TikTok sells a lot of books. Now the owner wants to publish them too.

A new publishing house began courting self-published romantic writers earlier this year. The pitch, delivered in a generic email, was impersonal and formal. The terms were not generous, sometimes as little as a few thousand dollars for the rights to a book.

Then came the breakthrough. The publisher was ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, a social media company that distributes short videos and has helped create some of the biggest bestsellers on the market in recent years. In addition to an advance and royalties, the company offered extensive online marketing services, according to several authors and publishers who knew about ByteDance’s offerings.

“This could be the next big thing,” Mariah Dietz, a self-published novelist, said of ByteDance publishing.

The company has already revolutionized the way books are discovered online. And while ByteDance has said little publicly about its publishing plans, which are in the early stages, it’s clear that the company has the potential to sell a huge amount of books.

Even under closer scrutiny by the regulatory authorities due to concerns that it could be influenced by the Chinese government, ByteDance can reach an audience that is huge and growing. Many TikTok users — more than 150 million in the United States alone — are interested in books. In the past year, videos using the #BookTok hashtag have been viewed more than 91 billion times, up from nearly 60 billion the previous year, according to the company.

Exposure to the platform has catapulted many authors—Colleen Hoover being the first—to the bestseller list. Posts tagged #ColleenHoover have been viewed more than 4.2 billion times and her books have sold more than 24 million copies.

Revenue, driven by more than 100 authors with large BookTok followings, will reach $760 million in 2022, up 60 percent from 2021, according to Cirana BookScan, which tracks print sales. So far this year sales have increased by almost 40 percent compared to last year.

“To say it’s hugely important is an understatement right now,” said Bess Braswell, a senior publishing director at Harlequin.

ByteDance registered trademark to a publisher, 8th Note Press, in late April, describing it as a company that provides a range of book publishing products and services. According to the description, it would create an ecosystem where people can find, buy, read, review and discuss books.

The company also hired Katherine Pelz, a romance industry veteran, as its acquisitions editor.

ByteDance declined to confirm details about their publishing and retail business, including what genres it plans to release, when their first titles will be released, and whether their books will be sold in traditional stores.

Despite how little is known about their intentions, ByteDance’s presence in the field has already raised concerns.

Leveraging TikTok’s ability to draw attention to books and its vast trove of user data, ByteDance could boost its own authors at the expense of others and make BookTok less organic and user-driven, a prospect that many TikTok- concerns users and authors.

The company could also penalize traditional publishers and self-published authors. Even as they’ve come to rely on the platform to promote their books, publishers have found it difficult to create viral book videos, as users tend to reject anything that feels corporate or inauthentic.

Their concern is that ByteDance could put its thumb on the scale in favor of its own projects, leaving less room for other books and posts that would organically go viral. In response to a question about its promotional plans, the company said 8th Note Press is a separate entity from TikTok.

ByteDance’s receivables have so far failed to compete with those of traditional houses: While independent presses may pay only a few thousand or tens of thousands of dollars, the advances at larger houses can run from about $50,000 into the millions. ByteDance said it could not disclose financial arrangements with authors, but added that it believes its offerings are competitive with industry standards.

For now, ByteDance seems to be focused on fantasy, romance, and mystery, genres that are popular on the platform.

Tricia O’Malley, a bestselling author who has self-published about 40 novels, received an offer from ByteDance in April to purchase the rights to two of her books. The deal included a social media marketing campaign, royalties and an advance of $3,500 per book — less than the titles earn each month, O’Malley said.

The company was interested in fantasy and romance, old books and new, stories that were “wholesome, fun and sexy, but nothing too exciting or dark,” she said.

She declined the offer, but she said she was tempted: “The reality is that BookTok sells books.”

For others, the company’s promise to provide robust online marketing for its authors may be hard to resist.

Ella Fox, a self-published romance author and advertising consultant who runs ad campaigns for other writers on TikTok, said ByteDance could probably get the algorithm to prioritize their own books. “People would give their teeth to get in front of that audience and be pushed that way,” she said.

Some in the industry doubt that ByteDance can capture a significant share of the market, in part because publishing remains a stubbornly analog and relationship-driven business. According to the Association of American Publishers, print sales still account for more than 70 percent of b2b publishers’ revenues; any new major new publishing house would need printing and distribution capabilities and relationships with booksellers.

“I’m less worried about TikTok becoming a publisher tomorrow,” said Dominique Raccah, publisher and CEO of the publishing company Sourcebooks, “because building a publishing infrastructure that works — that’s hard.”

It’s unclear what the company’s distribution plans are and whether they plan to sell their books in physical stores. In an email reviewed by The New York Times, ByteDance told an author it plans to focus on digital books with limited print-on-demand runs until TikTok gets a Online Store.

TikTok has already changed the way books are bought. Traditionally, readers learned about new authors from booksellers. Now publishers learn about viral authors from booksellers who come to them with reader requests.

Bloom Books, a romance and women’s fiction imprint within Sourcebooks, signed several previously self-published authors — including Scarlett St. Clair, Piper CJ, and LJ Shen — after learning their books were in demand with buyers at Walmart and Barnes & Noble.

“We started hearing from accounts, ‘This author is trending on TikTok, but we can’t stock the books,'” said Molly Waxman, the executive director of marketing for Sourcebooks’ adult fiction.

Berkley has acquired books from Ruby Dixon, the author of the “Ice Planet Barbarians” series, which began self-publishing and was one of the first TikTok phenomena, and twin sisters Krista and Becca Ritchie, who launched their “Addicted” series. Avon signed self-published author Mariana Zapata, who has attracted more than 280 million views on TikTok.

Some editors and publishers also wonder if ByteDance will be able to detect viral self-published authors when they start trending, and swoop in to sign them before they become obvious targets for other publishers.

There are industry veterans who take solace in the fact that ByteDance probably faces the same challenges as traditional publishers: Readers are fickle, and ultimately, viral videos won’t automatically create a blockbuster if the books themselves aren’t compelling.

“They could get more attention, but is that going to translate into sales?” asked Cindy Hwang, Berkley’s vice president and editor-in-chief. “It’s not just about getting the hits, it’s about readers buying the book.”