Only ten years ago, Barnes and Noble, the last big American bookstore chain, was thought to be on its last legs, with widespread speculation about its projected demise.
In 2015 Barnes & Noble spun off its college bookstore operations into a separate public company called Barnes & Noble Education.Then, in Sept. 2019 Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited bought all of Barnes & Noble's stock and took the company private. It named James Daunt, the executive credited with reviving Waterstones, as the new B&N CEO.
Since then the company’s fortunes have brightened considerably.
According to a January 2025 article in Publishers’ Weekly "The end of 2024 marked the completion of the fifth full year that Barnes & Noble has been led by James Daunt.
“Initially his ambitious plans to revive the ailing retailer were derailed by the onset of the pandemic, which forced B&N and other retailers to close their bricks and mortar outlets.”
Post-pandemic things have been looking up for the retailer with an estimated 650 retail shops. In 2024 it opened 57 new stores including four locations formerly owned by Tattered Cover in Denver. B&N finished 2024 by selling its Union Square and Co. publishing division to Hachette Book Group.
The company anticipates it will continue its growth trend with another 60 new retail bookstore openings projected for 2025.
Daunt said he divided his time at B&N into three parts: “Landing, which was a bit ‘discombobulating’; the pandemic, during which ‘we focused on surviving and finding our feet’; and now, “changing. We’re confident now and marching at a quicker pace. We have a lot more to do and have a pretty clear idea about how to do it.”
Among Daunt’s key points were “having good teams inside nice looking stores” and promoting workers to management from within. He said fiction continues to be a big sales driver helped by publicity from BookTok influencers.
Daunt, book trade and internet commentators attribute at least some of B&N’s new vitality and growth to the impact of BookTok, a subcategory of the popular TikTok social media platform. BookTok has helped B&N grow its audience and increased the visibility and clout of the reviewers and bookish influencers who tend to be younger women.
The Wiki for BookTok notes “many Barnes and Noble stores have BookTok displays, featuring popular books on the app, and the company also has a section of their site dedicated to these books.”
B&N has also partnered with BookTok to promote books, host events, and create a dedicated shopping space for BookTok titles. These include in-store displays for popular BookTok titles; a dedicated BookTok page on the company’s website, as well as #BookTok Challenge, a summer reading campaign that is a joint effort between B&N and the social media platform
Other sources credit BookTok with helping the chain to attract new customers especially teens and with expanding interest in genres like “romantasy” and “dark romance.”
A recent USA Today article speculates on what will become of BookTok and its influencers if TikTok is sold.
Said one BookToker: “I try to cater it to the different platform I'm on, but there’s absolutely no question that TikTok’s algorithm puts you in front of more people. And it’s a better algorithm, so the people you’re being put in front of are much more engaged in the content.”
She’ll continue no matter what happens with TikTok, but she worries about other small businesses, who she says need support to feel like they can keep going.”
USA Today wrote, “Industry experts are looking to readers for the next steps, confident they'll find them wherever they land if TikTok goes away.
“There’s always going to be an iteration of this. It’s about community,” says Pamela Jaffee, senior director of publicity and brand marketing at Bloom Books and Casablanca. “Twelve years ago, it was the in-person book club that made ‘50 Shades of Grey.’” The book community got online with Facebook, then blogging, then Instagram, with a dozen apps in between.”
Or as Daunt told PW, “It's not like BookTok invented great books, though it does provide a great platform to find them.”
