#BookTok videos on TikTok are influencing book sales and bestseller lists. TikTok has the power to make products go viral, and now a group of users are impacting the book industry in a major way. #BookTok, which has 5.7 billion views, is made up mostly of women in their teens and twenties recommending books, recording time lapses of themselves reading, or “sob[bing] openly into the camera after an emotionally crushing ending.” Bookstores like Barnes & Noble have even begun setting up “BookTok” tables with titles—like We Were Liars, They Both Die at the End, and The Cruel Prince—that have gone viral on the platform. Some of the books featured were released years ago, and are now seeing a resurgence in sales and a bump in the national bestseller lists thanks to the app. (NYTimes)
