BookTok is making these seemingly boring old books surprisingly popular - New York Post

What the report says

The New York Post reports that Monte Burch’s 1992 manual “How to Build Small Barns & Outbuildings” has become an unexpected beneficiary of BookTok, the TikTok community where creators recommend and review books. The title, published by Storey Publishing, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, reportedly saw sales rise after creators including @onedopepawpaw, @toddcawood and @masked_gamer_ featured it in viral videos.

According to the Post, one 36-second video by @onedopepawpaw drew 1.3 million views and framed the book as a practical step-by-step guide for people who want to learn building skills. Charlotte Bryla, Hachette Book Group’s director of advertising and social commerce, told the outlet that the publisher’s website ran out of stock within days and needed a restock, though she did not provide sales totals.

The Post presented the barn-building guide as part of a broader trend in which BookTok is lifting older or less obvious titles, not only new fiction releases. Bryla said Hachette has seen similar TikTok-driven interest in Catherine Newman’s children’s life-skills books “What Can I Say?” and “How to Be a Person,” which were published in 2022 and 2020 and reached The New York Times bestseller list this year.

The outlet also cited TikTok data saying the five largest U.S. publishing groups increased platform sales by 1,300% year over year from the 2024 holiday season to the 2025 season, while U.S. TikTok Shop book listings reached 4.5 million in early 2026. The report underscores how short-form creator marketing can revive backlist books and expand the kinds of titles finding new audiences online.