Category Archives: TikTok
Looking Disconsolately at TikTok
I really shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve posted videos about ECS:OE and Shifter Woods: Claw, and they’ve gotten a handful of views. I posted a video of me reacting to the Gen X Flute Call (aka the opening to Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”) and I’m over a hundred views so far.
This is not unusual, nor is it isolated to me. A lot of romance writers I know have been complaining about how hard it is to get their book posts seen because—ta-da—the TikTok algorithm gives them a low weight. I understand that the clock app is heavily slanted towards content creators who post daily skits or duet with cooking/renovation/building videos, but writers used to get a fairly good slice of the pie. Not any more.
And now we have next week’s testimony of TikTok’s CEO to look forward to, then we find out whether or not TikTok will be banned in the US. That does have a lot of romance writers up in arms because low views or not they do make sales thanks to being on TT and this is going to hurt their bottom line. I know about the security threats associated with the app, but the fact that it allows writers to advertise to a wide audience of younger readers is incredibly valuable. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
TikTok is Definitely Pushing Sales
It’s time to admit that TikTok does have an affect on my sales, even if I can’t immediately see the link. Before this morning I posted my last TikTok last Thursday, then got caught up in other stuff over the weekend (okay, okay, I was quilting) that meant I wasn’t camera ready. In the intervening four days my KU pages reads dropped precipitously to the point where I am a good fifteen bucks behind where I should be in earnings by this point.
Apparently me acting like a loon on TikTok prompts enough people to check out my profile, hit my LinkTree and take my books out in KU. I know other authors have huge success with page flipping videos (or vids where they stand there and pretty much look beautiful at the screen while quotes from their books appear over their faces) but those don’t do anything for me.
Wearing a teal, green, and yellow wig and pretending to be a Muse or trying on different filters? Those get views, and then I get sales. Go figure. So I posted four TikToks today, and the shortest one where I mention how great it is to start the day off by writing a sex scene is already up to 245 views and four comments. I ask you.
Nicola Cameron Writes 