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How I learned to stop worrying and love TikTok… my 5 tips by Jina Bacarr

June 11, 2022 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, TikTok, Writing tagged as Booktok, historical, Tiktok

Do you TikTok?

Love it or hate it?

What to post? Dancing to retro music in your PJs?

Reading from your book while trying to looking into your cell camera?

Show your face or not?

Just when we authors felt comfortable Tweeting and Facebooking, now we’re TikToking.

Sort of.

It’s the Wild West in TikTok-land and it’s difficult to know what works and what doesn’t. For example, I posted a vampire short story about speed dating a sexy vampire with sound effects, action, romance, humor… it only got 12 views…

@jinabacarrauthor
My Speed Date with a Vampire as told by#author J Taylor Wilde #shortstory #authorsoftiktok #authorlife #booktok #booktoker #vampire @boldwoodbooks
♬ original sound – Jina Bacarr

Sometimes I talk into camera about my books, but I haven’t mastered ‘page flipping’ the book, holding the camera, and saying anything remotely intelligent at the same time. I’m still sweating it, but I haven’t given up.

When I post beautiful cakes that I find in my local markets, I get hits. Over 700 on this one:

@jinabacarrauthor
tempting goodies while I wait for notes from my editor #writerslife #authorlife #booktok #WritingCommunity #writersoftiktok #authorsoftiktok @boldwoodbooks
♬ original sound – Jina Bacarr

I even did an April Fools’ joke — a video about my ‘next’ book ‘LuLu goes to Paris’ about a little turtle’s journey…

@jinabacarrauthor
Lulu goes to Paris #readabookday #abookday #authorsoftiktok #booktok #booksoftiktok #author #writer #amwriting #amwritingromance #fairytale #booktok @boldwoodbooks #paris
♬ original sound – Jina Bacarr

Here’s my latest TikTok video where I show off my ‘cake skills’ — sort of, the vanilla buttercream icing melted — and talked abut my two Paris WW2 books. So far I have. ZERO views. (it can take HOURS for the TikTok algorithm to put your video in the queue… whom to show it to… where (country)… and a million other reasons. I don’t use the music you can add… I prefer to talk about what my books. If anyone has any comments about using the music tracks, I’m all ears (no pun intended but I couldn’t help it — it’s 3 am as I write this). UPDATE: 19 hours later, I have 335 views.

@jinabacarrauthor
tempting goodies while I wait for edits on my next Paris WW2 novel #booktok @boldwoodbooks #writingcommunity #book #historicalfiction
♬ original sound – Jina Bacarr

In the end, be yourself. If you love hamming it up in bunny slippers and Disney Princess PJs, go for it. Everybody knows we authors are ‘different’, so show the audience that part of you.

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5 tips:

post often

post short clips

be real and be quirky if that fits you

talk about your books… short and I mean short excerpts, lines, etc. Provocative, intrigue the viewer to want to know more…

use ‘author’ in your name so viewers know you write books. Mine is: https://www.tiktok.com/@jinabacarrauthor

I discovered these 5 tips by joining https://www.facebook.com/groups/tiktokforauthors — a fabulous group of TikTokAuthors on Facebook.

I’ve also just applied to join author Fiona Lucas’s new FB TikTok group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tiktok4authors

That’s it for the moment… If you have any tips or TikTok stories you want to share, please do in the comments.

Most of all, have fun!!

Jina