Author Colleen Hoover’s word-of-mouth success

By HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Colleen Hoover’s years as a published — and self-published — fiction writer have been one long, pleasant surprise. The Texas-based Hoover broke through in January 2012 when she released her novel “Slammed” through an Amazon.com program. It became a showcase for how an author in the Internet age can succeed through luck and worth of mouth. Now, her novel “It Ends With Us,” which was first published in 2016, has been selling tens of thousands of copies a week and topping bestseller lists — thanks largely to its popularity on #BookTok. That’s the TikTok niche where young readers talk up their favorite works.