杰克·克里奇　陳康/譯

Is TikTok set to become the greatest cultural influencer of our age？ This short-form video hosting platform may not seem to have much in common with high culture. But many of our great artistic institutions are currently engaged in an elbows-out scramble to beat a path to TikToks door1.

TikTok會成為當代最具文化影響力的平臺嗎？這個主打短視頻的平臺看似與高雅文化并無太多共同之處，但許多大型藝術機構現在卻爭先恐后地擠進TikTok的大門。

“BookTok” is one of the most popular of TikToks fiefdoms， its no surprise that the effects have been palpable2.

BookTok是TikTok平臺上的頂流社群之一，其影響力自然不同凡響。

“TikTok has had a significant impact on book sales recently，” says Dan Conway， chief executive of the Publishers Association.

英國出版商協會首席執(zhí)行官丹·康韋表示：“TikTok近來對圖書銷量起到了舉足輕重的作用?！?/p>

These are books that were published a while ago， no longer boosted by publishers marketing campaigns or attention from the traditional media， but catapulted3 into bestsellerdom by the enthusiastic championing4 of BookTokkers.

他所說的圖書都是出版了一陣子的，已不再靠出版社推廣，也不再是傳統媒體營銷的焦點。然而，在BookTok博主的熱切追捧下，這些書一躍成為暢銷書。

Many of these very short videos—the original limit for a TikTok video was 15 seconds and， although that has been incrementally5 increased to all of 10 minutes now， brevity is still the soul of the site—feature users holding up a succession of books to the camera， with captions reading.

在許多讀書類短視頻里，博主對著鏡頭接連舉起一本本書，并配上文字說明。TikTok視頻的時長限制最初為15秒，即便現已逐步增至整整10分鐘，但簡潔依舊是TikTok的精髓。

If BookTok doesnt always provide users with a very in-depth response to literature， it is certainly vibrant. Successful BookTokkers may have to plough through6 innumerable books to keep providing content for their audiences. They exude energy and enthusiasm.

即使BookTok并不總是能為用戶提供入木三分的文學作品讀后感，社群內也必定是一派朝氣蓬勃的景象。成功的BookTok博主或許得博覽群書、苦心鉆研，才能源源不斷地給觀眾呈現新內容。他們活力四射、熱情洋溢。

So how does one become a successful BookTokker？ Abby Parker， a 22-year-old from Southampton who posts as “abbysbooks”， has more than 430，000 followers and boasts 30.5 million “l(fā)ikes” on her account.

那么，如何才能做個成功的BookTok博主呢？來自南安普頓的阿比·帕克今年22歲，她的賬號abbysbooks現已擁有超過43萬粉絲，獲贊數高達3050萬。

“I think everyone finds their own niche7 on BookTok and then sticks with that as its what their followers know and love. Ive always tended to lean more towards the comedic side of videos and try my best to be relatable.”

帕克說：“我覺得每個人都要在BookTok中找準定位，并且堅持做下去，因為這是他們的粉絲熟知且喜聞樂見的內容。我在視頻中一直偏重搞笑，盡我所能地與觀眾產生共鳴。”

Jack Edwards， 23， posts as “jackbenedwards” and boasts 244，000 followers， with 7.9 million likes. His day job is as a research assistant in non-fiction publishing， but his videos convey a wide range of literary enthusiasms. Why has his account been so successful？ “The content creation process is all about following trends and things that are buzzing in pop culture and trying to help people find a book that relates to that. What I do is try to look at what is trending and what everyone has created， and put a spin on8 it that relates back to books.”

杰克·愛德華茲今年23歲，他的賬號jackbenedwards擁有24.4萬粉絲，獲贊數高達790萬。雖然他的正職是非虛構類書籍出版業(yè)的研究助理，但從他的視頻中不難看出，他對各種文學形式都懷有濃厚興趣。他的賬號為何能如此成功呢？“視頻內容的創(chuàng)作過程就是緊跟流行文化走向、把握流行文化元素，盡力幫人們找到相關書籍。我所做的就是密切關注目前流行的是什么、大家都創(chuàng)作了什么，再結合書籍的內容進行解讀。”

Theres more than one way to become a successful BookTokker， however， and Anex Wilson， a 22-year-old medical student at Imperial College London and fantasy fiction fanatic， does not bother about following trends. “I just talk about whatever Im reading at the moment. I dont have a plan or a list， its whatever Im in the mood to read at the time.” Nevertheless， his personal tastes have garnered9 his “FantasyAnex” channel nearly 200，000 followers and 3.3 million likes.

不過，要想成為一名成功的BookTok博主，方法不止一種。22歲的帝國理工學院醫(yī)學生安尼克斯·威爾遜是奇幻小說的狂熱粉絲。他不想費心勞神追趕潮流。他說：“我目前讀的是什么，我就講什么。我沒有閱讀計劃，也沒有閱讀清單，全看自己一時興起想讀什么。”不過，他憑借不凡的個人品味，為自己的頻道FantasyAnex贏得近20萬粉絲和330萬個贊。

Both Edwards and Wilson had previously had their own channels talking about books on YouTube， but “BookTube” has never taken off10 in anything like the same way. “There was that sense on YouTube that you have to show your perfect self and you have to have a perfect camera set-up， do multiple takes of the same thing， whereas on TikTok I stick to about a minute and it feels a lot more free-form，” says Wilson.

愛德華茲和威爾遜此前都在優(yōu)兔開設了以讀書為主題的個人頻道，但BookTube卻沒能像在TikTok上那樣一炮而紅。威爾遜表示：“在優(yōu)兔上必須展現完美自我，攝像頭設置要毫無瑕疵，一個鏡頭須拍多個鏡次。但在TikTok上只要堅持拍攝大概一分鐘即可，感覺能更自由地創(chuàng)作。”

Edwards agrees. “TikTok feels much more organic11 and more off the cuff12， and you can be a creator without any technical skills. Sometimes its those spur-of-the-moment13 instant videos—I came up with the concept 10 seconds later Id made it—that end up going completely viral.”

對此，愛德華茲表示認同?！霸赥ikTok上拍視頻更能有感而發(fā)、即興創(chuàng)作，不懂專業(yè)的拍攝技術也可以創(chuàng)作。有時正是一時興起拍攝的“即興視頻”，就是那種我在拍完10秒鐘后才想出主題的視頻，最后爆紅網絡?！?/p>

And， yes， if you go viral， you can really have an effect on book sales. In 2019 the small independent crowdfunded publisher Unbound reissued an ingenious14 mystery novel written in the 1930s by Edward Powys Mathers. Its a high-concept15 puzzle of a book that consists of 100 pages printed in the wrong order， which the reader has to rearrange to solve the central murder mystery.

沒錯，如果能走紅網絡，那確實能影響圖書銷量。2019年，小型獨立眾籌出版平臺Unbound重新出版了愛德華·波伊斯·馬瑟斯的一本懸疑小說。這本成書于20世紀30年代的小說構思精妙，書中疑案重重，讀來驚心動魄。小說共計100頁，以亂序印刷，讀者須重新排序以破解核心迷案。

In the autumn of 2021， as Unbound co-founder John Mitchinson recalls， he suddenly started to receive an unexplained flurry of orders for the book. “It was because of one TikTokker in San Francisco， Sarah Scannell， who happened to have come across a copy of the book. What she did was turn her bedroom into a murder room： she took the 100 pages and pasted them on her wall like a murder board16， with arrows and bits of string， and tried to solve the puzzle. It went on to get over 10 million views. I suppose it struck such a chord because it was such an imaginative way of interacting with a book.” Part of the videos success， says Mitchinson， is down to the fact that “it obviously wasnt part of a publisher-devised or endorsed campaign”.

據Unbound聯合創(chuàng)始人約翰·米欽森回憶，2021年秋，他突然開始莫名其妙地收到大量訂單。他表示：“這一切皆因一位舊金山的TikTok博主——薩拉·斯坎內爾。她偶然發(fā)現了這本書，回到家就將自己的臥室變成破案室。她將100張書頁貼在墻上，用各種箭頭符號和細線標注關系，就像一塊案情分析板，試圖以此解開謎團。她的視頻播放量超過了1000萬次。我認為這種和書籍互動的方式別出心裁，所以能引發(fā)廣泛共鳴?！泵讱J森還稱，視頻走紅的部分原因在于斯坎內爾的行為“顯然不屬于出版機構策劃或贊助的宣傳活動”。

“Part of what makes TikTok so fun for its users is also what makes it such a challenge for brands： it is a unique， unpredictable platform that celebrates content that is， above all， ‘hashtag authentic，” says Tr?m-Anh Doan， Head of Social Media at Bloomsbury. “Its an authenticity driven by Gen Z （and increasingly， millennials） that cant be replicated by brands.”

布盧姆斯伯里出版公司社交媒體負責人段簪英（音譯）表示：“TikTok讓用戶如此樂在其中的部分原因，正是各個出版品牌面臨的難題所在。這個平臺獨樹一幟、不循常規(guī)，所推崇的內容必須首先保證‘話題標簽的真實性。這種真實性由Z世代（以及越來越多的千禧一代）推動，這是出版品牌無法復刻的?！?/p>

So how can publishers actively harness the power of BookTok？ Being hands-off is the answer， says Doan， who adopts an “I dont really understand what youve said but go for it” approach to ideas from younger colleagues for BookTok videos based on micro-trends17.

那么，出版機構該如何積極利用BookTok的力量呢？段簪英表示只要大膽放手即可。年輕同事會參考微趨勢，提出制作BookTok視頻的奇思妙想。對此，段簪英的態(tài)度便是“雖然我不太懂你在說什么，但你大可去努力實現”。

The danger， of course， is that the people who love BookTok will get fed up with it if they start to detect the whiff of publishers standing in the background， influencing the influencers， however clearly they differentiate between sponsored and non-sponsored content. There are other problems with the platform too： yes， it gets young people reading， but its algorithms tend to push videos that respond to other popular videos， so that it all becomes very circular—or， as Wilson puts it， “everyone seems to be talking about the same 10 books. You have to make a conscious effort to find content about smaller books， more diverse authors.”

當然，BookTok的弊端在于，無論BookTok的粉絲能在多大程度上辨別出視頻是否受到贊助，只要他們察覺到一絲出版機構在幕后指手畫腳的跡象，便會心生厭倦。這個平臺也面臨其他問題：TikTok在推動年輕人閱讀方面的確功不可沒，但其算法機制往往會推送與其他熱門視頻相關的視頻。如此便會造成循環(huán)現象，用威爾遜的話說就是，“似乎每個人都在談論相同的10本書。若要找小眾或者其他作者的書籍，還真得費一番心思?！?/p>

Might TikTok gain too powerful a stranglehold on peoples reading choices？ If its only a handful of books getting all the attention， and therefore the sales， this might be bad news for authors who arent lucky enough to have fans who are skilful at constructing videos.

那么，TikTok是否會對大眾的閱讀選擇施加過于強大的束縛？倘若只有寥寥數本書集萬千關注于一身，從而大賣特賣，那么這對有些作家來說可能是個壞消息，因為他們不夠幸運，沒有擅長制作視頻的粉絲。

At the moment BookTok succeeds because the genuine enthusiasm of its young creators is so palpable.

目前，BookTok發(fā)展得可謂風生水起，年輕創(chuàng)作者們熱情高昂，功不可沒。

Still， at the moment they all seem happily in it for the long haul. Says Wilson： “As long as people are watching Ill keep going.”

此外，他們目前似乎都樂于長期活躍于BookTok。威爾遜表示：“只要還有人看，我就會一如既往做下去?！?/p>

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者；單位：江蘇省無錫市玉祁高級中學）