BookTok Pushes Waterstones Store Expansion

Plus: Joe Hill lines up anniversary edition & new novel

Author

Avinash Duggempudi
August 20, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Bestseller Brief

Here's what's happening this week in the world of books and media eCommerce:
- Waterstones adds stores as Gen Z shops IRL.
- Joe Hill stacks releases for horror season.
- New martech promises done-for-you author funnels.
- Multi-author launch shows networked Amazon momentum.

💸 The $200B Miscalculation Marketers Can’t Afford

On stage at eTail Boston, Fospha’s Chief Product Officer, Dom Devlin, warned that retail’s reliance on last-click metrics is outdated, and it’s costing brands $200 billion in under-credited sales.

The missed connection is clear: shoppers often discover on TikTok, Meta, or Snap, but complete their purchase on Amazon, Walmart, or Target. Traditional attribution frameworks rarely connect those dots. As a result, channels that spark demand are stripped of credit, while budgets overweight the “closers” - whether or not they truly created the sale.

Dom called this the bottom-of-funnel trap: over-investing in channels that finish the purchase while underfunding those that generate demand. The fallout is higher acquisition costs and shrinking pipelines of future customers.

Fospha’s Halo platform was built to break that cycle. By integrating marketplace and DTC sales into one unified ROAS, it captures the full impact of discovery spend across the funnel. For brands like Nécessaire and Give Me Cosmetics, that visibility has unlocked the confidence to double down on demand generation while protecting profitability.

📥Download Fospha’s Halo Report to see how leaders are funding growth where it really starts.

📌WEEKLY MUST-KNOWS

Waterstones says it is opening about 10 new stores a year as younger adults embrace reading as an escape from screens, with BookTok cited as a driver. Physical retail resilience plus social-led discovery is shifting channel mix and merchandising strategy. Parent ownership ties to Barnes & Noble signal implications for US in-store programs and co-op investments.

20th Century Ghosts: 20th Anniversary Edition lands August 19 at $16, ahead of Hill’s 896-page King Sorrow on October 21. The schedule brackets Black Phone 2’s October 17 release, creating a tight cross-media window for discovery and sales. Horror retailers and marketers can stack preorders, bundles, and sprayed-edge collectability to lift AOV.

Jennifer Grant’s Consider the Birds debuts a new faith-centered picture book series, with follow-ons slated for spring and fall 2026. Locked-in series planning enables predictable list building, seasonal campaigns, and subscription box placements in the 3–7 age range. Faith-based booksellers, libraries, and family retailers can program bundling and church community outreach.

🧐 What Does Brand Building Really Mean in eCommerce?

I had an engaging conversation with Alex Brownsell for the latest episode of the WARC Podcast. | Sam Carter, CEO at Fospha

We discussed where most brands get it wrong when it comes to brand building, with bad measurement and poor organizational structure amongst the biggest contributing factors - and how Fospha is aiming to solve the biggest questions around brand measurement with Glow.

Thanks Alex and team again for having me (and for offering a brief airconditioned respite from the intense heat and chaos of Cannes!)

⚡QUICK READS

Networked Amazon Push For ‘Being The One’: A 22-author collaboration coordinates cross-platform media to accelerate Amazon rankings, underscoring the reach advantage of distributed creator networks on launch week.(More)

Romantasy Leads US Hardcover Fiction: Carissa Broadbent’s The Fallen & the Kiss of Dusk takes the top spot, reinforcing sustained romantasy demand for Q4 inventory and promo planning.(More)

Book Riot Hires For Social Video Growth: The site is recruiting a digital content specialist with social video focus, a signal that book media continues to invest in TikTok and Reels-native engagement.(More)

ClickZ is a ClickZ Media publication in the DTC eCommerce division