The online book community is one of the most degenerate cesspools on the internet. Even though the label is “young adult” for several of these influencers on BookTok, most of the audience is middle-aged white women who want to play out power fantasies via the fantasy genre, often coupled with bizarre sexual situations and heavy LGBTQIA+ themes. Among these book influencers, we find cancel culture running rampant. In a recent case of drama reported by TikTok user dianarodriguezwallach, viewers were exposed to a darker side of this group, with horror author J.D. Barker soliciting nudes from random women under the guise of “book promotion.”
J.D. Barker is a horror book New York Times Bestseller, hailed by the mainstream by being nominated for a Bam Stoker Horror Award. One of his bigger books ironically is called “Behind A Closed Door,” eliciting sexual imagery with a very young-looking woman on the cover.
Several women on “BookTok,” a TikTok YA Book influencer community, came forward after he solicited several young women to send him nude photos with his book open over their crotch to allegedly promote his new novel.
An email originally surfaced from a PR firm, BestOfBookTok, from what appears to be a fake name, “Julia,” to make the women think it was another woman sending them the emails. J.D. Barker called his new book a “sexually charged dark thriller,” and upon research. J.D. Barker is one of the founders of BestOfBookTok.
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According to a viral BookTok video, an email came out from this BestOfBookTok account titled, “J.D. Barker is back with his best novel yet, and he wants to pay you to promote it!”
The email asked for BookTok influencers to make videos with the book talking about explicit acts in their lives. It had several prompts for them to choose from, including, “What is the most taboo place you’ve ever had sex?”
It went further on another prompt: “Who doesn’t like to relax with a good book?” It urged users to have “a camera pan up or down the body using only the book to cover up your naughty bits.”
Women would get paid on the low end of $100 for their nude videos, according to the email.
It followed with a creepy closing statement that J.D. Barker would personally review each of these submissions, and women would only get paid if he approved them. This means they could be posing nude, sending their videos for nothing if they weren’t used.
It’s possible this is one of the most laughable scams to get women to send nude pictures and videos out there, though J.D. Barker may think this is a legitimate book promotion.
BookTok Influencer Amy May alleged that several of the influencers who received these emails were under eighteen years old, in another degenerate twist to J.D. Barker’s story.
J.D. Barker issued a quick apology, claiming the email wasn’t his. He claimed it “was not issued by me nor was it approved by me,” but was “sent by one of the many PR firms I hired to promote my latest title.”
J.D. Barker then sent another email issuing an apology:
On January 23rd, an email went out on my behalf to known BookTok influencers without consideration of age or gender, from a company I own, detailing the framework of a social media marketing campaign meant to promote my upcoming novel, Behind A Closed Door; an erotic thriller set to release later this year. The email detailed several video ideas that were in keeping with events that occur in the book, a work of fiction. Those ideas were followed by:
“These are just suggestions. You’re welcome to use them for your video or come up with something on your own. Half the fun of something like this is to let creativity rule! The content of the video is entirely up to you. As long as it’s promoting BEHIND A CLOSED DOOR, it will be eligible. So get creative!”
This campaign was never approved. The email wasn’t meant to go out without a substantial rewrite, but through a chain of errors, it did.
I take full responsibility for that.
I’m horrified such a message was released. And I deeply regret the hurt I’ve caused to those who received it. I have nothing but respect for the writing community and the people who champion it and I’ve let all of you down. I have nothing but the deepest respect for women. I’m a husband. I’m a father. There is no excuse for the insensitivity demonstrated by my actions. The weight created by those actions is inexcusable. I can and will do better.
The written word is something I cherish. Words have a power. And sometimes they can hurt more than the most dangerous weapon. Knowing I’ve wielded that weapon and injured is something that will weigh on me for the remainder of my days. If you were impacted by this, I am truly sorry.
J.D. Barker
Apology or not, nude videos have been alleged to be solicited from underage BookTok girls, which highlights how degenerate mainstream book publishing is.
His agent has subsequently dropped J.D. Barker as the publishing community tries to disavow this behavior. Still, such matters are par for the course in mainstream publishing, which has been riddled with degeneracy and identity politics for years.
What do you think of author J.D. Barker soliciting these videos from young female BookTok influencers? Are YA Books pozed? Leave a comment and let us know.
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