Luke Bateman’s BookTok reviews have been going viral in the last month and now, the former Bachelor and NRL star has announced a major career change.

Former Bachelor and NRL star Luke Bateman started posting BookTok videos last month and has had a major career change since. Photo: TikTok/lukesreads

Luke Bateman first caught our attention in 2023 when he appeared as one of the three leading men on The Bachelors. Some might also know him from his former life as an NRL star for the Canberra Raiders, but in the last month, he’s been known for something entirely unexpected – his BookTok reviews.

The burly Aussie works in the timber industry, but in his spare time, he’s captured hearts around the world on TikTok with his reviews of fantasy (and romantasy – IYKYK) books. After just one month on TikTok, and in what feels like overnight success, it was announced on Sunday night that Luke has signed a deal for two books with Atria Books, a Simon and Schuster imprint.

Speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle, the former Bachelor star reveals the whole experience has been “mind blowing”, but sets the record straight on being an ‘overnight success’.

Former Bachelor Luke Bateman reveals how BookTok changed his life

Luke’s BookToks have captured quite a lot of attention, especially with women. Photo: TikTok/lukesreads
Luke tells us that it’s been “very fulfilling” for him to become “more well known for something that’s truly a passion” of his and “means a lot” to him, rather than a reality TV show.

When asked if he ever thought he’d see the day he’d become an author, Luke says, “Nah, never, to be honest. It was one of those things when I was growing up as a kid and a teenager, you have those dreams, where you’re like, ‘Oh, I’d love to be a pop star or a movie star one day,’ you know what I mean?”

He adds that while he always dreamed of becoming an author, he always thought it was “one of those wild dreams that’ll never come true.”

“So, to be an author, it’s mind-blowing for me, it is a dream come true,” he says with clear excitement.

He explains that he began posting to TikTok in the hopes that he’d find “five people to nerd out with”. “I posted that [first] video thinking, ‘Oh, it’d be lucky if more than 50 people see this, and then it went on to have a lot more than that.’”

Two million people would end up seeing Luke’s video, and the comments are quite wild – a LOT of women are loving his videos, to say the least (go check out the comments on his first video for a laugh!).

It seems Luke has come quite far from the young footy player who used to hide books in his bag so his friends didn’t see them.

“The culture is pretty, pretty ruthless,” he says of his footy days. “So, if you pulled a bloody book about dragons out in front of the boys in the team, you’d be getting ripped on pretty quick. So, I used to hide them in my bag and then when you’d go away anywhere I used to read them somewhere on my own where no one could see me!”

Luke reveals he’s been “blown away” by the support, saying, “I didn’t foresee that at all.”

Luke spills on book deal: ‘I’ve wanted to write a book my whole life’

Luke’s debut book will be released in early 2027. Photo: Instagram/lukebateman_
Speaking about the book deal, Luke tells us, “It’s funny, I actually reached out to a publisher six months ago and pitched the book. I’ve truly wanted to write a book my whole life, especially in the last couple of years, it’s been something I’ve really wanted to do.

“So I reached out to a publisher and pitched the book to them, and they never got back to me,” he admits. “Then, all these TikToks took off, and my management company reached out to a few publishers and said, ‘Hey, Luke has a book that he’d like to pitch, would you be interested?’”

Luke surprised his now-publisher by pitching not just a trilogy, but five books.

“She said, ‘I’d love to be able to publish all of them with you, let’s get started,’ and yeah, that’ show it came about!”

Keep in mind, Luke has only been posting to TikTok for about a month, so this success really does feel like it happened quite quickly, but he tells us, “I was chatting to a friend of mine, and they said, ‘Oh, it’s all happening so quickly,’ and I said, ‘It’s all happening quickly for you, for me, it’s been years, you know.’ People who are on the periphery, on the outside looking in, are like this has just taken off in the space of a month, but for me, this has been a lifelong journey in a way.”

Luke acknowledges that it’s quite a wild story to have a few TikToks lead to a book deal, saying, “It’s so crazy nowadays, like, 10-15 years ago, that doesn’t happen… I would have never had a book deal, because it would have been impossible, so it’s been really fantastic.”

What will Luke Bateman’s books be about?

For those who follow Luke, you’ll know fantasy books are his favourites to read, so it comes as little surprise that that’s the genre he’ll be writing.

While he can’t give away too much, Luke tells us, “It’s going to be a coming of age story, set in, obviously, a fantasy world, but it focuses around a young boy, who deals with a lot of hardships in his youth and battles through them to see his dreams fulfilled..”