One of the biggest news items last week for the writing and book world has been the impending TikTok ban in the United States. If you've never entered those waters, you may wonder what the big deal is.

BookTok made a measurable difference to authors, publishers, and bookstores. It's true that certain genres received the most attention (romantasy anyone?) but as someone who reads a lot of literary fiction, translated fiction, and non-fiction, I found a wealth of great recommendations on BookTok. My TBR list has increased by the hundreds thanks to TikTok alone.

TikTok made it extremely easy to find informative, entertaining content. The algorithm deftly matched like with like. When I began my book coaching business in 2023, I wanted practice talking to writers about their work. My goal was to talk to ten writers within a month. I put out a call on TikTok for free 30-minute coaching sessions, and I quickly had a dozen writers sign up. None of my videos went viral. They didn't need to! The algorithm matched my offer with writers looking to tell their stories. (Incidentally, the same videos and offers absolutely did not work on either Instagram or Facebook!)

I also enjoyed discovering new artists, seeing humans be human, learning new things, getting a glimpse of how people lived in different parts of the world. TikTok was a wild, creative ride, and I loved it.

By the time you read this, TikTok may be back, but it remains to be seen how ownership will change and how that will affect the platform. UPDATE: It's back. 😂

Listen.

During the height of the pandemic, when a lot of us were stuck at home, Alta Journal launched the California Book Club--a free book club that features author interviews on Zoom each month. Of course I joined. For the last year or so, my schedule hasn't allowed me to tune in live, so I was really happy to find the archive on YouTube.

If you enjoy hearing authors talk about their work, I recommend exploring. Check out high-quality interviews with authors such as C Pam Zhang, Paul Beatty, Rebecca Solnit, Maggie Nelson, and many, many more.

Read.

1. "The book industry is just one of countless industries that’s become overdependent on social media." Brooke Warner​
2. "What if ... you’re not actually living through the worst era to be a literary novelist? What if this one is the best?" Leigh Stein​
3. "As an author, getting the story right is the most important part of writing a book, but getting the story of the story right is the most important part of promoting it, of getting readers to want to buy it." Maris Kreizman​

Write.

This past week, I listened to the audiobook of Private Equity: A Memoir by Carrie Sun. She does what all good memoirists do: she places the reader in an environment that may be foreign to them (in this case, New York finance) and reveals herself at a point of change as an imperfect character.

On the surface, these things may not seem like such an accomplishment, but if you are a memoirist you know how hard it is to stand outside yourself and really see both yourself and the world you are trying to convey to your reader. It's so easy to take these critical parts of our experience for granted, yet these details are what make memoirs so satisfying to read.

Prompt: You are a time traveler visiting a pivotal moment in your life. Everything about your life at this point is different: the technology, the fashion, your beliefs about yourself and your life, maybe even where you live.

Look at yourself and your life through these time traveler's eyes and write down what you see. Be unsparing in detail. Who are you at this moment? What are your misconceptions? Where are you physically in the world and what makes this place unique? Write through the moment of change.

Wishing you a week of discovery, whether on TikTok or in the actual, 3D world. ✨

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