Ever cracked the binding of a romantasy? If so, you likely encountered the otherworldly cousin of a bodice ripper.
On Nov. 15 and 16, a new world of books is coming to a Charleston bookstore near you. Charleston Literary Festival has partnered with TikTok to host two live conversations, one of which focuses on a podcaster who has helped power romance, fantasy, science fiction and other genres, too.
The event augments the lineup of the 10-day gathering of writers, thinkers and readers who delve into a range of one-hour talks surrounding everything from World War II history to climate change, from reality television to, yes, romantasy.
A read on romantasy
For the uninitiated, romantasy is a popular offshoot of fantasy fiction that marries romance and fantasy, often folding in magic and other time-tested tropes as the passion plays out.
There’s plenty of heat in the mix, too, with some going so far as to affectionately dub the subsets of the genre involving human-with-other-than-human liaisons as “faerie smut.” It’s not only firing the loins of readers around the world, but it’s bulging the pockets of publishers by way of its vast, voracious readership.
This year’s literary festival has already touched upon it on its Dock Street Theatre mainstage. On Nov. 7, the festival featured television host and author Jenna Bush Hager and author Ariel Sullivan, whose new novel “Conform” is the first book published by Hager’s publishing imprint, Thousand Voices. The two dubbed the title a dystoromance, or dystopian romance, which layers dreamy love connections with futuristic darkness.
Enter #BookTok
And it has found a well-matched bedfellow in #BookTok, the TikTok community that since 2019 has hash-tagged #BookTok to drive staggering book sales, boosting even backlist titles to reemergence as recent bestsellers.
“It’s something that grew very organically,” said Karen Kang, Global Culture and Education Partnerships Lead at TikTok, attributing it to the algorithm’s ability to understand a person’s interests.
“What’s incredible is that BookTok has really made reading social again, so you could be somewhere in a completely different country and still connect with people who love the same books,” she said. “It really is a global movement. I like to say that Book Talk is this giant book club.”
Kang offers some numbers to back up the book surge, noting that according to the Circana BookScan tracking system, 59 million book sales in 2024 were tied directly to #BookTok.
Landing at Ladybird
On Nov. 15 and 16, TikTok is headed to Ladybird Books to highlight BookTok at the literary festival. The new bookstore at 299 King Street on the northwest corner of Liberty Street is the festival’s official bookseller.
It is owned by Summer Anderson, a festival board member, who is also the wife of Clyde Anderson, the executive chairman of the Alabama-headquartered Books-a-Million.
For TikTok, the store is a good fit for its marketing strategy. “Our activation in Charleston is a really good example of how we show up at places,” said Kang.
“One of the key messages for us is for people to understand that TikTok is more than an entertainment platform,” noting that the platform seeks to underscore that it supports the discovery of books and the sharing of them as a whole.
From 11 a.m to 4 p.m. each day, “TikTok: Discover Your Next Read” will feature curated #BookTok reads, author and creator conversations, photo ops, book giveaways and more.
On Nov. 15 at 2 p.m., “Author Origins: Building a Literary Career” will feature Kang and Charleston-based novelist Gervais Hagerty, author of “In Polite Company,” exploring how she began writing and launched her literary career.
On Nov. 16 at 1 p.m., for the panel “#BookTok’s Community Effect: Fireside Chat with @morgannbook,” Kang will talk with the popular “Off the Shelf” podcaster Morgann Book about how the ways that books reach readers are evolving, with digital platforms like TikTok driving community enthusiasm and shaping cultural conversation around stories.
Book, a 22-year-old Toronto-based podcaster who hit big when she started streaming during the pandemic at the age of 16.
“I was a huge fantasy and romance and dystopian reader growing up. I loved The Hunger Games,” she said
Today, her #BookTok platform currently has 2.6 million followers, who seek her recommendations on books from first-time authors and backlist writers, too, in genres from romance to science fiction and more.
“I love when [the books of ] backlist authors … become super popular, but I think there’s also something really incredible about debut authors who are trying to balance the old publishing world with the new social media algorithms.”
YA Fantasy at YALLFest
While in town, Kang will also moderate an 11 a.m. Nov. 15 panel. at Charleston Museum, “The #BookTok Effect: Building Community and Reading and Audience.” Joining her will be authors Ashlee Latimer, an author of young adult dark fantasy; Shannon J. Spann, an author of dark fantasy; and Chloe Gong, an author of young adult and adult fantasy. The discussion will focus on the changing landscape of the literary industry and readership.
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