Book Marks: BookTok, Disabled Authors

After last week's book news deluge, I'm a little glad things are quiet this week. Still sticking with the weekly programme, and I hope I can keep this up. Now...

Is BookTok doing what Goodreads is supposed to do? Besides extolling the authenticity of BookTokers and BookTok's utility as a book promotion and recommendation platform, Maggie Siciliano also writes about how much fun TikTok has injected into book marketing, boosting certain titles and their authors' careers. Not quite what Goodreads is notorious for these days.

While some are enthusiastic about TikTok's contributions to book culture, others express caution. Sarah Manavis feels that with TikTok's foray into publishing, virality would end up dictating what publishers produce. Examples provided include "conventional romance novels, trashy thrillers, self-help and the kind of scientifically dubious non-fiction you’d be be recommended by an account manager on LinkedIn."

Arguably, these are the kinds of titles that gets people talking because of how polarising they can be, plus they contain so much to nitpick and discuss. TikTok, I feel, is becoming the place where many who read (and attempt to write) these sorts of novels converge. Romance, conventional or otherwise, plus "trashy" thrillers, are the escapist realms of choice, though if one drifts away from the anglophone sphere, one might find trashy self-insert harem fantasies and BL-themed material as well.

At The Walrus, Tajja Isen is concerned that if TikTok going into publishing, the company might spotlighting the books it wants to promote, at the expense of others, thus ruining what made the platform such a force in book promotion. "There can be no grassroots thrill of discovery, no sleeper hits outside the allotted publicity window, no passion-driven community of readers, if the only books people hear about are ones that the algorithm has decided to force in front of them." That certainly is a danger, and one can only hope that ByteDance will do what's best for it.

People who want to write books will write books, and fans of other genres will get the word out on their faves, probably with less fanfare. That will make them harder to find, but isn't that part of the fun? There are those who build their reputations on finding these rare gems and a bigger field means more opportunities for the next big literary score.

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"Working from home has been a huge help in managing my fibromyalgia — being in front of my laptop in my own environment, instead of commuting to an office, means I’m much less tired and helps me avoid triggers for my chronic pain." Alice Nuttall shares her experiences as a disabled writer and tells of the challenges others like her face in their career.

Accessibility is an issue, exposure is another. As awareness grows, I think, the disabled will get their voices out and more disabled writers will get due recognition. Writers such as Sao Ichikawa, winner of the Akutagawa Prize for literature, for her novel Hanchibakku ("The Hunchback"). Speaking to reporters, Ichikawa wondered why she was the first disabled Akutagawa Prize laureate. “I wrote this novel thinking that it is a problem that there were few authors with disabilities.” May she not be the last.


In other news:

• "With robots, pirates and witches, LGBTQ+ authors are making their mark in the fantasy genre. Maximizing the endless possibilities of magical realms, these authors say they can create safe worlds devoid of prejudices, such as homophobia and transphobia, opening a universe where readers can discover themselves along the way." At a time when works by LGBTQ+ are being targeted for bans, like in the United States, safe spaces like the magical places in fiction can make a big difference.
• Claire Armitstead goes on a bookshop crawl in Birmingham to find out why independent bookstores seem to be thriving, and whether the boom can be sustained. "It is a qualitative survey inspired by surprising news that, at a time when a lot of shops are struggling amid a cost of living crisis that has followed hot on the heels of a pandemic, bookselling is thriving."
• Books and other works are shedding light on Japan’s ties with the opium trade in China. The Asahi Shimbun article opens with how the trade is featured in the manga Manshu Ahen Squad ("Manchuria Opium Squad"), the cover of which I've seen once. "[Historian Goichi] Yamada would often say that opium was an 'underhand source of revenue' for Japan," the report states.
• As Twitter sinks, Goodreads stagnates, and the future of other social media sites seem wobbly, Molly Templeton wonders if there is a place where bookworms can find community, minus the hype, drama, and the whims of insecure owners of digital platforms. "What does a better bookish internet look like?" she asks. "It can’t just be one thing, one site, one platform. It needs more legs to stand on, and more ways to catch itself when a pillar crumbles."