Column by Yulia Yurasova about promoting books through short videos

An interesting trend has emerged in the Russian book market: its growth is influenced by promotion on TikTok, often not even of individual books, but of various topics related to literature. After one of the platform users suggested asking how often men think about the Roman Empire in September, girls around the world began posting videos of their partners’ reactions to this question. “I read the news that Moscow was flooded, and I remember that back in the Roman Empire they knew how to make drains,” says one of the participants in such a video.

The digital flash mob had unexpected consequences. Thus, according to liters, from September 1 to September 25, the demand for non-fiction literature about Ancient Rome on the platform increased by 26% compared to August. From September 18 to 24, when the topic began to be actively discussed in Russia, demand grew by 22%. Among the favorites among Russians is the book of the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius “To Myself”, in second place is “SPQR. History of Ancient Rome” Mary Beard.

Thus, TikTok stimulated the development of not only the foreign book market, but the Russian one. Although the platform introduced restrictions on uploading new videos for users from Russia after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, Russian-speaking book bloggers can still be found on TikTok. Many of them promote Leah Arden’s book “Mara and Morok” (Eksmo publishing house), others “follow the classics” and recall selected moments from “Summer in a Pioneer Tie”, as well as “What the Swallow Is Silent About” by Ekaterina Dudko (recognized by the Ministry of Justice foreign agent) and Elena Prokashina (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent), which currently cannot be purchased in Russia.

The fact that the Russian market simply does not have such means of promoting literature as TikTok was mentioned in an interview with Kommersant by the director of Rosmen, Boris Kuznetsov (see Kommersant, August 30). According to him, the domestic analogue, VK Clips, is “still far from becoming a serious mechanism.” For comparison: the hashtag “buktok” on the platform received 824 thousand views, while on TikTok – 5.5 billion. In addition, bloggers in VK Clips prefer to promote their books rather than new releases from publishers. According to interlocutors at blogging agencies, such “memoirs” are not in demand.

Digital book platforms confirm that they are interested in the promotion mechanism through short videos. Thus, liters reminded that they have been developing the format on social networks for two years now. In the future, in order not to depend on TikTok, the Russian book industry will have to come up with its own promotion tools through short videos. The same “LitRes”, “Bookmate” (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent) or “Stroki” could implement the format on their platforms. Another option is to wait for the full development of VK Clips. By then, all men will accurately answer the question of how often they think about the Roman Empire.