Among the pleasant surprises in the print industry is the growth in book sales in many countries in recent years. During the pandemic, book sales were on the rise, thanks to the ensuing restrictions on other activities, and simply due to consumers realizing that reading printed books is a lot more rewarding than electronic alternatives. There is another driver of book sales, that pundits did not have on the radar a few years ago: BookTok.

You might have heard of BookTok, even if you’re not a regular (or at all) on TikTok. BookTok is a community where readers discuss, praise, rank, or showcase books in short video clips. Emotions and authenticity take precedence over sober facts and summaries. The contributors are the modern book bloggers who reach millions of users with their short videos. The BookTok hashtag has now surpassed 200 billion views. Successful clips lead to snowballing effects that can make books go viral. The community-driven features of the platform allow readers to connect, spark discussions, and create a sense of shared discovery.

Of course, it is unclear what portion of views ended up as real sales. The consensus is that BookTok contributed to an uptick in book sales since 2021 and 2022. Nielsen in the UK did some consumer research and found that BookTok accounted for 3% of all book revenues in 2022. In the US, Circana BookScan started to track BookTok authors and, according to the BookScan data, they sold about 47 million copies—up from 21 million in 2021.