The Internet's Influence & How It Created The Best-Selling Year For Books - Emmie Vargas

    They both die at the end was published in 2017 and has received numerous awards since then. It has been recognized as a New York bestselling novel and has a Netflix adaptation deal that is in the works currently. The novel gained much of its traction through "Booktok" and the influence of many passionate readers over the internet. Using this internet platform, fueled the sales of the book by selling 685,000 copies in 2021. Books were an escape for many people over quarantine and this sparked life back into bookstores and other retailers that sold books. 2021 was the height of quarantine and the start of post-pandemic life. Many people were still at home and doing their normal routines virtually. People were stuck at home with an uncertain path ahead of them. The use of TikTok and other social media platforms began to skyrocket as more and more people began to share their lives and create content for others to enjoy and find relatability in. Many trends began to rise out of this era such as a small part of the TikTok community called "BookTok". On BookTok, many users would share their favorite books or recommendations for others to go out and read. It also showed different ways to read accessibly such as borrowing from a library, using a virtual device to read, or going out and buying printed books. People were able to showcase their interests for others to see and employ in their daily lives. In 2021, readers purchased 825 million copies of printed books in the U.S. alone. With this spike in social media usage and trends, young and upcoming readers were fueling the literature economy in a way we had never seen. 

The internet has a pretty bad reputation for ruining people's social skills, self-image, and many other aspects. It's very exciting to hear a positive thing come out of the internet and how people have banded together to create a community to excite and invite virtually anyone into. As I mentioned before, "They Both Die At The End" isn't the only novel to experience a rise in popularity and sales. Some other very well-known examples are Heartstopper, Circe, We Were Liars, It ends with Us, and many more. I love talking about this topic because it affected me and caused me to spend a lot of my money on books. I fell back into reading through Quarantine and I am so glad I did. Thank you for reading. :)