• An accessible introduction to the most powerful word-of-mouth engine the book publishing industry has ever seen

  • A panel discussion on the literary fiction and non-fiction booming on BookTok

  • A weirdly entertaining make-believe graduate seminar for writers who are scared to start posting video content

BookTok is a corner of the internet where readers create original short-form video content about books. It’s where you’ll find a fandom dedicated to “unhinged women fiction” and videos of readers crying over novel endings. Many members of the BookTok community are young women and these women are among the most influential tastemakers in book publishing: their content is selling millions of books.

Find out what makes BookTok tick in this seminar led by author Leigh Stein and TikTok expert Callie Zola. We’ll explain what makes TikTok different from other social media platforms, why BookTok is such an effective word-of-mouth engine, which genres do best on BookTok, and how writers can use BookTok for marketing their backlist. We’ll give students a behind-the-scenes look at an actual BookTok influencer outreach campaign, including our research process and pitch email. You'll walk away with a list of resources, including best BookTok accounts to follow, by genre, and further reading. You do not have to become a content creator to participate in BookTok culture and use it as a market research tool in your writing career.

Thursday, February 23
8—9:30pm EST, including Q&A, on Zoom
This event will be recorded—all registrants will receive a video recording of the talk. The video will be available for 30 days.

Registration is now closed. Sign up for Leigh’s newsletter to be notified when she offers this again

What People Are Saying

“This BookTok workshop was super illuminating and made me excited to harness TikTok as a reader and writer. I’ve been putting off TikTok because I thought it was just dance videos, but my agent wants me on there so I took your course and I’m really glad I did. It took me from annoyed to enthusiastic about using this new platform.”

— Lauren Marie Fleming, founder of School for Writers

“An incredibly insightful and cohesive presentation.”

— Mackenzie Brady Watson, literary agent

“Leigh and Callie’s BookTok class helped me develop a strategy for my upcoming book launch. I especially loved how they went over a few ways to use TikTok’s algorithm to find your audience—even for if you have zero interest in making your own videos. 10/10 recommend this course!”

— Tawny Lara, author of Dry Humping

Young adults don't read books anymore; they just scroll on their phones... BookTok is only for romance readers... You can't understand TikTok if you're over 25... This is just a passing fad...

Join us for a fun and enlightening discussion with four prominent BookTok creators (@literaryfling, @tellthebees, @julietontiktok, and @dakotabossard) that will push back against many of the misperceptions about the platform that is supporting (and changing) the publishing industry. Our conversation will focus on literary fiction and non-fiction. The creators will discuss their experience creating content on TikTok, how they prefer to connect with authors and publishers, how they've seen the explosive word-of-mouth engine of BookTok impact the publishing industry in a very short amount of time, and what they predict for the future of books.

This discussion is for authors and book publishing professionals who want to learn more about BookTok from the creators' perspective.

The conversation will be moderated by author Leigh Stein, who has been extremely online since the late nineties

Stacey Yu - @literaryfling - (she/her) is a verbal brand strategist and writer based in San Francisco. Previously, she worked in Publicity at Random House, where she assisted on campaigns for titles such as THE 1619 PROJECT by Nikole Hannah-Jones and LANGUAGES OF TRUTH by Salman Rushdie. In her free time, she freelances for a literary scouting agency, reviews books online, and bakes pies.

Josh Lora - @tellthebees - (he/him) is an entertainment enthusiast, writer, and media researcher from New York City. A New York native, Josh inherited his love of reading from his mother. Before BookTok he would regularly act as a resource for book recommendations across his personal and professional lives. Other passions include animal welfare and equal access to green spaces.

Juliet Ealy - @julietontiktok - (she/her) is a mental health care worker and lifelong reader from Redondo Beach, California. In her free time she enjoys reading and reviewing books, going to the beach, and spending too much time on tiktok. She loves reading literary fiction and romance, and always tries to prioritize books by authors of color.

Dakota Bossard - @dakotabossard - (she/her) is an avid reader and writer based in Brooklyn. She works in Ecommerce and finds her will to live through writing, painting, hosting dinner parties, and connecting with fellow readers on BookTok. She is currently working on her first novel.

Sunday, February 26
1—3:30pm EST on Zoom

This event will be recorded—all registrants will receive a video recording of the panel. The video will be available for 30 days.

Registration is now closed. Sign up for Leigh’s newsletter to be notified when she offers this again

TikTok is the fastest growing, most influential and technologically sophisticated app that…you’ve been too shy to post on. 100 million Americans—a third of the population—are on it. The average user spends 80 minutes a day on TikTok: more time than on Instagram and Facebook combined. Twitter’s future is uncertain; Instagram has become a shopping mall; we’re past the boom times for podcasts and newsletters. Now’s the time to learn TikTok.

Join extremely online author Leigh Stein and content creator and prolific social media user Theodora Lesperance for a seminar designed to transform introverted writers into content creators. If you’d like to start posting content on TikTok but have zero clue where to start, join us for a weirdly entertaining make-believe graduate seminar that will teach you how to level up from a social media user to a creator. Learn how to imitate popular content and trending audio; everything you need to know about shooting video, editing video, adding captions, and using hashtags; and why it’s actually a good idea to read the comments on this corner of the internet. By the end of this seminar, you will have created and posted your very first TikTok video. Stop feeling afraid of looking stupid on the internet. As Theodora says, “Everyone looks stupid on the internet.” 

This seminar is recommended for writers who have taken—or who will take—BookTok for Writers.

Monday, February 27
8—9:30pm EST, including Q&A, on Zoom
This event will be recorded—all registrants will receive a video recording of the talk. The video will be available for 30 days.

Registration is now closed. Sign up for Leigh’s newsletter to be notified when she offers this again