How Colleen Hoover Became The Queen Of BookTok

Hoover is just the latest author to seize upon social media in book publishing, an industry with an old-school approach to marketing and publicity, and turn online fandom into real success.

For Hoover’s romance publisher, Atria, this word-of-mouth explosion driven by young women on social media validates its decadelong belief in Hoover. It first signed her to a two-book deal, which included her self-published debut, in 2012. Ariele Fredman, the deputy director of publicity for the imprint, which has published 19 of Hoover’s books, said that social media recommendations have led to many authors finding new readers in recent years. For example, she said, people often dismiss the impact of the Kardashians, but Hoover’s books got a huge boost after two of the sisters posted the books on their stories.

Fredman was quick to point out that Hoover is not merely a lucky beneficiary of a random viral moment. She said all of the books Hoover had published with Atria made the New York Times bestseller list upon their release, and she has always drawn large crowds to her events.

That might have something to do with the fact that Hoover has been cultivating a relationship with fans online since the beginning.

When Hoover self-published her first book, a romance novel called Slammed, in 2012, she was already adept at promotion. In 2016, she started a Facebook group for her fans called Colleen Hoover’s CoHorts, which has since swelled to more than 118,000 members. In the group, which has a strict “be nice” and “be respectful” policy, fans swap book recommendations, share photos they’ve taken of Hoover’s book displays at various stores, and arrange to send each other CoHo memorabilia, like special editions of her books.

“Colleen has traditionally had all of these advocates, across social media, on Facebook, on Instagram — true romance readers who are CoHo evangelists,” Fredman said.

Hoover is also good at social media, in a way that can’t be taught.

Her TikTok account, for instance, is goofy, self-deprecating, and relatable. In one video, which has received 3.2 million views, she jokingly calls herself “overrated,” adding “my publicist WiShES she had my login.” She shares regular promotional content, like book covers and merch updates, but also glimpses of her personal life, like funny moments with her kids and mother, or posts about procrastinating while writing her next book.

Keens thinks that Hoover’s social media presence has added to her popularity on BookTok because of how much she engages with the community through her posts and comments to readers. “Her content is funny while still promoting her work, and her personality online makes people love her alongside her books,” Keens said.

Besides the active and engaged Facebook group, Hoover has 1.3 million followers on Instagram and more than 870,000 followers on TikTok, making her an influencer in her own right. According to Fredman, Hoover’s social accounts are all her.

“Authors reach out to her, and they’re like, ‘What can I do to have your level of success, who should be posting for me?’” Fredman said. “She just posts what’s interesting to her.”