Netflix miniseries The Perfect Couple has been doing numbers for the streamer since it debuted in September—and the novel the series is based off of has been doing numbers for its publisher, Hachette Book Group.

The show, centered on a woman marrying into a wealthy Nantucket family whose wedding is derailed by a murder, is based on the novel of the same name and is the latest success story for novelist Elin Hilderbrand, whose titles have gotten plenty of viral love on BookTok, according to David Shelley, CEO of Hachette. Since the adaptation was released, the book has seen a 250% growth in print formats, according to Hachette.

In January, BookToker Brady Lockerby (@bradylockerby), who has more than 645,000 followers on TikTok, held up a stack of books roughly the height of her torso in a post about her favorite novels from Hilderbrand. A few months later, Milana Waller (@booksforlosers) described Hilderbrand’s novels as “fire” in a post liked nearly 60,000 times.

Hilderbrand’s already a multiple-time bestseller, and her books have sold more than 20 million copies, but Hachette is all-in on making her an even bigger success, Shelley said, whether that’s through leveraging the high-profile screen adaptation or working with BookTok influencers to promote upcoming titles.

Shelley spoke to us about the effects TikTok has had on book marketing and how the growth of the platform and the popularity of book-to-series adaptations have changed the way publishers like Hachette approach marketing.

“I’ve been in publishing for 25 years, but I don’t think I’ve seen such a significant force in terms of a platform before that helps to sell books,” he said of TikTok. “It’s pretty much the most powerful force that I’ve seen in terms of selling books.”

Read more here.—JS

They don’t call her the GOAT for no reason: Simone Biles is the most popular active athlete, according to the latest edition of Kantar’s Sports Monitor Athlete Reputation Tracker.

She’s followed by a handful of football and basketball stars including Patrick Mahomes, Caitlin Clark, Steph Curry, and Travis Kelce, both sports with athletes that dominate the rest of Kantar’s top 25 list.

Olympic gold: Biles’s ranking—a score of 99 out of 100—indicates that she has both high familiarity and likeability. To arrive at its rankings, Kantar asked about 1,300 sports fans how much they like and how familiar they are with a list of more than 100 athletes, rewarding athletes for familiarity and strong positivity and penalizing them for negativity, according to the report.

Since the survey was fielded between June 18 and July 3, just ahead of the Paris Olympics, it’s perhaps unsurprising that a few Olympians—all women—made the top 25. Biles was joined by Katie Ledecky at No. 11, with a score of 51, and Suni Lee at No. 21, with a score of 42.

America’s favorite sport(s): Beyond the Olympic cohort, NFL players occupy a significant share of spots, making up 40% of the top 25 active athletes list.

• Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Mahomes came in at No. 2, with a score of 87, and Chiefs tight end Kelce clocked in at No. 5, scoring 70.

Continue reading here.—AM

Don’t expect tech giants to shut their checkbooks any time soon when it comes to AI.

That was one message from recent quarterly earnings reports as Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet each forecast big spending on data center infrastructure and other AI-related expenses continuing into the coming year. Those numbers, as well as a predicted slowing of cloud growth at Microsoft, seemed to distract investors from earnings beats as Meta and Microsoft stocks dipped on Thursday.

But what else is new? Wall Street has been antsy about AI spending for months now, the companies have continued to post strong results bolstered by cloud and ad revenues, and execs have attempted to reassure investors that the returns will come eventually.

“This part of the formula around building out the infrastructure is maybe not what investors want to hear in the near term, that we’re growing it out,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. “But I just think that the opportunities here are really big. We’re going to continue investing significantly in this.”

Read more on Tech Brew.—PK