For most individuals, textbooks used for learning and reading books for leisure have been their main source of entertainment. However, growing up in a more contemporary world, the approach to learning may differ, incorporating technological advances such as touchscreens instead of paper and pencil, or iPads instead of sensory picture books.

These changes have made a significant impact on young children’s development, particularly those in primary school aged 4-11 years. A huge turning point in this realization was the impact of COVID-19 and how detrimental it was to children’s learning. But do these digital tools have to replace traditional resources?

David Morgan is the founder of All Aboard Learning, an organization focused on literary research, established in 2008 to identify the causes of educational difficulties for children and develop unique tools to address these potential negative effects on children’s futures. In our interview, David believes that one of the main obstacles to learning that children face is inheritance. He says that “literacy can become quasi-inherited”, as “if your parents can’t really read, how can they help you?”

To watch a snippet of our interview where David shares some of All Aboard Learning’s history, their missions, and one of the positive uses of technology in education, click below:

Subscribe now

Determining whether there is a lack of physical print resources in children’s education depends on the schools, academic programs, and teaching styles. In discussing this topic with Matthew Wimpenny-Smith, a Senior Lecturer in Initial Teacher Education at Oxford Brookes University, he agrees “yes, there appears to be a growing shift away from physical resources towards digital tools in some primary classrooms, although the pace of change is slow which is typical of education”.

Knowing the industry and dynamics of education to a professional level, Matthew mentions that “this change is only beneficial when physical and digital resources are used in balance, and an over-reliance on digital tools is likely to negatively impact children’s learning, particularly in early literacy”.

In a similar judgment, David has found through his own research at All Aboard Learning that “at the moment 25% of children still get to the age of 11 unable to read”. Could this be a result of physical reading books fading away?

However, now a Program Director for Initial Teacher Education at Oxford Brookes University, Kelly shared her past experiences as a teacher in several primary schools over 4 years and reports that “I haven’t experienced a lack of physical resources in primary schools”. In fact, Kelly says “we strongly promote the use of physical resources in all subjects”, including now in her ITE role at Brookes.

Research into education studies has shown that there has been an adaptive and impactful change in learning and leisure enrichment strategies in primary schools due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) conducted a “longitudinal study” into the disruptions of school closures to children in years 2-6, focusing on “attainment gaps between reading and maths”. The study found that the attainment gap in reading and maths widened significantly, increasing from 4% before the pandemic to 17% in 2023. In addition, the study concluded that no beneficial closures of these gaps were achieved through remote learning during the numerous lockdowns, showing its impact on children’s education.

In the interview with David, the fallout of Covid-19 and its changes were discussed as “something which has been changing very fast very recently”, whereas “until 2020 the classroom was almost unchanged over the last hundred years”.

Matthew consolidated these research findings, sharing that “it has also contributed to gaps in foundational learning inequalities, and highlighting the importance of social interaction in children’s development.

Furthermore, Kelly says that “teachers rely heavily on the interactive whiteboard, with lots of teaching being driven towards being scheme-driven”, also with “homework set using online platforms too - even more screen time!” Not only this, but Kelly believes that the rise of technology after Covid-19 has affected children’s development in other leisurely ways, such as “play-based learning and creative thinking in particular”.

As David mentions, this could be due to the minimal effort and quick fixes that digital tools provide. During our interview, David goes on to say that “there is always something that is highly engineered to hack the brain’s dopamine circuits to give a very quick gratification, whereas a book tends to be a much slower process for that”. Especially for primary school children aged 4-11, their brains, identities, and personalities are still developing, making them more susceptible to digitally engaging learning options.

To keep the classroom alive, both Matthew and Kelly have noted that technology should be embraced alongside traditional print methods to create an enriched and fulfilling learning experience for the future.

When considering the idea of embracing technology as a mainstream, helpful, and inclusive tool in children’s education, Matthew agrees but additionally mentions that technology should “not be a replacement for traditional learning approaches”. Perhaps iPads, touchscreens, and other digital technologies bring a new element to classroom teaching that print elements can’t.

Matthew explains that physical resources provide “foundational skills such as reading, writing, and communication, and more importantly, critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration,” which are all imperative for a young child’s development. Therefore, Matthew says, “the future of children’s education lies in a balanced pedagogically driven model where digital tools enhance adaptive teaching, engagement and access”.

Furthermore, Kelly agrees that traditional methods of teaching should not be discarded, saying “a balance is required - technology has to be embraced and used responsibly, but with other tools implemented too”. Finally, David similarly says that “the teaching industry will change more and more over the next decade or two as technology becomes embedded as an approach”, stating that digital tools should be accepted into a primary school curriculum, as they don’t seem to be disappearing anytime soon.

Leave a comment

Floaters is a cosy crime-meets-climate-fiction novel about a group of school kids who are outraged that their go-to swimming spot has been contaminated with sewage. Their teen rebellion turns into a protest against their local MP, whose inaction resulted in their not-so-relaxing summer swim.

‘It’s a really sad thing, people feel that their environment doesn’t belong to them, and that it’s dirty and is going to make them feel sick,’ Craig replied when I asked him about his reasons for writing the novel. He spoke about how people don’t swim in local spots anymore, and who can blame them when you don’t know what you’re swimming in?

‘What I learnt from researching is that the year 2026 is a massive year for those people who are interested in campaigning for higher water quality,’ he explained. ‘The book is supposed to make some contribution to the issue, and it seemed like the timing was really important.’

50% of the profits from this book will go towards Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), an environmental charity that campaigns against sewage and plastic pollution across the UK. At the beginning of 2026, a white paper was published that set out to reform the water sector, and the SAS is ready to hold them accountable.

‘I like that it’s a group of school kids; youth activism is a really big thing,’ he answered when I asked, ‘Why did you choose to write it about teenagers? Would it have had the same effect if it were adults?’

He mentioned a cross-generational movement of retired people and young people coming together to fight for a common cause. The alternative meaning of ‘Floaters,’ aside from the obvious, refers to the two groups of people floating and becoming a ‘formidable organisation.’ In the book, the teenagers join up with ‘gutsy boomer Barbara Bone’ to expose the MP and take revenge.

‘What I hope is, because it’s a comedy, is that it makes people laugh and they enjoy it. And those people who hadn’t thought about this subject – think about this subject.’ Craig explained.

The Channel 4 series ‘Dirty Business,’ which aired at the beginning of this week, follows the true story of an investigation into England’s water companies after two people in Oxfordshire discover that the fish in the river are dying. Yet another piece of media to help people understand the state of water pollution in the country.

Craig’s limited edition novel will be published on the 1st of March, and you can buy a copy here!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Whether you’re closely following the rise of current ‘Sincaraz’ Gen Z galaxy, or still living off the nostalgia of the millennial ‘Fedal’ era (like me), whether you’re a tennis buff, or a casual follower of the sport—you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

Admittedly, despite being a tennis buff, I knew very little about this tennis legend when I picked up his memoir. And, am I glad not to have over-researched him beforehand! The memoir took me on a tennis journey of the 1970s—the good, the bad, and definitely the ugly.

Björn Borg was known famously as ‘Ice-borg’ and ‘The Jar’ for keeping everything under the lid, and for his calm demeanour on the court. This was in stark contrast to his fiery American rivals Jimmy Connor and John McEnroe (McEnroe and Borg were labelled Fire & Ice during the peak of their rivalry).

Björn Borg, however, stunned the tennis world by retiring at the young age of 26, and in reading his memoir, we now know that he was anything but calm and composed inside.

Living in an age where mental health is openly discussed among tennis players and other sportspersons in press conferences and podcasts, and having sports psychologists in the ever-growing entourage does not raise eyebrows, what Björn Borg handled during the peak of his career in 70s can only be defined as a rollercoaster.

Breakdowns, infidelity, failed marriages, parenting guilt, drugs, almost fatal hospitalisations, bankruptcy—you name it, and Borg was at the centre of it. Living in the public eye was something he did not know how to handle.

Borg represents many firsts’ in the tennis world as discovered in the memoir:

• First person to have a full time travelling coach (unthinkable that tennis players didn’t do this before)

• First tennis player to utilise the benefits of massages or physiotherapy on tour (physios are core members of every tennis player’s team now)

• A revolutionary double handed backhand among pro players (which happened only because of Borg starting out with a really heavy racquet!)

• Youngest person to win the Davis Cup at age 15 in 1972

• Youngest person to win the Roland Garros at age 18 in 1974

• First person to have won the coveted Wimbledon five consecutive times

He was also one of the first tennis players to go through ‘demons,’ dabbling in drugs, and retiring at the peak of his career. Telling us about his dual Gemini personality, an all or nothing approach, Borg certainly went all in—the first to reach tennis zenith, and come back down, and how it happened.

He shares candidly the (in)famous Swedish personality trait he has inherited—of not confronting conflicts, which often led him to sticky situations in personal and professional endeavours.

Today tennis stars have a full PR machinery operating behind each Tweet, Instagram post, and every brand endorsement. It is inconceivable to think now that even the most introverted tennis player would give a one word response to a question. But Björn Borg was the tennis superstar who did just that. Uncomfortable handling media, not being a people person, and no PR team to handle his image, he famously gave monosyllabic answers to journalists’ queries. Clearly, he wasn’t exactly the darling of the tennis media circle.

Borg does not go into micro details about many of his legendary wins—11 slams and 66 career titles. But he does give us generous, delicious details of THAT historic Wimbledon win against John McEnroe in 1980. The biggest chuckle moment of the book (and perhaps a spoiler to readers, sorry!) is that McEnroe was the ball-boy who couldn’t feed the balls straight to Borg in his US Open debut in 1970. Little did he know that the same ball boy would go on to be his biggest rival in the years to come.

Incidentally, Borg never won the US Open in his illustrious career.

The famous Fire & Ice rivalry is shared by Borg with the huge professional respect that it deserves. Their friendship has grown past their retirements, and on senior tours and exhibition matches. Borg, in fact, was best man at McEnroe’s wedding to his wife Patricia (fun fact: both their wives’ names are Patricia). He also reveals how it was McEnroe who phoned him and convinced him not to sell off his grand slam trophies to an auction house.

Borg vividly and candidly shares his struggles of feeling rootless, questioning his purpose and identity during those dark years of 1980s. Living between Sweden, Monaco, France, and the USA in different stages of his life, he finally feels at home in Ibiza, Spain. He’s known, but is still a nobody there, just as he prefers.

Living in the likes of Beatlemania and an Elvis Presley-level superstardom in tennis, complete with the highs and lows, superstitions and what not, Borg’s memoir is an indulgence every tennis fan should binge on, sans guilt.

★★★★

Admittedly, this is not the kind of book I’d have picked up of my own volition. The reason I gave it a go, however, is because it was written by one of my favourite university lecturers on Oxford Brookes’ Media, Journalism & Publishing undergrad (an incredibly lovely woman and fantastic teacher, by the way) – though I promise this is a completely unbiased review!

Firstly: I adored Jo’s friendship with Liam. I loved that it was just that – a friendship, nothing more. Liam, happily married, is a vital source of support for Jo (even if he wavered a bit here and there) and I enjoyed seeing how their friendship had developed from childhood to adulthood. Jo’s endeavour to save her family’s shop was also very admirable, especially since the staff she had to work with got on my nerves.

Also, if there’s one thing I love in books, it’s tragic lesbians. Give me all the tragic lesbians. Tessa and Marnie’s story ticked all the right boxes for me. It was moving, gripping, tragic, and had a perfectly bittersweet ambiguous ending – not satisfying for some, but it was just right for me. Learning about Tessa’s condition was also incredibly eye-opening; no spoilers here, don’t worry, but seeing how she had to adjust (and upheave) her entire life to accommodate it was heart-wrenching, and I was rooting for her the whole time, even if her grumpiness sometimes bordered on irritating.

As someone who is constantly moving between two cities – home and university – I often end up feeling like I don’t fully belong in either, like a part of me will forever be scattered in each of them no matter where I end up. Home, family, and feeling like I belong are all very dear to me, so How to Belong ended up hitting quite hard (yes, I might have teared up a bit on public transport). Though the sudden jumps in time sometimes threw me off, it was otherwise beautifully written. I admire Sarah’s writing as much as I admire her as a person, teacher, and friend.

Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train… maybe you’ve heard of these books, maybe their film adaptations? They are some of the highest grossing crime and thriller novels over the past 10 years. We know them, we may have watched them or read them, but regarding the publishing industry, crime and thriller novels may have a lasting effect on readers but there is not space for new and emerging authors to top the charts. The genre has not had a steady incline in revenue for years.

Over the past 10 years the world has been exposed to masterful crime and thriller novels that take over the world. For example, Gone girl by Gillian Flynn published in 2013, according to Deadline, made $368.1 million at the box office for its 2014 film adaptation, starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck.

From 2013 to 2023 the genre of crime and thriller novels has fluctuated year after year, making it unpredictable and uncertain as to where the genre will succeed or fall in the coming years.

The rise and fall of the crime novel may be down to the shift in the audience perception and consumption of the genre, what appeals to them has changed over time.

Thriller and straightforward crime have taken a back seat to the phenomenon that has become the sub-genre of ‘cosy crime’.

As quoted on the BBC, Richard Osman states that the success of cozy crime is because ‘around the world I think people love British humour and warmth. And also British murder, of course.’

With one author dominating the thriving sub-genre of crime, where does that leave other authors to fit into the genre if people’s opinions and interests are changing?

The most frequent appearing authors in the top 10 titles of 2013 through to 2023 have been Lee, and later Andrew, Child with their Jack Reacher series and Richard Osman for his Thursday Murder Club four-book series. Over the past ten years, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher book series appeared in the top 10 crime, thriller and adventure books twenty-two times, and although Osman’s debut series first published in 2020, his titles from 2020 to 2023 have appeared ten times in the Top 10, that is 25% of all titles in the top ten.

Osman’s stamp on the crime genre has not gone unnoticed, however such a success story is down to many outside factors as well, as although their success has been so predominate and impactful on the publishing industry, it would be wrong to not note that his celebrity status would have been a large impact on who picked up his first book, but the content, the word-of-mouth reviews, and the overall fact that you can’t miss this book whether in the news or in supermarkets, even non-frequent readers have probably heard of Osman’s literary masterpiece of crime fiction. But as displayed in the graphs above, this major success cannot save the whole genre from unpredictable monetary value year to year.

2022’s rise in monetary value for the crime, thriller and adventure genre was predictably due to the fact that Osman released two novels in the year, and he held the top three spots for the genre with the hardback release of The Bullet that Missed, and the paperback editions of both The Man Who Died Twice and The Thursday Murder Club, just those three books alone accumulated a value of £12,397,270.

However, the genre cannot rely on series’ and authors to continue writing forever, the publishing industry cannot always be waiting for the next Osman novel to be released, so where will this genre lead in the coming years, as the genre is already unstable and unpredictable.

Amazon’s bestsellers list of 2024 is led by Freida Mcfadden’s thriller, The Housemaid, another thriller series, but this series in particular grew in success due to the influence of ‘BookTok’. In Amazon’s Best Read list, more crime and thriller novels are featured, such as, The Thursday Murder Club, as predicted, but also His and Hers by Alice Feeney. Aside from Osman, why are these books not in the top 10 for the genre in their publication year, in Freida Mcfadden’s case as the first book in The Housemaid series originally published 2022 but released in paperback in 2023. All three of Mcfadden’s Housemaid series feature in the 2024 top 10 books for the crime, thriller and adventure genre, but is still overshadowed by Osman’s new release, We Solve Murders.

As quoted in the Bookseller, Zak Watts the country manager of UK Books at Amazon states that Osman has ‘five books in the 50 best-selling books this year’ when discussing the top books sold and read through Amazon’s e-commerce platform. Osman has only five books in his backlog, so the power and success of Osman is very evident in the publishing industry, and it is expanding.

The Bookseller also identified that Amazon’s bestseller list ‘shows the impact of adaptations on sales, with the Richard Osman’s books “benefiting from the announced adaptation of the Thursday Murder Club series”’, so although Osman’s novels have been dominating the fiction charts, this will most likely transfer to it’s adaptation as well. Similarly, The Housemaid film adaptation has recently been announced and cast with two famous female leads, Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney, so this could have had an impact of the volume of sales this book had, therefore ending up on the top 10 list a year after publication.

But not every book can become a TikTok sensation, or have an accompanying adaptation with star-studded cast members. So where does this leave other crime, thriller and adventure authors who don’t have a platform? The dominance of a select few authors means the genre is unpredictable and not easy to navigate as a new and emerging author, or even a more experienced novelist who doesn’t have the advantage of a best-selling series or established fanbase, this will reflect in the value the genre accumulates each year.

Alongside Paterson Joseph, who will also be showcasing his book Sancho, historian Janina Ramirez will give a talk about her book Femina and children’s author Korky Paul will be hosting a Father Christmas portrait painting workshop.

Running from 11am to 4:30pm, the book fair will feature illustration workshops, poetry readings, and offer visitors a chance to browse hundreds of books and buy signed copies or books at a reduced price.

First held in April 2021, this Sunday marks the sixth edition of the book fair, which will double in size this year to become the biggest book festival of its kind in the UK.

“We offer the opportunity for new and established talent to showcase their work”, say the event’s organisers, “Oxford is a major city of arts and letters and renowned for writing and publishing it is not before time that the ever-growing Indie sector is to have its voice.”

A spotlight on self-publication

The Oxford Indie Book Fair offers an opportunity to independent and self-published authors to exhibit their work, as well as helping local independent publishers promote their business.

With the highly-competitive publishing industry providing difficult to break into, the there is a “steady interest” from authors in self-publication according to James Harrison of Oxford Folio, a local self-publishing company.

With several services offering free online publication, Harrison says that authors and readers still prefer print copies of their books.

“People still want the physical object”, says Harrison, “I think this is true for the younger generations whose parents are leaving them libraries of books, albums, CDs etc - what will they leave their children: downloads?”

The book fair schedule and a full list of exhibitors is available on the Oxford Indie Book Fair website. Tickets are free and can be booked online.

“Big numbers are TikTok led books so we can’t really ignore it anymore. I mean, not that we’re trying to ignore it.'“

The App TikTok is taking the publishing industry by storm with its sub community ‘BookTok’ which has over 31.4 million posts under its hashtag. This sub community is making books go viral and shooting up to the top of the book charts by users promoting and discussing books across the app. It’s allowing small authors to be able to self-promote their work with quick easy content, which is easily accessible and influences others to purchase their books. Publishing companies have finally had to give in to the frenzy by utilising the marketing side of BookTok.

“I was in a meeting the other day with Nielsen, they’re in charge of the charts. and they were going through the results of like last year, and how the market is performing. And I think, like all of the top books at the moment. I would say, it’s probably like 70% of the books that are doing big numbers are TikTok led books.” - Becky Lushey

The young adult romance fantasy authors have cracked the code into getting readers hooked into their fictional worlds, engaging the buyers to purchase multiple editions of books. Some they may not even be able to read, like if the book is in another language which is more common than you think. The romantasy audiences are drawn to the non-traditional happy endings with high stakes and heightened drama, and the readers want to get crushed by the books which leaves them wanting more.

Looking into two specific female authors Olivie Blake and Carissa Broadbent with their books that were pre-published by themselves, went viral on TikTok and then were published with Pan Macmillan who marketed and progressed using the already established audience on BookTok. Pan Macmillan gives free roam to the Press copies and so the working relationship between influencer and publisher is based more on trust rather than free labour.

“Our way of working with influencers and bloggers tends to be a lot more like we have a relationship where we will give you free books. If you are someone who is talking online and will share about those books, and you don’t. We’re not paying you. You can give a completely honest review if you don’t like the book.” - Becky Lushey

Exclusive interview with marketing manager Becky Lushey enabled us to investigate further into really how wild this book craze is. Becky won an award for her marketing campaign on the successful series of The Atlas Six series (Atlas Paradox), which made a collective of over £227,000 in paperback sales alone. - Nielsens Bookscan.

With the last novel within the trilogy only being released earlier this year across all platforms it sold a total of 12,597 copies according to Nielsen bookscan. Blake ,originally being a fan-fiction author with her writing on Archive of Our Own. Her original Harry Potter fan fictions have gotten upwards of 300,00 hits therefore she already had an established fandom. The first book The Atlas Six already had a lot of buzz around it, with it going viral a couple of months before Pan Macmillan acquired it the turnaround rate was less than 6 months.

Using influencers to promote special editions of the books such as the FairyLoot edition and Illumicrate edition are just one way of how Pan Macmillan promotes their books. These are two companies that sell monthly subscription boxes that are within the romantasy/YA genre. These subscription boxes boost the hype around the newly released novels and even so may even reach number one even after a few weeks of it being out because of the anticipation, which a lot of the other authors dislike these services because they deem it ‘unfair’ as they usually don’t run across other book genres.

Carrying on with Fairyloot the anticipation for The Ashes and The Star Cursed King is high, which is the second novel in the Crowns of Nyaxia series by Carissa Broadbent. They’re releasing a special joint edition of the first two novels which is coming June/July and their book order for this series is massive.

“Fairyloot normally their subscription box. That’s monthly. That order is about 22,000 copies. That is a huge number of books. For context like to get to the bestseller list our hardback you probably need like depending on the time of year… you need like 1,500 copies, 2,000 copies, so to have 22,000 is crazy.” - Becky Lushey

As we wait for early June with an official print copy of The Ashes and The Star-Cursed King, to which Pan Macmillan only have the print rights to, they plan to push it to the collector audience, which is where Booktok comes in. As collecting books and showcasing your bookshelves is a popular trend on the app, they will target this audience which is usually of an older demographic to be able to afford the various versions.

Their plan with marketing for this anticipated duology is doing ‘fancy mail outs’ with extra bits of PR to do with the novel to which they will send out to the influencers to promote it right before it’s published. Which is where my second interview with ‘BookToker’ Lucy Osborne comes in.

“I studied English Lit at uni and really missed chatting about books with people after i graduated so I wanted somewhere to connect with other book lovers.” - Lucy Osborne

lucysbooknook0 on TikTok boasts about her love for this book on her page.

@lucysbooknook0Book is The Serpent and Wings of Night and its utterly incredible! This song makes me feel like I can fly #howtotrainyourdragon #theserpentandthewingsofnight #fantasy #fantasybooktok #carissabroadbent #fivestars #booktok

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

“I thought the writing was excellent and was immediately drawn in the world. The world building was expertly weaved into the narrative which not many fantasy novels succeed at.” - Lucy Osborne

Lucy told me that she already has the book on preorder, but is hesitant to purchase the Fairyloot special edition because of the price, so perhaps that’s one thing Fairyloot could take in consideration when trying to widen their audience.

@georgiarice69This is what i get up to as a third year student trying to get into the publishing industry! Enjoy! #publishing #booktok #theatlassix

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

I spent two days volunteering at the Oxford Literary Festival as part of my Didcot Girls’ School Year 12 work experience, hosted by the Journalism and Publishing department of Oxford Brookes University.

Not only did the experience offer me a chance to interact with respected academics and authors, but it also gave me a new insight into the growing world of learning which Oxford itself is so famous for.

Before I volunteered at the Oxford Literary Festival, it did not occur to me just how much I would learn from sitting at the back of the author talks including that of renowned language expert David Crystal to groundbreaking authors Georgina Moore and Lauren Beukes.

Share

As a volunteer, the stewarding system chose where I was needed. Luckily, I did not have to run around Oxford at lightning speed to find my station, as some of my peers did, but stayed in Weston Library opposite the Bodleian Library - the second largest library in Britain. This meant that I ended up sat at the back of lectures on topics I not only knew nothing on, but also had never even thought about.

The lectures, the language and the unexpected learning

From my perspective, this lack of choice was ultimately a very good thing, as it meant that I listened to a range of speakers, who didn't just know their topic like the back of their hand, but were also passionate enough about it to talk about it for a whole hour (as well as answering some involved questions from an audience equally enthralled by the topic at hand).

This way, I also surprised myself in how invested I became in some of these highly specific academic niches such as the changing nature of the English language through time. As the lecture went on, I found myself nodding along and engaging with the information.

Busiest isn’t best!

Greeting people at the door, as it turned out, gave me no way to gauge how interesting I would find the lecture topic myself. Completely countering my assumption made before my time as a volunteer, the busiest lectures were not always the ones I found most interesting.

The first example of this that comes to mind is that of the very last event I attended, interviewing two authors - Georgina Moore and Lauren Beukes - about the mother-daughter relationships in their books. This was the quietest lecture of all the events I attended, and my colleague certainly got her daily steps in carrying the roving mic around to the audience spread few and far between the seats in the hall.

I found myself completely engaged by the way both authors spoke about their work, telling the stories without directly reading any of their own writing. Their pride in their work just spoke for itself.

Overall, in my experience at the Literary Festival, I have a newfound appreciation not just for broad and discussable topics, but also the niche sub-topics which many people find so much joy in talking about. It seems that even if there are only a few people with a single shared interest, the fact that it is shared in the first place is often enough.

Share

Now one of the commanding forces in adult fiction, BookTok helped authors sell 20 million printed books in 2021, according to BookScan. So far this year, those sales are up another 50 percent. Bookstagram was big but now BookTok is bigger.

New to the video platform, book influencer and writer Shani Akilah is getting advice from her teenage niece as she starts to build a following on TikTok. Shani says that this year, due to the growth of the social media site and its success with the book community, she is ‘starting to really focus on TikTok. It makes more sense from a collaborative and branding perspective.’ 

Akilah isn’t the only one turning to the social media giant, TikTok is continuing to reach new audiences becoming the most downloaded app this year so far.

Like other members of the BookTok community, Akilah posts videos based on trends. She says that, ‘there are lots of events throughout the year such as Black History Month and Pride month which I try to plan content around.’ 

It’s not only trends, cultural movements and events which cause a reaction on BookTok, often classic and forgotten books have a resurgence in popularity as Aidan Brawn, a bookseller in Blackwell’s Oxford says; ‘it (TikTok) has resulted in books that were published a while ago to little fanfare, like The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (2011), suddenly becoming very popular. It has also re-energised the popularity of books published decades ago, such as The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963).’

Waterstones is following a similar approach to Blackwell’s, bookseller Lauren Halford says that it is focusing on showcasing the popular BookTok genres: ‘romance, teen drama and classics’ which are displayed on tables at the front of Waterstones bookshops.

It’s not just in store that Bookshops are responding to TikTok, many are also starting to create their own presence on the app. Halford states that Waterstones has created a TikTok account, posting ‘mainly book recommendations as well as advertising certain events it holds in particular stores’.

As opposed to before, it is becoming vital for bookshops to create a welcoming experience, with expert advice to prevent people from turning to cheaper alternatives such as Amazon which book influencer Akilah uses for buying books. She states that, ‘it’s a behaviour that I’m aware of and I do feel bad about it but the convenience of Amazon Prime is brilliant.’ 

Despite some book fans refusing to abandon Amazon, Blackwell’s is starting to attract BookTok users by ensuring ‘that booksellers are reading the (BookTok) books so that we can be as passionate about them as our customers, and therefore able to have conversations with our customers about them and make recommendations ourselves’, said Brawn. 

To continue attracting members of the growing BookTok community, Halford says that ‘bookshops could use TikTok and create giveaways, getting people actively involved with the bookstore, increasing engagement and therefore the likelihood of purchasing books in-person.’ 

Share

Photo credits: Martina Currenti

TikTok’s BookTok community is quickly reshaping the publishing industry. Backlist titles like The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Ecco Press) or They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera (Quill Tree Books) have been dominating the bestselling charts for over a year now, thanks to the viral videos of BookTokers like @aymansbooks and @caitsbooks.

Publishers like Penguin Random House and Bloomsbury have also started to integrate the platform into the marketing campaigns of their upcoming titles. BookTok’s ever-growing influence on readers has now reached the editorial side of the industry, forcing both editors and authors to adapt to this new disruption.

BookTok Sensations

For every bookshop there is now at least a shelf (if not an entire table) dedicated to the books that are popular with BookTok members. These books are being referred to as ‘BookTok Sensations’, a title which underlines their status on TikTok and that serves as an incentive to readers, who will be more likely to pick them up due to their popularity.

Publishers have recently started to realise that BookTok can not only work wonders and produce bestselling phenomena, but also that it can be a useful tool for other publishing activities. Many self-published or aspiring authors have been using the platform to promote their writings, and some of them have been lucky enough to build up an engaging and abundant audience that is interested in what they have to offer. This has caught the attention of editors who have started to ‘BookTok-Scout’ for new authors, rather than relying simply on manuscript submissions.

Recently American author Olivie Blake was scouted via BookTok. Blake originally self-published her novel The Atlas Six in 2020 and saw a surge in her book’s volume sales in May 2021, when a video on her work went viral on TikTok. From that moment, thousands of readers started to post their positive reviews on The Atlas Six, using #theatlasix hashtag that has currently over 21.4M views. This popularity led to a seven-way auction between some of the biggest publishers in the United States, which Tor Books won with a six-figure bid.

Photo credits: Martina Currenti

The Great Resignation

In a roundabout manner, Blake’s novel is one of the driving forces behind the ‘Great Resignation’ that is taking place at the moment in the US side of the publishing industry, which has seen approximately 0.5-1% of editorial employees quit their job on March 11th, 2022. The exodus was reportedly a response to a viral tweet by Molly McGhee, who worked as Editorial Assistant for Tor Books for almost a decade. McGhee is responsible for the Book-Scouting of Olivie Blake and for editing the novel. Despite her reaching a milestone and discovering one of the biggest BookTok sensations, her promotion request was denied, which led her to leave Tor Books for good.

Photo credits: Molly McGhee (public tweet)

McGhee called out those working in executive positions for overworking junior employees, who are expected to ‘perform both full time admin work in addition to their full time jobs’. There is the overwhelming expectation for young editorial employees to add keeping up with what happens within the BookTok community to the long list of their daily tasks, as they look for the next The Atlas Series they can acquire and re-publish.

However, not all publishers can afford to partake in the high-stake auctions for BookTok hits, during which authors are courted with significant print runs and generous advance against royalties. On this matter, Sarah Shaw, an Editorial Assistant for independent publishing house Fairlight Books, commented: ‘I think that the authors will have expectations around what they'll get. As it becomes more popular for books to be acquired, and authors see what can happen when a book is acquired, I think they'll slowly expect a larger and larger advance from a publisher.’  

Shaw shared her worries around BookTok sensations, stating that they might influence new authors into expecting higher advances from their contracts, and that this could push small independent publishing houses out of the auctions in favour of the Big 5.

Authors on BookTok

Many YA and Romance authors like Alex Aster and Chloe Gong are active in the BookTok community and promote their novels on their own profiles. For instance, Gong follows the popular trends on the app and connects them with the content of her duology These Violent Delights (Margaret K. McElderry Books). This allows Gong to not only nurture the relationship with her readership, but to also magnify her writing’s reach and influence more BookTok members to purchase her novels.

As BookTok appears to be a favourable environment for authors who aspire to brand themselves on the platform and consequently increase their volume sales, emerging authors like Garrett Curbow are embarking on it, gathering a great number of followers, and attracting the curiosity of both local and overseas editors.

There is, however, the risk that new authors might be the protagonists of unfair treatment due to their lack of experience in the publishing industry. They could be offered disadvantageous contracts, with advances against royalties that do not reflect either the potentiality of their writing or their already-established readership.

Popular authors like Victoria Aveyard are coming to the rescue of their new colleagues, recording videos where they are transparent about financial compensation and highlight the importance of being represented by an agent who knows how to navigate the industry.

This opinion is shared by the Literary Agent Juliet Pickering (Blake Friedmann): ‘I'd be happy to get involved, you know, make sure that they understood the publishing process. I'm there to kind of negotiate better terms, make sure that they're being paid fairly, and the publisher is doing a good job at publishing them.’

Pickering proceeded to add that it is essential for authors to learn at the beginning of their writing career that most literary agents earn money after a contract with a publisher is signed, thus if an author is asked to make any payment to their representative beforehand, in all likelihood they are being scammed.

Since moving to the UK in 2002, Xiaolu Guo has forged her own path and her own voice. The multi-award-winning Chinese-born author has penned novels, essays and memoirs in a career spanning over thirty years, as well as picking up trophies for her other passion: filmmaking.

Guo is a global citizen in every way, balancing work in Berlin and London with writing residencies in New York. Even her novels reflect her hectic travel schedule; 2014’s I Am Stone was set across three continents, whilst her memoir Once Upon A Time in the East maps her journey from East to West.

Her writing style is tethered to the foreign writers she grew up reading; she cites Roland Barthes and Italo Calvino as major influences on her work.

‘The authors I love were away from traditional narratives — classical, sealed, perfect storytelling — which I always had a problem with. I loved the books that have breezy flows, fragments, reflections, personal memories mixed with commentary on society.’

A Red Guard’s daughter

Her native country is ever-present in her filmography. 2004’s The Concrete Revolution explores China’s urban/rural divide through the lens of the construction industry, as stadiums shot up for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Her second fiction film shot in 2009, She, a Chinese is a captivating snapshot of China’s young, burgeoning middle class seeking routes to the wider world.

It’s hard to imagine neither was influenced by Guo’s own childhood. A little-known fact about the author is that she was given away at birth, only to later learn she had a brother. ‘What’s gone on in China in the last century is so dramatic, and the drama is so condensed within a few generations’.

Guo adds that it’s normally beneficial for writers to be consumed by historical change, even if it can be traumatising.

‘Often you’ll listen to a Chinese person talk about their family history and think “my god, it’s so epic”’

Guo is no exception to her own rule. Her mother was a Red Guard, tasked with championing Chairman Mao’s cultural revolution, yet her father was a fisherman turned propaganda artist with a love for Van Gogh — a love he was punished for in a communist labour camp.

The beauty of broken English

Her first English-language book, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, plays on the themes of Guo’s early experiences of making a home in another country.

The opening chapters are constructed in the broken English to be expected of a stranger in a strange land. But the cracks fade throughout the book as protagonist ‘Z’ picks up the language of her new country, making a sense of self in her new surroundings. The use of broken dialect as a character-building device led American author Ursula Le Guin to note, ‘we're in the hands of someone who knows how to tell a story’.

Guo’s exploration of the language/identity dynamic is based on lived experience, ‘When I write to my brother in China or my Chinese students, the email is in Chinese, and (there are different) codes in that language,’ she says. ‘I think it's really difficult for East Asians - especially the Chinese, Japanese, Korean people — in the European linguistic environment to make sense of themselves.’ 

Raised in a village south of Shanghai, Guo’s writing is a daily ritual that has mapped out her life’s twists and turns.

‘I see myself as an old writer, in a sense, I've been writing every day for the last 33 years — it's like drinking coffee or tea in the morning; I write. You live within that continuous identity as a writer — either as a Chinese, a British, or a German, that's your first identity as a writer. ‘But then eventually when you write a lot about yourself you say, “well, that's quite a story”.’

In A Lover’s Discourse, published in 2020, the boundaries between Guo’s personal diary and her characters are blurred again.

‘I was writing this book before the Brexit referendum’, explains Guo, ‘so it was interesting because I was commuting between Germany and the UK… then you suddenly realise, actually, you can't really work in Europe (after Brexit).’ 

‘So I think that changed the way I wrote the book; the political situation became so present. And I thought about how to use that in the characters, there should be a sort of crisis between the two lovers.’

‘It’s a very personal narrative for me, too. It’s always a question of, where shall we live?

Once you leave your country, everywhere is sort of the same, because it's never the first country - everywhere you adopt is secondary.’

Xiaolu Guo was in conversation with Angus Phillips, Director of the OICP, in association with the Confucius Institute at Oxford Brookes University, at the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival 2022. Find out more about Xiaolu’s life and works here.

Share