Ever finished a book and thought, “That movie was way better”? Or maybe you’re on team “the book is always better” (same). Either way, the relationship between written text and visual adaptations has become one of the most fascinating battlegrounds in modern storytelling. It sometimes even the cause of ending friendships—OK, maybe it’s not that dramatic. But it is getting more and more complicated by the day.
What happens when a favorite novel transforms into a mainstream film? According to Douglas Eyman’s work on visual rhetoric, we’re not just seeing a simple translation but rather remediation—a complete transformation in how the meaning behind an element is constructed. Take “The Hunger Games” going from Suzanne Collins’ pages to Jennifer Lawrence’s performance. The storytelling transforms from purely linguistic to what Eyman might call “simultaneously verbal, visual, and interactive hybrids.”
This isn’t just academic talk. Dune’s massive sandworms crashed across IMAX screens and created meaning in ways Frank Herbert’s vivid descriptions simply couldn’t, especially for those who aren’t “visual thinkers”. Not better—just fundamentally different. As Roland Barthes (mentioned in Eyman’s work) would point out, those visual elements don’t just illustrate the story—they create new layers of meaning through both what they literally show (denotation) and what they suggest (connotation).
BookTok: Turning Reading into Visual Storytelling
Here’s where things get interesting. Today’s authors aren’t just hoping for Hollywood adaptations. They’re actively engaging with visual platforms from the start. #BookTok has revolutionized publishing with videos about books regularly reaching millions of views on TikTok.
This visual ecosystem influences what gets written. Publishers now ask: “Will this book be TikTokable?” Authors like Colleen Hoover have seen their careers explode. This happens not just because their books are good. Readers create visual content about their emotional reactions.
How Visual Marketing Changes What Gets Written
Visual rhetoric doesn’t just affect how books are promoted—it’s changing what books get written. Consider the rise of aesthetically-driven subgenres like “dark academia” or “cottagecore,” which gain momentum through visual platforms before influencing publishing trends. Books are increasingly designed with “Instagrammable” covers, and authors are encouraged to develop marketing hooks that work well in visual formats.
This visual-first approach reshapes the industry. Books with clear visual hooks gain advantages. “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” has its iconic green dress. Visual attention now comes before the reading experience. What does this mean for storytelling? As the boundaries between text and visual representation blur, we’re seeing the emergence of writers who think visually from the beginning. Authors are crafting scenes with an eye toward how they might translate to screens both big (Hollywood) and small (TikTok).
The old debate of “book vs movie” is evolving into something much more interesting: stories that exist across multiple formats simultaneously. And each version is adding new layers of meaning through the unique rhetoric of its medium.
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