When Luke Bateman joined TikTok to innocently chat about his love of fantasy novels, no one could’ve predicted the astronomical virality his account would soar to.
We’re totally kidding.
He’s a good-looking and traditionally masculine man embracing what has been a female-led subculture: smutty, romantasy books. Of course, BookTok was going to eat it (and him) right up.
We can’t argue, his passion for the fictional genre has been utterly endearing. And the 2 million views his first video alone generated only proves our point.
In recent days however, the former rugby player and The Bachelor star (yes, he appeared on the 2023 season) revealed his overnight success has resulted in a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster imprint, Atria Books.
Suddenly, BookTok wasn’t so enamoured with the creator. Many followers began asking how an influencer signed such a deal with no manuscript or prior writing experience.
Others have called out the publishing industry’s bias.
“This opportunity is the intersection of white privilege, male privilege, and pretty privilege. Not a reflection of worth,” wrote one user.
Tiktok creator Jeff Kissubi who goes by the handle @blondejeff, reposted his own clip reacting to the news.
“Race and privilege shape who get the shortcuts” his clip reads, “Black and marginalised authors especially women and gender-diverse creatives are out here with finished, powerful stories that still get overlooked.”
Literary Agent and owner of ASH Literary, Alice Sutherland-Hawes revealed in a TikTok how Bateman who “seemingly came out of nowhere” found himself in this position.
“On the surface I can see that that’s really irritating,” she began after recapping Batemans swift journey to authorship.
“My professional opinion is that publishing is a business. As far as I can see this guy Luke was a celebrity in Australia before any of this BookTok stuff kicked off and that he is a lifelong reader and he has been working on this book for a really long time.
“The Australian publishing scene is a lot smaller…Australian publishers get really excited about Australian book creators. I actually think the vitriol being thrown at him is really unnecessary” she rationalised.
As Sutherland-Hawes points out, Bateman had revealed during an appearance on The Morning Show, he’d been working on the fiction for sometime prior to his TikTok fame.
“I wanted to write books my entire life,” he said. “This story has been with me my entire life… it’s come together in my head over the past 12 to 24 months.”
In response to the overwhelming backlash, Bateman told Chattr: “ I can whole-heartedly understand how angry and resentful these things would make people. I obviously have advantages that other people don’t, how do I capitalise on those to help lift everyone up?”
“Dragging everyone down leaves everyone at the bottom, whereas a rising tide lifts all ships.”
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