Young people don’t read books anymore Life & Knowledge

2024-04-07 13:00:25

“They’re just stuck in front of their smartphones and tablets. They’ve probably never touched a real book before.”

One or two prejudices about Generation Z and Alpha sound something like this. A very special trend on social media platforms is causing book sales to skyrocket.

Using the hashtags #Bookstagram and #BookTok, Instagram and Tiktok users share book recommendations with each other and become real influencers. The hashtags have billions of views and the digital reviews have created a huge hype in the book market.

This is about analogue books and not digital books. Sales of e-books are stable, but not increasing significantly – real books are still very popular.

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This is what the BookTok trend means for book publishers

Felicitas von Lovenberg is the publisher of Piper Verlag. She knows how important this trend is for the publishing industry. “It’s cool to read a lot and share it with others. BookTok and other platforms play a huge role in this, because anyone who reads will find like-minded people there.”

“A very big and noticeable trend are novels from the areas of new adult and romance. These are books that are often about self-discovery at their core, with a lot of romance, mixed with eroticism, suspense or even fantasy elements.” There are now even many bestsellers that start on social media and in the But it would also appeal to other target groups.

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This is how the book trade is reacting to the social media trend

Lisa Pankewitz works in Thalia’s social media team. She knows that the BookTok community is an important source of inspiration for her company – and for the book industry as a whole. “We interact with the young target group there, discover new trends and get even more young people excited about reading.”

► The book trade also shows that there is great interest in special books. “Above all, special (jewellery) editions and color cuts are in demand. A prominent example of this is ‘Fourth Wing’ by Rebecca Yarros. We are noticing that publishers are increasingly responding to this trend.”