this because there were two stories at the nexus of books and technology that caught my interest this week. The first was about the influence of Tik-Tok on book sales. Tik-Tok recently grabbed publishers’ attention when a five-year-old novel suddenly surged in sales, thanks to a wave of Tik-Tok coverage. “It Ends With Us” was published in 2016 – and it did pretty well at launch, selling more than 20,000 copies that first year. But this summer, it caught fire, and soon was selling 17,000 copies per week, propelled by millions of Tik-Tok views.
Influencers on Tik-Tok fell in love with the book, recorded and shared their reactions (mostly crying over the book’s ending, it seems), and videos with the hashtag #It Ends With Us now have more than 73 million views (according to a recent article in PW). The book has sold more than 300,000 copies this year, and the publisher has gone back to print 24 times to try to keep up with demand.
Tik-Tok and its book category, BookTok, are now something of an obsession with publishers, desperate to get attention amid overwhelming competition. Publishers are throwing time and money at Tik-Tok, setting up accounts, courting influencers, and trying to orchestrate viral videos.
The second meeting of books and tech that caught my eye this week was, not surprisingly, on Amazon. Of course we know that Amazon’s algorithm controls most of what we see when we search – no matter what we search for – on the world’s largest retail platform (largest, that is, outside of China). Presumably, Amazon shows us what we are most likely to buy, based on our previous buying patterns, our search terms, our browsing habits, our recent purchases, our reading preferences, and so on. One of the big factors driving what you see on Amazon is what others buy. Amazon assumes, and has been proven right to the tune of $100 billion in quarterly sales, that the more a book is bought, the more you will want to buy it.
Did you know that there are two tabs on the Bestseller Charts page at Amazon? There is “most sold” — which does seem to make sense when you are talking about bestselling books. There is also “most read.” Now, I know Alexa is listening to my phone calls and giving me the weather – but how does she know what I’m reading?
Not surprising (to me) is that the Most Sold list has Mark Levin’s new book “American Marxism” at #4, but the Most Read list has Levin’s book down at # 13. Also not surprising, Barrack Obama’s “A Promised Land” is #2 on the Most Read list, despite not showing up at all on the Most Sold list this week.
Amazon’s official definition of “Most Read” is books ranked by “the average number of daily Kindle readers and Audible listeners each week.” Maybe we should just conclude that conservatives are faster readers — or prefer print books over ebooks? Maybe readers of Obama’s new book are having a tough time getting through it, and are taking it in small doses. The book has been on Amazon’s Most Read list for 44 weeks.
So, what do TikTok and Amazon’s Most Read list have to do with each other – and what do they tell us about book publishing in America today?
They remind us of that “word of mouth” has gone high-tech — and that is dangerous. When a friend you know recommends a book she loved, you usually pay attention, right? I do. Especially a friend who’s recommended books I’ve liked in the past. But when that “friend” is a Tik-Tok influencer or Alexa — beware. You might find books you like. But those recommendations are ripe for manipulation.
I miss the days when people got together for book clubs, sharing a glass of wine or coffee and the pleasure of having all enjoyed the same great book. Personal contact has gone remote, as we’ve been told to be afraid of in-person social gatherings. Plus it’s tough to sip a good cabernet through the mask.
So, I issue this plea for authentic word-of-mouth. Every time you read a good book – tell a friend. An actual friend, someone you really think will enjoy the book, based on what you know about them — not one of the thousands of names on your Facebook or Tik-Tok account. I realize it’s low-leverage. It won’t be a winning publisher marketing strategy. But it’s a great way to connect with people — and perhaps a bulwark against Alexa choosing which book we all read next.