If you've picked up a book recently, there's a good chance it's because someone on TikTok told you to.
What we read is no longer driven by bookshops or bestseller charts alone, but by a constant stream of fast, highly personal recommendations.
From rapid-fire reviews to emotional reactions, creators are shaping reading habits at scale, and #BookTok has more than 77 million posts.
Now, this influence is being formalised with the launch of the UK's first official #BookTok bestseller list.
The new chart, compiled by Media Control and NielsenIQ BookData - which also provides data for traditional charts such as the Sunday Times bestseller list - combines UK sales data with analysis of the #BookTok hashtag.
The inaugural top 20, which will be updated monthly, is entirely made up of female authors, with Irish writer Chloe Walsh appearing most frequently.
All six books in her Boys of Tommen series - which follow a group of teenagers navigating love, friendship and trauma at a private school - feature on the list.
The chart also reflects how BookTok is reshaping the lifecycle of books - Donna Tartt's The Secret History, first published in 1992, appears on the list after finding a new audience decades later through TikTok.
Many of the titles on the list are also either recent or upcoming screen adaptations including Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us, Rebecca Yarros's Fourth Wing and Chloe Walsh's Boys of Tommen series.
Dominating the list are titles linked to the platform's biggest genre, romantasy, with books by Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros making up significant portions of the chart.
Influencers like Kris and Mads note that the prominence of romantasy is unsurprising as these authors have built highly engaged fanbases online.
BookTok's influence can also rapidly change book sales dynamics, with notable examples of self-published works going viral due to grassroots championing on the platform.
While BookTok is emerging as a significant force, it doesn't render traditional bestseller lists obsolete; rather, it marks a shift in how contemporary readers engage with literature.
BookTok is not just about generating trend-based hits; it's demonstrating a cultural appetite for genres often overlooked by traditional publishing metrics.
