TikTok has propelled the careers of a several authors who rose to fame after social media users made their work viral.
And one of its latest superstars could be the next great literary crime author behind the highly successful A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, which is currently being made into a BBC Three show.
Holly Jackson – who has also since come out with mystery thriller Five Survive and another novel, The Reappearance of Rachel Price, set for publication in April – rose to stardom after becoming one of #BookTok’s top picks.
The first novel tells the story of single minded, 17-year-old Pip Fitz-Amobi, from the fictional English town of Little Kilton, who is determined to prove a murderer’s innocence for a school project.
She teams up with the suspect’s brother – Ravi Singh – to crack the case.
Holly Jackson – who has also since come out with mystery thriller Five Survive and another novel, The Reappearance of Rachel Price, set for publication in April – rose to stardom after becoming one of #BookTok’s top picks
The series then spans across two other novels, which unveil the elusive, dark secrets that lurk in the community.
The hashtag #AGGGTM – an acronym of the hit trilogy – has more than 35,500 videos on TikTok, all praising and reviewing the books’ suspenseful storylines and shocking plot twists.
Clips show delighted readers eagerly turning page after page as they film literary vlogs and delighting over the upcoming TV adaption.
Posting in July, @bookswithellak shared a video of herself flicking through the book and told followers she ‘needs more reccs’ like it.
Hundreds enthusiastically commented on the post, which has 56,200 likes.
Elsewhere, accounts like @madareads often share videos compiling ‘aesthetics’ that remind them of the storylines to ‘convince’ fans to read the book – with one earning some 59,400 likes.
Another clip from @99shade13 – which has more than 13,000 likes – this summer raved about the series, in the caption saying they wanted to re-read all three books again.
Speaking to the Bookseller in January, Holly, 31, from Buckingham, said TikTok is the ‘new word-of-mouth vehicle we have’.
One of TikTok’s latest superstars could be the next great literary crime author behind the highly successful A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, which is currently being made into a BBC Three show
Posting in July, @bookswithellak shared a video of herself flicking through the book and told followers she ‘needs more reccs’ like it
Clips show delighted readers eagerly turning page after page as they film literary vlogs and delighting over the upcoming TV adaption
Elsewhere, accounts like @madareads often share videos compiling ‘aesthetics’ that remind them of the storylines to ‘convince’ fans to read the book – with one earning some 59,400 likes
Another clip from @99shade13 – which has more than 13,000 likes – this summer raved about the series, in the caption saying they wanted to re-read all three books again
‘However much marketing budget a publisher may have, word of mouth is king and it’s really hard to replicate or organically create that,’ she added.
The author has also been brought on as an executive producer on the BBC adaptation, which will star Emma Myers – Enid the werewolf in Netflix’s hit Wednesday – in the lead role.
Holly told the outlet that she has been stringent with making sure it’s the same story readers have grown to love and that ‘some of the most fan-favourite quotes and moments from the books made it in there’.
A Good Girls’ Guide to Murder came out in May 2019 – just months before the Covid pandemic.
It was an instant hit, named one of the best books of 2020 by Barnes and Noble and racking up a series of accolades, including the Children’s Fiction Book Winner of the Year title at the British Book Awards that same year.
Holly told the Bookseller she thought it was the ‘peak of success’ then but has felt that it’s ‘still peaking now’.
Today, BBC Three‘s social media account released its first stills from the highly-anticipated show which Holly shared on her own Instagram as well.
Images show a pensive Pip in the throws of the mystery, along with fan-favourite Ravi (played by Zain Iqbal)
Today, BBC Three released its first stills from the highly-anticipated show which Holly shared on her own Instagram as well
Images show a pensive Pip in the throws of the mystery, along with fan-favourite Ravi (played by Zain Iqbal).
‘Pip and Ravi are coming home soooooooooooooooooon,’ she wrote.
‘I am so unbelievably excited that Emma is our Pip,’ she has previously said of the casting.
‘She is phenomenal and this role was truly always meant to be hers. And we found our perfect Ravi in Zain’.
‘I can’t wait for us all to be able to watch their scenes. I smile every time I see them together, because I know that we’ve pulled off the impossible, and Emma and Zain are the only two people I would trust to bring these characters to life.
‘Everyone’s going to be just as thrilled as I am.’
The show will also star Anna Maxwell Martin, Gary Beadle and Mathew Baynton.
The author has also been brought on as an executive producer on the BBC adaptation, which will star Emma Myers – Enid the werewolf in Netflix’s hit Wednesday – in the lead role
Unusually, the book also has an alternative American edition that is set in the US – in Connecticut instead of Little Kilton.
However, her works outside the series since have been set in the States. Holly told the Bookseller that while the move was initially commercial, she found it easier to pen true crime stories in a setting that is ‘very fertile setting for messed-up things to happen that you might not necessarily buy if they happened in the UK’.
Her upcoming novel, The Reappearance of Rachel Price, follows 18-year-old Bel, whose missing mother eerily shows up as a true crime documentary about her begins filming.
The story is set in Gorham, New Hampshire, and Holly revealed that she used Google Maps to paint a picture of the place for herself, starting with the local McDonald’s.
‘This was slightly more personal since I have family who are from Randolph, which is an even smaller town next door,’ she told the New York Times.
‘But it was so small it didn’t have some of the stuff I needed.’
Being a true crime fan herself, the way stories are reported in the media and perceived by the public is also a common theme in Holly’s work.
‘I think all my books owe something to true crime media. I thoroughly research every single topic that I write about,’ she told Publishers Weekly in an interview.
‘Even if it’s only something that crops up briefly – I will have become an internet expert in that thing. It’s probably a form of procrastination, if I’m being honest.’
