Inspirational passion or paid-for promotion: can BookTok be taken on face value?

TikTok’s book reviewing community is here to stay, having even received publishing awards for innovation, but issues of authenticity and safety aboundBookTok, the nickname for TikTok videos in which books are discussed, analysed, cried about and turned into “aesthetic” moodboards, began as a small group of the app’s users who wanted a place to talk about books. It has since grown into a hugely influential community that has the power to pluck authors out of relative obscurity and propel them into the bestsellers charts.Earlier this month it was named FutureBook Person of the Year, an accolade which recognises digital innovation and excellence across the book trade. According to James Stafford, Head of Partnerships and Community at TikTok, BookTok is a community of “creative people around the world with a shared passion for literature”. Publishers, creators and writers have generally agreed that this corner of the platform has had an overwhelmingly positive effect, having led to huge increases in book sales and the discovery of new writers. The Bookseller even recently called it “the last safe place on the internet”. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2022-11-15 17:10:25 UTC ]

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All the News We Covered This Week

The best books of the summer, bestselling books and indie bookseller favorites, what's happening in libraries and politics, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2025-05-31 15:00:00 UTC ]
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MIBA Honors CJ Arthur as Bookseller of the Year

Arthur (l.), the owner of WordHaven BookHouse in Sheboygan, Wisc., is the Midwest Booksellers Association’s 2025 Bookseller of the Year. They were cited for supporting the local queer community and standing up against harassment. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The new Conduit Books plans to focus on male authors as a “corrective” to the literary landscape.

A new press will be “focusing initially” on publishing male writers, reported The Bookseller today. Finally, a space for guys to be guys. The press is called Conduit Books, and will be run by novelist and critic Jude Cook. There’s not a lot of information on their website—they’re still looking... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-04-28 18:00:53 UTC ]
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What’s a Bookseller to Do with BISAC Codes?

The coding system was intended to help book-focused businesses categorize their collections. But some indie booksellers say that, as far as their businesses are concerned, BISAC has lost the plot. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-04-18 04:00:00 UTC ]
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'I want to be remembered.' Death row inmate auctions his San Quentin journals, art for $80,000

The collection to be auctioned includes journals and cookbooks that inmate Albert Jones has written from death row. The bookseller representing him says it offers a rare glimpse into life on one of America's most notorious cell blocks. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2025-04-02 10:00:16 UTC ]
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Veteran Bookseller Scott McKinstry Dies at 60

McKinstry, who worked as a bookseller at a number of prominent indies in London, Denver, New York City, and Seattle, as well as a communications manager for the American Booksellers Association, died in Seattle on March 8. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-04-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Bookstore ends brief chapter on the Upper West Side

Change seems to come naturally to some areas. Gentrifying post-industrial swaths of Brooklyn and Queens, perhaps, are used to blocks that morph in quick time.But differences may be harder to swallow in more established neighborhoods, such as the Upper West Side, where the enclave along Broadway... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2025-03-27 10:03:09 UTC ]
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Book Sales Were Sluggish in January

Sales of adult fiction fell 5.7% in the month—the main factor in driving down total sales by 0.7% at the companies that report results to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-03-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Fiona McFarlane has won this year’s Story Prize for “Highway Thirteen.”

Fiona McFarlane has won the 21st annual Story Prize for her collection Highway Thirteen. The Story Prize’s $20,000 prize is among the largest first-prize amounts of any annual U.S. book award for fiction.The judges—writer and editor Elliott Holt, writer Maurice Carlos Ruffin, and bookseller Lucy... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-03-26 11:20:24 UTC ]
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Funding fights, memoirs by Boris Becker and Stallone, plus the queen of romantasy: this year’s London book fair

The 2025 book trade jamboree featured a bonanza of heart-shaped fiction, celebrity memoirs, and some vexed discussion about festival finances and children’s readingContentious classics, book-to-screen adaptations and the future of festival funding were some of the hottest topics at this week’s... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2025-03-14 18:35:36 UTC ]
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Yes, I’ve Been Selling My Book on Dating Apps

Over the past couple years, I’ve been accidentally moonlighting as a bookseller on Hinge. Selling books on Hinge (and occasionally Tinder, once in a while Feeld) started happening pretty effortlessly, through a few back and forths with a match. I’ve organically sold my book Women at least a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-10 09:58:28 UTC ]
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Like Gold in the River: A Review of Radwa Ashour’s Granada Trilogy, by Gretchen McCullough

Like Gold in the River: A Review of Radwa Ashour’s Granada Trilogy, by Gretchen McCullough Book Reviews [email protected] Tue, 02/04/2025 - 15:24 Background photo by Taiga / Adobe Stock / Author photo courtesy of AUC Press Years ago, I... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2025-02-04 21:24:18 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble will open 60 new bookstores in 2025, breaking last year’s record as bookstore revival ramps up

After a decade of downsizing, the beloved bookseller is seeing a resurgence thanks in part to TikTok’s #BookTok and a rise in so-called third spaces. January was a long month, but we finally have some good news in 2025: Bookseller Barnes & Noble plans to open at least 60 new stores this... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2025-02-03 20:30:00 UTC ]
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Bookshop.org Now Sells Ebooks

The bookseller is applying its sales model—where online purchases support indie bookstores—to digital books. It has also released a mobile app for shopping and reading ebooks. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2025-01-28 11:30:00 UTC ]
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Bookshop.org is launching e-books to help local bookstores compete with Amazon’s Kindle

The challenger brand to Amazon’s hegemony has big plans to build further, starting with a new e-book initiative. Andy Hunter decided something needed to be done about the endless rise of Amazon in 2018—the year that the e-commerce giant surpassed 50% of book sales in the U.S. market. “I was... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2025-01-28 11:30:00 UTC ]
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TikTok Uncertainty Prompts the Book Business to Envision an Even Better Future

Industry leaders acknowledge that the platform has been a phenomenal catalyst for book sales and building community, but some see its perilous future as an opportunity to build direct, sustainable relationships with readers across multiple channels. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-01-21 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Fyodor fever: how Dostoevsky became a social media sensation

White Nights, the author’s 1848 novella, sounds an unlikely candidate to go viral, but the story of lovelorn loneliness is now a favourite among TikTok and Instagram usersBeing popular on TikTok can make just about anything fly off the shelves, from beauty products to cucumbers, which became one... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-12-17 17:45:43 UTC ]
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School Librarians Are Altering Illustrations to Avoid Book Challenges and Other Library News

Catch up with the latest in library news, including mental health literacy resources, Japanese libraries trying out book sales, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-12-13 12:30:00 UTC ]
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