what we lose if we lose BookTok

I spent the weekend frothing with rage at members of the laptop class who were mocking the influencers who will lose income if TikTok is successfully banned in the United States. Floating through the ether is this idea that the only people who make money on TikTok are 19-year-old white girls in crop tops drinking blended beverages. Who cares if those dumb women make less money? I find it unconscionable that the same people on X who have shown empathy during wave after wave of media industry layoffs will deride and dismiss the financial anxiety of creators of new media.

If you’re new here, I am one of the seven million small business owners in America who makes income thanks to TikTok. I don’t make money directly from the app as a content creator—I earn income by working as a paid consultant to authors, Big Five publishers, and nonprofit organizations on how to use the platform. My client Betsy Lerner was written up in the New York Times as a “TikTok star.” Right up until the final hours before the app went dark, I was working on a creator outreach campaign for my client Jillian Turecki’s new book It Begins with You. My friend

Tell the Bees

posted a video about the book that’s been viewed 700,000 times.

This is not my only source of income, so please do not worry about my financial situation! But I say all this to challenge your stereotype of who a “TikTok influencer” is and whose livelihoods are at stake here, in this political hot potato contest over an app used by 170 million Americans.

Today I have an op-ed in The Hill about how consequential losing BookTok could be for readers, booksellers, the publishing industry, and writers—even you, literary novelists. I hope you will read it and share.