Kat McKenna on how Tik Tok's BookTok sells books

The Biblio File hosted by Nigel Beale

I came across Kat McKenna's name in an article written by Alison Flood in The Guardian last year. I'd googled Tik Tok's "Book-Tok" because I'd heard it was moving a lot of YA books and wanted to learn more. Kat was quoted in Alison's piece. It was clear she knew what made BookTok tick. I contacted her and now she's on the show. Kat has worked in UK publishing for almost 15 years specialising in children's and teen/YA marketing and brand strategy, and "delivers exciting and audience driven marketing campaigns to most of the major publishers as a freelancer, working on brands including World Book Day, Jacqueline Wilson, Supertato and more." She bills herself as an early innovator of digital and social media in publishing, and today she's still very much on top of what's going on. She sent me a list of links to various examples of how young people are using Book Tok these days, here: Books that made me cry: (@justmemyselfandi) Here They Both Die At the End moodboard (@emmyslibrary): here Convincing you to read We Were Liars (@alifeofliterature): here If you like this Harry Styles song, read this book (@sophiebooks): here Want to work in books? (@hotkeybooks - publisher account!) here Why do books smell like they do (@hotkeybooks) here Translations of my book by country (@Caseymcquiston - author) here Aesthetic of The Inheritance Games (@.bookobsessed) here A book Tiktok made me read that was not good (@emdobereading - based on a sound trend - we can talk more about those tomorrow!) here Convincing you to read books based on their first line (@jennajustreads) here Heartstopper - page to screen love (@rafept) here So, lots to talk about. Re: my question about who owns Tik Tok: results are pretty murky. Yes, the Chinese government has a stake in it. How much control it has over operations is open to question. Lots, is what its American competitors would like people to believe. Relatively little it seems if you're a Tik Tok spokesperson. The Guardian again, here.