TL;DR: The past decade has seen U.S. book publicity radically transformed by a fragmented media landscape. Traditional outlets like TV morning shows, NPR, and print reviews reach smaller, older audiences and face new forms of censorship and political pressure. Meanwhile, social media “BookTok” influencers and niche communities (from Substack newsletters to Discord servers) have emerged as powerful discovery channels – especially for Gen Z and diverse readers – often outperforming legacy media in driving book sales. “Reading” itself is being redefined, with more Americans engaging through audiobooks, serialized online fiction, and interactive story formats. Publishers are increasingly turning to AI and data-driven strategies to identify micro-targeted audiences and influential voices at scale. To thrive, PRH’s publicity must shift toward a mapped ecosystem of non-traditional platforms and creators, embrace audience insights on lapsed readers’ needs, and leverage AI tools to efficiently reach fragmented communities. Below, we detail these shifts, highlight key new platforms and influencers, and recommend how PRH can pilot innovative discovery methods for U.S. readers.
Declining Power of Traditional Book Publicity: A decade ago, a spot on Good Morning America or an NPR author interview was a coveted publicity win. Today, their influence on book sales is diminishing. Newspaper book review sections have shriveled to near extinction – by 2022 only the New York Times still had a stand-alone book review section, and nationwide only about a dozen staff book-critic positions remained. Local newspapers and magazines that once covered books have faced closures and budget cuts, reducing avenues for traditional earned media. The result is fewer opportunities for authors to get critical reviews or media profiles. Even major national TV shows deliver less impact than authors assume. As one publicity veteran notes, a “national television show” is now seen as a “bonus” rather than a guarantee – niche podcasts or publications often reach the target audience more effectively and with longer-lasting engagement. In other words, a feature on a targeted genre podcast might generate more sustained sales than a fleeting morning TV mention. Publicists also report that media gatekeepers have become slightly less fixated on an author’s social media fame and more on substantive credentials (e.g. having an MD or PhD now often matters more than having 100k Twitter followers). This suggests a recalibration in earned media: quality content and expertise can still win coverage, but the sheer reach of that coverage is limited by overall audience declines. (For instance, NPR’s radio audience and even its podcast downloads have been trending down since 2020.)
Silent Censorship and Polarization: The past few years have introduced new constraints on what books get media attention. Increasingly, outlets avoid controversy by silently “censoring” certain books – not via official bans, but by simply ignoring them. For example, politically polarized topics (e.g. books on critical race theory, LGBTQ+ memoirs, or partisan manifestos) may struggle to get airtime on broad-audience shows that fear backlash. Social media platforms have also de-platformed figures for misinformation or extremism, which can indirectly de-platform their books. (Amazon, for instance, has removed titles promoting vaccine misinformation and other false “cures” from its store.) Similarly, an author banned from Twitter or YouTube loses major publicity channels to reach readers. In the current political climate, even libraries and schools are seeing a surge in book challenges and bans – the ALA notes a four-fold increase in censorship attempts in 2021 – and warns of “silent censorship” where books simply disappear from shelves or curricula without public notice. All this contributes to a chilling effect: publishers may schedule fewer controversial book releases during election season (2024 saw some imprints avoiding big launches, knowing media would be saturated with politics) and authors may self-censor their messaging to avoid being “cancelled” or blacklisted from talk shows. The end result is that the “media opportunities” for books can be limited by ideology and platform policies. A certain title might be embraced on one cable network and simultaneously boycotted by another. Publicists now often need to craft different pitches for different outlets’ political leanings, or bypass traditional media entirely if a book’s content is deemed too risky.
Earned vs. Owned vs. Influencer-Driven Media: With earned media shrinking, publishers have leaned more on owned media (their internal channels) and influencer-driven publicity. Owned media includes author websites, publisher newsletters, email blasts to fan databases, and virtual author events hosted on publisher platforms. These give the publisher full control, but their reach is inherently limited to existing followers. In contrast, influencer-driven media – e.g. sending advance copies to Bookstagrammers or scheduling an author on a popular BookTube channel – can tap into large, engaged audiences built by those content creators. An internal survey by PRH’s Consumer Insights team found that aside from friends’ recommendations, social networks are now the dominant way readers discover books. Notably, 67% of readers said they find new books via Goodreads (a social review platform) and 46% via Facebook, surpassing the 49% who discover books through traditional media reviews. Younger readers especially rely on social media for book recommendations, while older readers still trust print reviews and ads more. This generational shift means influencer buzz often outweighs a newspaper review. For example, an endorsement by a TikTok creator or a tweet from a celebrity book club can send a title shooting up bestseller lists with zero traditional press coverage. By contrast, a lukewarm review in USA Today might hardly move the needle if the target audience never sees it. Publishers have taken note: they are reallocating marketing dollars and effort into social campaigns and “earned influencer” outreach (cultivating unpaid mentions from enthusiasts) to supplement the diminishing returns of classical PR. In sum, the media landscape for books from 2015 to 2025 shifted from a top-down model (critics and talk shows) to a decentralized model (community-driven hype). Publicity strategies must follow suit, engaging grassroots networks and niche channels rather than relying only on legacy media hits.
Traditional publicity channels have been eclipsed by a constellation of non-traditional platforms where readers now congregate. Below is a mapped ecosystem of unexpected book discovery environments – spanning short-form video, audio, online communities, and more – that have risen in influence over the past decade:
In summary, the new ecosystem of book discovery is multi-channel and community-driven. Platforms like TikTok, Substack, Discord, Twitch, podcasts, and more have expanded the ways readers find books – often through authentic voices and peer recommendations rather than traditional critics. PRH’s publicity approach can no longer focus only on chasing a morning TV slot or a NYT review; it must navigate this diverse ecosystem – engaging with BookTok trends, pitching to newsletters and podcasts, seeding content in online communities, and partnering with emergent influencers who speak to niche audiences.
Understanding today’s book audiences – especially light readers and non-readers – is crucial for effective outreach. The U.S. reading public has bifurcated: a core of heavy readers still consume many books, but a growing proportion of Americans read very little or not at all. Surveys show that roughly a quarter of U.S. adults (23–28%) did not read anybook in the past year. This share has held fairly steady since 2014, but what has changed is the volume among those who do read. According to Gallup, the average number of books read per year per adult dropped to an all-time low of 12.6 in 2021 – a decline of about 3 books per year compared to the early 2000s. Heavy readers (11+ books/year) fell from 35% of the population in 2016 to 27% in 2021. In other words, casual or “light” readers now make up a larger share of the reading public, while the most avid readers are slightly fewer. This decline in reading quantity is illustrated below:
Average number of books U.S. adults read per year (Gallup surveys). The 2021 average (12.6 books) is the lowest on record, down from ~15 books in the early 2000s. The drop is due mainly to fewer “heavy readers,” not an increase in non-readers.
Barriers for Light Readers and Non-Readers: Why are many Americans reading less? The overwhelming reason given is time. In one survey, **51% of adults said the main reason they don’t read more is “not enough time,” far outpacing those who cite lack of interest (16%) or lack of good books (14%)*. Modern life offers countless distractions and competing media – streaming TV, endless social media feeds, video games, podcasts – which all eat into the time one might otherwise devote to books. Even dedicated readers feel the pull: “there is so much other content in this world,” one NPR host confessed, “a book has to be really good now for me to sit with it for long”. Another major factor is diminished attention spans. Especially among younger people, years of smartphone use have trained brains for dopamine hits and rapid-fire stimulus, making the slow, linear absorption of a book more challenging. A widely discussed Atlantic article in 2024 highlighted that even elite college students now struggle to finish long novels – some entering college never having read a full book, only excerpts. Educators report students having trouble focusing on even short stories or poems, a symptom of what Oxford’s 2024 “word of the year” dubbed “brain rot” (the feeling that constant digital grazing is eroding our capacity for deep reading). On social media, young adults openly lament “my attention span sucks, it’s hard for me to read books”. This attentional barrier means that many light readers want to read more (indeed, 81% of Americans say they wish they read more for self-improvement) but find it mentally taxing to carve out the focus time. Other barriers include literacy challenges – the U.S. has a significant baseline of low literacy, with 21% of adults being illiterate or functionally illiterate (unable to comprehend complex text), which obviously precludes engagement with books. Additionally, socioeconomic factors play a role: non-readers are disproportionately adults with lower education and lower income, who may lack access (fewer books in the home, less access to libraries or time for leisure reading if working multiple jobs). Hispanic adults report the highest non-reading rates (38%), which could reflect language barriers or fewer culturally relevant books marketed to them. To sum up, the key barriers for the “reading hesitant” audience are time scarcity, digital distraction, underdeveloped reading habits, and access issues. Any efforts to engage light or lapsed readers must address these constraints – for instance, by emphasizing convenience (short content forms, easy availability), relevance (topics that immediately hook their interest), and incremental engagement (ways to enjoy stories without committing hours at a stretch).
Redefining “Reading”: Audiobooks, Serial Media, and Interactive Content: One important shift is that many Americans are still consuming narratives – just not always in the form of text on a page. Audiobooks in particular have exploded in popularity, effectively bringing “non-readers” back into the fold via listening. The Audio Publishers Association’s 2024 survey found that 38% of American adults had listened to an audiobook in the last year (up from 30% in 2018) and 52% have ever listened to one. Audiobook sales have grown for 11 consecutive years, reaching $2.0 billion in 2023. Many who would never sit down with a 500-page novel will happily listen to that novel during their commute or while doing chores. In effect, audiobooks have redefined reading for busy people – it “counts” as reading a book, yet fits into fragmented lifestyles. Likewise, the rise of serialized content on digital platforms has created new on-ramps for lapsed readers. Smartphone apps like Wattpad, Radish, and Kindle Vella deliver fiction in bite-sized episodes, often with a soap-operatic hook at the end of each segment to keep people coming back. This mimics the addictive flow of a TV or web series. In China, for example, serialized web novels have become a massive industry, and the trend is growing in the West through Wattpad and others. A casual reader might not pick up a thick fantasy tome, but they’ll read a 5-minute chapter on their phone each night if it’s part of a serial story they’re invested in. Social media itself has become a form of reading – albeit usually non-linear skimming. Young people spend hours daily reading Twitter threads, Reddit stories, Instagram captions, and TikTok subtitles. This content isn’t “books,” but it conditions them to consume ideas in text/images. Publishers are experimenting with meeting audiences where they are: for instance, releasing nonfiction advice in a series of LinkedIn posts or Twitter threads, or authors posting short stories on Instagram (the way poet Rupi Kaur first gained fame by sharing her poems on Instagram, later collected in Milk and Honey). The definition of reading is broadening to include digital text experiences and even interactive narratives. Interactive story games (like Episode or Choices apps, where users read and make plot decisions) and visual novels (popular in gaming) combine reading with gameplay. These formats are hugely popular with teens – effectively, they are reading a story but with multimedia and agency. Publishers might view them as competition, but they’re also gateway drugs to the written word. A teen engrossed in a storytelling game is developing narrative literacy that could translate to reading novels.
Crucially, values and behaviors of new or lapsed readers have shifted. Younger readers (Gen Z and millennials) tend to value immediacy, authenticity, and social connection in their reading experiences. Gen Z in particular has embraced physical books as a reaction against digital overload – calling reading “analog time” that provides escape from phone stress. Research in late 2022 showed that 80% of Gen Z’s book purchases were physical copies, not ebooks, and libraries saw a 71% increase in Gen Z visitation in the UK around the same time. This generation has made reading “trendy” by incorporating it into their social media identity (posting bookshelf photos, aesthetic “annotating my book” videos, etc.). Terms like “BookTok made me do it” or “hot girl reading” subvert the old nerdy image of reading and recast it as a cool, self-care activity. New readers often gravitate to books that resonate with their personal identity or current interests. For instance, young readers galvanized by social justice movements sought out books on anti-racism in 2020; during the pandemic, many lapsed readers returned via comfort reads (like nostalgic YA fantasy or uplifting romances) to cope with stress. We also see that discovery for lapsed readers often comes via transmedia and adaptations – a non-reader might watch Netflix’s Bridgerton, fall in love with the story, and then pick up Julia Quinn’s novels (bridging them into reading). Or they play a popular video game (The Witcher, Halo) and then try the tie-in books. In a fragmented entertainment landscape, books that connect to a broader cultural phenomenon can capture those on the periphery. Lastly, today’s readers – especially younger ones – strongly value diversity and representation in what they read. Many lapsed readers from minority backgrounds have said they started reading more when they found stories that reflected their own lives. The publishing push for diverse voices in the late 2010s (e.g. #WeNeedDiverseBooks) and the amplification of those books on social media has attracted new readers who previously “didn’t see themselves” in books.
Key takeaway: Audience insights reveal that to engage new or light readers, books must compete in a world of shortened attention and abundant alternatives. Strategies that work include promoting audiobooks (for multitaskers), delivering content in serial or bite-size forms, highlighting immediate relevance or buzz (“the book everyone’s talking about on TikTok”), and aligning books with the values or identities of target segments (diverse stories for diverse readers, etc.). Reading is no longer confined to quiet evenings with a hardcover – it might happen through earbuds at the gym, via daily emails, or in a role-playing chat on Discord. PRH should treat these new modes of engagement as equally valid and important as traditional reading, and adapt its outreach and format offerings accordingly.