#what's even worse is. when these booktubers come out with Other books. you'd think they'd have improved.....but no

[kikuism]

i'm not a serious writer myself but i totally agree with what you're saying about the vast majority of booktok authors. they often get undeserved success because of their fame and it really bothers me because so many talented writers would kill to have such a platform. it reminds me of when random youtube celebrities release a book just to have another money-making avenue to pursue. somehow i find this scenario even worse, because the job of a booktok or booktube influencer is to read and critique and analyze books. so you'd think they'd know how to construct even a semi-decent book? yet their "knowledge" about reading clearly doesn't translate into their own writing... and they end up using clunky, flimsy language and/or overused tropes with zero originality. i went to the bookstore yesterday and they had a booktok display and i was like 'thanks for putting them all in one place so i know what to avoid' lmao 😭

im so sorry for getting to this so late 😭😭😭 i completely agree with everything you're saying, and for me personally it's actually more embarrassing when these booktubers come out with books bc, like you're saying, their whole thing is reading and reviewing books, so surely they'd have picked up Something about writing...but no. zenith and again but better come to mind. i had a field day reading the reviews for these books bc it just made nooo sense to me that this is the product of your years of reading and reviewing books (i actually can't see the reviews for these on goodreads anymore....maybe they're hidden now? 💀) i never followed those booktubers back in the day, but for one of them, i watched some of her writing vlogs, and i remember thinking 'oh that's so cool, she's writing a book, i wonder what it'll be like when it's out'. and then. uhh...it's honestly astounding to me. like, did they not have editors to go over this shit? where were the editors??? but yeah, i hate what tiktok is doing to books. i hate that books are just being sold as a list of marketable and trending tropes. now, i don't think there's 'good' or 'bad' writing—that’s subjective—but there is definitely 'effective writing' and 'ineffective writing', and i hate that the fixation on tropes means so many books with ineffective writing get published, where you don't get a sense of character, where the plot/pacing is all over the place, where the writing is awkward and clunky. it's like the respect for the time and dedication to the craft of writing just isn't there anymore. for this certain part of the publishing industry it's like, as long as you have fiesty girl emo boy enemies to lovers snarky dialogue that's all that matters, and those books are godawful trash, not to mention those book covers that look the same 💀💀