How To Diversify Your BookTok FYP
An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment.
Old alliances quickly fracture as those who remain within the archives wrestle with the ethics of their astronomical abilities. Elsewhere, an unlikely pair from the Society cohort partner to influence politics on a global stage, and still the outside world mobilizes to destroy them, while the Caretaker himself, Atlas Blakely, may yet succeed in his world-breaking plan.
The six Society recruits must decide what they're willing to betray for limitless power—and who will be destroyed along the way.
Get out your phones because it’s time for you to diversify your BookTok FYP. The wildly popular and influential app Tiktok has firmly changed the bookish landscape. So, to make sure you stay on top of diverse reviewers, authors, and books, you should take steps to change your FYP.
The FYP, or the For You Page, is the tab on TikTok that heavily relies on the algorithm to feed user’s content. After all, the part of TikTok known as BookTok is not exempt from the algorithm. Diversifying this feed is not an exact science. The algorithm changes frequently. Even the most diligent users can find unexpected videos on their feed every once in a while. TikTok has a memory for everything you engage with on the app. The following tips for diversifying your BookTok FYP are just a few ways you can ensure some of the videos on your feed represent the kinds of creators and content you are interested in.
It is important to be deliberate if you want a diverse reading experience. This means seeking out readers, reviewers, and authors on BookTok who may receive fewer views. Diverse BookTok creators may have their videos pushed to users less because of their content. With that in mind, let’s start.
The Search Bar is Your Friend
The algorithm is designed to keep users on for as long as possible. Everything you type into the search bar informs the kinds of videos the app thinks you want. For Diverse BookTok content, try searching for things like “Queer Books,” “Black BookTok,” and “Indigenous Authors.“ Essentially, you want to combine the kind of representation you are looking for with book-related search terms. To help diversify your BookTok FYP further, engage with the posts that appear in your search results afterward.
To Diversify Your BookTok FYP, Engage with Diverse Posts
If you want diverse content to appear on your FYP, engage with diverse content. Watch the whole video, then like, favorite, or share it. If you comment on the post, that further informs your algorithm. If you interact with the kinds of diverse BookTok content you want to see more of, it will start to show up on your FYP organically.
Follow Content Creators Who Create Diverse Content
If you want to see BookTok creators consistently on your FYP, follow them. Following creators who recommend diverse books and produce diverse content informs the algorithm. You will receive recommended videos from those creators. Additionally, you will start seeing similar creators TikTok thinks you will like. Finally, you can always scroll your Following tab to retrain your algorithm if your FYP stops showing you the creators you follow.
If You Post, Include Diverse Hashtags You Are Interested In
My final recommendation is for BookTok creators specifically. If you post, include the hashtags you are interested in to diversify your FYP. Posting about a topic immediately changes the kinds of videos you will see on your FYP. It is important to engage with diverse content on BookTok and produce some of it yourself if you are truly interested in becoming involved with a diverse part of BookTok.
Why You Should Diversify Your BookTok FYP
The books that receive the most support on BookTok and, thus, in the algorithm are going to be white, cis, and heteronormative. That is just how publishing is structured right now. TikTok is not exempt from the natural biases people have in publishing. If anything, it reveals what people are interested in as a default experience. Because everyone’s individual algorithm is based on engagement, your personal habits are shown back to you in your FYP. However, taking deliberate steps to diversify your BookTok FYP is the first step in the right direction. It takes time, but it is worth it in the long term.
I hope you have an excellent time reading and scrolling with the help of these tricks. There are so many diverse BookTok creators doing excellent, often thankless work promoting and sharing diverse books for readers. So, really, there is one simple answer to the question of how to diversify your BookTok FYP: support as many diverse BookTok creators as you can, and don’t stop until diverse content becomes your default FYP setting.
If you are interested in some additional thoughts on BookTok, you might like these books trending on TikTok, this post where a reader lets her FYP pick her TBR, or these SFF BookTube and BookTok accounts to follow.
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