BookTok reshapes publishing industry with romance-driven sales at Turin Book Fair

The Romance Pop-Up area at the 2025 Turin Book Fair expanded its footprint, welcoming 6,500 visitors and presenting 30,000 signed titles over just two days. The event attracted a total of 254,000 participants, with 63% of them under 45 years old, largely influenced by BookTok—a TikTok community where young women share book reviews. Since its inception in 2019, #BookTok has amassed over 74 million posts, including specific tags like #romancetok (over 150,000) and #YATok (close to 500,000). Silvio Carnassale, an industry expert, highlights BookTok's impact on the publishing sector, particularly in romance and romantasy, while cautioning about the potential loss of diversity. He also points out that Italian BookTok users are predominantly female, favoring writers such as Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas, and emphasizes the platform's role in promoting physical books over e-books. Carnassale expresses concerns about algorithm-driven content homogenization and notes that AI could transform the industry within two years.