By Amira Kim
In a time when book readership is down globally, one demographic is keeping the boat afloat.
Tanaya Lowden, a marketing executive for a big publishing house, says women in their 30s are the largest demographic of readers. And with the rise of social media, they’re bringing up the readership of Gen Z with them.
“It’s an increase [in Gen Z reading] in some genres and maybe a decrease in other genres,” said Lowden.
Booktok, a sub-community on TikTok, has inadvertently changed the marketing game, with primarily young women sharing and reviewing books they’re reading, sparking interest among the young viewership patrolling the app.
The Booktok community has provided a place for readers to bond, which has led to explosive growth in the genres of fantasy and romance.
“They [fantasy and romance] have really blown up,” said Lowden. “There is now market saturation of how many titles there are.”
It seems that at a time globally when things seem tough for young people, a lot of us are seeking solace in fictional realms and adventures, and readers are bonding over the escape from the mundane.
The 2025 Australia Reads Data Repository Report by Monash University found the genres of fantasy and romance had the most consistent preference rating for leisure reading. Between Avid, Engaged, Ambivalent, and Aspirational Readers, fantasy had an average preference of 32.5 per cent and romance averaged 34.1 per cent across all respondents.
Historically women have been at the centre of community, so with a third of the reading population expressing interest in these genres and the reach TikTok provides, it’s no surprise that young women’s voices hold so much power and influence over publishing and selling trends.
“They [Gen Z and Millennials] make up such a large part of our population now,” said Lowden, addressing the influence.
It’s no wonder that 40 of Dymocks’ top 101 books for 2025 fall into these genres.
“There is power in this younger audience,” she said.
So while reading might be in decline globally, the ship is far from sinking.
“Books are not going anywhere,” said Lowden.
If you’re wanting to hop on board, Tanaya Lowden recommends Vicious by V.E Schwab.
In her words it is “phenomenal”.
Featured image: The charm of fantasy heroines captured by a mermaid. Source: Martina Stokow /CC/Public Domain Pictures
