BookTok Boosts UK Publishers’ Export Sales

UK publishers say BookTok has had a huge influence on export sales to markets where English language books are read.  The UK Publishers Association says export sales in 2022 increased by 8% to £4.1bn, with BookTok playing a key role.

Chris Turner, international sales director at Penguin Random House, said: “The European market has always been very important to us, but in recent years there’s been an incredibly positive trajectory. BookTok has been a real driver for this, along with increasing English language levels among younger readers, and a willingness from our trade partners to give more retail space to English language titles. It’s a market we’re excited to continue to publish for and invest in going forward.”

Jonathan Atkins, international director at PanMacmillan said that BookTok was “clearly influencing a much younger audience than we have typically appealed to in the past”, and added that highlights on the platform included the Japanese bestseller Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, which is about time travelling customers at a Tokyo café who have to return ‘before the coffee gets cold’, and the YA hit You’ve Reached Sam, by Dustin Thao.