TikTok Announces It’s Getting Into Book Publishing [Video]

TikTok wants to be your new favorite book publisher.

No, really.

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has announced it wants to take the popular #BookTok trend even further and launch its own print publishing company.

While a social media app thinking it can be a successful literary publisher seems like a stretch, if you’ve been on TikTok in the last three years, the move might not be a total surprise. #BookTok first exploded during the pandemic and has since racked up 60 billion views. And those views have translated directly to book sales. It’s no wonder ByteDance wants more of a piece of the action.

The social media platform previously dipped a toe into e-books with 8th Note Press, but now is going all-in on physical books. The company will focus on the types of titles that are popular on #BookTok, which mostly include romance, contemporary fiction, young adult and fantasy.

The first book published will be Caitlin Cross’ On Screen & Off Again, a “romantasy” novel about former …