“BookTok” is Ruining the Writing Industry

By Cameron Froehlich

June 2, 2025

If you enjoy reading and are on TikTok, then you know of the subsection of the platform referred to as “BookTok”. A place where there is a heavier value on smut than plot, and where quantity of books written comes over quality of content. While in theory a corner of the online world where authors and readers can come together to enjoy written content sounds great, BookTok has started the downfall of the writing industry. 

Let's start with the quality of the books written. Rather than having quality, original ideas, authors are now choosing to observe trends and follow what's popular with readers. This has resulted in the formation of subgenres such as hockey romance, in which each story is more or less a copy of any other with different names and small plot differences.

These books are also being rapidly written, edited, published, and sold. This results in grammatical and printing errors, plot holes, and a slew of other issues. When the second book in the Fourth Wing series, Iron Flame, was released, it quickly became apparent that there were numerous problems. 

Many readers found and posted about there being a massive amount of spelling errors, chapter adornments missing, and even entire chapters not being present in the copies they had purchased. Whose fault this is exactly is unclear, but what is clear is that it is partially a result of hasty writing and publishing. 

Fourth Wing was published on May 2nd, 2023, and Iron Flame was published just under six months later on October 31st, 2023. The author, Rebecca Yaros, started writing the book after its predecessor had been published, meaning that this book was written, edited, published, and released to the public in under six months. The third book in the series, Onyx Storm, was published two years later on January 21st, 2025. 

There have been much fewer instances of errors within the series third instalment, demonstrating just how important it is for authors to not rush the creative process, which is difficult when they are being pressured by readers such as those present on BookTok who consume books rapidly for the sake of having read them rather than enjoying and understanding them.

On top of that, the content of recently published books especially in the romance and fantasy genres has become increasingly unoriginal. The 2022 novel, Icebreaker, by Hannah Grace sparked a rapid increase in the amount of books that fall under the sub-genre of “hockey romance” to come into production. 

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying a particular trope or genre, the market is becoming oversaturated with these near replica novels that often lack diversity, and are merely brain candy. They don't require any additional level of thinking, what you see on the page is exactly what is meant. 

Considering that the literacy rate in the US is and has been on a decline, it doesn't seem like a particularly good thing to indulge exclusively in books that don't require any thinking, especially for the youth. 

And when considering the youth, consider the damage that could be done to brain development when large amounts of explicit content is consumed during their formative years. These books are often written to purposely include very explicit intimate scenes, and in sub-genres such as “dark romance” these can promote extremely unhealthy relationship dynamics on top of creating very unrealistic expectations.

Ultimately BookTok is causing significantly more harm than good to the writing and reading communities, and while it has the potential to be an excellent online space, that is simply not how it is being used.