TikTok Made Me Read It: How Latino Authors and Readers Leverage #BookTok and #Booksta

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1 topic to highlight: The rise of the book on the networks

TikTok and Instagram social media users, including Latinos,

are helping to transform the world of literary publishing by changing the way readers find works that engage them.

General panorama

: Book sales in the world grew in the pandemic.

BookTok and Booksta, the nicknames and

used in accounts and posts about reading on TikTok and Instagram, are the main drivers of those sales, according to analysts and publishers.

Details

: Social media users have helped some titles become sudden bestsellers.

• For example, a Latina TikTok video, Selene Velez, about books that “seriously changed her life” was linked to such a noticeable spike in sales of the 2014 novel

  We Were Liars

  that the author E. Lockhart was given the green light to write a prequel, published in May.

• Los seis de Atlas (The Atlas Six)

  , a self-published novel without editorial support in 2021 and which has a Cuban among the six main characters, became such a runaway success on social networks that the publishing house Tor Books reprinted it this spring and now it will be adapted as a series by Amazon.

• Among the works that frequently appear in the recommendations of Booksta and BookTok is

  Al final die los dos (They Both Die at the End)

  , by Puerto Rican Adam Silvera.

Illustration by Shoshana Gordon/Axios

The intrigue

: Publishers have created programs to work with influential social media users (or

as they're called) in hopes of making their books successful.

• Barnes & Noble stores in the US and Waterstones in the UK now have special shelves promoting "What You Saw on BookTok," and book clubs with names like "BookTok made me read this."

Social platforms are also a way

for readers to find works that are subject to bans.

• The @bannedbooksbookclub Instagram account ships out titles that are blacklisted by public libraries or school districts, and holds a meeting to discuss one work each month.

  On his list is, for example, Carmen Maria Machado's memoir,

  In the Dream House

  .

Yes, but

: As the literary influence of social media continues to grow, so do criticisms of a lack of diversity, a pervasive problem in the publishing industry.

In her own words

: Carmen Alvarez, a Cuban-American who dedicates her account @tomesandtextiles to promoting authors with diverse voices, explained to Axios Latino the relevance of Bookstagram.

• "It really made me wonder why before I didn't stop to think about how so few novels reflected my experiences," she said, denouncing the severe lack of Latino characters and authors: "Now I demand that the pages of the book contain that variety."

• "I use my networks to highlight the works that do frame us," he said, "because I want others like me to understand very early in life that these characters who are like us also deserve to be on the covers."

• Alvarez recommends reading Silvia Moreno-Garcia's

  The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

  this summer (published July 19 in the US);

  Woman of Light

  by Kali Fajardo-Anstine;

  and the new Mexican gothic novel by Isabel Cañas,

  The Hacienda.

2. Free the mind even while imprisoned

A new series of essays

hopes that incarcerated people receive guidance and writing lessons from authors who have also been in prison.

Big Picture

: Luis J. Rodríguez, author of

, is among the authors who contributed pieces to the collection, which is now available in detention centers across the United States.

Courtesy

Caits Meissner, the collection's editor

, told Axios that the purpose of the book is to help these people develop writing careers with the help of authors who have had a similar experience.

• "Having this book in their hands is like having a writing workshop right in front of them," Meissner said.

• The book, released in January, includes essays by Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ writers.

The Intrigue

: A $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation will help distribute 75,000 copies to prison libraries.

• Copies have also been sent free of charge to centers that give educational regularization classes to people in the penal system.

• The collection of essays was devised by PEN America, which has a prison writing program with free resources, mentorships and public reading sessions.

Yes, but

: The collection is not just for incarcerated people.

• "Anyone who picks up this book will be moved. There is trauma. There is pain. There is triumph," Meissner said.

Don't forget

: Some Latino writers began their careers in part after serving time in correctional facilities.

• Miguel Piñero wrote

  Short Eyes

  while he was in Sing Sing prison, where he took a playwriting workshop for inmates.

• Piri Thomas created

  Down These Mean Streets

  after spending time in prison.

3. Bad jokes or touchy sensibilities?

A Latino sociologist wants to show the world

how racial/ethnic jokes reveal a lot about inequalities.

Overview

: Raúl Pérez indicated that comedians and artists have used humor classified as racist for decades to explain both complexities and daily issues in the United States.

That humor, according to Pérez, has become so common that it is difficult to criticize it without being classified as

(the term, sometimes derogatory, used in the US for those who are very aware of social inequalities, something similar to "progressive") ).

• Pérez points to Bill Maher, who hosts the show

  Real Time

  on HBO, as an example.

  He is regularly criticized for making racist jokes, to which Maher replies that millennials are "too sensitive."

The cover of the book by Raúl PérezCourtesy

In an interview with Axios

, Pérez said that with his book he sought to explore how humor permeates beyond entertainment: he says that it can have an effect on social ties and deepen feelings of marginalization.

• An example

  : “When police officers make racist jokes, how do they go about assuming that content until they mark how they treat black, Latino, Asian or indigenous people?” Pérez questioned.

• Another case

  : "The extreme right has weaponized racist humor: they make jokes with those who seek to make racism

  funny

  again since making fun of non-white people is taboo in this era of recognition of civil rights."

• In his book, Pérez shows how some extremist websites use memes and images of racist jokes to recruit young people.

The intrigue

: Perez said comedians who claim "cancel culture" prevents them from cracking jokes are no different than comedians decades ago who became defensive in the face of criticism for wearing face paint to mock, by a black person.

• "Maybe it's not the kind of white supremacy that the [Ku Klux] Klan uses, but it's a form of white supremacy that wants to say, under the guise that it's just a joke, that their way of being and seeing others is right," Perez said.

4. In

English

and Spanish — at the same time

An independent

publisher that simultaneously publishes works in English and Spanish is causing a sensation in the publishing world.

Details

: Charco Press titles, which focus on Latin American literature, have appeared on the coveted Man Booker International Prize long and short lists three times (most recently this June) since the publisher began operations in 2017 .

• It also has several PEN International winners.

The Big Picture

: Spanish is the second most spoken language after English in American households, according to the Pew Research Center, but publishers rarely translate Latin American titles and very rarely publish books in both languages ​​at the same time.

Sharing stories is how we understand each other, appreciate our differences, and treasure what makes us the same."

samuel mcdowell, editor

• Less than 1% of works of literary fiction and poetry published in the United States and the United Kingdom are translations, according to Three Percent, a literary website that is part of the University of Rochester Press.

Courtesy of Charco Press

But clearly there is a demand

for fiction that is bilingual and in Spanish.

• Books by Latin American authors have had a great boom in recent years.

• Bilingual publishers of children's books, such as Lil' Libros, have also gained popularity.

• And the posthumous sales of works by Roberto Bolaño and the continued popularity of Gabriel García Márquez outside of Latin America show an appetite for novels by Spanish-speaking authors.

In his own words

: “By putting out editions in both languages ​​at the same time we are allowing readers to get closer to these voices in the language they prefer,” Charco Press co-founder Samuel McDowell told Axios Latino in an email.

• "Seeing readers discover these incredible authors for the first time and realize that there is a whole other world to explore is our greatest reward: sharing stories is how we understand each other, appreciate our differences and treasure what makes us the same. McDowell said.

For the farewell: our recommendations

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

• Marina

  : I suggest

  Trust

  , the second novel by Argentine-American Hernán Díaz after

  In the Distance

  (which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist);

  and

  Olga Dies Dreaming

  , Xochitl Gomez's literary debut centered on a Puerto Rican family.

• Russell

  : Jennifer Givhan's

  River Woman, Red Demon,

  a psychological thriller about a Chicana medicine woman;

  and

  Reverberations of Racial Violence: Critical Reflections on the History of the Border

  , edited by Sonia Hernández and John Morán González.

• Astrid

  : I'm not proud to admit it, but I haven't read much recently because my 19-month-old son is having sleep regression and my family is about to move.

  But two books I read not so long ago that made an impact on me were

  The Sympathizer

  , by Viet Thanh Nguyen;

  and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

  (

  I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

  ) by Erika L. Sánchez.

• What are you guys reading?

  Send your suggestions to

  axioslatino@axios.com

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