The niche world of hockey romance novels is receiving mainstream attention after the wife of an NHL player criticized fans of the book for posting “predatory and exploitative” comments and videos about her husband on social media.
Here’s what happened when the worlds of professional sports, romance novels, and TikTok collided.
First, there was BookTok.
On TikTok, people share book recommendations and reviews using the hashtag #BookTok, and the community has become a powerful driver of publishing. More than 100 authors with large BookTok followings generated $760 million in revenue in 2022, a 60% increase from 2021. Applies to Circana BookScan, which tracks print sales.
Romance is a big part of the BookTok universe, as is hockey romance, a popular subgenre that falls under the broader sports romance category.
Recent hits include Anna Zabo and LA Witt’s “Scoreless Game,” a love story between two longtime friends who are fictional Pittsburgh Griffins players. In Sarina Bowen’s “Overnight Sensation,” an office intern for the fictional Brooklyn Bruisers moves in with the player after leaving the condo she shares with her father, a hockey league commissioner.
The success of these books sparked reader interest in ice hockey, and some professional and college teams embraced this new audience.
In Australia, where ice hockey is not very popular, professional teams are evaluating that game attendance and fan interest are increasing through BookTalk.
Melbourne Mustangs events and media manager Sarah Bricknall told Sydney newspaper The Hills Shire Times that between 15 and 30 BookTok fans have attended every home game since the team joined TikTok in May.
How did things go wrong?
On the Internet, the lines between virtual and real players can become blurred. This is especially true when your team uses BookTok to promote themselves.
In a later archived video posted to the Seattle Kraken’s official TikTok account, the team’s center, Alex Wennberg, is seen walking down a hallway in a suit, along with the caption, “When I accidentally became a BookTok account, I can now post.” It says, “That’s all.” .”
Other posts by romance fans on BookTok referred to specific players as proxies for their favorite fictional hockey players or showed game scenes overlaid with quotes from hockey romance books. Some of these posts are sexually explicit, and some fans have posted explicit comments on players’ personal social media accounts.
Emily Rath, author of the Amazon romance bestseller Pucking Around, said some fans on TikTok raised concerns about inappropriate behavior toward players earlier this year.
“True Hockey Romance readers have been here before,” Mr. Rath said on TikTok. “We watched this all unfold in April, sounded the alarm, and asked for it to stop.”
The conflict came to a head when the NHL player’s wife intervened.
The issue began to attract attention outside the dating world last July when Alex Wennberg’s wife, Felicia Wennberg, said some posts about her husband had gone too far.
Mr. Wennberg said: In Instagram Stories She said she initially joked about some of the videos and comments, but has since “gone beyond what it means to like someone and it actually sounds pretty predatory and exploitative.”
Her statement describes what she considers acceptable, such as making positive comments about her husband’s appearance, and what she does not, such as shouting “krak my back” to players at a game. She asked her people to “think twice” about her own post.
As a result, her Instagram account was flooded with harassing messages.
Mr Wennberg then issued a statement on social media regarding “vicious comments”.
“We can all take jokes and funny remarks, but when they turn personal and turn into bigger things that affect our families, we have to say we’ve had enough,” he wrote. “No more sexual harassment, no more harassment of our personalities and relationships.”
Kraken has since deleted the TikTok post about BookTok.
How did TikTok creators react?
Sexually explicit posts were made by a small number of members of the BookTok community.
One creator, Kierra Lewis, created a video that Mr. Wennberg cited as an example of inappropriate behavior, and Ms. Lewis has since posted several videos responding to the situation.
Mr. Lewis, who has 1.1 million followers on TikTok, was flown to a Kraken game earlier this year after posting a video containing explicit comments about NHL players, including Mr. Wennberg.
She said she sent a personal message of apology to Mr Wennberg via Instagram. Mr Lewis said he was “confused and angry” that the Kraken TikTok account did not follow him.
In a video reacting to the controversy, Mr. Lewis expressed his displeasure with the team that encouraged him to back off, and with Mr. Wennberg, who used one of Mr. Lewis’s posts as an example. She defended her own videos, saying TikTok is for “entertainment.”
Mr. Lewis did not respond to a request for comment.
Kraken said in a statement that it originally worked with BookTalk to connect with new audiences, but that the situation “reminds us that unintended consequences can occur.”
“It is disappointing that a small number of online commenters crossed the line,” the statement said. “We viewed this as a learning moment for the organization and took appropriate action.”
