The book publishing house 8th Note Press, the parent company of TikTok’s ByteDance, is closing shop, The Bookseller reports.
Thanks to its #BookTok community, TikTok has become an indispensable engine for publishers to drive book sales; even self-published authors have achieved unprecedented success by capturing a viral moment on TikTok. In 2023, ByteDance took the next logical step, deciding that if the app revolutionized book sales, it could also make money selling its own books.
But ByteDance’s foray into publishing was cut short. Previously, authors were attracted to 8th Note Press because it seemed that its affiliation with TikTok could boost sales, but now the publishing house is telling authors that it is closing and returning the publishing rights to them.
It is unclear why ByteDance closed the publication after such a short period of existence. The company did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment, nor did it respond to requests from other media outlets.
