What I Learned When TikTok Went Dark
Over the past year, I have enjoyed live-streaming my recording sessions of an audiobook when a Publisher, Producer, or Indie Author grants me permission. I have been doing this exclusively on TikTok. On the night of Saturday, January 18th, when US-access to TikTok was revoked, it was shocking to me. That’s when I realized that I had been putting all of my eggs in one basket.
I know TikTok isn’t for everyone. However, for me, BookTok was a place where I found my people, and they accepted me, encouraged me, and gave me my confidence back. I had 53k followers on TikTok simply because so many people enjoyed tuning in when I live-streamed my recording sessions in the evening.
I’ve met listeners from all over the world, even as far away as the international space station (if that person commenting was to be believed). During the livestream of the last chapters of Blood Weaver by Karina Espinosa, there were 113k unique viewers that night.
Because of TikTok, I’ve met scores of indie authors — many of whom hired me to record their books. TikTok was a major marketing platform for my career as a narrator. When it was taken away, I worried that indie authors wouldn’t continue find me on other social media platforms as quickly as they had on TikTok.
Now, I’m glad TikTok is back. However, it’s clear that not everyone uses it, and I now understand that any social media platform can be altered or taken away at any moment. So, I’ve decided to look into live-streaming across multiple platforms, rather than only on TikTok.
I now have a YouTube channel. You need to have over 1,000 YouTube subscribers to livestream to an unlimited audience. If you have under 1,000 YouTube subscribers, your mobile streaming is limited to your subscribers and only 25 other viewers.
There will be a learning curve. I need to look into StreamLabs or OBS to learn how stream across multiple platforms. But I know that if I could learn how to use Reaper, my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), and do punch-and-roll to record audiobooks, I can learn this.
The past 48 hours have been a wild ride. But it taught me a valuable lesson: don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
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