As Blake Lively returns to work on viral TikTok book adaptation It Ends With Us, who is author Colleen Hoover?

While Ryan Reynolds has transformed the world of Welsh football after purchasing Wrexham football club with Rob McElhenney and being a part of their promotion to EFL League Two, his wife Blake Lively could be set to establish another promotion, this time in the world of BookTok.

Following the birth of her fourth child with Ryan, Blake has returned to acting work after being spotted with a luxurious mane of red hair for her upcoming film It Ends With Us, where she stars alongside the likes of Justin Baldoni and Brandon Sklenar.

In the romance movie, Blake portrays the lead female protagonist Lily who finds herself running into her first love Atlas (Sklenar) while in a serious relationship with Ryle (Baldoni) - a true young adult love story at heart.

As mentioned, Blake’s first film post-pregnancy sees the Gossip Girl actress and co. bring to life characters from a novel of the same name written by American author Colleen Hoover.

Colleen made the cast announcement on Instagram stating: “Our Lily is going to be played by Blake Lively. Blake Lively, y’all! She’s my dream Lily…Blake Lively! Blake Lively! I can’t say it enough.”

Books have been adapted to films for decades as seen by the Harry Potter franchise, Hunger Games or the Twilight saga to name a few, however this new chapter of film adaptations comes not only with a whole new energy but with a vast new audience, nay critics, in the form of TikTok users.

In light of this transition, PeopleWorld takes a look at the world of ‘BookTok’ and its key players such as Colleen Hoover, who have been launched into the Best Sellers list from the social media app.

Who is Colleen Hoover?

Prior to being named as one of Time’s most influential people in 2023, Colleen Hoover started out working in social work and schools before becoming a full-time author in 2012-2013. 

Born in Texas, mum-of-three Colleen self-published several of her own romance and young adult novels so her mother could read them on the Kindle and became the first self-published author to top the New York Best Sellers list with her book ‘Hopeless’ in 2012.

Four years later marked a turning point in Colleen’s life as she released It Ends With Us which helped her surge in popularity when it got picked up by fans on BookTok - a subcommunity on the social media app of TikTok where creators review and share literature.

Colleen went from 237,000 sales of all of her books combined to 7.3 million copies sold as of August 2022, out-performing the amount of Bibles sold in the US last year.

Considering Colleen’s minimal marketing and almost sole reliance on BookTok, this is quite an impressive feat, not to mention that three of her books are still ranked highly on the Barnes and Noble Best Sellers list at time of writing.

Who else has benefited from BookTok and has it made people read more?

While Colleen Hoover may be the poster girl for reaping success from BookTok, there have been several other authors who have risen through the rankings with the help of social media users. 

For example, Adam Silvera managed to top the Best Selling list with his 2017 book ‘They Both Die At The End’, Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles surged in book sales from 20,000 to two million copies over a decade after its initial release and Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo stormed both charts and sales before being picked up by film producers.

To put it in numbers, BookTok not only helped adult fiction writers sell 20 million copies in 2021 before selling a further 50% last year, but also totalled an approximate sale of £46 million worth of books in 2022.

With signs such as ‘TikTok made me buy it’ on store’s bookshelves, one in four book buyers relied on the platform to pick their next read in 2022 accounting for nearly 90 million books, but research proves that this is still only a small percentage of reading influence overall as it only counts for a 4% rise over a five year period on book sales.

What is BookTok?

BookTok refers to a community on the social media platform TikTok that focuses on sharing and discussing books. It has gained popularity as a space where users create short videos to recommend, review, or discuss books they have read or are interested in. The community often relies on hashtags like #BookTok, #BookRecommendations, and specific book-related hashtags to connect with others who share similar reading interests. BookTok has helped create a space for book enthusiasts to connect, discover new books, and engage in literary conversations in a visually dynamic and accessible way.

BookTok has become a vibrant and diverse community, attracting book lovers of various ages and interests with users creating engaging content by showcasing their favorite books, sharing their reading experiences, and recommending titles to others. The platform has also been influential in promoting specific books, leading to increased popularity and sales for certain titles. You can join in the fun by using the hashtags #BookTok, or #BookRecommendations on the social media platform.