Jewell and Yarros among winners at 2024 TikTok Book Awards

3 months ago 18

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Philip Panting The seven award winners stand in front of a 'TikTok Book Awards' background

A psychological thriller by Lisa Jewell and an adult fantasy novel by Rebecca Yarros were among the winners at the TikTok Book Awards for 2024.

The winners at the ceremony in London were voted for by thousands of members of the #BookTok community on the video-sharing app.

Book lovers use the platform to make recommendations, and share their thoughts and opinions on trending books.

Jack Edwards, a YouTuber and TikTok creator, sat on this year's panel of judges.

Lisa Jewell's None of This Is True was named book of the year. The British author's thriller follows two young women whose chance meeting at a local pub has dark consequences.

The author said: "I genuinely can't believe it, I knew there was a lot of buzz and chat about my book on TikTok but I was on an amazing shortlist, my mind is blown to be honest!

"What I've realised is that the three books that I was the most nervous about while writing, because I thought they were too weird, too 'out there', too sinister, too creepy, too unconventional, were the three that have been the most popular for me on TikTok!"

Philip Panting Lisa Jewell stands in front of a 'TikTok Book Awards' background

Elsewhere, the award for international book of the year went to Fourth Wing by US author Rebecca Yarros.

The fantasy novel went viral on TikTok, which propelled it to reach No1 on The New York Times bestseller list.

Yarros, who could not attend the awards ceremony, sent a video message: "It has been a wild ride, and none of it would have happened without TikTok! Huge love to the #BookTok community."

The shortlist at the TikTok Book Awards was chosen by a panel of figures from the literary and media world including the author Samantha Shannon, broadcaster Sara Cox and the CEO of the Publishers Association, Dan Conway.

But the winners came from TikTok's #BookTok community, with 82,000 people casting their votes online.

TikTok says more than 35 million videos have been made using the hashtag "BookTok", making the sub-community one of the biggest on the platform.

The awards were launched last year to celebrate some of the best-loved books, independent book shops, authors and creators that circulate on the social media platform.

Philip Panting Jack Edwards stands in front of a 'TikTok Book Awards' background

Jack Edwards, who has been dubbed the "internet's resident librarian", sat on the judging panel for this year's shortlist.

"It was a privilege to be a judge, I feel really lucky to be here because the best thing that we can do is champion more creators, more bookstores and more books!"

Edwards has amassed more than 650,000 followers on TikTok, but, despite his success in the #BookTok community, he started his career creating content on a different platform - YouTube.

He boasts more than 1.39 million subscribers on the social media site and in the early days of his channel, he made videos about his experience in higher education, as the first person in his family to attend university.

But Edwards says the catalyst for shifting his online presence towards book content was being in lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"TikTok is a different style and format to YouTube, for sure, but it's a fun creative challenge to think 'how do I make this accessible for audiences who are looking for something slightly different', that's the beauty of it."

Now, he's writing a book of his own.

"It's inspiring being in a room with all these amazing authors, I'm hoping that one day we'll be able to rub shoulders and talk about the craft of writing - I love storytelling and I love storytellers, it's something I've always wanted to do, regardless of social media."