An Author-Focused TikTok House: The FIRST of its kind…
Challenged by Amazon to find a unique way to support their authors, we recently hosted the first ever Author-focused TikTok house - yet another take on the popular creator house that we are turning on its head with innovation.
And now we are continuing to work with, and support, six authors with the aim of “empowering them to manage and grow their own TikTok accounts in order to better reach their reader community”. Amanda Prowse, Donna Alam, Claire McGowan, Caitlin Devlin, Dreda Say Mitchell and Ryan Carter are the Amazon Publishing authors taking part.
Across two days in April we held training sessions, hosted creative challenges and an influencer lunch with 30 TikTok creators, plus a talk by leading “BookToker” Francesca Pavis.
When we think of creative book-marketing campaigns for TikTok, the focus is generally on the content creators rather than the authors. This weekend, by contrast, the spotlight will be on the authors. We will be working closely with them to gain quiet confidence in mastering how to tailor content so that they can become creators for TikTok in their own right, and better engage with the wider BookTok community. We hope this will be the first Author TikTok House of many.
When it came to finding a location and suitable, stunning accommodation, we worked hard to provide a home away from home for our authors and creators. A place where both comfort and growth could be at the forefront of our minds. We want our authors to be engaged and excited to learn about Tik Tok, and providing a safe, comfortable space for them to learn will certainly help that along.
As this was an exercise in creativity and confidence our measurable goals and key performance indicators were not as quantifiable as they were qualitative.
We were aiming for a boost in confidence in authors, as creators in their own right, which they all reported they had felt.
We brought 25 x creators to a regional location, supporting those communities further afield than London
We invited creators with over 241k collective reach, a collective ‘like’ count of over 7m
We saw 163 pieces of ‘creator’ content across the weekend
We’ve seen a huge uplift in author productivity when it comes to creating content; some who had never posted before, now posting regularly and even briefing out collaborations and more!
CREATOR FEEDBACK:
“I had an amazing time, it was so well organised and everyone was so lovely.” - @The.Reading.Room_
“A fantastic opportunity to get together with other creators, but most importantly spend one on one time with authors. I loved chatting with them and hearing about their books.” - @MrsFegFiction
“I can’t recommend this enough and I look forward to more events in the future.” - @AlienCatsBookEmpire
“A weekend I’ll never forget. One of the best experiences I’ve had and it’s all thanks to you guys doing an amazing job.” - @FurtherThanTheBlurb
“A great day of meeting other booktokers and authors. Great collaboration and creating content together.” - @ElisaCapo
AUTHOR FEEDBACK:
“I was instantly put at ease, a lovely warm welcome that set the tone. I learned far more than I imagined and came away feeling confident and invigorated, not nervous at all. I am a million times more confident than I was. All advice very gratefully received!” - Amanda Prowse
“Practical! Fun! Awesome! The perfect TikTok beginners weekend away 🤩” - Dreda Say Mitchell & Ryan Carter
“The Tandem team are friendly and professional and [I] appreciated the care they took, ensuring participants needs were met. Overall, the experience was a useful and enjoyable one!” - Donna Alam
