There are now over 63.5 million #BookTok videos on TikTok, and these short clips are changing people’s reading habits.
Earlier this month, The Guardian reported that Waterstones’ sales were up 5% and that the retailer is opening 10 stores a year.
According to James Daunt, CEO of Waterstones, the company’s success is partly due to book recommendations on TikTok as young adults are increasingly embracing reading.
Daunt also said that readers are increasingly reading romance, romantasy and fantasy novels — genres that are hugely popular with the BookTok community.
And despite a recent study claiming that reading for pleasure has dropped by over 40% in the past two decades in the US, American brands are investing in campaigns to attract BookTokers.
On 4 August, content creator Serena Kerrigan shared an Instagram Reel, announcing that she has partnered with Neutrogena to write Bank Your Glow: ‘a set of steamy, confidence-charged short [stories]’ to promote the brand’s new Vitamin C serum.
Kerrigan wrote that the series is available to download on Wattpad and encouraged her followers to ‘Go read it. Get that Glow, and then read it again.’
Similarly, P&G’s Downy paired the launch of its new fabric softener with the release of four steamy audiobooks this month. The audiobook series, ‘Almost Scandalously Soft Stories’, is available to stream on Spotify and features titles such as ‘The Other Bed’, ‘An Eternal Slumber’, ‘The Dragon’s Den’, and ‘Kitchen Heat’.
Downy’s audio campaign taps into the growing interest in romance and romantasy, with characters such as Vampire Vengalina and Dragon Man. The brand also tapped Crazy Rich Asians actor Henry Golding to narrate three of the stories and uploaded videos of his narration on Instagram.
In one of the clips, Golding says, ‘BookTok’s gonna love this’ after he reads: ‘The gentle gust of the sheets erupted the intoxicating smell of Downy, sending her eyes all the way back in her skull’.
Although the audio campaign clearly targets the BookTok community, Downy said that it also taps into the increasing popularity of audiobooks.
In a press release, the brand referenced the Audio Publishers Association Sales Survey, which found that the sales revenue of audiobooks reached $2.22 billion in 2024, marking a 13% increase over the previous year.
The genre with the highest year-over-year growth was also romance.
Featured image: Henry Golding narrating for Downy / Instagram
