BookTok, the literary and bookish portion of social media app TikTok, has been credited with revitalizing the publishing industry over the last five years. The popularity of TikTok coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns, leading many new users to congregate on the app and share interests. As it turned out, reading books was an activity that really seemed to catch fire on TikTok. Thus, BookTok was born.
Only 30% of books sold in 2022 were new releases, 70% were older titles.
Indeed, it almost seems impossible to compare the state of book marketing before the onset of TikTok’s popularity. Walk into any bookstore in the year 2025 and you will find a table, most likely front and centre, displaying BookTok’s most popular titles at any given moment. While much of this literary marketing via TikTok is attributed to pandemic lockdowns and people reading more while stuck at home, BookTok is still considered “the dark horse of the economy” according to at least one source.
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