FFFFEEEEEAAAAttttt rrrrreeee
F A uuuuu e Articles
How 'BookTok' Videos are Influencing Bestseller Charts and Teenage Readers By Sofia Ramos
These days young people are no longer avoiding bookstores, they now prefer a good read over scrolling through social media. Ironically, however, social media plays quite a significant role in this change of pace. If you haven’t already come across this corner of the internet, BookTok is an ongoing stream of content found within the video-sharing platform Tiktok. There, users are creating videos with topics ranging from simple book reviews, lists of recommendations depending on your favorite genre, and books to read when you need a good cry.
These videos can attract millions of views, and have the ability to reignite a love of reading within younger generations, all in under a minute. The tag #booktok has garnered over 38 billion views on the app and has grown into a full-fledged community with a significant impact on the publishing industry.
During the pandemic, not only did TikTok downloads rise, but so did interest in reading. A pastime that many individuals resumed when other activities were put on hold due to quarantine restrictions.
According to NPD BookScan, book sales, in general, have increased in the past year. 825 million print books were sold in the United States in 2021, a 9% increase from 2020. This is the largest yearly figure BookScan has observed since it began collecting data in 2004.
Even retailers have caught on to the “BookTok Effect”. Most stores now have a dedicated 'BookTok' section where users can easily purchase the platform's most popular titles.
“I think it’s really just been an evolution,” said Libby McGuire, senior vice president and publisher at Atria Publishing, in an interview with Observer. “We’ve always had these influencers that put books into readers’ hands and now