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From the writing center at the university of wisconsin-madison.

#essayhack: What TikTok can Teach Writing Centers about Student Perceptions of College Writing

By Holly Berkowitz, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

There is a widespread perception that TikTok, the popular video-sharing social media platform, is primarily a tool of distraction where one mindlessly scrolls through bite-sized bits of content. However, due to the viewer’s ability to engage with short-form video content, it is undeniable that TikTok is also a platform from which users gain information; whether this means following a viral dance tutorial or learning how to fold a fitted sheet, TikTok houses millions of videos that serve as instructional tutorials that provides tips or how-tos for its over one billion active users. 

That TikTok might be considered a learning tool also has implications for educational contexts. Recent research has revealed that watching or even creating TikToks in classrooms can aid learning objectives, particularly relating to language acquisition or narrative writing skills. In this post, I discuss  the conventions of and consequences for TikToks that discuss college writing. Because of the popularity of videos that spotlight “how-tos” or “day in the life” style content, looking at essay or college writing TikTok can be a helpful tool for understanding some larger trends and student perceptions of writing. Due to the instructional nature of TikToks and the ways that students might be using the app for advice, these videos can be viewed as parallel or ancillary to the advice that a Writing Center tutor might provide.

A search for common hashtags including the words “essay,” “college writing,” or “essay writing hack” yields hundreds of videos that pertain to writing at the college level. Although there is a large variety in content due to the sheer amount of content, this post focuses on two genres of videos as they represent a large portion of what is shared: first, videos that provide tips or how-tos for certain AI tools or assignment genres and second, videos that invite the viewer to accompany the creator as they write a paper under a deadline. Shared themes include attempts to establish peer connections and comfort viewers who procrastinate while writing, a focus on writing speed and concrete deliverables (page count, word limit, or hours to write), and an emphasis on digital tools or AI software (especially that which is marked as “not cheating”). Not only does a closer examination into these videos help us meet writers where they are more precisely, but it also draws writing center workers’ attention to lesser known digital tools or “hacks” that students are using for their assignments.

“How to write” Videos

Videos in the “how to” style are instructional and advice-dispensing in tone. Often, the creator utilizes a digital writing aid or provides a set of writing tips or steps to follow. Whether these videos spotlight assistive technologies that use AI, helpful websites, or suggestions for specific forms of writing, they often position writing as a roadblock or adversary. Videos of this nature attempt to reach viewers by promising to make writing easier, more approachable, or just faster when working under a tight deadline; they almost always assume the writer in question has left their writing task to the last possible moment. It’s not surprising then that the most widely shared examples of this form of content are videos with titles like “How to speed-write long papers” or “How to make any essay longer” (this one has 32 million views). It is evident that this type of content attempts to target students who suffer from writing-related anxiety or who tend to procrastinate while writing.

Sharing “hacks” online is a common practice that manifests in many corners of TikTok where content creators demonstrate an easier or more efficient way of achieving a task (such as loading a dishwasher) or obtaining a result (such as finding affordable airline tickets). The same principle applies to #essay TikTok, where writing advice is often framed as a “hack” for writing faster papers, longer papers, or papers more likely to result in an A. This content uses a familiar titling convention: How to write X (where X might be a specific genre like a literature review, or just an amount of pages or words); How to write X in X amount of time; and How to write X using this software or AI program. The amount of time is always tantalizingly brief, as two examples—“How to write a 5 page essay in 2 mins” and “How to write an essay in five minutes!! NO PLAGIARISM!!”—attest to. While some of these are silly or no longer useful methods of getting around assignment parameters, they introduce viewers to helpful research and writing aids and sometimes even spotlight Writing Center best practices. For instance, a video by creator @kaylacp called “Research Paper Hack” shows viewers how to use a program called PowerNotes to organize and code sources; a video by @patches has almost seven million views and demonstrates using an AI bot to both grade her paper and provide substantive feedback. Taken as a whole, this subsect of TikTok underscores that there is a ready audience for content that purports to assist writers in meeting the deliverables of a writing assignment using a path of least resistance.

Similarly, TikTok contains myriad videos that position the creator as a sort of expert in college writing and dispense tips for improving academic writing and style. These videos are often created by upperclassmen who claim to frequently receive As on essays and tend to use persuasive language in the style of an infomercial, such as “How to write a college paper like a pro,” “How to write research papers more efficiently in 5 easy steps!” or “College students, if you’re not using this feature, you’re wasting your time.” The focus in these videos is even more explicit than those mentioned above, as college students are addressed in the titles and captions directly. This is significant  because it prompts users to engage with this content as they might with a Writing Center tutor or tutoring more generally. These videos are sites where students are learning how to write more efficiently but also learning how their college peers view and treat the writing process. 

The “how to write” videos share several common themes, most prevalent of which is an emphasis on concrete deliverables—you will be able to produce this many pages in this many minutes. They also share a tendency to introduce or spotlight different digital tools and assistive technologies that make writing more expedient; although several videos reference or demonstrate how to use ChatGPT or OpenAI, most creators attempt to show viewers less widely discussed platforms and programs. As parallel forms of writing instruction, these how-tos tend to focus on quantity over quality and writing-as-product. However, they also showcase ways that AI can be helpful and generative for writers at all stages. Most notably they direct our attention to the fact that student writers consistently encounter writing- and essay- related content while scrolling TikTok.

Write “with me” Videos

Just as the how-to style videos target writers who view writing negatively and may have a habit of procrastinating writing assignments, write “with me” videos invite the viewer to join the creator as they work. These videos almost always include a variation of the phrase— “Write a 5- page case analysis w/ me” or “pull an all nighter with me while I write a 10- page essay.” One of the functions of this convention is to establish a peer-to-peer connection with the viewer, as they are brought along while the creator writes, experiences writer’s block, takes breaks, but ultimately completes their assignment in time. Similarly to the videos discussed above, these “with me” videos also center on writing under a deadline and thus emphasize the more concrete deliverables of their assignments. As such, the writing process is often made less visible in favor of frequent cuts and timestamps that show the progression toward a page or word count goal.

One of the most common effects of “with me” videos is to assure the viewer that procrastinating writing is part and parcel of the college experience. As the content creators grapple with and accept their own writing anxieties or deferring habits, they demonstrate for the viewer that it is possible to be both someone who struggles with writing and someone who can make progress on their papers. In this way, these videos suggest to students that they are not alone in their experiences; not only do other college students feel overwhelmed with writing or leave their papers until the day before they are due, but you can join a fellow student as they tackle the essay writing process. One popular video by @mercuryskid with over 6 million views follows them working on a 6000 word essay for which they have received several extensions, and although they don’t finish by the end of the video, their openness about the struggles they experience while writing may explain its appeal. 

Indeed, in several videos of this kind the creator centers their procrastination as a means of inviting the viewer in; often the video will include the word in the title, such as “write 2 essays due at 11:59 tonight with me because I am a chronic procrastinator” or “write the literature essay i procrastinated with me.” Because of this, establishing a peer connection with the hypothetical viewer is paramount; @itskamazing’s video in which she writes a five page paper in three hours ends with her telling the viewer, “If you’re in college, you’re doing great. Let’s just knock this semester out.” One video titled “Writing essays doesn’t need to be stressful” shows a college-aged creator explaining what tactics she uses for outlining and annotating research to make sure she feels prepared when she begins to write in earnest. Throughout, she directly hails the viewer as “you” and attempts to cultivate a sense of familiarity with the person on the other side of the screen; in some moments her advice feels like listening in on a one-sided Writing Center session.

A second aspect of these “with me” videos is an intense focus on the specifics of a writing task. The titles of these videos usually follow a formula that invites the viewer with the writer as they write X amount in X time, paralleling the structure of how-to-write videos. The emphasis here, due to the last-minute nature of the writing contexts, is always on speed: “write a 2000- word essay with me in 4.5 hours” or “Join me as I write a 10- page essay that is due at 11:59pm.” Since these videos often need to cover large swaths of time during which the creator is working, there are several jumps forward in time, sped up footage, and text stamps or zoom-ins that update the viewer on how many pages or words the writer has completed since the last update. Overall, this brand of content demonstrates how product-focused writers become when large amounts of writing are completed in a single setting. However, it also makes this experience seem more manageable to viewers, as we frequently see writers in videos take naps and breaks during these high-stakes writing sessions. Furthermore, although the writers complain and appear stressed throughout, these videos tend to close with the writer submitting their papers and celebrating their achievement.

Although these videos may send mixed messages to college students using TikTok who experience struggles with writing productivity, they can be helpful for viewers as they demonstrate the shared nature of these struggles and concerns. Despite the overarching emphasis on the finished product, the documentary-style of this content shows how writing can be a fraught process. For tutors or those removed from the experience of being in college, these videos also illuminate some of the reasons students procrastinate writing; we see creators juggling part-time jobs, other due dates, and family obligations. This genre of TikToks shows the power that social media platforms have due to the way they can amplify the shared experience of students.

To conclude, I gesture toward a few of the takeaways that #essay and #collegewriting TikTok might provide for those who work in Writing Centers, especially those who frequently encounter students who struggle with procrastination. First, because TikTok is a video-sharing platform, the content often shows a mixture of writing process and product. Despite a heavy emphasis in these videos on the finished product that a writer turns in to be graded, several videos necessarily also reveal the steps that go into writing, even marathon sessions the night before a paper is due. We primarily see forward progress but we also see false starts and deletions; we mostly see the writer once they have completed pre-writing tasks but we also see analyzing a prompt, outlining, and brainstorming. Additionally, this genre of TikTok is instructive in that it shows how often students wait until before a paper is due to begin and just how many writers are working solely to meet a deadline or deliverable. While as Writing Center workers we cannot do much to shift this mindset, we can make a more considerable effort to focus on time management and executive functioning skills in our sessions. Separating the essay writing process into manageable chunks or steps appears to be a skill that college students are already seeking to develop independently when they engage on social media, and Writing Centers are equipped to help students refine these habits. Finally, it is worth considering the potential for university Writing Center TikTok accounts. A brief survey of videos created by Writing Center staff reveals that they draw on similar themes and tend to emphasize product and deliverables—for example, a video titled “a passing essay grade” that shows someone going into the center and receiving an A+ on a paper. Instead, these accounts could create a space for Writing Centers to actively contribute to the discourse on college writing that currently occupies the app and create content that parallels a specific Writing Center or campus’s values.

Holly Berkowitz is the Coordinator of the Writing and Communication Center at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She recently received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she also worked at the UW-Madison Writing Center. Although she does not post her own content, she is an avid consumer of TikTok videos.

Using TikTok for Your Academic Papers? Make Sure to Consult Other Sources

Information on TikTok is more interactive than what you find from a Google search. But ensuring the accuracy of that information is crucial to using TikTok to support your studies.

Currently, more than 50% of four-year college students in the United States use TikTok videos for help with their homework. Students responding to the Intelligent.com survey noted they use TikTok mostly for help with math, English, and art (compared to other subjects). More than 34% of the survey’s respondents said they also used the platform to help complete their college application essays .

TikTok has become the go-to search engine for Gen Z. The content is interactive and, as a result, often more engaging than traditional web articles. For many students, this makes what they learn on TikTok stick more than, say, reading from a textbook with outdated stock images.

However, while there is space for TikTok in academia, it should not be the only source — or even the first source — you turn to for research. Here are some tips on how to use TikTok for academics in ways that support (instead of skewing) your learning.

Viral TikTok Videos as One Part of the Research Process

Like Wikipedia, TikTok makes it easier to find information. But while Wikipedia articles often cite sources, TikTok creators are not in the habit of including references.

That means it is on you to fact-check the information you find on TikTok to ensure its accuracy. This can be tricky, as TikTok is designed to keep you consuming content on the platform. You need to leave TikTok and consult other sources — a key part of the research process.

Viral TikTok videos can certainly be one part of your research process. For example, you may use TikTok as your first step in the process to get more information about a particular topic. Watching videos on TikTok may give you context for which additional questions to ask and the information you need to fact-check via other means, whether that is using a traditional search engine and consulting articles on Google or visiting the library.

The number of likes or views on a video or the number of followers a creator has is not an indicator of trustworthiness. Misinformation and disinformation are rampant across social media, including TikTok. Part of your job as a student is to gain the skills needed to analyze a source and verify information with other sources.

You also need to know what your professors expect and understand your university’s policies.  There continue to be privacy concerns around the use of the app within the United States. In fact, Dr. Casey Fiesler, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, has discussed the topic on her TikTok channel.

Some universities, including Auburn University and the University of Mississippi, among others, have banned access to the app on their networks. You can still, of course, access the app on campus, but not via on-campus Wi-Fi.

Expanding Your TikTok Videos Search

The TikTok algorithm is wildly effective — if you like being shown more of the same type of content that you want to see. Videos are curated to your interests and, very quickly, it knows exactly what you like.

While that makes for a seemingly great user experience, it also means you are only seeing the world through a very small frame. Take a step back, and there is an entire world you are missing. 

While the TikTok creator community is diverse, it does not mean that the videos you are served are diverse.

Scott Helfgott, vice president of academic affairs at Shorelight, recommends searching for opposing views to see what comes up. There are multiple perspectives to any event, and Helfgott encourages students to gather as many perspectives as they can.

This ensures that you are exposed to different cultures, perspectives, and experiences you might not see if you do not break out of the algorithm and what the algorithm is programmed to show you.

“You cannot rely on one TikTok video as a source of truth,” he says. “The video appears on your page because the algorithm knows you want to see specific content based on your history. There is another side of it.”

Understanding TikTok’s limitations and potential pitfalls will help you know when it is appropriate to use TikTok for academic purposes and when it is not. “Do your research before you accept what a person is telling you as truth — you do not know if the source is qualified,” stresses Helfgott. 

According to a recent Intelligent.com survey , 65% of students believe the information on TikTok is “somewhat” accurate, while 17% believe it is “very accurate.”

Knowing whether the information is accurate or not will not come from research on the platform. It requires getting off TikTok and verifying the facts: go to the person’s LinkedIn profile, verify their bio, and confirm that this is a real person who is qualified to speak on the topic. 

When Is it Appropriate to Cite TikTok Videos? 

You may have certain classes where it is appropriate to use and cite TikTok videos as part of your assignment.

Ask your professors whether it is appropriate to use both traditional and new sources. “I have not heard of many professors accepting TikTok in isolation, without another source,” shares Helfgott. “It is up to the professor to decide whether they accept TikTok as a source, and this is evolving all the time.”

Helfgott recommends using TikTok to help develop writing and research skills, but not necessarily citing TikTok videos as a source unless doing so is appropriate for your assignment. “There typically needs to be something that you cite in addition to the TikTok video,” he says.

For example, a marketing course may have you look at how businesses are using TikTok to reach their customers. Are they connecting with their target audience? Are they selling too much in a way that turns their audience off? You can evaluate whether their TikTok advertising efforts are effective or not.

Writing courses, particularly courses like writing for the web or humor writing, may also have you spending time on TikTok for class. Part of the appeal of TikTok — and why some videos do so well — is because it is far more entertaining than content on other mediums. 

Screenwriting and film courses may have you practicing writing scripts for TikTok videos. How can you tell a story in just a few seconds? (The sweet spot for TikTok videos is currently between 15 and 60 seconds .) Can you keep people engaged for a 10-minute story (the longest length currently allowed on TikTok)?

Even when it is appropriate to use TikTok videos for research, Helfgott stresses the importance of fact-checking. He points out that as artificial intelligence continues to improve, almost everything can be fake. Helfgott mentioned a video that combined footage of US President Biden with a completely fake speech that he never made. The video matched the speech to his mouth movements in a way that was hard to tell whether it was fake.

“With any research, including TikTok, you need to go to a lot of sources,” Helfgott explains. “You cannot rely on one individual or one type of source. You need multiple sources, multiple perspectives.”

If you are using TikTok as part of a course, you need to know how to cite the source and give credit to the creator. Both the Modern Language Association (MLA) and American Psychological Association (APA) have updated their style guides to include a format for citing TikTok.

Using TikTok to Support Your Learning

Rather than being a source you cite for classwork, TikTok instead can be a great way to supplement your learning. It combines visuals, audio, and text all in one place. And you may even find your professors are sharing content on the platform, too!

You can find videos on how to manage your time, how to write different types of essays, how to write a thesis statement, and more. It can be a great way to refresh what you learned in class. There are also videos that dig into specific math problems and English-language nuances.

For example, Andrea Holm has a master’s in technology in education and has spent years as an English teacher and English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher. Her videos offer bite-sized tips on one specific element of the English language, such as explaining the word “the” and how to use it.

For math, there are channels like Free GCSE Maths Teacher that break down algebra problems and other math concepts into quick videos, such as solving algebraic fractions . Watching how a problem is broken down step-by-step can be a great way to reinforce math concepts you are learning in the classroom.

There are even celebrity academics on TikTok, like Neil deGrasse Tyson who explains concepts like energy and how stars are born on his channel.

Helfgott also points out that you can use TikTok to find out about certain classes and majors, too. For example, you can search things like “What does a data analytics major do” and find videos on data analytics. You can also use it to find opportunities for things like summer internships or top firms for internships in a particular location. 

When to Move from TikTok to In-Person Support

While TikTok can help offer quick tips that help you improve study habits, time management, and productivity, you can also receive that same support in person. 

In-person support gives you a deeper, more comprehensive experience for improving study habits or getting the academic support you need. Plus, programs are tailored to your specific needs so you can ensure you are getting the right support. 

Helfgott urges students to take advantage of professors’ office hours. Office hours are designed to give you answers to questions or additional help, whether you run out of time in class or feel more comfortable talking with your professor one-on-one.

Similarly, Stanford professor Tom Mullaney, who posts on TikTok as firstgenprofessor , regularly shares videos about navigating college courses and campus life overall — reinforcing the idea that while it’s great to begin on screen, nothing compares to in-person connections. 

On TikTok, you can certainly find tons of videos on topics like resume writing and elevator pitches. That is a great way to get information before you take a first pass at writing your own resume, cover letter , and more. But you can also get one-on-one support on these materials. Experts can review your resume, help you with interview practice questions, and offer networking tips so that you are putting your best foot forward. (Shorelight’s career development services do just that, with resume and interview preparation help, assistance with internship and job searches, and more.)

Advisors can also help you navigate course selection and connect you with on-campus resources that can further support you. For example, Shorelight’s Accelerator programs offer both academic support and career development services . You can get English-language support , along with tutoring and mentoring. 

Whichever university you decide to attend in the US will also have tutoring centers for writing, math, and languages. These centers can give you the one-on-one support you need from both experts and peer mentors who can help you review specific math problems or work with you on key elements of essay writing , for example.

Career centers are another great resource. Here, you can have confidence in the counselors’ credentials, Helfgott points out. These professionals have a master’s degree and are qualified to support your career search. “You can interact with them personally and build a relationship,” says Helfgott. “That is not going to happen when you are watching three- to five-minute videos from a stranger who may be unqualified to give advice.”

The advantage of working with experts on campus is that the university has vetted the person who is working with you.

Lastly, Helfgott offers one additional word of caution: “You may start on TikTok for academic reasons, but then you might go down a rabbit hole of non-academic content a few minutes later.” Set a timer for yourself so, if you find yourself watching cat videos, you can get back on track.

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TikTok for Authors and Writers: A Guide on How to Create Engaging Videos and Top Tips For Getting Started (Updated 2024)

Introduction

Updated Jan 2024

When any new social platform comes along, authors ask themselves: should I join? With a day job in communications/marketing/PR, I’m always intrigued by the latest technologies and trends. So when “elder millennials” like myself started joining TikTok, I gave it a try. Like many, I was skeptical at first but since joining I have found myself enjoying TikTok more than any other social media app. It is a dynamic platform and a great wat to connect with others, especially as BookTok—the community of book lovers on TikTok—continues to grow. 

Most marketers would agree with a resounding “yes” that TikTok has become a hot spot for promoting your business. But what about authors and writers? Given that there’s a huge community of like-minded individuals on TikTok, it’s absolutely worth an author’s time to test it out.  If you’re ready to take the plunge, I’ve gathered my top 5 tips on how to use TikTok efficiently as an author, writer or reader, and the potential benefits.  But first, a bit of background on TikTok and what to expect.

What is TikTok? 

What started as yet another social video platform for teenagers to post dancing videos has rapidly evolved. TikTok has over a billion users and more adults joining every day. Videos show users dancing, creating art, making music, giving tutorials, sharing workout tips and much more: the variety of content seems endless. 

Better yet, creators are funny, refreshing and clever. Plus, TikTok’s algorithm will show you a lot of new content and users, more so than other platforms, keeping your feed fresh and interesting. Whether learning about new cultures; seeing people rally behind important causes; marveling at feats; learning new skills; or aww’ing at pets, there’s something for everyone. If you haven’t considered joining,  I recommend at least checking out others’ videos and making your own content when you’re ready .

**Note: All social media platforms evolve, usually as they try to monetize and prioritize businesses and paid users. As such, the algorithms continue to change so I suggest staying flexible and continuing to experiment.

Why Should Authors and Writers Join TikTok?

You may have noticed a lot of authors started to use TikTok in 2022 and 2023. It began with a rush of news articles in the spring of 2022 that shared anecdotes of how candid book review videos on TikTok led to an increase in book sales, outlined most notably in a  NYT  article called “ How Crying on TikTok Sells Books .”

Other articles, like “ TikTok is taking the book industry by storm, and retailers are taking notice ” (NBC) and “ How TikTok Got This YA Author A Six-Figure Book Deal ” (Bustle) have convinced authors to test the waters.  Many authors have realized how powerful a tool TikTok can be to connect with fans, network with other writers, and get your book and brand out there.

Book recommendations, reactions and other related content—typically collected under the hashtag #BookTok—are prolific on TikTok. But, despite breathy declarations that BookTok will help you sell thousands of books overnight, the reality is different. Even though TikTok is fundamentally different than other social platforms in some ways (see next section), like any endeavor, it takes time and work to be successful. And “going viral” is an anomaly and an outlier circumstance.

In summary, TikTok can be a vital and even inspiring tool for authors and writers,  as long as you have tempered expectations.  It’s highly unlikely your videos will spawn massive sales overnight. However, if done correctly, creators can find TikTok a valuable tool for growing their brand, as well as connecting with others.

How to Connect with Readers, Increase Book Sales and Enhance Your Brand Using TikTok

There are marked differences between this social platform and others—primarily the ability to go viral more easily—that can make TikTok a very useful platform for authors. In particular, TikTok content is shown to a wide pool of people beyond your followers, and a few early likes or comments can help propel your video to an exponentially wider audience.

However, TikTok is like any other social media platform in some ways: if you’re just on there to sell something, it shows, and it’s hard to be successful. The most popular users on any platform—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube—take the time to  create interesting and relevant content; engage with others; and learn the best practices of the platform.

Finally, without further delay, here are my top 5 tips for authors using TikTok.

Top 5 Tips for Authors on TikTok:

1-use tried-and-true videography principles.

This tip is counter to what a lot of people might suggest for TikTok. Let me explain: TikTok audiences favor truly authentic, intimate, fun, quirky and creative content. Videos that appear too polished, too formulaic, or too corporate tend to not do as well. In that vein, you’ll see a lot of people use shaky cam, cut themselves off, have messy backgrounds, and do other things that were traditionally big no-no’s in videography.

That said , I truly believe core principles of good videography still apply . Sometimes less is more. As a communications expert with a background in video, I spot a lot of beginner’s errors in videos that are pretty easy to avoid and will help make your videos stand out. Here are a few things to keep in mind to make your videos more engaging.

Quick Tips for Elevating Your TikTok Videos to the Next Level

• LIGHTS : Be mindful of lighting. The best lighting is from the front and/or side. Faces look best with this type of lighting. Natural lighting is best (e.g., sitting next to a window). A simple ring light is affordable and can do wonders in boosting your content to the next level. Reduce light from behind and above, as these can cast many shadows on your face.
• CAMERA : Generally, for equipment, your smartphone camera should work fine.  No need to invest in a fancy camera or set-up. However, some equipment will help: a simple stand (Gorilla tripods are useful and popular) is key in making sure you can get a steady view for the angle you are looking for. A lot of content creators use the “shaky cam” effect to make the video seem more in the moment and spontaneous.
• BACKDROP : Be thoughtful and deliberate about what’s in your background. It’s great to show some personal touches (bookshelves, artwork, etc.). If in doubt, simplify . While viewers may like seeing the authentic, messy background of your life, always take care to make sure there is nothing in view that you would not want the public to see. Users enjoy glimpses into the background, the “real lives” of authors. 
• ACTION : If you are recording yourself, start with some movement: sitting in a seat, taking a sip of water. These everyday actions help instill a sense of sincerity for your videos. Further, scripting or storyboarding your video can be helpful and make the recording process go faster. However, TikTok videos work well when they’re not too formal.
• SOUND : This one is often overlooked but is incredibly important for good videos. You don’t necessarily need an external mic to record, but do be mindful that background sounds should be reduced so you can get the clearest audio possible. Few things will make a viewer move onto the next video than bad audio.

In terms of editing, TikTok has made it exceptionally easy to splice together videos with some of their built-in tools and templates. Other apps, like CapCut, are also be handy tools. There’s plenty of tutorials on getting started (see “Resources” below for specific recommendations), but generally you can upload pre-recorded videos from your camera roll or record directly from TikTok. TikTok has built-in options for filters, animations, adding text and—maybe most usefully—a huge repository of music, including trending music, that you can easily add to your video.

Finally, you will want to select a “cover” to the video that is eye catching, and add hashtags like you would on other social media sites (see Tip #5 for suggestions). Then, smash that post button!

Once you get the hang of the tools and technical side of creating and posting videos, the next step is to find your style.

2-Develop your style

Finding out how you want to approach your videos can take a few trials. If you’re a dancer, dance. If you like to read aloud or ham it up on camera, TikTok is the perfect playground to do so.  Some people like to be on camera – if you do, great! TikTok is perfect for that. But if you don’t want to tap into your latent acting skills,  there are plenty of other options to create videos that more fit your style and brand.

As you master your videos, you can explore other forms of video creation as well. For example, “stitching” a video is when you take the beginning of someone else’s video and add it to yours. This is most used in a question-and-answer format. You may want to do that for the majority of your videos. Again, there are a plethora of tutorials if you want to learn how to do a particular set-up, edit or format. Google is your friend.

I personally enjoy recording a Siri-like voice-over or solely relying on onscreen text for my videos. If you don’t like to appear on camera, you can show off your books or have an auto-reader read an excerpt from your latest work. If you enjoy video editing, you can try your hand at creating book trailers to post to TikTok (and cross-post to YouTube, but that’s another explainer).

Head spinning yet? Keep in mind that, as with any other craft or artform, the more you practice, the better you’ll get and find out what is working for you. Give yourself time if your first few videos aren’t great – the more important thing to do is keep going. By experimenting, posting and trying new videos, you’ll get better. Even quick social media videos are an artform in and of themselves. This leads me to the next tip…

3-Get creative and have fun

Short videos can be similar to writing fiction.  Just as with any written story, a great short video often has a narrative arc too . These obviously take longer to script and shoot sometimes but they are worth thinking about as you practice your video skills.  There are a few general video narrative structures I’ve noticed on TikTok, in particular, that are worth mentioning. These can be great sources of inspiration and, as storytellers, fodder for sharing our own content.

Character’s Journey :   As a writer, I find the “journey” format of video to be one of the most interesting. This type of TikTok video generally shows something happening –  I did something, this is the result.  It often shows a micro emotional journey:  I was miserable at my job, quit, now have my own business. I toiled away on my project, received rejections, was eventually published.  Think of it as a hero’s journey in a two-minute video collage. 

Playing on Expectations :  This type of video sets up an expectation that quickly becomes subverted. It is effective because it creates a question in the viewer’s mind that they must have answered, resulting in the type of tension that keeps someone watching. This could include showing someone in a workplace setting having a conversation, with subtitles or musical effects indicating their true thoughts. Often these types of videos juxtapose emotions or facts, usually to humorous effects.

Sharing Knowledge : Presenting tips and information never goes out of style. Think of this as the “nonfiction” approach to TikTok. If you have thorough or professional knowledge in a particular area—whether it’s tips on writing, marketing, or a beloved hobby/craft—consider turning those into a tutorial series. Anything visual (e.g., calligraphy or painting), can help make your series take off.

One thing to note with the “sharing knowledge” approach: a lot of users take a confessional or hyper-casual style to appear to be more intimately imparting inside information. As you become more savvy with TikTok content you’ll notice many videos are carefully edited to start in what I call the mid-action video. Someone onscreen will be people drinking, eating, doing their make up, walking outside, or parking their car as they talk. These are deliberate choices to appear as if they are quickly sharing something that just came to mind. This informal style emphasizes a sense of authenticity and sincerity that is often more engaging to viewers.

Here are a few additional ideas that might inspire you or that, as an author, you might want to try.

TikTok content ideas for authors

• Play off of trending hashtags or TikTok meme challenges, if appropriate/applicable for your style and audience
• Show your books, bookshelves or collections
• Give honest (short) book reviews
• Perform readings of your work
• Create book trailers for your stories
• “Stitch” answers to relevant questions, such as answering who your favorite author is
• Show a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life of an author (this, personally, is my favorite approach). This could be an unboxing video, or showing how you get ready for an event.

And as you scroll through TikTok, think about how you can play on current video trends and offer your own take. The biggest part of this tip is to have fun . Creating shouldn’t be a chore. If it is, it will come across that way, doing you and your followers a disservice.

4-Follow general social media best practices

As anyone who has been on social media knows, there are a few golden rules for any account. Many of the social media best practice tips and etiquette rules you’ve heard before apply to TikTok as well.  In short, these include:

• Engage with your followers – if someone leaves you a comment or question, it is good etiquette to respond, generally speaking. (Note that this does not apply to harassing or troll-like behavior. See below for more.)
• Do not post overly private information – Just as in real life, keep your personal information – like your full address, registration cards and other content – away from prying eyes to protect yourself against identity theft.
• Be kind – As in real life, don’t participate in harassing or negative behavior. This will inevitably come back to bite you.
• Don’t just promote yourself and book – These accounts get old fast. As a fellow writer and author, think about elevating other books and brands as well, and making personal connections to get a more rewarding experience.
• Understand the basics of the particular platform – Know when your audience might be most engaged on the platform and time your posts then (for example, be mindful of time zones and note that most people peruse social media on their breaks or before/after work). 

For details, Sprout Social’s 11 Dos and don’ts on social media etiquette for businesses has some good tips that are useful for individuals as well, such as not being overly promotional and monitoring your posts frequently. This post from Forbes, Social Media Etiquette: 12 Step Checklist , also has some universally applicable social media tips.

Unfortunately, trolls are an inevitable part of the online experience. There are several schools of thought on how to deal with trolls, many of it conflicting. Some general tips include to first establish they are actually a troll (versus someone who is a poor communicator); ignore or politely address them; and/or report and block them. Read more at Don’t Feed the Trolls and Other Hideous Lies ( The Verge ); 5 Tips for Dealing with Trolls ( ReachOut.com ); and 10 Tips to Deal with Trolls ( Forbes ).

5-Use hashtags (but not as you’d expect)

This is an obvious but important. Hashtags are a powerful tool on TikTok, but I see a lot of people make a similar mistake. Instead of strictly thinking about how your content would be categorized as a guide for choosing hashtags, instead think of your audience . Who are you trying to reach? Is it other writers? Readers? That reframing will help you select more relevant and useful hashtags for getting your content seen.

Note that the advice for hashtags on TikTok seems to change daily. Generally I’d suggest doing a couple naming the audience (#readers #booktok); 1 or 2 describing the content (#bookreading #bookreview); and 1 or 2 more hyper-specific tags or tags naming my audience (#darkfantasybooks). Again, there are many, many schools of thoughts on best practices for hashtags. Here’s a starting list of popular hashtags to consider.

Hashtags for Authors

• #Authors or #Writers
• #Books or #Book
• #AuthorsLife
• #AuthorsofTikTok
• #FYPage – this one means “for your page.” Some believe that this hashtag can help boost visibility.

Bonus Tip! Who To Follow on TikTok

TiKTok is a great place to connect and support other authors, local bookstores, libraries, reviewers, book bloggers, book artists and readers. You can start with this list of hashtags to explore:  #libraries #booktok #bookstan #bookreviewers #bookstores  as well as your typical genre hashtags, such as  #YAbooks and the others listed above.

If you still need tips on who to follow, some top accounts of book lovers, reviewers and all-around entertaining accounts to get you started are below:

Best book TikTok (BookTok) accounts to follow

• Cait’s Books – @caitsbooks
• Moon Girl Reads (Selene) – @moongirlreads_ 
• Abby’s Books – @abbysbooks
• Sydney Blanchard @sydeneyyybean
• Kevin Tyler Norman @kevintnorman
• Great Valley High School Library @gvhslibrary
• Abby Parker @abbysbooks
• @EMMMABOOKS
• @crisreadsbooks
• @abbysbooks
• @thebookplace
• @sophie. in_wonderland
• @kawaii. librarian

And if you’d like to follow me for an inside glimpse into my author journey, you can connect at @kcgrifant .

TikTok Shop for Authors

You may have noticed more videos of authors packaging and shipping their books and referencing their TikTok Shops. TikTok Shop for authors has been gaining steam as the app expands its commerce reach, potentially aiming to compete Amazon. This feature allows verified users to sell and ship products directly to users, similar to Etsy. As you can imagine, this approach has a lot of potential. As TikTok Shop works out its glitches, it is an interesting space to watch for book selling opportunities.

Additional Resources to Help Get You Started

Here are some great additional resources on TikTok:

• 7 Basic Editing Tips for Creating TikTok Videos on the Fly (Premium Beat)
• The Best Gear for Creating Your Next TikTok Video  (Premium Beat)
• How to Create Your First TikTok Video (Social Media Examiner)
• Creating your first TikTok video (step by step instructions from TikTok)

I hope you enjoy checking out TikTok to see if it might be worth trying for yourself. Tips? Questions? Leave them in the comments section below!

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TikTok For Authors and Writers: Really Useful Links by Amanda J Evans

Amanda J Evans

• 29 April 2021

Last year I did a series of columns on all the different social media platforms that writers can use to help build their author platform and market their books. TikTok wasn’t available then, but it is now and it’s becoming a big name in the marketing field. This is a video platform, with videos lasting a maximum of one minute. Similar to all other platforms it uses hashtags and at the time of writing this column the BookTok hashtag has 7.7 billion views. Like Instagram and the Bookstagram community, there are a number of different BookTok hashtags that you can use including #Yabooktok with 277.7 million views, #booktoker 270.2 million, #BookRecommendations 702.6 million, #spicybooktok 45.7 million, #romancebooktok 25.2 million, and more. The links I’ve chosen this week should hopefully help you navigate TikTok if you’re not already familiar with it, and give you some tips and advice on how to get the most out of this platform as an author.

• https://www.blackchateauenterprises.com/the-guide-to-tiktok-for-authors-is-this-platform-for-you/ – The Guide to TikTok for Authors: This is a great read and includes a number of sections. There’s information on TikTok advertising possibilities along with the organic reach possibilities for authors. This article does say TikTok allows 15-second videos, but it is actually up to a minute because you can string four videos together. While this article doesn’t offer any tips, it does explain what the platform is and the possibilities it presents.
• https://writingcooperative.com/how-to-use-tiktok-as-a-writer-d2fe8119adf2 – How to Use TikTok as a Writer: This article is broken into numerous sections with the first one explaining the platform and the demographics. This article was written in February 2021, so you can expect these number to have risen since then. The next section explains how to use TikTok including how to set up your profile and how to record a video including editing, adding filters, and music. There’s also information on closed captioning. There’s a mention of those all-important hashtags and cover thumbnails too. There’s a section on how often to post and a great selection of video ideas for writers. This is definitely worth the five minute read and a great starting point if you’re new to TikTok.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht_GILUjLG4 – TikTok Tips for Authors (Making author TikToks & writing experiments) – This is a vlog or video blog that talks all about TikTok videos as an author and offers the best tips for finding trending hashtags, using BookTok for inspiration, and the tips and tricks that this author found useful for her own writing TikToks. The video is fifteen minutes long but if you like to watch someone explain things, this is an excellent watch.
• https://inspirefirst.com/writers-on-tiktok/ – How Writers on TikTok Boost Their Careers: This article begins with a section on whether TikTok is for writers and provides some great statistics. There’s a section on successful writers on TikTok that you can follow to see how they do it and maybe pick up some ideas for your own videos. The next section is about strategies authors can use and this includes being consistent with your brand across all your social media platforms, focusing on a single point per video, and letting your personality shine. The next section is about how writers on TikTok can make money (and not just from selling your books). This is called the Creator Fund and it pays per 1,000 views so the more people that view your videos the better. There’s a section on how to create a TikTok account along with a list of video ideas. Everything you need to know to get started is in this one article.
• https://zapier.com/blog/tiktok-marketing-tips/ – 7 TikTok Marketing Tips from Small Businesses: While not specifically writing related, this post has some great tips that writers can use too. The first of these is Don’t make commercials – make TikToks and it gives examples. Other tips include getting to the point, being authentic, using facts, and using trending sounds in the background. There are some excellent examples that show you what to do and what not to do and it is definitely worth the read.
• https://authornews.penguinrandomhouse.com/using-tiktok-to-cultivate-new-audiences/ – Using TikTok to Cultivate New Audiences: This is a post from Penguin Random House from March 2021, and it talks about how popular TikTok is. For authors, this post offers some great tips and insight including how to get an idea of what is out there and why participating in trends is a good idea. It also gives some great tips on what to include in your videos such as behind the scenes information. There’s a section on finding your niche and the final section is how to evaluate if TikTok is going to be the right app for your book marketing endeavours.
• https://bettermarketing.pub/how-tiktok-launched-a-book-to-the-3-best-selling-spot-on-amazon-b9c4b972b337 – TikTok Launched a Book to the Number 3 Best Selling Spot on Amazon: The last link for today is more of an example of how when used right, TikTok can be your number one marketing strategy. In this article, the author got her book to number 3 in the entire Amazon store and she did it by making a TikTok video that went viral. The article breaks down what the author did right. The first thing was to tell a compelling story, the second using trending hashtags, and the third an extremely popular song. This post showcases everything and tells you how you can try this type of book marketing too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed all the links this week and have some ideas on how to market your next book on TikTok. If there is a topic you’d like to see me cover, all you need to do is get in touch with me via any of my social media links.

(c) Amanda J Evans

www.amandajevans.com , Facebook and Twitter : @amandajevans

About the author

Amanda J Evans is an award-winning Irish author of YA and Adult romance in paranormal and fantasy genres. Growing up with heroes like Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones, her stories centre on good versus evil with a splice of love and magic thrown in too. Her books have all won awards and her latest novella, Hear Me Cry, won the Book of the Year Award at the Dublin Writers Conference 2018. Amanda has been featured in a number of poetry anthologies in 2017 and 2018 including A Bowl of Irish Stew, a charity anthology for Pieta House and her short story Moonlight Magic was included in the Owl Hollow Press Anthology, Under the Full Moon’s Light, published in October 2018. Amanda is currently polishing her novel, Winterland, which will be submitted to agents and publishers in 2019, and is also working on a Bronte inspired story for an anthology due for publication in 2020. Amanda is also the author of Surviving Suicide: A Memoir from Those Death Left Behind, published in 2012. You can find out more on her website www.amandajevans.com, Facebook and Twitter: @amandajevans

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Home / Book Marketing / TikTok for Authors: The Ultimate Guide

TikTok for Authors: The Ultimate Guide

TikTok has become all the rage among authors lately. Authors from all over are tapping into the culture of “BookTok” and making a lot of money doing it.

But is TikTok really worth it?

After all, properly building an audience on any social media platform takes time, and as authors, we don't have a lot of time. 

Well, I'm here to say that, for now at least, TikTok is definitely worth a look for authors who want to expand their social media audiences. In fact, I might go so far as to say that TikTok is the best social media for connecting with readers.

After all, you don't see shelves at your local bookstore with Facebook favorites.

Here is my experience: I started out knowing nothing about the platform before beginning preliminary research for this article. But in just a few short weeks, I managed to get my TikTok subscribers over 1000, and saw measurable increases in my book sales and newsletter signups. The hype is real, folks.

So if you'd like to give TikTok a shot, read on. We've got a comprehensive guide to help you reach new readers and grow a substantial audience on TikTok.

• What TikTok is
• Why it is important
• Nuances surrounding the culture of TikTok
• Tips to grow your audience on TikTok
• Mistakes to avoid
• Advice from multiple authors who are doing well on TikTok

Table of contents

• What is TikTok?
• Organic Reach
• Advertising Opportunities
• Step 1: Download the App
• Step 2: Sign Up for TikTok
• Step 3: Set Up Your Profile
• Step 4: Make That First Video!
• 1. What is BookTok?
• 2. Bookshelves
• 4. Stitching
• 5. Duetting
• Tip #1: Decide if TikTok is Right for You
• Tip #2: Stick to the 20% Promotion Rule
• Tip #3: Save favorite Sounds, Effects, and Videos to Work On Later
• Tip #4: Follow Trends (But Not Too Many)
• Tip #5: Use 3-5 Hashtags
• Tip #6: Your Book Cover Is Your Best Friend
• Tip #7: Do a Series of Cover Reveal Videos
• Tip #8: Book Recommendations
• Tip #9: Niche Down
• Tip #10: Engage with Other BookTokers
• Tip #11: Consistency is Key
• Tip #12: TikTok is a Numbers Game
• Tip #13: Shoot for 1000 Followers
• Tip #14: Be Authentic
• Tip #15: Hook Viewers Immediately
• Mistake #1: You Think TikTok is Just for Young or Super Energetic People
• Mistake #2: Most of Your Content is Promotional
• Mistake #3: You Overstuff Hashtags
• Mistake #4: You Don't Stick to a Niche
• Mistake #5: Your Videos Are Too Long
• Mistake #6: Overthinking Videos
• Mistake #7: Underthinking Videos
• Authors Killing it On TikTok
• Is TikTok Worth It?

Note: This is not a technical guide for how to create TikTok videos. For that, I'd recommend this article , or sign up for Mark Dawson's Ads for Authors course , which includes a course on TikTok for Authors. We are an affiliate of Mark, because his course is amazing, and I highly recommend it to everyone. If Mark's course is not currently accepting new applicants (the course is only open 1-2 times per year), then try this course instead.

Put simply, TikTok is a social media platform for posting short-form videos. But unlike older short-form video platforms like Vine, TikTok is unique in the way that it allows users to interact.

On the TikTok platform, you can create reaction videos using other people's content, or the sounds that they use in their video, and you can even leave video comments. In short, it is a place where you can use video to interact in ways that were never before possible on any other platform.

TikTok started out as a place to post lip-synch videos and dancing videos, and while it has expanded far beyond this core content, it is still a very large part of TikTok's culture.

Most videos on TikTok are short videos with a clear hook to capture attention. However, you can do longer videos (we're talking 1 to 3 minutes), but these are better suited for a specific type of video, and rarely perform as well as the short videos.

Why Is TikTok Important for Authors?

TikTok is important for authors because of two things: organic reach and advertising opportunities.

TikTok is currently known for being one of the best, if not the best, social media platforms for organic reach. It is remarkably easy to find readers, other authors, and to build an audience of people who genuinely want to read your book.

While this is subject to change, after all Facebook Pages and Groups used to be the same way before they changed their algorithm, for now TikTok remains a fantastic platform for discovering and engaging with readers.

While this is not something I recommend most authors use when they are just starting out, it is possible to promote a specific video for that video to get extra views.

This is a new opportunity for advertising, but one that comes with some learning curves. While it is easy to promote a video, creating a good video that will likely work for you is more difficult.

In other words, you have to already be doing well (organically) on TikTok in order for your advertisements to really help out. But I will get into some of that later.

But the bottom line is this: TikTok is an opportunity to sell more books, perhaps a greater opportunity than any other social media platform at present.

How to Set up a TikTok Account

While this article is not intended to be a technical, step-by-step process of creating and posting videos, I do want to briefly run over the basics to set up your TikTok account.

Step 1 : Download the App

Step one is to search for the app on your Google Play or Apple App Store . Then download the app and open the homepage screen.

Step 2 : Sign Up for TikTok

The app will then prompt you to sign up, and you can do this using your phone or email, your Facebook account, or your Apple or Google accounts.

Personally, I just used my phone number. It sent me a text with a special code, I inputted that code into the field provided, and I was logged in.

Step 3 : Set Up Your Profile

Next, it's time to set up your profile. This is an important step, especially if you want to find a specific type of reader.

When you hit edit profile, you will see these fields:

• Change photo: a simple photo of your face will do.
• Change video: this is where you can have a short, video profile picture.
• Name: put your name here and add something like “author” or “writes” so that readers who come to your page know that you may be relevant to them.
• Username: when you pick your new username, you also wanted to be relevant to writing, reading, or whatever niche you plan to inhabit (I'll talk more about the importance of niches below)
• Pronouns: this is where you include your preferred pronouns. For example, mine are he/him/his.
• Bio: this is where you put in a few brief words about who you are. You don't have a lot of space, so it is recommended that you just use a few words, and separate each distinct aspect by a new line. See an example of my bio above.
• Nonprofit: this is where you list a specific nonprofit organization that you care about and want to support.

You can also hook up your Instagram and YouTube platforms, so that your TikTok's get shared elsewhere as well, which is a useful way of repurposing your content. 

Step 4 : Make That First Video!

You may not feel ready for it yet, but I recommend that once your profile is set, that you dive straight in and make your first video. This may feel highly uncomfortable at first, but don't worry, you don't have to be amazing to start.

I would recommend doing a brief introduction of yourself, what you write, what you love to read, etc.

Try to keep it short, but don't worry too much about the quality. Just get something out there so you can experiment using the tools. Don't worry about doing any fancy effects, sounds, or anything. Just get yourself out there, then figure out how everything else works.

TikTok and BookTok Culture

Before I get into the tips and tricks for using TikTok effectively, I'd like to make a few notes about the culture of TikTok, as well as the subculture, BookTok, as these are important to know going forward.

BookTok is a subculture of TikTok overall, and it's pretty much where all of the book nerds live. There is no designated place where BookTok happens, or a specific group that you have to join, but most videos in the BookTok community will use the hashtag #booktok. This is the one hashtag I use with every single one of my videos. It is a clear indication of who your intended audience is.

When you engage with the BookTok community, you are likely to see a lot of bookshelves. This has become a popular way to add a backdrop to your videos that is relevant to BookTok.

If you happen to have a bookshelf, this can be a good opportunity for you. However you don't have to have a bookshelf. It's just a helpful visual cue to instantly let people know your values of reading and writing.

When scrolling through TikTok, I recommend engaging with any videos that have these video cues, as it's a good way to train the algorithm to know who you are, what you like, and who might be a good audience for you.

One of the weirder cultural icons to emerge in the BookTok community is this concept of having a crown.

Why a crown? Why not? It's just one of those cultural threads that emerged, and now it's a thing.

Like the bookshelf, you don't have to have a crown in order to engage in the BookTok community, but it is a fun minor aspect of BookTok culture if you choose to go with it. Most of the users who wear a crown are women, but there is ample opportunity for men to use them as well (and yes, I got one).

You'll see a lot of people talking about stitching videos, or videos with the hashtag #stitchthis.

Stitching is a way of taking a clip from someone else's video, then recording your own response or reaction to that clip.

Authors and readers will often use this to ask questions, which you can then answer by taking a clip of their video, and answering it in your own.

This is one of those great interactive innovations that started with TikTok, and is one of the reasons why it has grown so large.

A duet is similar to stitching, but it allows you to take someone else's video, and record yourself reacting to that video in real time, which makes for great reaction videos.

In my experience duetting is less common than Stitching in the BookTok community, but you will certainly see it frequently.

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TikTok Tips and Tricks for Authors

Now to get into the meat and potatoes of this article: how do you use TikTok effectively to grow your audience and engage with them in order to sell books?

I've got no less than 15 tips for you, so let's dive right in.

Tip #1 : Decide if TikTok is Right for You

Before I go any further, I should point out that TikTok is not for everybody. Just because it's the new hot thing right now, doesn't mean that it will continue to sell books effectively.

If you are overwhelmed by all the many things that are recommended for authors to do, don't stress. You don't have to be on TikTok if you don't want to. Instead, you can focus your efforts towards more tried-and-true methods of marketing, such as a good email list , getting a good book cover , and of course the actual writing .

That said, if you're eager to try something new, you're a fan of social media, or you're just curious, then read on.

Tip #2 : Stick to the 20% Promotion Rule

There's an informal rule in social media marketing that 20% of the content that you post should be promotional, and the other 80% needs to be for engagement.

In other words, you don't want to be spamming people with videos about your books.

Instead, take some time to create a few informational videos, some silly videos, some stitched or duetted videos, etc. You will find you get a lot more engagement and are more likely to gain followers if you keep the amount of promotional content to about 20%.

Tip #3 : Save favorite Sounds, Effects, and Videos to Work On Later

In the TikTok, you have the opportunity to save the sounds that are used in different videos that you see. You can do the same with the effects that each video uses, or you can even save the video itself so that you can stitch it later.

This is a great way to search for ideas on TikTok videos to create. For example, if you see a video on a certain topic, and you decide that you want to do a video on that same topic, you can save the voiceover or the music that the video uses, then use it in your own work.

I would say about 80% of my videos are created this way.

Tip #4 : Follow Trends (But Not Too Many)

TikTok allows you to see trending sounds, effects, and hashtags. These can all be great inspiration for your videos.

However, I would caution people about chasing trends too often. While I have no real source for this, it seems that chasing trends can actually impact your organic reach badly, so it's something I only recommend you do now and then.

That said, if you see a trending hashtag that is perfect for you, definitely jump on it.

Tip #5 : Use 3-5 Hashtags

I recommend using only 3 to 5 hashtags per video. Once again, I have no data to back this up, but from my own personal experience, as well as everything I've seen from other creators, videos with too many hashtags do not get picked up by TikTok's algorithm.

The only hashtag that I use every single time is #booktok, but other than that the others can vary depending on the subject of your video.

Be sure to check out our hashtag generator tool for inspiration on what to post for your hashtags.

The hashtag generator tool lets you select appropriate hashtags for a variety of use cases, such as:

• Genre-based hashtags
• Special-deal hashtags
• Hashtags to connect with readers
• Hashtags to connect with writers/self-published authors

See it in action in this GIF:

Tip #6 : Your Book Cover Is Your Best Friend

Once you start to get into BookTok culture, you'll start to see that people love beautiful book covers.

Therefore, your book cover is now your best friend. Be sure to incorporate it in your TikTok marketing, the more beautiful the better.

Tip #7 : Do a Series of Cover Reveal Videos

One of the great things about TikTok is that videos are kept short. You can use that to your advantage by creating several videos to reveal the cover of your book. You can use a tool like Book Brush to create design images that slowly reveal the cover of your book, then create several videos where you reveal just a bit more of your cover.

This is superior to just recording one video with your book cover reveal, as it gives you more content, but also increases the hype.

Tip #8 : Book Recommendations

One of the most common forms of content on BookTok is book recommendations and reviews.

Pick a few books that are similar to your book, and record a short video of each with your review and recommendation.

At the end of all that, you can then add a note that your book is very similar to those books, and if people like them, then they might like work as well.

Tip #9 : Niche Down

This is one of those tougher pills to swallow, but if you want to be successful in selling your books on TikTok, then you need to remain exclusive to a specific niche.

In other words, don't record “slice of life” videos, or any content about a subject other than books. You don't have to niche down much further than that, but it can be helpful to pick a broader genre (i.e. fantasy, thriller, romance, etc.) and spend your time creating content just around that niche.

Your profile bio is a good place to make it clear what your niche is.

As you continue in one niche, you will find that the TikTok algorithm attracts more relevant readers to your page in your content, which is what you want if you want to sell books to those people.

Tip #10 : Engage with Other BookTokers

Whenever you get a chance, be sure to scroll through the recommendations that TikTok gives you, and engage with the content that is relevant to you.

For example, if you see someone with a crown or a bookshelf behind them, those are your people. Like their videos, leave a comment, and follow them. Do this especially if they appear to be fans of your genre.

This is another way to get the TikTok algorithm working for you, so they show you more of those people, and you can engage with more potential fans.

Tip #11 : Consistency is Key

How many times should you post on TikTok? When you are just starting out, you should aim for 2 to 4 videos per day.

That may seem like a lot, but if you're trying to grow an audience rapidly (which you should when you're just starting out), many people have found that this is the sweet spot for new followers and increased engagement.

However, if that seems too overwhelming for you, I would commit to at least one per day. Consistency is the real key to the TikTok algorithm, and they will reward you for posting regular content.

Tip #12 : TikTok is a Numbers Game

Trying to go viral on TikTok, or at least create some posts that get high engagement, is a lot like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.

As such, TikTok is a numbers game. You want to post as many videos as possible, because that will give you the best chance that people will see your content.

All too often it is the posts that I create as an afterthought, not really thinking that they will do well, that end up being my top-performing posts.

Tip #13 : Shoot for 1000 Followers

Shooting for 1000 followers may seem like a lot of people, and an impossible goal to reach. However, if you are posting consistently, and sticking to a niche, it is likely that you will hit this number far sooner than you think.

For me, it only took me about two months, which is actually an amazing timeframe when you think about it. At that rate, you could have 6000 potential readers in a year.

The reason why 1000 followers are so important, is that once you have a thousand followers, you can post a link in your bio. This will make it easier for people to find your work when you promote it.

So make 1000 followers your new goal, and work relentlessly to achieve it.

Tip #14 : Be Authentic

One of the things that TikTok users tend to appreciate is authenticity. It is okay, and even encouraged, to let out your silly side, your wild side, your sass, or whatever aspect of your personality you feel is authentic.

It is also encouraged to be upfront and vulnerable with your viewers. After all, this is an interactive video platform. It's a great space to speak as if you are having a conversation, because TikTok is the closest thing to face-to-face interaction that we have in a social media platform.

Tip #15 : Hook Viewers Immediately

TikTok videos are short by design, and you have only a second or two to capture attention. Users are likely to swipe up quickly if your content does not immediately grab their attention.

As such, get straight to the point, and find a good way to hook your viewers in as little time as possible (ideally the first 3 seconds).

Mistakes to Avoid on TikTok

In addition to all of the tips above, here are a few common mistakes that people have when posting to TikTok. If you are finding it difficult to grow your audience, consider one of the following as a possible culprit:

Mistake #1 : You Think TikTok is Just for Young or Super Energetic People

Whilst TikTok certainly started out as a social media platform for a younger generation, it has been widely embraced by a much broader audience.

In fact, some of the best TikTok content comes from the elderly.

TikTok has become so vast that it is easy to find any niche, in any age group. You can find yours as well.

Mistake #2 : Most of Your Content is Promotional

If you are doing nothing but promote your own content, you are likely to have difficulty finding real engagement. Nobody likes it when all you do is talk about yourself, so find ways to engage with others, post relevant content, and stick to the 20% rule of promotion.

Mistake #3 : You Overstuff Hashtags

In my experience, and from what I have seen from other TikTokers, your video is likely to be shared less by TikTok's algorithm when you overstuff it with hashtags.

In fact, there's some debate about the need for a lot of hashtags, as TikTok's algorithm is getting better and better at understanding from the context of the content who it's for.

That's why I recommend staying between three and five hashtags per video.

Mistake #4 : You Don't Stick to a Niche

If you are posting about your daily life, your work, as well as books, TikTok's algorithm is not going to know who to promote your content to, and you will see considerably less engagement.

Instead, pick a specific niche and only post videos about the niche. If you have a burning desire to share videos about something else, you can create a second account.

Mistake #5 : Your Videos Are Too Long

While TikTok does allow for longer videos now, they are less likely to get good engagement, purely because the attention span on TikTok is not very long.

There is a certain type of longer video that works, namely informational or instructional videos such as DIY, cooking, or other such educational content.

Mistake #6 : Overthinking Videos

It can be easy to be paralyzed when trying to come up with ideas for videos, as well as creating the videos themselves.

Let me say this clearly: you don't have to overthink your videos.

If you are stressed, it's better to just record something quick, maybe add a brief caption, and call it a day.

When it comes to posting videos, something is almost always better than nothing.

Mistake #7 : Underthinking Videos

On the flipside, you don't want to under-think your videos either. If all you do is post longer videos of yourself talking, and don't do anything to hook your readers or engage with them, you are not likely to do well.

Instead, find sounds, effects, and videos to interact with. Keep your videos short and sweet whenever possible, and put in a minimal effort to make sure they meet a certain standard.

But don't take my word for it. Here's a list of authors that are doing exceptionally well on TikTok, along with their top tip for succeeding on the platform:

More Resources for TikTok

TikTok has definitely proven it's worth at least a second look by some authors. But there may be authors who are uninterested, and that's fine. Additionally, you may be interested, but have no idea where to start, or need some assistance.

For you, there are a couple of services that I recommend:

Mark Dawson's Course : I started off by taking Mark Dawson's course on TikTok for authors, which I highly recommend for those who want to go the extra mile. It is expensive however, so there are a few other alternatives, such as…

Write|Publish|Sell TikTok Course : This is a create, more affordable alternative that covers the basics of using TikTok and how to grow a following. It's not as in-depth as Mark Dawson's course, but it's definitely a good way to get started.

TikTok Done for You : This is a service that will do a lot of the legwork for you when building your TikTok channel. It won't take all of the responsibility off of you, the author, but it can certainly help. When checking out be sure to use the coupon code TTROCKET and you'll get a whopping $50 discount off your order.

In my own experience, I do believe that TikTok is worth a look for most authors.

Now, as I pointed out above, if TikTok stresses you out then by all means focus your attention on more important things: for example, writing the next book. Writing books will always be the most important task that an author can do.

That said, TikTok is a lot of fun. I went into it knowing almost nothing about the platform, and I quickly found myself enjoying it. What I thought was just a bunch of people posting silly videos, was actually a sophisticated video platform that allows you to have virtual conversations and interactions that are unique to any social media platform.

I started off by taking Mark Dawson's course on TikTok for authors, which I highly recommend for those who want to go the extra mile. 

After only two months of working on my TikTok channel, I reached 1000 followers, which I would never have thought possible before. It is remarkable, the amount of organic reach that you can gain when you follow some of the tips provided above.

Mark Dawson's course only opens for enrollment 1-2 times per year. And while I recommend most people wait, if you need a cheaper, more accessible course right now, check this one out.

Have you found success on TikTok? Would you like to include your advice in the table above? Be sure to reach out to us on our contact page , and let us know! We'd love to hear from you.

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Ultimate TikTok Guide for Authors

Clearly, social media has reshaped and influenced how we communicate and interact. Information, whether personal or public, has become so conveniently shared online through different social media platforms.

It is a widely adopted tool insofar as communication is concerned, and it is hardly surprising that social media has blown to become one of the major marketing channels.

As a writer, you can use social media to reach as many potential readers as possible and create a fan base for your work.

One particular social media platform that has taken the world by storm is TikTok. This platform has gained popularity during the 2020 pandemic, and it is now one of the most popular social media platforms in the world.

What is TikTok though? What makes it unique? How will you use TikTok to expand your influence as a writer? This article is meant to answer these key questions.

Here is the ultimate TikTok guide for authors.

How do writers use tiktok.

TikTok is a video-sharing-focused social networking service owned by a multinational tech company, ByteDance. It was first released in 2016 but only managed to gain popularity around 2020.

As a writer, it might seem strange to use TikTok in book marketing. However, the platform hosts a variety of short videos with a genre that spans from dance to education. It is a very potent channel to put forward and promote your work.

TikTok is a fun and vibrant platform that is geared towards what is hip and new, whose users are predominantly a younger demographic. Recently, older users have also been getting into the TikTok craze.

As a writer, the challenge is making a rapport with your potential readers. Take the time to identify your target market. This will make it easier to curate your TikTok content according to their tastes.

Strategy for authors

It is rather commonplace that popularity and competition are closely associated. Literally, millions of TikTok users are posting content on a daily basis. If you want your own content to do well, you should have a set strategy.

If you are going to create video content for TikTok, you should make sure that your content is as interesting as possible. Even if your content is informative but it is not fun or eye-catching, it won't really do well in TikTok.

Remember that you have only a few minutes at most to catch your viewers' attention. If your video does not get their attention within that time, then your potential viewers will just move on to another video.

The best thing about TikTok is that there is a myriad of subjects that you could make content for.

Here are some tips for marketing your book through TikTok.

• Do a quick video about your book cover

Your book cover is one of the first things that your potential readers will see of your book. Take a short video of your book cover. Show off the art being used on your book cover.

• Read excerpts from your book

You could also post a short video of you reading excerpts from your book. This will give potential readers a sample of your writing style. You could also add captions and graphics to the video to make it more visually pleasing.

• Use trending songs in your content

Take the time to check what songs or sounds are trending in TikTok. Check how many videos used these songs or sounds. If they have thousands of users, then you should use them. Just make sure that using this song or sound does not break any copyrighted songs.

• Use trends to your advantage

If you take a look at other writers' TikTok videos, you would see some of them using trends in their videos. Check the current trends and try to incorporate them into your videos as well. It could be a new dance move or challenge. What's important is that you could effectively use them in your content, which should relate to your book.

• Give Out Book Recommendations

One of the best ways you could use TikTok as a writer is by giving out book recommendations. Remember that many book lovers usually look to TikTok for book recommendations, and you will be providing them a service with your recommendations.

How writers on TikTok can make money

While your first reason for uploading content through TikTok is to create a following for your work as a writer, you could in fact also make money through your TikTok channel as well.

Why do you think there are so many TikTok stars out there? They are posting content because it earns them money, and so could you. Here are some tips on how to make money as a writer, through TikTok.

• TikTok Ads

One way you could make money through TikTok is through ads. Some companies will pay a good amount of money if you mention their products in your videos.

• Creator Fund

When it comes to getting money for your TikTok account, one of the most efficient is the Creator Fund feature . Through the Creator Fund, you will be rewarded in monetary form for your content. The main condition is that your content gets as much viewer engagement as possible.

• TikTok could act as an online store

You could post examples of your work through TikTok. You could put the payment and delivery details in your video's captions.

How to Create an account

If you are serious about using TikTok as a platform for your work, you should know how to make an account. It is relatively easy and fast. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to create a TikTok account.

• Download the app

The TikTok app is free and very easy to download. Just go to your preferred app store and click download. It usually does not take too long to download. Once you have finished downloading it, open the app and sign up.

Signing up is a very fast and efficient process. Just give them core details such as your full name, e-mail address, and other online addresses you are using.

• Edit your profile

Once you have finished signing up, it is now time to edit your profile. When you edit your profile, you should make sure that you design it with your branding in mind.

• Test-film your first video

After you finish editing your profile, you should now test-film your first video. While you make your first video, you should take the time to check all the features that TikTok offers. With these features, you will be able to create a video that meets your standards.

• Upload the video

Once you feel that your video is ready, you could upload your video. It is easy to upload, and you could schedule when your video will be posted.

• Connect with other users

One of the best things about TikTok is that the more you engage with other TikTok users, the wider reach you will have. You could share another user's video through your account. You could also direct message other users to give them your well-wishes or if you want to collaborate with them.

TikTok hashtags for authors

If you are going to use TikTok as an author, it is important that you know how to use hashtags. Like any other social media tool, hashtags are capable of giving your videos as much visibility as possible. This will also make your content a lot easier to find and amplify the reach of your content.

Using hashtags is relatively simple. All you need to do is to type the hashtag symbol (#) and add a keyword that could lead potential viewers to your video. If you want to make your hashtags more efficient, you could also use hashtag generators.

#authors #author #books #writers #bookstagram #writing #writer #book #authorlife #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting  

Authors on TikTok

While TikTok might not be a likely platform for writers, a good number of authors have used TikTok and are doing quite well. Here are some great TikTok author accounts that you could use as inspiration.

• John Green @literallyjohngreen .

John Green is already established as an author and has written a bevy of best-selling works such as Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska. His videos are quirky and fun and give insights into his life as an author.

• Great Valley High School Library @gvhslibrary

The account was founded and run by the school's librarian Ms. B. Here, the videos are fun, informative, and show a unique perspective on the literary world that an experienced librarian could bring.

• Cait's books @caitsbooks .

This popular TikTok account is run by a long-time book lover known as Cait. She gives out detailed and fun book recommendations for bibliophiles all over the world.

How Could Writers on TikTok Boost Their Careers?

If you want to boost your writing career through TikTok, it is best that you find a hook. A good number of authors have made an impact in TikTok. You should remember, though, that these writers are usually established and already have a following.

If you are just starting out as a writer, it could be a bit difficult to create a rapport with your potential fan base. Take the time to think up a core concept for all your videos.

You could create a character or alter ego. It could be a bibliophile or a quirky book lover. Your character could be practically anything. What's important is that your core ideas will get your videos noticed.

How often you should post on TikTok?

If you want your TikTok videos to do well, it is important that you have a set schedule for all your posts on TikTok. The main question though is how often should you post on TikTok? There is no set number of times that you should post on TikTok.

Take the time to experiment on how many times you should post. Post videos at different intervals. In one week, you could post videos just once. In another week, you could post three times.

Observe the amount of engagement that your videos got. Which posting times got more engagement? By doing so, you will be able to gauge how many times you should post.

In the past few years, TikTok has become one of the most widely used social media platforms in the world. It gained full steam during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and now, a multitude of people is using it to create fun and original content.

As a writer, you could also use TikTok to spread the word about your work and enhance your influence. With these tips, you could use TikTok in the most efficient way possible.

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from training.npr.org: https://training.npr.org/2022/04/25/write-script-social-videos-tiktok-reels/

• Style Guide

Yes, you can cram your story into a one-minute TikTok. Here's how

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From left: two Planet Money TikToks, a Life Kit TikTok and an NPR Newscast TikTok. (iStock/NPR)

You’ve spent hours, perhaps days, doing interviews, gathering sound, scripting and editing. You’ve tracked the script with all the right inflections and pauses. And you’ve shed sweat and tears mixing it down into a beautiful soundscape and distributed it to your patient and adoring fans.

Only now you need a super-short video to appease the internet and lure new audiences. You have to tell the story, with visuals, in under a minute, for those fickle smartphone thumb-scrollers.

NPR has been posting TikToks and Instagram Reels ever since Planet Money ’s Jack Corbett explained the New York Stock Exchange’s circuit breakers in 2020. NPR shows and podcasts — Consider This , Life Kit , NPR Newscasts, The TED Radio Hour and Throughline — are all doing it regularly.

In a recent training, NPR producers and hosts of short videos compared notes and came up with the following tips:

Three seconds to get attention: Internet users are brutal and impatient. They decide fast if they want to watch your video. Make the first line and image grabby. Maybe a cute animal?

@npr Feeling stressed? Life moving too fast? Maybe it’s time to listen to your inner sloth. Special thanks to the @The Sloth Conservation #NPR #sloths #TED ♬ original sound – npr

Get right into the story: Cut the background, or move it down, and start with a bold statement, surprise, question or mystery. You don’t need to explain as much as you think you do up top. To save time, this NPR Newscast video gets straight to the point:

@npr Doctors and nurses are worried after a Tennessee nurse was convicted of negligent homicide last month. #NPR #RaDondaVaught #nursesofTikTok #nurse #doctor #fyp ♬ original sound – npr

Be authentic: Let your voice come through — you want your video to sound like a human made it, not a corporation. And don’t force weirdness for weird’s sake. Planet Money TikToks, however, are nothing if not authentically weird:

@planetmoney We find what we look for in the world, including confirmation of our preexisting beliefs. #tiktokpartner #learnontiktok #psychology #bias ♬ original sound – planetmoney

Video drives the story: The same way a good radio piece is built around sound, video is built around images. Try first to think of a sequence of images that will tell the story. See how this TikTok uses stills and video clips to show the mood in a Lviv, Ukraine, train station:

@npr Over a month into the war, Ukrainians are still fleeing to Poland through the Lviv Railway Station. #ukraine #NPR #fyp #poland ♬ original sound – npr

Write a narrative arc: Good short videos start with a statement — a promise, a problem, etc. — and deliver a resolution in the end. Here’s an example from Life Kit : A kid has hiccups, he’s given vinegar, he hates the taste but he’s cured!

@npr Have the hiccups? There are so many dubious remedies out there that when our listener phoned in this hiccup busting tip, we had to try it. #NPR #LifeKit #hiccups #fyp ♬ original sound – npr

Less is more: Keep it simple. You only have room for one big idea. Can you tell it to a friend in one sentence? If not, keep cutting. Here’s the Russia-Ukraine conflict explained in one minute:

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by NPR (@npr)

Keep the writing tight: Write short, conversational sentences. Your words don’t have to do all the work — visuals can help make your point, too. For example …

• Instead of giving someone’s name and title, save time by using a lower third; instead of explaining where something is, show a map.
• Rather than describe the tall, dark, mysterious figure in the corner of the ancient candle-lit tavern, simply drop in a picture of Aragorn .

This  TED Radio Hour  TikTok is chatty and strategically employs simple images and animations:

@npr We have two eyes for depth perception and two ears for sound localization, but why do we need two nostrils? #NPR #TED #nostrils #nose #senses #smell ♬ original sound – npr

Mix up the pace: Use signposts to let the audience know that this is what they really need to pay attention to. For instance …

• Say “here’s the thing” or “and this is why it’s a problem.”
• Try a visual cue like sitting down, or using hand gestures.

Check out the pacing and signposting in this Consider This TikTok .

@npr How corporations can use bankruptcy to halt lawsuits. #NPR #ConsiderThis #corporations #bankruptcy #lawsuits #fyp ♬ original sound – npr

@planetmoney Sorry we’re a little late to the trend… maritime laws are pretty dense. #seashanty #shanty #economics #learnontiktok ♬ original sound – planetmoney

Don’t know where to start? Go through your story and make a list of elements it can’t live without. Keep narrowing the list to items without which the story just wouldn’t make sense. Then put them in order and build from there.

Jerome Socolovsky is the NPR Training team's Audio Journalism Trainer and the author of "Sound Reporting (2nd edition): The NPR Guide to Broadcast, Podcast and Digital Journalism."

Bronson Arcuri is an NPR video editor.

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The Literary Dimensions of TikTok

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How do I cite material posted to a social media site like TikTok ?

Below are examples of how to cite a video and a profile from TikTok . For explanations, see our post on citing social media .

An example of the Dark Academic aesthetic can be found on  TikTok (Lilly). Work Cited Lilly [@uvisaa]. “[I]f u like dark academia there’s a good chance you’ve seen my tumblr #darkacademia.” TikTok , 2020, www.tiktok.com/@uvisaa/video/6815708894900391173.

Alicia Keys posts videos of herself singing on TikTok . Work Cited Keys, Alicia. “Videos.” TikTok , 2020, www.tiktok.com/@aliciakeys?lang=en.

TikTok is testing the ability for users to post HOUR-long videos

• The new option was first spotted by social media consultant, Matt Navarra
• Some users have questioned the test, with one calling it 'so unnecessary'

It's known for its short, sharp content. 

But it appears that TikTok is taking a leaf out of YouTube 's book with its latest test. 

The video app has confirmed that it is testing the ability for users to upload hour-long videos. 

The new option was first spotted by social media consultant, Matt Navarra, who posted a screenshot to Threads. 

However, many TikTok users are sceptical of the update, with one venting: 'I'm not holding my phone to watch a 60 minute TikTok. I hardly watch the 10 minute videos all the way through.'

Currently, most TikTok users can post videos of up to two different lengths. 

Those created on the app itself can be up to one minute long, while those uploaded can be up to three minutes. 

Mr Navarra took to Threads to announce the new test, writing: 'TikTok is now testing 60 MINUTE video uploads.'

Meanwhile, the screenshot of the feature reads: 'Upload videos up to 60 minutes long! 

'Make sure your app is up-to-date, then try uploading from your app or desktop to tiktok.com.'

Speaking to TechCrunch , TikTok confirmed that it is testing this long-form video option. 

The feature is available to a 'limited group of users in select markets', although further details remain unclear at this stage. 

The longer format videos could help to entice creators who would normally post their content to YouTube, such as make-up gurus or budding chefs. 

It could also allow for full episodes of TV programmes to be hosted on TikTok, according to TechCrunch. 

The site points out that last year, Peacock made the first episode of 'Killing It' available to watch for free on TikTok, albeit broken into five parts. 

'If TikTok launches the 60-minute upload limit videos, networks would no longer have to break up an episode into multiple parts,' TechCrunch said. 

In response to Mr Navarra's posts, many users have questioned why TikTok is testing this option, with one calling it 'so unnecessary'. 

Another added: 'It would have to be something SO captivating in order for me to watch the whole thing!'

And one joked: 'This is just [YouTube] at this point lol.'

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A TikTok Ban Won’t Fix Social Media

By Kyle Chayka

On April 24th, after years of talks about a TikTok ban, President Joe Biden committed to remaking the platform’s existence in the United States. A foreign-aid package that he signed into law, and that passed in the House and the Senate with strong majorities, included funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza, plus a bill that will force the digital platform to either sell itself to an American entity or be banned on a national level. ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, now has about nine months to divest. In his remarks after signing the package, Biden didn’t directly refer to the social-media platform, though he did say that the foreign aid would “make America safer,” a notion that also helps explain the government’s reasoning on the TikTok ban.

Over the past several years, TikTok has become something of a symbol both of fears over China’s rise as a dominant international power and of concerns that social media as a whole is harming children . The existential threat posed by the new legislation is nothing new . In 2020, the company put forward an elaborate plan to give twenty per cent of its platform to Walmart and Oracle, which would have hypothetically insured the data’s security and the company’s independence from the Chinese government. That plan was eventually shelved, in 2021, owing to security concerns. Since then, however, the platform has only grown more popular among U.S. users, whom the company has tried to convert to activists on its behalf. Earlier this year, users in the U.S. who opened the app found a pop-up requesting that they “tell Congress what TikTok means to you,” along with a button to directly phone elected officials. The subsequent wave of angry and uninformed calls, recounted to Politico by lawmakers’ offices, may have actually encouraged legislators to act on the proposed ban. According to Politico , the chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, concluded that the calls “only exposed the degree in which TikTok can manipulate and target a message.” In other words, by trying to rally its supporters, the company had only proved that it was a propagandistic threat.

TikTok’s C.E.O., Shou Zi Chew, became something of a Gen Z-approved celebrity after he appeared in front of Congress in 2023. On the day Biden signed the new package, Chew made the company’s position clear in a polished TikTok video posted on its official account. The law was “a ban on you and your voice,” Chew said. He continued, “TikTok gives everyday Americans a powerful way to be seen and heard.” Chew’s statement hinted at what seems to be ByteDance’s legal strategy moving forward: an argument that getting rid of TikTok could amount to a violation of free speech . On Tuesday, the company sued the U.S. government, writing in its filing that preventing American citizens from accessing the app is “unconstitutional.” There are legal precedents for such a claim, among them a 2017 Supreme Court case, Packingham v. North Carolina, which struck down a state law banning a sex offender from Facebook. “A fundamental principle of the First Amendment is that all persons have access to places where they can speak and listen,” the former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote. “One of the most important places to exchange views is cyberspace, particularly social media.”

But other hints from ByteDance about how it might respond to the new law don’t quite cast its position in impassioned First Amendment terms. According to Reuters , ByteDance would rather shut down its U.S. TikTok operation than sell it. The vaunted recommendation algorithm that controls TikTok’s “For You” feed is what makes the app unique and successful; ByteDance leverages the same technology across its many other businesses, including Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. As in any other international trade dispute, putting valuable technology in the hands of a competitor through a sale would be destabilizing. Meanwhile, TikTok’s U.S. audience reportedly only generated about thirteen per cent of ByteDance’s 2023 revenue. In that sense, forgoing the American market would be strategically preferable for ByteDance, and relatively trivial. TikTok is already banned outright in several countries, including India, and has survived just fine. (China itself blocks access to TikTok, not to mention Facebook and Instagram, in its own strategy of techno-nationalism.)

The TikTok algorithm is inextricable from the app, and the algorithm also seems to be what we are most afraid of. In both political speeches and in a portion of media headlines, it is depicted as something that could deliver Chinese propaganda to unwitting American teen-agers and allow a foreign government to track in great detail the behavior of our citizens. Unfortunately, there is already plenty of propaganda, misinformation, and international bot activity to be found on every other social platform, which will remain quite accessible to Americans in the face of any TikTok ban. The data generated anywhere on the Internet can be packaged and sold to foreign (or domestic) adversaries so long as it is tracked. Parents express concerns about their childrens’ addiction to TikTok, and yet YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, two U.S. products, aspire to be just as transfixing. TikTok has provided the template for the algorithmic, passive future of social-media consumption, and other tech companies have leaped to copy it. You can ban TikTok in America, but it is far too late to contain the habits it has unleashed. The U.S. ban makes most sense as a political stunt: bellicose actions against China are popular across the political spectrum, and the demographic most vocally upset by the threatened ban are those too young to vote.

One funny thing about TikTok is that, for all its ubiquity in the news cycle and in discourse about social media, many of the concerned parties know little about it. A 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center found that only thirty-three per cent of American adults say that they “ever use” TikTok; in contrast, eighty-three per cent say they use YouTube and sixty-eight per cent say they use Facebook. The survey also indicated that the TikTok demographic dramatically skews younger: sixty-two per cent of eighteen-to-twenty-nine-year-olds say they ever use TikTok, whereas ten per cent of those aged sixty-five and older reported that they ever use it. According to another estimate, more than two-thirds of TikTok’s monthly active users in the U.S. are under thirty-five years old. The majority of millennials whom I encounter open the app rarely, if ever, and confess to not really knowing what it’s like or how it works, in part because of its entrenched reputation as an app for the youth. Admitting that you use it, as I do, sometimes feels like saying that you watch Saturday-morning cartoons.

This ignorance of TikTok reinforces its status as a bogeyman and makes it easier to blame for social media’s collective ills than the other apps on which Americans already spend so much of their time. TikTok’s intoxicating aspect is its feed, which draws users through an endless parade of content and seems to read their minds about what they want to see next. What is so addictive on the app is for the most part the same kind of banal Internet content that now exists everywhere else: unhinged monologues, repeatable choreography moves, “America’s Funniest Home Videos”-level stunts, and random shopping recommendations. (That last genre has spread rapidly through the platform as its executives have realized that e-commerce may be more lucrative than advertising.)

TikTok is not magic; it is not the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb controlled by one nation at the risk of another. If we want to understand its real risks, we would do better to disentangle the motives behind the U.S. ban. The direct influence of the Chinese government would be ameliorated somewhat by divorcing the app from ByteDance, if that is indeed a path accepted by its parent company, or by forbidding the app to function at all in the U.S. But, if the core concerns are digital-data surveillance and the targeting of individual users in ways that can manipulate or endanger them, then we have plenty of domestic threats to face first. ♦

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Oliver Stone on Writing Scarface While Living Like Tony Montana

By Glenn Kenny

On December 9, 1983, Brian De Palma’s Scarface— which reimagined a 1932 Howard Hawks gangster film as a blood-and-neon opera about the rise and fall of Cuban-born Miami cocaine kingpin Tony Montana, played by Al Pacino — opened to decent but unspectacular box office and decidedly mixed reviews. Leonard Maltin hated it. Roger Ebert loved it. According to People magazine’s 1983 report on the New York and L.A. premieres, Cher was a fan– “It was a great example of how the American dream can go to s—,” she told the magazine– but Kurt Vonnegut tapped out after about 30 minutes, around the time one of Tony’s associates gets carved up with a chainsaw.

De Palma’s film has been lodged like a bullet fragment in pop culture’s brainpan ever since. It made Michelle Pfeiffer a star; it inspired real-life drug lords and provided generations of rappers with a mythic framework for grandiose criminality both real and imagined, even though Tony Montana ends up face down in his own fountain; it sold (this is a rough, anecdotal estimate) approximately ten billion dorm posters. It’s a movie inseparable from its cultural and aesthetic context but someone is always trying to reboot or remake it , or retell it as a story about The Penguin ; so far an actual Scarface 2 has not materialized, although actors Robert Loggia and Steven Bauer came back to voice their Scarface characters in Scarface: The World Is Yours, a 2006 video game for Playstation 2, Xbox and Windows platforms, in which players could unlock “Rage Mode” and mow down their enemies as an invulnerable Tony Montana.

Film critic Glenn Kenny’s new book The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface charts the movie’s path from development to cultural ubiquity; like Kenny’s superb Goodfellas history Made Men from a few years back, it’s simultaneously brisk and exhaustive, built in this case around interviews with seemingly every living person involved with the production, except Pacino himself, who’s presumably saved his Scarface memories for his own forthcoming memoir. Pacino still emerges as an indelible and mercurial character, as do the many other players responsible for putting Scarface onscreen.

One of those is the no-less-mercurial producer Martin Bregman. Bregman starts out as a theatrical agent whose early clients include up-and-comers like Barbra Streisand and Woody Allen; he discovers Pacino onstage in a 1968 production of Israel Horovitz’s The Indian Wants the Bronx and becomes his manager. In the late ‘70s Bregman also works with a screenwriter named Oliver Stone , who’s written a script called Platoon about his experience in Vietnam; Stone and Bregman end up developing an adaptation of fellow vet Ron Kovic’s memoir Born on the Fourth of July as a vehicle for Pacino. When that project collapses, so does Bregman’s relationship with Pacino, and they don’t speak for years, until Pacino walks out of a screening of the original 1932 Hawks film and calls Bregman on the phone, saying “Look at Scarface– I think there may be a character there for me to play.”

The following excerpt from Kenny’s book picks up there, as Stone signs on to Scarface and begins researching the cocaine business—a world Stone is already intimately familiar with as a customer. —ALEX PAPPADEMAS

Oliver Stone had to travel a long way before becoming “Oliver Stone,” the prolific, outspoken, provocative Hollywood agitator. The man whose cultural gravitational pull is such that a friend of mine called his book on the man The Oliver Stone Experience was a scion of Wall Street affluence, a soldier in Vietnam, a student at NYU’s film school who worked under Martin Scorsese, and, by the time producer Marty Bregman brought him on the Scarface project, the director of two films.

Horror films, as a matter of fact. The first, Seizure , produced in Canada in 1974, starred Jonathan Frid, then known as the sex-symbol vampire Barnabas Collins on the supernatural network soap opera Dark Shadows , as a writer tormented by figures out of his nightmares come to life. The second, 1981’s The Hand , was a gloss on The Beast with Five Fingers in which Michael Caine ’s pathologically jealous writer loses his hand in an auto accident, and believes that hand is still around, with a life of his own, killing anyone who ticks him off. Neither made much impact on release, but both are fascinating artifacts, not least due to the pathologies they treat, pathologies that reflected Stone’s own conflicts at the time.

When I interviewed him in 2022, one of the first things I asked was if, upon meeting Brian De Palma, he sensed an affinity with this director who’d also worked in horror. Not quite, as it turns out.

“Well, Brian had been a very successful horror director. I had not. And that was screwed into my psyche by Bregman, and you can believe that. The Hand , according to him, was ‘a disaster,’ blah, blah, blah. But you can look at The Hand, it’s certainly a psychologically interesting film. But it had not done business. And I was dead in the water, as a director. And Bregman used that, of course. I wanted to direct, badly. I had written and directed and I wanted to continue doing that. But I knew that this was not going to be my film, because I didn’t have the experience to do something this size.

“To the contrary, I learned a lot on the film. I was down on my luck, and I had just done The Hand , and it had been ridiculed. And I was on cocaine. I was doing cocaine, and I was really an addict, without knowing it.”

In a sense, Stone reunited with Bregman because he had to. Stone, Pacino, and Bregman had all fallen out with each other over the collapse of Born on the Fourth of July . As far as Stone was concerned, between that and Bregman’s inability to get Platoon made after teasing him with the possibility, he might as well never work under his aegis again. But in the wake of the failure of The Hand , he was in a state. “I never wanted to work with Marty again, after that. It was just so difficult. It’s what they call ‘masochism,’ to work for Marty. You have to really suffer. I’m sure you can tell that. Ask any other writer, they know what’s in store for them if they go with Marty: endless re-writes. So, I had to go through that process. It’s a process. And out of that process, I said I didn’t want to be with him again.

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“And then, my bookie called me up after I had hit bottom again—how many times have I hit bottom? Marty called me and wanted me to do it. I didn’t want to do a Mafia story. No interest. Thank you. And then, he called me back a few weeks later. He said: ‘Lumet has another idea, and here it is—about the cocaine trade.’ That was interesting, and that made it different.”

On Scarface , Pacino and Bregman were definitely running the show, from where Stone sat. “Once Al said, ‘I’m excited by it,’ then Marty would go to work and he would do his number— which was get the screenplay together for Al,” Stone said. “Because Marty, at that time, was an independent producer. He had tremendous success from Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon . And Marty also had another client, Alan Alda, who was really making a bundle of success—real big money—for Marty. So, that was his financial base. He put together Scarface , really literally, with his own blood. And he was Scarface , in a sense, in the making of that film; he was ruthless in getting it done.”

Not that it represented a particularly tough sell on Bregman’s part, at least initially. “Of course, gangster films are easier to make, in the system. So, he had the cooperation—on that film—of [executive] Ned Tanen and the whole Universal group that had financed Alan Alda. So, they went with him, but it soured quickly because Scarface was a hell of a hard number to pull off—many difficulties and way over budget. I think twice the distance. Six months, as I remember. It was scheduled for three months. That’s outrageous. In those days, too. It’s always been outrageous to go that far over budget, and there was a lot of pissed-off people, including Tanen.

“So, one of the things Marty did was just keep Universal at bay. He was constantly promising them anything—‘God will come and solve these problems’—keeping them at bay, keeping them away from Al. He always used to say Al was a monster and would blow up if you ever confronted him. And he kept that as a weapon, to defend the enterprise. But he had difficulties inside the enterprise because, frankly, it was in a very difficult shape. The thing was, there was not a lot of communications. And the assistant director had to be fired after a certain point, Jerry Ziesmer. That’s the ‘usual sacrificial victim,’ right away.

“The pressure on me was enormous because I didn’t want to cut the film, because I thought it worked as a whole, and I did get pressure, but I don’t remember exactly giving in to it. I think we kind of struggled our way through it. We just doubled the budget, and we doubled the time, and Universal kept betting on Bregman, I think because of Alan Alda’s success and his past success with Pacino. But they were kind of pissed off. I don’t remember it being a very happy film that opened.

“After the film was over, I had a huge fight with Bregman over the cut, and I never talked to him again, for years. I saw him in the ’90s before he died, and we made up. But Marty was a tough character. He was a handsome gangster-type who grew up in the Lower East Side, and loyalty was the most important thing. And if you crossed him, if he felt like you’d been disloyal, he treated you like a gangster. He’d want to kill you. So, the situation was very difficult because he wanted to control the film. He was a control freak.”

Bregman did not look over Stone’s shoulder much while Stone researched and wrote the screenplay, first in collaboration with Lumet. “Sidney was Al’s favorite director,” Stone recalled. “The moment he told Marty he wanted to do Scarface, they went to Sidney. Sidney liked the idea, he liked Al very much, Sidney had been involved with me on Platoon . He’d wanted to make it for ten minutes or something like that, and then he passed. Because he was an older man and he didn’t want to go to that degree of exertion. He was very interested in politics, Sidney. He certainly wanted to keep Scarface in its political atmosphere of that time. With the Mariel boatlift, with the relations between Cuba and the US, and the other side of the equation: the coke war.

“That’s what interested Sidney. Sidney wanted to probe the relationship of the CIA and the DEA to what really was going on in the drug trade and if the United States was involved. And of course, it’s a dirty story. It’s hard to prove. But you know what? It led, ultimately, to the funding of the Contras in Nicaragua, and the Iran/Contra scandal. It led, ultimately, to the Contra hearings and the accusations—which are accurate—of the CIA turning the other eye to the smuggling in Los Angeles. It was a dirty story. In Sidney’s conception the film would explore this, but Bregman did not want to go there.”

In order to write, Stone had to get off the cocaine he’d been using to lift his spirits after the failure of The Hand . This would prove tricky, as his initial research on the cocaine trade would put him in rather close proximity to, well, the cocaine trade. “I did all the research for Scarface on cocaine, in and out of the country. It was quite interesting because I understood that world better than if I had not done it. Al, on the contrary, had never done anything like that. He’d never even done cocaine. So, he didn’t know. Marty took me down to Miami, and he introduced me to a dozen people who were very helpful. And then, I expanded my contacts from there, outward.

“I talked to several police departments, and I tried to get as close to the gangsters as I could; but that wasn’t so easy. I talked to defense lawyers, of course, who were very important to contact. I went to Bimini to actually confront what was the trade, the nightly trade, going into Miami on cigarette boats. And also, prior to that, I’d been to South America, in Peru. I’d been there on another thing that I had been working on, years before, with a very knowledgeable journalist. This was not the El Salvador guy on whom I based my film Salvador ; this is another thing completely. I had been in that world, and I’d been ingesting the material. So, I knew a lot in the sense of the feeling of it and the fear of being in that world.” It was from that fear that Stone conceived the film’s notorious chainsaw scene.

“When I was in Bimini, I was found out. I was with my ex-wife and we were pretending to be Hollywood screenwriters, which we were; I was. But they thought, because I knew a lot of people from Miami and I mentioned a name at this late night—we were coked down in the hotel room with three gangsters. Mid-level people, not high-level. They were the ‘shippers.’ They were the people who were doing the work of shipping it on cigarette boats into Miami. There was a hotel in Bimini, it was very famous. These shippers were all staying there and there was a lot of boats every night, shipping out all night. You’d hear the cigarette boats going. It was a trade. And this was the grunt work, the shipping via cigarette boat. But I could tell the scale of it.

“The characters that we grew came from that period. They were people who were killed with chainsaws. And some of these crimes were gruesome. They’d scrawl on the wall of the person they killed, they’d scrawl in blood ‘Chivato’—or something like that—like ‘Traitor.’ Or cut people’s eyeballs out. All kinds of gruesome shit. So sitting in a hotel room and feeling ‘found out’ by a group of them was something I tried to get into the film.

“This was a multibillion-dollar business. Talking to the prosecutors in South Florida—there were three or four different divisions trying to handle it. There was this bureaucratic overlap. It was Fort Lauderdale. It was Miami. It was the US Attorney’s Office. There was Miami Beach. There was Miami. It was a mess. And the cops were all over the place. Different police departments had different rates of success. We talked to all of them. And we got a varied picture of it.

“So, this was serious; and, as you know, it’s the period when Escobar started to get really big, going into the ’90s. And it was a great business to be in because you could get away with it so much. It started to change about the time we were making the movie there. And Miami was very paranoid about us being there. In fact, we lasted—and I don’t know exactly—I’d say close to two weeks we lasted, in Miami, before they threw us out. Because they didn’t want to be associated with that stuff.”

Having gotten uncomfortably close to “that stuff,” Stone decamped to Paris to write. He presumed cocaine would be more difficult to get a hold of in the City of Lights than it had been in these other climes. “It was a hard thing to get off of, yeah. But I knew I had to make a break because it wasn’t working for me and my writing was being hurt. So, I moved to Paris deliberately, after the research was over. I cut off everybody I knew. Getting out of the country to a country where there was not much of it, there—in France, in the winter—it was perfect. And of course, I did have family there, so it was a re-entry to an old world that I knew. And I got off it, and I came back to the States, and I was clean. I was able to do it—that is to say I could socialize on it, but I didn’t need it anymore.

“The thing is: cocaine doesn’t work. That’s clear. And I made it very clear to myself. But I have to say: in the movie, it’s all relative. Tony is basically saying, through the movie: ‘They should legalize this stuff. That’s the only way to beat it. They’re not going to cut it down by outlawing it.’ Like everything else, when the United States goes to war on something—war on drugs—it becomes like a ‘Vietnam.’ It’s a mess. We don’t know how to regulate anything.

“Tony Montana is the ultimate, ultimate free-market proponent. Sort of the Milton Friedman of cocaine economics. And he saw the picture correctly. He saw the hypocrisy. That’s what he hated, the hypocrisy. And then, of course, after so much cocaine usage, he becomes tinted with paranoia and he ends up turning on his friends. But for a while there, it was some great business. If he’d just kept his marbles, he would have been able to go all the way and probably retire as a millionaire and get into hedge funds or something. And by the way, there is a link because when I did my film Wall Street , I was going up to New York, down to Miami, there was a lot of traffic in cocaine coming to New York from there, at that point, about ’85. A lot of people were using cocaine—young people—and they’re making big money. So, there was a lot of that similarity exploding in Wall Street , the environment.”

Back home from Paris, things did not proceed as planned. “Sidney reacted badly to my first draft, which was pretty close to the final draft—it was violent and vulgar, all those things—and it was too much for Sidney. He would have gone somewhere else. But Marty cut him off quickly. It was ruthless. He just said: ‘Goodbye. It’s not going to work.’ So, right away, he went to Brian because I think he was thinking of Brian, in the back of his head, because Brian had already been involved. On some level.” De Palma was amenable to Stone’s approach.

“There are two styles to screenwriting. One is to be like [Stone’s one-time mentor and Lawrence of Arabia screenwriter] Robert Bolt, where you put everything on paper. The other style is more American, where you put it on paper but it’s impressionistic and you direct it, and it becomes—you work on it in the direction. And I’m of both styles. Putting it all on paper is extremely difficult because there’s so many variations on the theme. So, I’ve been both ways. I worked with people like that and I worked with people who are a little looser. Brian’s a little looser. He’s not a stickler in the ways Marty or Al were.” He could take what was impressionistic in Stone’s script and run with it.

Stone stayed close to the production, starting with the casting process. He clashed with Bregman over the conception of Elvira, which Stone saw as an ideal role for Glenn Close. “I could never have directed a film with Marty,” Stone recalled with some amusement. “De Palma was much ‘looser’ than I was at the time, in the sense that he had a little more experience, and he could put up with Marty’s control freak nature. Marty would be in every casting session. He didn’t even have casting sessions with actresses without Brian being there. I saw those. He’d line up fifteen, twenty blondes in the hallway—because he really felt responsible for the Elvira character. He really wanted her to be his ‘dream blonde,’ I guess. And I think he found it in Michelle Pfeiffer. I had a fight with him—I realize, now, how stupid it was—but I was defending Elvira as Glenn Close’s role. And Marty didn’t think she was right, visually. And my point was that Close was a very good actress. Michelle was not as experienced and had to struggle to make things work, and sometimes, I had to change the nature of the role, to make it fit Michelle. But ultimately she was the right choice.”

Once shooting started, Bregman let Pacino do his thing. “Brian had no choice because Al was a force. And Al was tough. Al wouldn’t get going—and I said in my book: ‘I don’t think Al will get going for the first seven takes.’ It was just generally the formula, and I couldn’t believe it because you don’t know how much time that wastes. A day has got so many hours and if you can’t get the first five, six, seven takes, you’re really fucked. You’re not getting many setups every day. And I could see this was coming, and it did go that way. But Brian was not a motivator. He was not. Brian was, as you might say, impersonal maybe.

“Al was outside time. And I can’t tell you I understood his thinking. I understood his brilliance. I understood the things he was doing. And his screenplay ideas were always very—I always listened to him. I never belittled him like—Marty would belittle him and say: ‘Al was out of his mind. Forget it.’ You have to think about it, though. He’s saying that maybe it doesn’t sound right, but there’s something there. You have to think about that. “There was one time, Al went a little bit crazy when he heard Brian’s comment about ‘The actors are taking over this insane asylum’ or something like that. And he did go nuts on that. I think he disappeared for a few hours into his trailer. Jesus. One thing after another. It was a nightmare. I wouldn’t want that on one of my films. It would never happen that way, but it can get out of hand. So, Brian’s seen a lot. Yeah.”

Nevertheless, Stone sometimes found De Palma’s way of working confounding. “I don’t understand Brian. He’s very obtuse. He doesn’t give his emotions away. He certainly had a sardonic sense of humor. Very sardonic, very cynical, it’s funny. He’s very funny. All I can say is he didn’t seem to enjoy himself, at any time, in the movie. Except when he was shooting up something and having a tremendous time. But he didn’t seem to enjoy the process of people. He didn’t seem to like people as much as I would.

“On weekends, usually the director’s available because the film is an ongoing, seven-day-a-week affair, but he would actually, literally, cut off Bregman and would not answer his phone calls. So, here we are. And Bregman says: I can’t reach the motherfucker.’ And Brian’s rented a big house and he had a staff and they’re telling Bregman he can’t be disturbed, he’s asleep. He’d be asleep all weekend. So, he’s a strange guy. But he had a divorce going on.” Indeed he did, from the actress Nancy Allen. Apparently one source of strain was that De Palma would not cast Allen in the Elvira role.

Briefly putting himself in Bregman’s shoes, Stone reflected, “How could you fire De Palma when you’re in the middle of this mess that’s going on? But Marty’s certainly pulling his hair out: ‘What can I do to speed this guy up? I’ll call him on weekends. We’ll have a meeting.’ And he won’t even talk to you on the weekends. You can understand then Marty’s frustration. So, you get to the set Monday morning. You finally see your fucking director, and you can’t really say ‘You’ve got to speed it up.’ You’ve got to talk to them in certain ways. It’s very hard to motivate two people like Brian, who’s into his own world, and Al, who’s into his own world. So, you have these two obstacles. I wouldn’t want to have been the producer on that movie. I would have probably lost all my hair and ended up three hundred pounds or something, eating doughnuts all the whole time. I would have liked to see Scott Rudin fucking make that picture.” (Rudin was a famously prolific theater and film producer known for his prodigious temper; the accusations against him were such that while he’s still alive, he’s taking an indefinite hiatus from work. Apparently in addition to being a shouter, he was a thrower of objects. Hence Stone’s curiosity. What Would Scott Throw?)

De Palma recalls asking Stone to leave the set on more than one occasion. From his perspective today, he’s not unsympathetic to Stone’s situation. The guy wanted to direct, had directed, and was now relegated to the writer’s chair but still hadn’t divested himself of the desire. And time would prove him a director of some distinction. But on the set of Scarface , De Palma had two primary collaborators cum bosses—Pacino and Bregman—and hence was likely to process Stone’s unsolicited suggestions as so much static. But Stone insists he was not banished from the set as such. “He asked me to leave the set maybe three or four times in the course of the shoot. Like for the day, I’d leave for the day. I’d go back to where I was staying, and I’d work. Then Bregman may want me back and Pacino wanted me back. There was no way I was going to leave that set. I was stuck. Frankly, at the end, I was getting tired. It was just too much. Six months is a long time, and especially out of my life at the time. There were other things I wanted to do.”

Nevertheless, Stone had a passionate attachment to the film and worried over the finished product. In Matt Zoller Seitz’s book The Oliver Stone Experience , one of the full-page illustrations is a letter that Stone sent to Bregman during the editing process of Scarface . Dated August 11, 1983, here are two paragraphs:

[…] the film is more important than any single one of us and right now I am convinced there are some major problems, especially in the middle. As a result it just doesn’t work—not on the level you or I expected. In parts it’s downright embarrassing. Unless we fix it now—while we still can—we will be hiding from disaster, not taking it by the horns now. I think still the picture could be good, not great—but good. Right now it’s not even that.

I’ve given my initial impressions to Brian but in the intervening 36 hours I’ve been unable to sleep and have jotted down various other notes I didn’t cover with him so I am sending him a copy of these notes. I am dealing I think only with things that can be fixed, not with things that cannot be changed because they were directed that way. Nor am I going into the many fine things there are in the movie.

Looking back now, Stone allows that he was likely more privy to the shooting and editing processes than a writer arguably ought to have been. In his book he goes into some detail about the differing factions weighing in on how the film ultimately ought to play. He portrays himself as something of a willing pawn of Pacino. He told me, “The reason I saw the cut was only because Al was so alarmed that he brought my attention to it and he wanted me to go. Marty didn’t want me to go. He didn’t want me to see the film, as a lot of people know—it’s the writer! You don’t want the writer to see the bones of the film. Right? Now, I think a writer can bring a lot to the rehearsals and to the film as a whole. Brian had me in the rehearsals, that’s true; but he didn’t have many rehearsals. He was never an actor’s director, that way. He didn’t believe that much in talking things out about characters, or much rehearsal.”

But on the set De Palma rolled with Pacino’s requests for numerous takes. “That's a crazy way to work,” Stone insists. “But you don’t tell the actor what to do. The actor doesn’t tell the director what to do. The producer does what he’s supposed to. It’s a strange system, and I guess in the old days it might’ve worked because they all agreed on the idea that they’d have a thirty-day schedule. But this was not agreed to at all. There was no consensus. I saw the ‘rough cut’ and I went back to Al, and I shared my thinking with him and then, of course, all hell broke loose because that’s what Bregman did not want me to talk to Pacino about.

“So, Brian turned on me. Marty and Brian would not talk to me. They were furious because I had let loose the monster, who, of course, was personified in Al. Marty always put the onus on Al. He always made him into the monster, made him worse than he was. Now, Al could be a monster, but he was also very bright. Al had a great sense of drama and a great sense of what was working and what was not working. So, I think it’s wrong to ignore him. I think he’s very important to the process.

“Anyway, it did improve after I saw it. But I didn’t talk to any of them about it again. Even Al didn’t call me, which was hurtful because I had been loyal to Al. I feel divided because a director and a writer are supposed to be combined. And I’d been in a situation where the writer ends up working for the actor and I know exactly what happened in that sense, because the writer and the actor—when they combine—it becomes a number for the director. So, the director has to be in charge of the writing and directing. He has to have that under his control, and in certain respects he has to be his own producer. It’s an impossible situation. Brian was able to put up with it because of the way he works.”

Stone has made his peace with what Scarface is. “When Brian’s making a gangster film, he wants it to be big. He wants it to be like a Sergio Leone kind of gangster film. He wants it stylistic. He wants big scenes, a lot of suits, a lot of clothes, a lot of costumes, jewelry. I get it. I didn’t perhaps get it as much as I did now. And I like the result. I liked the movie. But you realize at the time I was working off a more realistic palette because I’d been there. And Brian didn’t really have that realism in him. Or interest in it. He wasn’t that interested in it. I would take him to certain places in Miami and show him the atmosphere, and that’s what he loved—he loved the clubs, and all of that. But the realism of the business, how deals were made, how money was counted, all of that, he’s not that interested in it.”

Ultimately, he looks at Scarface as Bregman’s film; when wrapping up our conversation, he said, “ Scarface became Bregman’s ‘big one.’ It became his ‘big number.’ It was his film. And he became famous for it. He did other successful films. But I don’t think he ever did anything else that matched it, not even Carlito’s Way .”

Excerpted from The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface by Glenn Kenny © 2024, used with permission from Hanover Square Press/HarperCollins.

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At the Neverworns and Plum Sykes Panel, Uptown Met Downtown for an Evening of Laughter and Fashion

By Irene Kim

It was a high-spirited evening at Nine Orchard on Thursday. With a mix of uptown’s most stylish ladies and downtown’s coolest fashion writers, it was a group that only two Vogue alumni like Plum Sykes and Liana Satenstein of Neverworns could bring together.

Sykes, who has returned to New York City after a five-year hiatus, was in town to promote her latest novel Wives Like Us . As she told the crowd, her first stop upon arriving was going to her hairdresser, Ashley Javier, for a cut and color that would prepare her to face the Big Apple. “I think New York is quite good at making women feel insecure about themselves,” she said. “Although it’s amazing to see how gorgeous everyone looks.” After her hair appointment, Sykes was ready to hit the town. First up was a visit to Marina Rust ’s Upper East Side apartment to host a group of fashion folks earlier in the week for an intimate book event, before making her way downtown for last night’s panel.

Produced by Starkman & Associates and Conti Communications, the event brought together Satenstein and Sykes’s signature styles. As Satenstein explained, “We were trying to recreate the ’90s era of Vogue. The fabulous lettering that we sat under was designed by Vogue alum, David Vo, and the typeface was inspired by the font from the ’90s issues Plum worked on.”

Both wore head-to-toe from Banana Republic , an American favorite mall brand (except for Satenstein’s kitten heels, which came from Chinatown), and a Breda watch (beloved by Gen Z). As one of the best-dressed women in fashion, Sykes also had to accessorize her outfit with a vintage Yves Saint Laurent scarf, of course. During the panel, the two discussed Sykes’s new book, which is all about the elite yet disorderly lives of the “country princesses” of the Cotswolds villages she now calls home—as well as one very chic butler (with a vintage Gucci obsession) who’s trying to restore peace in the village. They also recalled some of their favorite fashion memories from their time at Vogue . Heckling was encouraged throughout the evening, with Lucy Sykes (Plum’s twin sister) jumping in to provide any additional context.

Next, the panel opened up to a Q&A session where guests got to ask Sykes all of their burning questions—from the best writing advice she’s received, to what the most glamorous part of her job at American Vogue was. She mentioned it included receiving so many parcels of It bags to her apartment that she didn’t have time to open half of them, so they were instead given to her friends, family, and doormen. The evening ended with guests having the opportunity to interact with both Satenstein and Sykes, a book signing, as well as time for a smoke break if so desired thanks to the Capris that ornamented the bar.

For Satenstein, the evening was a dream come true. She called Sykes up two years ago while still working as a senior fashion writer for Vogue . “I wanted to film a Neverworns episode with her,” she said. “I have always adored Plum’s writing. She gives fashion a fantastical edge; when she writes, we all know what it feels like to wear a Manolo , drink a Kamikaze, and ride in a black car... even if we are just marinating in our beds.” After staying in touch, the two eventually met for a drink in London and decided to move ahead with the idea. “This was originally going to be just a video, but then I thought, why not make it an event?” Satenstein said. “Plum is approachable and hilarious, so let’s share it IRL and have people meet her. It will be a success.”

This is just the beginning of a new chapter for Satenstein, who is expanding her Neverworns series into something more ambitious. “We are developing the show with amazing guests and making it a combination of research, shopping, and fun,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to create the sort of fashion experiences I dreamt of as a kid.” For now, you can keep your eyes peeled for the Neverworns episode with Plum Sykes, which will be available on YouTube on Tuesday, May 21.

Inside the event.

Liana Satenstein and Plum Sykes

By Hannah Jackson

By Philipp Wehsack

Batsheva Hay

Steve Buscemi is the latest victim of the random NYC punching attacks

The newly cast wednesday actor is okay and "appreciates everyone’s well wishes".

Here’s our hot take of the day: to the losers punching strangers on the streets of New York City—stop! Just stop! It’s heinous and scary and we have too many other things to worry about . Just cool it already! Please!

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This PSA is especially   urgent   now that the epidemic has come for national treasure and newly-cast Wednesday actor , Steve Buscemi. According to Buscemi’s publicist (via People ), the actor was “assaulted in midtown Manhattan,” making him “another victim of a random act of violence in the city.” The statement continued: “He is ok and appreciates everyone’s well wishes, though incredibly sad for everyone that this has happened to while also walking the streets of NY.”

According to authorities, the attack occurred around 11:50 a.m.—in broad daylight, continuing the pattern of previous attacks—on Third Ave near 27th street in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan. Following the incident, Buscemi’s face reportedly became swollen and he was taken to Bellevue Hospital, while the attacker fled the scene. The assailant has not yet been identified or apprehended.

Buscemi’s attack follows an outbreak of random violence that first rose into public consciousness in late March, as a number of women posted videos on TikTok documenting similar attacks . All occurred in downtown Manhattan, during the day, largely while they were looking at their phones. These attacks have also affected multiple celebrities. In response to one of the original TikTok videos, Real Housewives alum Bethenny Frankel revealed that the same thing had happened to her “a few months ago” while she was exiting a bakery, but she was “embarrassed to say.” She later followed up with a TikTok video detailing the attack, which she says was more of an open-fist hit than a full-on punch.

Buscemi’s Boardwalk Empire co-star, Michael Stuhlbarg, was also attacked last month, albeit with a slightly different MO. According to People , the actor was struck on the back of the neck with a rock while walking on the city’s Upper East Side. A 27-year-old man named Xavier Israel was taken into custody shortly after.

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Guest Essay

I Don’t Write Like Alice Munro, but I Want to Live Like Her

By Sheila Heti

Ms. Heti is the author of the novels “Pure Colour,” “How Should a Person Be?” and, most recently, “Alphabetical Diaries.”

It is common to say “I was heartbroken to hear” that so-and-so died, but I really do feel heartbroken having learned about Alice Munro, who died on Monday.

As a writer, she modeled, in her life and art, that one must work with emotional sincerity and precision and concentration and depth — not on every kind of writing but on only one kind, the kind closest to one’s heart.

She has long been a North Star for many writers and was someone I have always felt guided by. We are very different writers, but I have kept her in mind, daily and for decades, as an example to follow (but failed to follow to the extent that she demonstrated it): that a fiction writer isn’t someone for hire.

A fiction writer isn’t someone who can write anything — movies, articles, obits! She isn’t a person in service to the magazines, to the newspapers, to the publishers or even to her audience. She doesn’t have to speak on the political issues of the day or on matters of importance to the culture right now but ought first and most to attend seriously to her task, which is her only task, writing the particular thing she was most suited to write.

Ms. Munro only ever wrote short stories — not novels, though she must have been pressured to. She died in a small town not too far from where she was born, choosing to remain close to the sort of people she grew up with, whom she remained ever curious about. Depth is wherever one stands, she showed us, convincingly.

Fiction writers are people, supposedly, who have things to say; they must, because they are so good with words. So people are always asking them: Can you say something about this or about this? But the art of hearing the voice of a fictional person or sensing a fictional world or working for years on some unfathomable creation is, in fact, the opposite of saying something with the opinionated and knowledgeable part of one’s mind. It is rather the humble craft of putting your opinions and ego aside and letting something be said through you.

Ms. Munro held to this division and never let the vanity that can come with being good with words persuade her to put her words just everywhere, in every possible way. Here was the best example in the world — in Canada, my own land — of someone who seemed to abide by classical artistic values in her choices as a person and in her choices on the page. I felt quietly reassured knowing that a hundred kilometers down the road was Alice Munro.

She was also an example of how a writer should be in public: modest, unpretentious, funny, generous and kind. I learned the lesson of generosity from her early. When I was 20 and was just starting to publish short stories, I sent her a fan letter. I don’t remember what my letter said. After a few months, I received a handwritten thank-you note from her in the mail. The fact that she replied at all and did so with such care taught me a lot about grace and consideration and has remained as a warmth within me since that day.

She will always remain for me, and for many others, a model of that grave yet joyous dedication to art — a dedication that inevitably informs the most important choices the artist makes about how to support that life. Probably Ms. Munro would laugh at this; no one knows the compromises another makes, especially when that person is as private as she was and transforms her trials into fiction. Yet whatever the truth of her daily existence, she still shines as a symbol of artistic purity and care.

I am grateful for all she gave to the world and for all the sacrifices she must have made to give it. I’m sorry to be here defying her example, but she was just too loved, and these words just came. Thank you, Alice Munro.

Sheila Heti is the author of the novels “Pure Colour,” “How Should a Person Be?” and, most recently, “Alphabetical Diaries.”

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