How I grew my Tiktok to 130,000+ #booktok readers before the release of my newest book
For the longest time, I was stuck at only a couple of thousand followers on TikTok, but once I discovered the niche that works for me, my account exploded. Here's how I did it.
Hi friends,
Today, I’d like to introduce you to author Kyla Zhao, who grew her audience on Tiktok to 130,000 in the leadup to her second book, Valley Verified, which just came out this week.
When Kyla came to me with the idea for this article, I got super excited. As you might know, I’ve been off social media since March, so I’m thrilled to find other authors who can speak to that area of growth.
If you’re interested in growth, I recommend these articles to go along with this post.
Will that new social media platform fundamentally improve your existence at all?
How to get 5,000-20,000 new readers for your Substack publication every month
Growth, or something like it...
Hi! I’m Kyla, an author just published by Penguin Random House who writes breezy, entertaining novels starring women in fun settings like high society, the fashion industry, and Silicon Valley. My second novel Valley Verified just came out worldwide.
Imagine Legally Blonde meets The Devil Wears Prada, but this time Elle Woods is tackling the cutthroat startup world. In Valley Verified, our heroine Zoe is forced to leave her fashion job in New York and move to Silicon Valley, where she joins an up-and-coming tech startup. In this sink-or-swim environment, Zoe must tackle judgmental coworkers, eccentric tech billionaires and her own insecurities to prove she’s more than just a fashionista in a land of tech bros.
Since I write fun and breezy women’s fiction, social media apps like Instagram and TikTok are great channels for getting my books in front of my target audience.
For the longest time, I was stuck at only a couple of thousand followers on TikTok, but once I discovered the niche that works for me, my account exploded—I’ve since amassed over 131,000 followers and nearly 20 million ‘likes’ on my content in the past year.
After much trial and error, here are some things that I’ve discovered work well for my social media marketing growth.
Find the right platform
Most people only have the time and energy to focus their social media marketing efforts on one or two platforms, so you want to be strategic about which platform(s) to pursue. If I write non-fiction books, LinkedIn might be a better platform for book marketing. However, since my books target Gen Z and millennial women, platforms like TikTok and Instagram are more appropriate options for reaching my audience.
Be subtle
In the beginning, my TikTok videos were just of me reeling off a list of reasons why people should read my books. But no one likes being on the receiving end of explicit marketing and told why they should spend their money. Once I realized that, I completely changed my approach. These days, my TikTok content focuses not on my books themselves, but on their prominent themes such as fashion and pop culture. For instance, I might make a video about a fashion designer, and then I’ll slip in a very brief, casual mention that I also write books set in the fashion world.
Insert the promotion at the right spot
Authors are taught to end each chapter on a mini cliffhanger so that readers stay hooked, but a cliffhanger only works when the reader already feels invested in the story and wants to find out what happens next. In the same vein, I don’t mention my novels at the very start of a TikTok video—at that point, people won’t care since I haven’t yet established why my books would be interesting. Instead, I would first introduce the main topic (e.g., the latest pop culture drama); once the viewer is hooked and wants to learn more about what happened, that’s when I pop in a mention of my books.
No one likes being on the receiving end of explicit marketing and told why they should spend their money.
Don’t focus too much on author/writing content
My TikTok content used to be heavily focused on my writing process and career, like ‘Day in the Life of an Author’ videos. While it’s tempting to lean into these topics because I’m familiar with them, I’ve come to realize that only other authors and major book fans would be interested. That’s a very niche, limited group, who might not even be the target audience for my novels. That’s when I decided to expand my content to focus on topics that are more aligned with my novels instead of with my own life.
Give a clear call-to-action
Social media apps like TikTok are designed to keep people on the platform for as long as possible. Thus simply mentioning my books isn’t enough to encourage viewers to navigate out of the app to check them out. So I try to make access to my books as seamless as possible: I write out in my videos—in big, bold text—that my novels are available for purchase at the link in my TikTok profile. The fewer steps that people have to take to find your books, the better!
Since I write fun and breezy women’s fiction, social media apps like Instagram and TikTok are great channels for getting my books in front of my target audience.
Experiment!
It’s hard to figure out what works best for your audience if you don’t explore a whole spectrum. I’ve tried myriad formats: video vs. photo carousel; me talking vs. no talking and just background music vs. no talking but putting text on the screen. You can also experiment with posting times, font types, hashtags, and a whole bunch of other variables to identify the magic concoction.
Cross-promote to other platforms like Instagram and Twitter
Creating the content is the most time-consuming part. So, once your content has been made, milk it for all it’s worth! I cross-post my TikTok videos to other platforms like Instagram and Twitter whenever it’s suitable. It only takes a few seconds, and you get another opportunity to reach a new audience. No pain, only gains.
Repackage content from other platforms
Sometimes, I just don’t have the inspiration to create fresh content for TikTok. That’s when I turn to content I’ve created on other platforms and brainstorm how I can adapt them for my TikTok audience. For instance, during the holiday season, I published book-inspired gift guides in my newsletter (you can subscribe to my newsletter here). It didn’t take me long to repackage them into a photo carousel on TikTok. It’s almost a cheat code because the content is already made and I just have to tweak how I present it for TikTok’s more visual-centric audience.
Collaborate with other creators
Once I’ve built up a decent following on TikTok, other creators began reaching out to me, and I was also able to connect with creators I look up to. Several have even given my books a shoutout on their channels after reading—and I’m incredibly grateful for the support I’ve received from fellow social media content creators.
If you use any of these tips, let me know by getting in touch with me at the links below. Happy writing and may your books find their readers! 😊
About Valley Verified
Imagine Legally Blonde meets The Devil Wears Prada, but this time Elle Woods is tackling the cutthroat startup world. In Valley Verified, our heroine Zoe is forced to leave her fashion job in New York and move to Silicon Valley, where she joins an up-and-coming tech startup. In this sink-or-swim environment, Zoe must tackle judgmental coworkers, eccentric tech billionaires and her own insecurities to prove she’s more than just a fashionista in a land of tech bros.
About Kyla
Kyla Zhao writes novels starring Asian women in fun settings like high society, the fashion industry, and Silicon Valley. Her first book The Fraud Squad was a book pick by Good Morning America, a #1 new release in Asian-American literature on Kindle, and featured by media outlets such as Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed and so on. Kyla was also selected by Forbes for its 30 Under 30 list and Tatler as a Leader of Tomorrow. Her second novel Valley Verified comes out worldwide in January 2024.
Kyla now works in Silicon Valley after graduating from Stanford University in 2021. She’s still trying to understand why Californians adore hiking and Patagonia fleeces so much.
If you want to learn more about Kyla, you can check out her Substack. Here’s a post she made about passing 100k Tiktok followers.
And if you want to see Kyla’s accounts, you can check them out here.
Instagram: @kylajzhao
TikTok: @kylazingaround
Twitter:@kylazhao_
So, what do you think?
Which strategy above do you think you’ll try first?
Have you even set up a Tiktok account?
What else do you want to know about social media growth?
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Brilliant, Kyla. I've been stuck with around 1,000 followers for ages.
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